As I watched the early stages of the American election on Nov. 8, I felt a bit uneasy with the fact that Hillary Clinton was winning. Although she is not saddled with the same type of controversy around sexism and racism that Trump is, I could not turn a blind eye to the fact that she does not have a blank slate.
Despite (or perhaps because of) her years of experience in office, Clinton is riddled with questionable controversies. From Benghazi, to the disturbing mishandling of top-secret emails, to the Clinton Foundation and her husband Bill Clinton’s sexual assault scandals, this woman was far from fit to be the president of the United States of America.
With both candidates covered in controversy, the question becomes: How did Trump win? I feel the answer to this is best summed up in a text message my father sent me, reading: “People had such a hate on for the establishment that no matter what Trump did, he represented something else.”
The people of America are sick and tired of corrupt politicians hiding things from them, flip-flopping on their policies and showing poor judgement. That is what Clinton came to stand for.
Trump is a successful businessman, who says he knows how to boost the economy. He promises to create jobs for the people, remove policies that strangle businesses, and lower taxes. He wants to strengthen the military—to anyone who wants a free country, this is very enticing. He also wants to secure the border and crush the influx of illegal immigrants. This resonates with many Americans who feel that illegal immigrants are “stealing their jobs” and reason that if they had to get in the legal way, why shouldn’t everyone else?
On the other hand, Clinton’s policies are not seen to promote the growth of the economy. She wants to continue President Barack Obama’s healthcare policy “Obamacare,” which many Americans view as failed. She wants to raise taxes, especially on the one per cent, despite them making every cent of this money themselves. She wants to focus energy and resources on climate change. In the eyes of many voters, she would have set back the American economy and racked up serious deficit. She ran a polished campaign just like a typical politician, and that’s exactly what American people are sick of.
There are many problems with Trump that keep me from siding with him. He has degraded women, proven not to listen to anyone but himself, has no political experience, has gone bankrupt many times, has a history of questionable business dealings, and much more. He too is far from fit to be the president of the US, and I wonder how a country with approximately 320 million people could not produce a better candidate.
This tight election proved that America is more divided than ever, but the world has to accept that Trump is the next American president. He has the potential to be great by gathering an excellent team, who—as long as he listens to them—can help him make decisions. He has hit the nail on the head in a lot of his remarks with Americans, so he must use those to make a change. He must learn how to compromise, and get things done.
In the end, democracy has spoken, and this is what makes America already so great. It will be riveting to see what happens, but we can only hope that in the words of Clinton, America’s best days are still ahead of us.
