Last week, the United States elected the next president. President-elect Donald Trump is a racist, xenophobic, misogynistic former reality TV star, and we just put him in the highest office in the country. This man spent the last year-and-a-half preaching hate-mongering and fear-mongering. He alienated every group you could possibly think of, yet people still supported him.
The majority of men over the age of 50 voted for him. Only 31 percent of millennial women voted for him over Hillary Clinton. Many of us couldn’t talk about politics at home for this election season because our fathers supported Trump. Our fathers spend our lives protecting us and supporting us. It’s very hurtful to see your father vote for a man who assaults, objectifies, and degrades women. With their vote, they said that they are OK with a president who degrades women and discriminates against minorities.
Being a woman and an atheist and someone who has directly benefitted from Obamacare, I was saddened to hear my own father supporting The Donald. I am, by far, not the only woman in this situation. Here are some quotes from others:
Kellie, 30, said:
“As a woman of color, as someone who has directly benefitted from the Affordable Care Act, as a person who has received vital reproductive health care from Planned Parenthood throughout my twenties, as an outspoken feminist and champion of the Black Lives Matter movement, it not only baffles me, but shakes me to my core to know that you are celebrating while I, along with so many others, are mourning what this presidency means for our nation’s future.”
Taylor, 23, said:
“Dad, I know you love me. You helped me become the strong woman I am. But how can you truly value me and justify a vote that said yes to the degradation of women and the normalization of sexual assault? It makes me feel like you don’t believe my hard work and qualifications could ever earn me the same respect as even the least adequate male. Is that what you meant to say to your little girl? What if the things Trump says about and did to women were directed at me? I’m afraid to be a woman in Trump’s America. You are supposed to keep me safe. Your vote did not protect me.”
Mary Kate, 26, had the perfect answer to her conservative father:
“I’ve never doubted that you love me. Your vote makes me feel like you don’t respect me.”
It’s hard to have this kind of strife in a family, but we will get through it. We just can’t talk about politics.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot.
