As of Tuesday, Nov. 8, Donald Trump is our President-Elect. As shocking as it may seem, we’ve elected an unqualified, misogynistic, racist, bigot to be the leader of the free world. Or we’ve elected an anti-establishment businessman who’ll make our country great again. Despite Trump’s glowing hypocrisy within his mission statement alone, having criticized nearly every period of American History, his slogan resonates with those fed up with the Obama administration, providing an alternative for the firm influence the government has upon our society. The chevauchée of abhorrent, arbitrary nonsense that’s been spread throughout this election season only gives other countries a better excuse to satirize our oblivious nationalism and downright disgusting focus upon spectacle. Trump’s campaign trail bulged with remarks that attacked his opponents personally, without any regard for the point of the election: to debate policies and to formulate a plan, or to advertise ideas that voters would not only sympathize with, but invest in. This election cycle displayed a savage misplacement of our morality, focusing on a perennial nonsense and a godless abandon of what is deemed cordial and polite among professionals, specifically politicians.

 Trump relied upon this reckless abandonment, appealing to the lowest common denominator, embracing nativist philosophy and blatantly disrespecting ethics, particularly among women, Muslims, and Hispanics. Meanwhile the Republican opposition pushed towards one of its worst candidates in ages, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton represents everything that is wrong with politics today. She is seemingly corrupt, inauthentic, and hawkish. With a clear deficiency of communication skills, as her appeal was squandered by an ever-present cringe. However qualified as she may be, she was not the people’s candidate, she was a clear extension of the DNC’s proprietaries, becoming the champion puppet of sorts, for the very establishment Trump was fighting.

 The dichotomy was clear: both candidates were shrewd and detestable for their own reasons, bloated with corruption in all their glory. The choice that many Americans made was to pick the lesser of two evils, which is a very objective decision. What happened on election night was the result of an antiquated system, to say, the electoral college, established in our country’s inception, was designed in order to be undemocratic. The purpose of such representatives was to allow slave states, which had a higher population due to slaves couldn’t even vote for their state. It became outdated as slavery fell, and instead the system left behind was inherently discriminatory, as smaller states’ (population wise) votes have far more overall impact than larger states’. During that fateful night, the blue wall of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania fell, and with that Trump took a majority of the swing states that were previously in Democratic favor. Hillary won the popular vote by more than two million ballots, but lost the electoral college, paralleling the 2000 election, in which Al Gore suffered a similar loss to George W. Bush. With a system so divisive it’s only natural that such controversy becomes commonplace. Thus, the very purpose of this system within the United States is questioned time and time again, to an expectedly schismatic reception.

 If you, or anyone you know, is grieving over this maelstrom of an election, the best thing to do is to engage in state government, via midterm elections, and by donating or supporting any organization that may be in jeopardy of termination, or may have government funding pulled. I personally recommend donating to Planned Parenthood (an organization Mike Pence completely opposes) under our very own vice president elect’s name, he’ll receive a cordial thank you via certificate, and a lovely pamphlet of services Planned Parenthood provides, information below:

Office of Governor Mike Pence

State House

Room 206

Indianapolis, IN 46204-2797

https://secure.ppaction.org/site/Donation2;jsessionid=1EED1E02CDE70897C55416E8CA4F3906.app20108a?df_id=17835&17835.donation=form1&s_src=Evergreen_c4_AC_shorturl