I am a woman. I am a millennial. I am a Pacific-Northwesterner. I am a soon-to-be military wife and I am a “deplorable."
As I began watching the election coverage at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, all I could do was pray that this country would have the same desire for change as I did. As the results started to come in, my hope started to slowly grow, and as I finally watched the news reports confirm that Donald J. Trump was our President Elect, tears welled up in my eyes.
As I rejoiced in this victory for my party, others who did not anticipate the victory for President Elect Trump took to social media, and the hate and insults started to pour into my newsfeed. “F*** you, “America.” People shared posts wondering about when assassination attempts would start, others were victimizing those of us who did vote for Trump, saying that we all must support rape, misogyny and racism. Some posts were telling us that we must “apologize” to our LGBTQ, Latino/a, black and Muslim friends and explain to them why they don’t matter to us. Do not even get me started on how completely wrong and offensive all of that is.
I have never seen such a group of hypocritical, hateful and anti-patriotic people.
I have witnessed more hate and nastiness from those who did not vote for Trump than I have seen from any Trump “deplorable” in the last year. It’s one thing to attack those of us who voted for him and assume that we stand for every single sentence and policy that the President Elect stands for. But to attack our country, to begin talking about assassination and to say “F*** you, America” not only makes me sick to my stomach, it infuriates me to my deepest core.
I love this country and I am humbled for the opportunity I get every day to be able to walk down the street wearing whatever I want to wear, to get to read whatever books I want to read and to be able to choose my own husband (that very husband who fights to protect my state of Washington and our nation). To see people being so quick to insult and hate our country is disheartening.
To those who have been so quick to insult and spread hate over these results of the election, I leave you with these words from President Obama:
“ …We have to remember that we’re actually all on one team. This is an intramural scrimmage. We’re not Democrats first. We're not Republicans first. We are Americans first. We’re patriots first. We all want what’s best for this country. Sometimes you lose an argument. Sometimes you lose an election. The path that this country has taken has never been a straight line. We zig and zag, and sometimes we move in ways that some people think is forward and others think is moving back. And that's okay.”
Please, stop spreading hate and threats. You all who evangelically preached for equality and love are now the people who are spreading hate and self-righteousness. And it seems to go against everything you all supposedly stand for. At the end of the day, it seems to me that the bigger people have been the 59 million people just like myself that are ready for change.
So get off your social media high horse. Take a moment to grieve your loss. I know change is scary for many and change will take time. We must come together and try to unify our extremely divided nation, just like our President Elect plans to do.
Say a prayer and then, when you’re ready, approach this change with as open a mind as possible. As Hillary Clinton said in her concession speech this morning, "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. Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.”
I have complete confidence and faith in my new President, the person who will be calling the shots and dictating the future of my fiancé. I believed in him a year ago when this journey started, and I believe in him now more than ever.
