The Silent Majority: How the Right to Vote Gave Trump Supporters a Voice Heard Round the World
It is no understatement to say that the United States and the world are still in shock over the results of the presidential election this week. Along with so many other Hillary supporters, I feel like I am waking up in a parallel universe each day. I continue to have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Donald Trump will be our 45th President, and the only words to describe it are utter disbelief.
There are so many things about this election that one’s thoughts could easily get lost in.How did this happen? How could this happen? How should this have happened?And as a native to California, I am having great difficulty fathoming that essentially half of our country wanted Trump in the end. Through all the false promises. Through all the discriminatory and degrading remarks. Through all the “locker room talk.” Through all the exposure of Trump’s outrageous antics, virtually half of our country was unfazed. Like so many other Democrats, I never knew that I lived in such a liberal bubble.
What strikes me in particular is that I never heard Trump’s white working class supporters during the election. I never heard their positions in seriousness. I never imagined someone could actually be amenable to Trump’s policies and demeanor as a leader. And I don’t think it is because I disagreed with them and, therefore, disregarded them. They were just silent compared to the liberal sphere. And I think that many Democrats and Republicans would agree with me on this.
The amazing part about this election is that it didn’t matter that Trump’s supporters were not heard around the country. It didn’t matter that their views weren’t running the conversation. It didn’t matter if all the polls were wrong. Their collective vote gave the white working class a voice so loud that it has changed the course of history. It has truly changed the world, even if a lot of us think it’s for the worse.
The right to vote is something that we all take for granted. In a country with hundreds of millions of people, it’s easy to think that one individual vote will not make a bit of difference. It’s easy to get busy, to get caught up with work, and to not make it to the polls. It is also easy to think that your vote is simply inconsequential. But what this election really exemplifies is that voting is, in fact, the loudest political statement one can make, even though it is an act done anonymously and in private. It can induce world-altering consequences that cannot realistically be reversed. When solely looking at the election of our President, the working class white population’s collective voice in voting overrode the other commentary.
Of course, Democrats, along with myself, will continue to exercise our First Amendment rights and strongly stand up for our beliefs. As Hillary so gracefully put it in her concession speech, “fighting for what’s right is worth it.” But it is a true wake up call to have experienced just how powerful the right to vote is – even in 2016, even in one of the most populous nations in the world, even when you otherwise stay silent. Come 2020, we will all take this into deep consideration.
Note: The title of this article is for rhetorical purposes only and in no way is meant to imply that Hillary Clinton did not win the popular vote.
