It was really disheartening to see the statistics for who voted for Trump in West Hawaii, and to read these recent letters in the paper. I had no idea so many of my neighbors wanted to dismantle the rights for
It was really disheartening to see the statistics for who voted for Trump in West Hawaii, and to read these recent letters in the paper. I had no idea so many of my neighbors wanted to dismantle the rights for women, LGBTQ, immigrants, people of color, religious freedoms, voter protections, and more.
I’ve heard excuses that votes for Trump were to call out corruption in the system, but what a joke. Trump is already eschewing our presidential norms left and right because much of it is culture instead of actual laws, like releasing income taxes or having a blind trust for assets to prevent conflict of interest. For goodness sake, he’s assigned his children to run his business and be on his presidential transition team! And this is just the beginning.
But sure, go ahead and believe that the man who lives in a golden penthouse will remember the poor and middle-class working families that supported him. That he and Pence won’t roll back rights for gays, women, and persons of color because he’s said he respects them, in conflict to the dozens of instances where they both acted otherwise. That President Trump will be any different from Campaign Trump once the pressure sets in.
In the meantime, the rest of us have to deal with the reality of who you voted for. Which, just to note, Hillary won the popular vote. I guess you can thank that corrupt Electoral College system and the Russians for Trump’s win!
But as long as our First Amendment rights have teeth, you can be sure the protests will continue. Because this isn’t just another presidency. He is putting the entire American system at risk, and generations of people have worked too damn hard to turn the clock back now.
Jade Smith is a resident of Kailua-Kona
