‘Given up on democracy’: Trump’s victory is calling Americans’ morals into question post-election

It’s safe to say that this is not the outcome many of us expected.

I am sure I’m not the only one who woke up with a heavy heart this morning after a fitful night. How could this have happened, again? It shouldn’t have. Donald Trump is a convicted felon. Here we are, though, with another confirmed Trump presidency in our future. How did we lose our morals so quickly? When did America go so wrong? And is there any way to get it back?

The path to anywhere isn’t looking good right now. There are scores of people celebrating death knells. Democracy, as we know it, is in crisis. Jonathan Capeheart said it perfectly early this morning.

“Polls don’t vote, people vote,” he also said. We all knew that this would not be an easy election, and that may be putting it mildly. Trump’s supporters are vocal and loyal. To put it simply, they do not care that he has been impeached and convicted. That should scare everybody, and the fact that it doesn’t may be even scarier. There is an apathy problem in this country, and we may finally begin to see the consequences next year.

In this case, saying that the American people have given up on democracy does not relate to our right to vote, as it seems many people assume. Americans are still very much exercising that, and I am always happy to see a good voter turnout. What Capeheart means is that it seems we have given up on the idea of a democracy. Trump does not want us to have that. His followers don’t want us to have that, and his supporters are too uneducated to even begin to care.

Democracy is more than just your right to vote for whomever you want. With the control of House and Senate being firmly in the hands of Republicans, there is essentially no room for human rights. They do not care about women, or LGBTQIA+, or POC. The fact that so many citizens have tricked themselves into thinking anybody in power cares about them is concerning. The fact of the matter is that if you are not white, rich, and male, Trump and his base do not care about you whatsoever. They’re laughing at you, and you are too brainwashed by false promises and “concepts” of plans to see it.

The election of 2000 was the first one I can remember, and I remember thinking that surely we would learn from what a crooked disaster it was, and it seemed like we did with the 2008 and 2012 elections. That was 24 years ago now. In that time, morals have decayed. Whatever progress we have made since, I am not sure how long it will stay.

It is an incredibly dangerous time. For us, for the world. The ripple of consequences spreads far, and though the stone has just been dropped, we are going to see the results soon enough.