On the morning after Election Day my fourteen year old daughter woke up and, upon hearing Donald Trump was voted in as President, asked "Are we safe?".
This is not supposed to be the response to a newly elected leader here in the United States - but this election was anything but normal. Donald Trump's campaign carried a tone that was simultaneously disrespectful and mean, while also being void of facts. In the wake of his election a majority of our media outlets have also forgotten how it was chock full of racism.
Fortune magazine reported how, back in January, Trump re-tweeted a Nazi sympathizer, and then - a mere three weeks later - did it again. The same Fortune piece goes on to show how many within the Trump campaign either followed or re-tweeted white supremacists or Nazi sympathizers themselves.
In addition to the re-tweeting, Donal Trump's son, Donald Jr., appeared on a talk radio show with a white supremacist. In the wake of that interview, Jr. shook the blame off of himself and onto the "liberal media" claiming he wouldn't have made the appearance had he known about its racist affiliations. His excuse would've held up nicely except months later his brother, Eric Trump, appeared on the same radio program. All the while the Trump campaign feigned ignorance. This despite the fact that the now infamous white supremacist radio host received press credentials to a Trump campaign event. Said radio host has stated, amongst other things, that Martin Luther King Jr's. "dream is our nightmare" and "slavery is the greatest thing that ever happened to" African-Americans. In all of these instances Trump either shifted the blame to people outside the campaign or went to the old faithful move of blaming the "liberal media" for changing the narrative.
Again, this would all hold up nicely except that Trump hired Steve Bannon onto his campaign staff. Bannon is the editor of the website Breitbart News which is the outpost for the ultra conservative/Alternative right/white supremacist movement. Bretibart has published headlines like: There's No Hiring Bias Against Women in Tech, They Just Suck at Interviews; Gabby Giffords: The Gun Control Movement's Human Shield; Teenage Boys With Tits: Here's My Problem With Ghostbusters; Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy....you get the idea. The Southern Poverty Law Center defined Breitbart as a "white neo-nationalist propaganda mill". To make this all worse, Trump just appointed Bannon as his Chief White House Strategist and senior counselor. The people most excited about Bannon's rise: white nationalists, American nazis, and former KKK imperial wizards.
So, I am not surprised with my daughter's response. While this election has proven we are divided over many things, it has also shown we are willing, and able, to overlook flagrant hate. How is this going to play out? Well when your President elect selects an individual who once described himself as a "Leninist" who wants to "destroy the state" and "bring everything crashing down" as one of his closest advisors? You tell me.
