It has happened: Former reality TV star and billionaire business mogul Donald Trump has secured the Office of the President of the United States. Rhetoric and ideology rooted in fear and hate has proven more effective than the steadfast intelligence and extensive experience exhibited by Democratic contender Hillary Clinton.
The frustrated voice of many Americans has been heard and the alt-right has its presidential champion.
History has been written, and the entire political landscape will inevitably be rewritten. His claims of the election rigged against him have proven as empty as so many of his promises will eventually prove to be.
Whether or not the House or Senate will be willing to work with him is entirely up in the air. Princeton had projected a slim Democratic majority in the Senate accompanied by a slight Democratic spike in the House, but this turned out to be a flop. Thus, the GOP has managed a majority in both the House and the Senate. Though Trump is often chastised and condemned by members of his own party, the implications of a Republican Senate, House and Presidency are huge. There has been far too much rhetoric in the Republican camp that sincerely threatens the well-being and dignity of minority and LGBTQ communities across the nation. To leave potential legislation written which would attack these communities unhindered is frightening, to say the least.
The Republican nominee in the 2012 election, Mitt Romney, recently told the Wall Street Journal that he could not “ignore what Mr. Trump was saying and doing, which revealed a character and temperament unfit for the leader of the free world.”
Romney’s comments speak truth. How Trump has ascended to the Presidential Office is absolutely stunning in the most terrible way. Trump is simply not presidential material. Americans have made a mockery of both the democratic system and of American society by voting this man into office.
This is a man who has bragged of sexually assaulting women, who was wthen elected into office over a much more levelheaded, well-spoken, and intelligent woman.
This is a man who drums up racist rhetoric about the Mexican people, rooted in absolutely evidence-less fallacy, who was then elected in a country which is home to roughly 56.6 million people who identify as Latinx.
This is a man who says he will cut huge amounts of federal spending on the issue of climate change, elected during what is considered the hottest year in recorded human history.
The Office of the President of the United States is no longer a seat to be venerated, admired, or respected. It has become a stage for the unfounded anxiety of gullible Americans.
The Daily Iowan Editorial Board believes we have four very long, fist-clenching years ahead of us.