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When I heard Trump was going to beat Clinton I started crying.
I didn’t cry in “petulant disappointment” as some would suggest, because the largest democracy in the Western world voted against a qualified, competent candidate purely because she was a woman.
I didn’t cry because they had instead chosen a man who stands against everything free-thinking, compassionate people have been working so hard to achieve in order to make the world a better place.
I cried because I am scared for the future.
Top political analysts and global media houses are telling me that Trump won because of his fearmongering politics. They are telling me the Americans who voted for this lying con artist should be forgiven, because they voted out of fear. They tell me that populist rhetoric works when people are disenfranchised and scared, and that I must have sympathy for this.
I do have sympathy. The system is broken, the middle class is declining and the world is changing.
But do you know who also voted for one monster after the other because their way of life was threatened and who were also ostensibly scared?
White South Africans in the Apartheid era.
White South Africans were so scared of the communists and black people and their own bloody shadows, that they supported a regime that treated people of colour like sub-humans.
They were so scared, that instead of opening their eyes and doing something about the injustice and suffering around them, they blindly followed the lying, hate-mongering politicians of the day, while resolutely shaking off the nagging feeling that something was rotten.
They were so scared that they saw the very people they were oppressing as the enemy, instead of as the victims.
So let’s be honest and call this fear what it really is: it’s the fear of your privilege being taken away.
This election’s results have shown us that the majority of White Americans are terrified of losing power. And they think the only way to have power is to take it away from others. They think the only way for them to stay on top would be to push others down. They think that sharing power is losing power.
So they want to keep it to themselves and in order to keep it to themselves, they have to take it away from the women, the minorities, the LGBTIs, the Muslims.
These men (and women) who voted for Trump do not care for equality. They do not care for the rights of all. They do not care for the suffering of the poor or the downtrodden. By believing Trump’s lies, they have exposed themselves as not just stupid, but selfish too. They have realised that the capitalist pie is not big enough for everyone, and they would be the ones who would jostle and push others out of the way to get what they think is their deserved share.
They call this fear? Let’s call it what it really is: entitlement. White Americans didn’t vote for Trump because they’re scared.
We are the ones who are fucking scared.
Seriously, let’s think for a moment who really has cause to fear now that Trump is in The White House:
1) Every woman of child bearing age should be scared. The reproductive rights women have fought for for so many decades are now in jeopardy. Trump has promised to defund Planned Parenthood, denying millions and millions of women mammograms and Pap smears and has even gone so far as to say women who have abortions should be punished legally.
2) Every person who cannot afford expensive private health care should be scared. Trump has promised to put an end to the Affordable Care Act, which is currently providing about 20 million people with health coverage they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. But we shouldn’t be surprised. Why would a man who denied his own mentally disabled nephew health care, care about your health?
3) Every Mexican or Muslim who is trying to make a living in America should be scared. If the president of the country you’re living in thinks you’re a either rapist or a terrorist and wants to build a wall or deny you access to keep you from “stealing” jobs from Americans, it’s a frightening thing.
4) Every black mother who wonders if her teenage son will be gunned down by police should be scared. Trump wants to take the controversial and unconstitutional “stop and frisk” policy nationwide. This means that anyone deemed “suspicious” could be stopped on the spot and searched and interrogated by police. Because American police have proven to be so reasonable when it comes to racial profiling.
5) Every lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersexual person should be scared. Not only has Trump made his so-called “traditional” views on marriage clear (note that he is on his third marriage), but he has appointed an openly bigoted Vice President. Same-sex adoption and marriage is under threat and Trump has pledged to sign a law that allows people to refuse services to LGBTI people.
6) Every person who has ever been the victim of a sexual assault should be scared. When your country votes in a guy who has bragged – on tape! – about how he sexually preys on women what message does that send? How will any woman or girl ever think that she will be believed or respected when the people around her voted for a man with a cloud of sexual assault accusations around him?
7) Every person who is worried about the planet should be scared. Trump has no environmental plans in place and calls global warming a "Chinese hoax". He has promised to scrap all the major regulations that Obama put in place to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and focus on clean energy. Scientists believe this will have disastrous effects on billions of people for generations to come.
8) Every person who is worried about war breaking out on a global scale should be scared. We live in a world where terrorist groups prey on people’s fear in order to create hatred and chaos. The only way to beat them is to keep a cool head, and to not be dragged to their level or get caught up in their tactics.
Trump has proven time and time again that he has the impulse control skills of a four-year-old. He flies off the handle at an angry tweet, he is a rash, brash, rude, arrogant narcissist and I can’t think of anyone else who is least equipped to deal with international conflict.
So now, because the majority of voters in America have allowed their sense of entitlement to triumph over their sense of responsibility, we will soon be living in a world where any rational minded person should be scared.
And not just of Trump, but of the people who voted for him.
