Villens United by Chris Haskell

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries and letters to the Editor of The Somerville Times belong solely to the authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville Times, its staff or publishers)

History books will not speak kindly of the 2016 president election. Although political campaigns have gotten dirty in the past, none have been more ugly and divisive than the campaign’s run in this election. For many their vote was passionately choosing who they didn’t want to be president more than who they did. I myself was guilty of that charge.

I’m an Independent. When Bernie went bye-bye I spent a fair amount of time researching both candidates and their campaign’s to choose the lesser of two evils. I found Hillary to obviously be the more qualified of the two; and while she does have her fair share of scandals, the majority of them were pure speculation and wild suspicion. Trump on the other hand has had scandal after scandal that he is clearly guilty of, and the more I learned about the man I in good conscience could never vote for him. Like many, I found him to be dangerously unfit to lead our great nation and a terrible representative of our country’s values.

I was raised in the Protestant church. I was made a Deacon of the church at 16 years old and I taught Sunday School. Although I’m no longer religious, the moral lessons learned from the Bible and the church helped shape my life. Like many who supported Donald Trump I grew up on “Christian Values.” It was for that reason I was appalled by the fervor of many Christians for Donald Trump because I personally found the man to be the opposite of all the values of the Church. The Pope agrees with me, as he himself has spoken out against Trump’s divisive rhetoric.

When Trump won the election I became deeply disheartened and concerned for my country. I knew there would be protests and riots, but I was more concerned about what kind of precedent this election has set for American politics. The outlandish lies and awful behavior of Donald Trump on display during this campaign were excused and overlooked by many who supported him. Bragging about sexual assault is no longer a deal breaker for president. A fraud trial for a scam University can be excused. A pending child rape trial may now be overlooked. No experience necessary. You can even create a racist lie that our first African American president wasn’t a legal born citizen and ride that craziness all the way to White House. A dangerous precedent indeed.

It is for this reason that many are protesting Trump’s impending presidency in major cities all over the country. While many want to dismiss it as a ridiculous political fervor, it really goes beyond political policies and is more about American morality. The heart of the argument is what we as Americans now find to be acceptable behavior for our leaders and our government. Campaign policies such as building a wall, deporting immigrants, and banning Muslims has created great fear and divide in our country and since his election there has been a national rise in hate crimes and many are now living in fear. To excuse the horrible policies, the countless insults, and lack of experience of a 70-year-old man and elect him president speaks volumes about our country.

I’m not worried that many, if any, of his campaign promises will ever be carried to fruition. The wall? Never gonna happen. Mass deportations? No way. Muslim ban? Unconstitutional. To actually implement all of the things Trump promised would cause massive civil unrest in this country. Trump himself would not want this because he will likely be running for re-election in four years, if he doesn’t get impeached first. So many excused so much about the man to get the gold at the end of the rainbow. Only now they’re realizing they compromised all of their morals for fool’s gold. Ironically Trump’s campaign theme song was “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”…

If we truly want to make America great again we must all come together and learn from this presidential election. We must heal the division created by the campaigns. We must set higher standards for our leaders and hold our media to higher standards as well. We seem to have forgotten that our president isn’t just a leader, but a symbol of what our country represents. What does this election and its results say to the rest of the world? These next four years are critical towards the integrity of our democracy itself. I fear the worst but hope for the best.

Later Villen’s #NotMyPresident