If you don't think so, you're not looking hard enough …
You don’t need to be told what happened last night; you already know.
We've chosen a very strange candidate to lead the United States of America. Yet, even though non-sensical, circular and completely unintelligible at times, no one can deny Donald Trump talks a good game. It’s what business leaders do, or have done, to build the country into the global power it currently is. It's how he won.
Today, try to be an optimist about the whole thing. It isn't easy, but whatever position we find ourselves in now is the same one we'll wake up to for the next four years and two months. Outside of every other abhorrent thing to come from it so far, there's some good that's already come out of a Donald Trump presidency:
It got money out of politics
Kind of. Early in his bid for the seat, Trump often spoke about about how little money he needed to spend in his campaign — and what he did spend was from a personal account. “I don't need anybody's money,” he proudly boasted while announcing his run on June 16. “I'm using my own money. I'm not using the donors. I don't care. I'm really rich.” As things got more serious, he eventually sought out more substantial fundraising techniques, but at the end of it all, spent only half the money Hillary Clinton did per vote at $5 a pop. He also garnered close to $5 billion of free ad time on TV.
He still spent a boat-load of money on his campaign, but what he did is nowhere near the record levels the nation saw when Obama was elected both times ($760.4 million and $731.1 million, respectively). America is sick of money in politics, that much is clear; yet with a vote for Trump, many are saying they’re serious this time. What voters proved last night is that the most expensive candidate doesn't matter anymore.
This could very well be the shift in how candidates run future campaigns. If Trump can do it relying solely on social media and exploiting media techniques, possibly a future candidate can do the same thing. Silver lining, and all of that.
It brought the GOP to its knees
Look closely at its representatives, the Republican Party is not the wholesome group of ‘good ol’ boys’ it always claims itself to be. Sure, it pretends to uphold traditional values and repeat ad nauseam the platform is all about the family, but many can see through the bullshit and call them out when it’s glaringly obvious. And in an effort to try and keep its ‘pristine‘ image intact for the past 16 months, the party distanced itself as much as it possibly could from Donald Trump very early on in the election cycle and throughout most of the campaign.
But Trump knew that if he was going to win, it would be on a Republican ticket. So he continued to exploit and attack the entire party regardless of how it looked to outsiders. When the people continued to speak, and elect him into the representative seat, its members fell one by one, eventually conceding to his leadership, proving his theory of politicians being two-faced right through an extremely public forum.
It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. Many Republicans are likely going to be doing a lot of soul searching over these next few years.
It exposed racists, bigots and all around dickheads
It’s not that Trump created these ‘deplorables’ out of thin air, it’s that each one has decided to crawl out of the hay-strewn caves in which they’ve been living all along. Did you really think they didn’t exist? Where do you think they went? Had a change of heart? It’s always said to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Now we know where they are, who they are and what they want out of a country that they can’t have. Instead of allowing the cancer to perpetuate, everyone can now go on fighting for what we all know is right.
Is Donald himself a misogynistic, racist, bigoted mass of orange flesh? From what his previous statements have shown us, yes, yes he is. But a person can change, and when someone is put in charge of the people of America — all people of America — it should be approached with hope that he'll get his act together and be a viable leader the country desperately needs right now. If nothing else, at least you know which cousin not to invite over to holiday dinner this year.
It renewed passion in voters
Nearly half of the eligible voters in this country didn’t vote in this election. Why? Who cares, it’s their choice. But this is astronomically better than what it used to be. In 1996, when Bill Clinton defeated Bob Dole, he did so with only 49 percent of eligible voters turning out to cast their preference (with over 8 percent voting for a third party). A few percentage points may not seem like much (compared to this year’s election of having 53.4 percent of voters turning out), but keep in mind each point accounts for millions of people.
But voting or getting behind a candidate hasn’t been this competitive in recent memory. In the late ‘90s, MTV had “Rock the Vote” — but that was about it. Now we have news outlets nation-wide covering politics as if it were pop culture. People are getting tattoos of their favorite party and voters are literally weeping when their candidate falls to the other. This is a passion necessary to continue the success of a working democracy (as flawed and misguided as it might be).
It exposed the media
Can you recall when Donald Trump told the military that they were all weak? He said they “can’t handle” combat or PTSD? You probably remember that, except, it never happened.
Instead, he was speaking to a room full of veterans and said this: “When people come back from war and combat and they see maybe what the people in this room have seen many times over, and you’re strong and you can handle it, but a lot of people can’t handle it.”
This isn’t the only time Trump — and, to be fair, Clinton — were misquoted to manipulate voters into thinking a way certain media outlets wanted them to. By exposing media bias, Trump was able to navigate through all of the other bullshit that was entirely true, allowing for his followers to distrust the media even when they were telling the truth. It’s taken several hits over the past couple of years, media has, and won’t be able to regain the trust of the American public after something like this for a very long time.
"Trump has laid bare journalism's contradictions — reporters' desire to be critical of politicians without criticizing anything they stand for — to the point where we have no choice but to examine them," New York Times politics editor Charles Homans writes. "This may be the least expected outcome of 2016: The most flagrantly dishonest candidate in recent memory is forcing us to have the most honest political discussion we've had in years."
It's the possible end of religious conservatism
Donald Trump has five kids from three different women. A religious conservative he is not. In fact, a pillar of religion was never really a standing ideology anywhere in his campaign. There’s his Vice President-elect Mike Pence (who is an evangelical Catholic), but other than that, God took a backseat to other flamboyant rhetoric. What this means is that we have a resident from the right side who likely (hopefully) won’t allow the Bible to get in the way of legislation. He could very well be the end to religious conservatism that acts as a thorn in the sides of many individuals reaching for equality. What an ironic, twisted mind-fuck that would be.
It gives outsiders a fighting chance
Not since Dwight Eisenhower was elected in 1952 has the country voted in a non-politician. For decades, we were to believe that a person looking to represent the nation could only do so if they were groomed for the role. A career politician. Donald trump has proven that embraced logic to be completely invalidated, and may serve as an inspiration to future leaders. One whom you might even vote for one of these days.
Stranger things have happened.
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