I don’t want your apology

How can one tell women, minorities, and members of the LGBT community that they still matter and they are still loved in the face of this election?

What I take from this election is that women will always be considered second class to men no matter how qualified they are. What I take from this is that America hates its LGBTQ+ community and wants them locked in conversion therapy institutions.

According to the Human Rights campaign LGBTQ+ individuals are 8 times more likely to attempt suicide, 6 times more likely to be dangerously depressed and 3 times more likely to use illegal drugs, when they are rejected by the people that are supposed to love them most.

What I take from this election is that America hates immigrants. Let us not forget that almost every citizen lives in this country because of immigration.

How can we turn around and tell our mothers, wives, sisters that they are equal to men? How can we tell our gay, transgender, lesbian, bisexual, black and muslim friends – the day after this election – that they still matter and we love them?

We can’t.

We have elected a man that frequently makes comments that degrade minorities. We have also elected a vice president that openly advocates for the use of public funds for conversion therapy, a discredited and harmful practice. This Indiana governor slashed funding for planned parenthood and arguably caused an HIV outbreak in a county.

The reality of Mike Pence in the white house is incredibly terrifying. So why did this happen?

I propose that the outcome of this election was decided out of spite. The spite or “white-lash” stemming from having a black president, who did everything he could with what he had. The spite for a women who did more for us through endless political channels than we could possibly imagine. Yet, we condemn her because she was a acquitted twice from a case where she may have lied.

So, people didn’t vote because Hillary was crooked and Trump was… well, Trump. But what people seem to have overlooked was the possibility of exactly what happened: all the branches of government turning red.

What this means is Trump can actually follow through with every (unexplained) plan and racist comment. Because of the Senate’s refusal to vote on Obama’s choice for supreme court, the decision falls to Trump, and when he chooses the most conservative judge he can find, all the democrats have accomplished in recents years will be undone.

In my disappointment, I must congratulate the supporters on their foresight to rally around Trump, in order to run the table – taking control of all three branches of government. As a Democrat, I have to admit we failed to swallow our pride to prevent what we woke up to Wednesday morning: “the end of the world”.

It’s too late to say sorry. Sorry and self-pity won’t take us back in time or give us a third option.

“This is painful, and it will be for a long time…But I still believe in America, and I always will. And if you do, then we must accept this result and then look to the future.” -Hillary Clinton