On Tuesday November 2nd, Election Day took a turn for the unexpected, as the projected winners would not be announced for days. Many American citizens began to reflect on the past four years living in the United States under the reign of Donald J. Trump as the 45th president.
Politics over the years have experienced increased exposure with the rise of social media, spreading across several platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and even TikTok. This mass exposure has led to several disagreements, and even quarrels, between self-identified Democrats and Conservatives of all ages.
In each conversation there is an overarching theme of what it means to be a leader and why it actually matters for the United States president to encompass this definition.
With hindsight, we begin to ask ourselves what should be required in a president’s repertoire of skills, experience, and behaviors. When someone is the leader, especially of a country, of course we expect them to have the best interest in the prosperity of America regardless of political party.
A president should be focused on uniting political parties and navigating compromises, rather than tearing the country apart with slander and baseless criticism. In the case of Trump’s partisan agenda, we experienced time and time again that his best interest was to reward his followers and reprove those who did not support him.
Our president should be noble; in other words, they should always strive to be as ethical, reasonable, honest, mature, and empathetic as possible. When we fail to have a leader with any of these qualities, those who idolize him feel validated enough to act out the same inappropriate qualities, such as homophobia, racism, and blatant bigotry.
The character of a president matters just as much as his policies.
As citizens, regardless of who we voted for, it is our responsibility to hold our president and congress accountable. The issue with idolization is that, through pride and denial, we rather defend and cover-up what is evidently wrong rather than begin the conversation of what should be fixed.
For instance, when Trump’s inappropriate comment about groping women and his sexual allegations are swept under the rug by his followers, we are sending the rest of the world a message. By allowing this behavior, we are showing our youth that a leader can act like Trump and somehow hold a powerful position. His proclaimed “locker room talk” is inexcusable, inappropriate, and immature, regardless of gender, class, race, and occupation.
Why should the president of the United States ever be excused for something so shameful? Given the circumstances, if former president Barack Obama had been accused of the same misdeeds, he would’ve been rejected by both political parties immediately.
Instead of holding him accountable for his bigotry, we watched Donald J. Trump, a 74-year-old white male, allowed to continue to hold office for four steady years. The dismissive, biased nature of Trump supporters resulted in a disappointing amount of support for Trump during the 2020 election.
As American citizens, we carry the right to be intolerant toward our leader’s tantrums, negligence, irresponsibility, gaslighting, and dishonorable behavior.
That being said, even if you voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, your responsibility is not to overlook who you voted into office. There is a clear difference between supporting and idolizing.
We, as American citizens, need to become aware that no matter who is voted into office, someone is bound to get affected negatively. This is the disappointing reality of politics. However, we can make a difference by refusing to turn a blind eye when our people, especially marginalized groups, experience injustice due to our government.
We will begin a new journey as the projected winners of the 2020 election, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, will hold office at least until 2024. Be sure to do your research before forming an opinion and holding our politicians accountable.
As American citizens we will learn best from trial and error, mature conversations, and fair compromises as we steadily move forward into a new decade, hopefully with a bipartisan agenda this time.
About Post Author
