By Katherine Ward
It was an election that many won’t soon forget, an eighteen month long roller-coaster of amazing highs and devastating lows. The aftermath of which we can only start to guess at.
On November 9th protests erupted in cities across the country. Cries of “Not My President” and “Dump Trump” echoed across the country and on social media. These protests were started by activist organizations Socialist Alternative and the Answer Coalition and converged on Trump Tower.
People from all walks of life came together, from different movement and backgrounds, all working together to stop President-Elect Trump.
The question now is how will these protests shape the future. Will they create a lasting impact on America’s future, or fade into the background?
Eljeer Hawkins is an organizer for Socialist Alternative. He works in public outreach for the organization and has spoken at several colleges.
He said that this was, “an election defined by social movements.” Movements like Black Lives Matter inspired conversation about racial inequality. While as Hawkins put it the Bernie Sanders campaign inspired the younger generation and through the Democratic party into an identity crisis.
The circumstances of this election have fueled a fire in people, from incendiary comments made by Donald Trump to the discrepancy in the results. But no one knows how long that fire will burn. Other groups like the Answer Coalition have planned protests at the inauguration in January.
Hawkins hopes that the aftermath of this election helps to create the next wave of activism in the U.S.. Where the younger generation comes back to activism and helps fuel the movement, to a place where activism and being an activist is cool again.
One of the main sources of anger was with the results of the election itself.
In the days after the election as the popular vote total slowly began weighing even heavier in Hilary Clinton’s favor people started to again question the purpose behind the electoral college. She would end up winning the popular vote by more than a percentage.
The protests at Trump Tower may have stopped for now but plans are already in the works for more un the capital at Trump’s inauguration.
This is the second time since 2000 that this has happened, in 40 percent of presidential elections in the 21st century the popular vote hasn’t matched the electoral college.
It seems like a strange thing the electoral college. It effectively both suppresses and protects the vote of the people. But the system is flawed, and the 2016 election has only helped to highlight this.
The electoral college was designed very specifically to create a fail-safe. Originally the plan was for the US to have a parliamentary system where congress would choose the president. “They didn’t trust the average person to elect a person smart enough,” said Meg Flood, 50, a former U.S. history teacher.
The electoral college was a kind of compromise. The people could vote, but if they voted for someone who the electors deemed unsuitable for the job they could change the vote, she said.
In response to how some of the protesters are calling for the electoral college to not vote for Trump. “Yes, it’s constitutionally possible for the electoral college to change their vote… but it probably won’t happen,” she also pointed out how when voting it’s the elector that’s picked not the candidate themselves. Saying how the republican electors won’t change their vote.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what many of those protesting want to happen.
Not all who are protesting are holding up signs and chanting in large crowds of people. The atmosphere after the election was one of confusion and despair for many in New York city.
Protests don’t always have to be loud, they can be as simple as showing a sign of solidarity with those who feel the same way.
Subway Therapy down in the Union Square is an example of this. A collection of thousands of post-it notes doesn’t seem like a protest.
Started by artist Levee, there are no signs explaining why over a hundred feet of wall is covered in a rainbow of different protests. There are no signs explaining why, or where these post-its came from. Nothing saying why people feel compelled to write something and put it on a wall for everyone to see.
As Hannah Wilcox, 21, a student at FIT said, “It was really kinda overwhelmingly nice to see it, it felt like support from the community.”
It filled her with pride to know that there were still people willing to help others.
People stop and slow down going from racing from train to train to slowly creeping past this wall filled with the thoughts that have been going through everyone’s minds.
Chants from the protests show up again and again, as well as quotes from everyone from Langston Hughes to Albus Dumbledore.
It’s a collection of people’s hopes and fears for the future.
Recently it was announced on Instagram that the post-it notes will be removed and slowly archived on the Subway Therapy site. Over the month and a half that the notes were up thousands of people contributed to the wall.