In 2016, I didn’t know who Donald Trump was beyond the republican presidential candidate. I know my parents voted for democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, but I wasn’t yet able to form my own opinions on either person.
I thought I could accept him, despite his disagreeing with many of my opinions and values.
Turns out, I was wrong.
It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that I really began forming opinions about him as president. It bothered me that he didn’t care more about a situation that was killing people all over the world, and that his advice to people consisted more about how to preserve their supposedly infringed-upon freedoms rather than how to save their mother or grandmother’s life.
Then, he was impeached for the second time in 2021. I hadn’t paid as much attention the first time, but the second time I took more notice of what the situation actually meant. A president could be charged with inciting an insurrection and would still be allowed to run in the next election.
As frustrated as I was, I thought that was the end of it.
Then, however, he faced 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records. I was angry again, but also thought to myself, “Well, at least now he won’t be able to run for president. Even his most loyal supporters wouldn’t vote for a criminal, right?”
I was wrong, and even now I don’t understand how things unfolded the way they did. I can’t wrap my head around how someone who was impeached on charges of abuse of power and the incitement of an insurrection as well as being convicted on 34 felony counts could escape punishment. I understand even less how he was allowed to run for president.
I might be less angry if the American people hadn’t decided he was the best man to be the face of a country that was always supposed to represent hard work, honesty, family and freedom. I grew up learning about “American values,” but I can’t seem to find them anywhere in our government now.
I am angry because had Harris been the one convicted, I believe the Republican party would have been incredibly vocal in their outrage about the situation. As seen in countless interviews and speeches, conservative voters and politicians are much more likely to engage in an offensive style of examining the other person’s point or suggestion than the more liberal voters and politicians, who often can’t get a word in due to their defensive style of approaching others’ ideas.
I am angry because had he not been elected, I believe conservative voters and legal representatives alike would have claimed the process was rigged and that they simply wouldn’t stand for fraud in their government—despite fraud being the very thing he was convicted of.
I am angry because I know there are other diseases and wars and social movements that will be had in the coming years. The risk of a bird flu pandemic is on the rise, the war in Gaza hasn’t stopped and Black Americans are still treated like second class citizens in some way or another every single day. The country watched as he failed to deal with similar problems during his first term, and the fact that so many voted him back appalls me.
Perhaps I will be proven wrong, and Trump will end up truly making America great again. My expectations, however, are low.