Article “Letter from Washington: A Destructive Four Years—Now What?”

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I had just turned eighteen, started my freshman year at university, and voted for the very first time.  If I had been born eight years earlier, each of those momentous occurrences would have coincided with the 2008 election.  My first ever electoral experience would have been sharing the joy and hope of my fellow progressives when Obama was elected.  I would have felt the same elated surprise as the rest of the free world, that a country in which racism was a core value could have evolved so much. A black man was now our leader.  Just as I was beginning to mature, and figure out the person I would be, I would have seen my country mature to a point few had thought possible.  My adult life would have started with a shot of optimism and hope, with a real sense that things could change.  My 18th birthday, freshman year, and first election all happened in 2016.

As I was taking my first steps towards adulthood, I watched as presidential candidates flung childish insults and joked about penis sizes on national television.  I watched as Donald Trump mocked a disabled reporter, bragged about sexually assaulting women, and stoked the worst fears and prejudices of the American people.  I saw the Democratic party bend over backwards to appease Clinton, who felt she was owed the presidency.  Instead of voting for a candidate I could truly believe in, I voted against a candidate I thought would cause irreparable damage to my country, its institutions, and its values.  I disliked Clinton, but I hated the idea of a Trump presidency even more, so I swallowed my pride and mailed in my ballot with the circle next to Clinton’s name filled in.  Then Trump won; he lost the popular vote but won.  Hillary Clinton, with more than three decades of government experience lost to an ignorant, incompetent, and hateful buffoon whose only qualifications were his tacky buildings and his Celebrity Apprentice television show.

As I watched all of this unfold, in utter shock and disbelief, I was attending classes, pursuing a degree in political science.  My professors lectured about the long-established theories and rules governing political science and international affairs that had just been completely re-written by Trump’s ascension.  They continued talking about the importance of inter-governmental cooperation, the urgency of climate change, and the need for social justice reforms as if our country had not just willfully regressed by 50 years in all those areas.  Rather than hope and change, all I saw was bigotry and ignorance.  But maybe, I thought, maybe Trump’s presidency would prove useful.

Democrats gained the Presidency in 2008, but they lost control of the nation’s political discourse.  The hope Obama had brought to the global community quickly diminished as Republicans immediately sought to undermine his authority and legitimacy at every turn.  From the blatantly racist Birther movement to the self-righteous filibusters where senators read children’s books to waste time, Republicans were scoring points in a game the Democrats did not even realize was happening.  By the end of Obama’s second term, Republicans had successfully convinced some supporters that Obama was an illegitimate, socialist dictator.  Any positive action made by his administration was met with a disproportionately strong reaction in the opposite direction. So, I thought, let the idiots have their man in office; let them see firsthand how unqualified and absurdly ignorant he was.  If they want him to run the country like one of his many failed businesses, let him, that will teach them.  Eighteen years old and that was the best-case scenario my country had left to me; that Trump’s administration would fail so catastrophically that even his most loyal devotees would abandon him.  The naiveté of youth.

Four long years ensued, with Trump’s bold-faced corruption, thinly veiled authoritarianism, and horrendous human rights violations.  The few things Obama managed to accomplish in spite of Republican resistance:  the Paris Accords, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Iran nuclear deal, the Affordable Care Act that we nicknamed Obama Care, all rendered moot or endangered within Trump’s first year.  What else?  We now have a Supreme Court with a 6 to 3 conservative majority, as well as almost 300 very conservative lower court Judges appointed by Trump, something that my generation will have to live with for at least 3 decades, despite not voting for any of it.  And then there’s the administration’s ludicrously poor handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in millions of American illnesses or deaths and the president himself getting infected.  Surely, this mountain of evidence has convinced even the most ardent of Trump supporters that their decision was wrong!  Surely this country saw the reality of Trumpism and now we could move on as one nation!  In the words of our 45th president, this was fake news.

For the second election in a row, I voted against a candidate rather than for a candidate.  Biden won, thankfully, but where is the relief I wanted to feel?  When Obama won, it felt like this country was finally going to be able to move forward, leave the Reagan-Bush era behind and chart a bold new path.  Even as a 5th grader who knew nothing about politics, I could sense the excitement.

Yet now, after almost half of voters voted in favor of Trump’s hate, all I feel is fear.  The headlines touting the historic voter turnout for Biden sounds wonderful, until you read that more people voted for Trump this year than voted for Obama in 2008.  Sure, Biden won, but according to Trump and his increasingly violent supporters, the election was fraudulent.  Republicans still control the Senate; they gained seats in the House of Representatives, and the court appointees mean that many of Biden’s proposals can be shut down more resolutely than ever before.

Electing Biden is only the first step in this country’s incredibly long, long journey to redemption.  I see millions of young people flooding the streets of every major city to celebrate our victory over Trump and my first thought is, those people are not social distancing, many of them are not even wearing masks.  My second thought is of the 70 million other Americans who not only voted in support of Trump’s hate, but are now being fed the lie that this election was stolen from them.  Is this what “victory" looks like for my generation?

* Graduado en Relaciones Internacionales de Virginia Polytechnic Institute, ha enfocado sus intereses de investigación hacia las dinámicas políticas, económicas y sociales entre los EE. UU. y América Latina. Se ha desempeñado como voluntario de Hábitat for Humanity y Citizens Climate