Remain principled in the face of partisanship


President-elect Donald Trump is no stranger to having his old tweets dug up. During the presidential debates, many Twitter users began retweeting statements Trump had made throughout the years that contradicted what he was saying on stage — like the now infamous tweet about China inventing climate change. This week another one of Trump’s tweets from years ago went viral. Almost exactly four years ago, Trump tweeted, “The electoral college is a disaster for America.”

Matt Pearce, national reporter for the Los Angeles Times, posted a screenshot of that tweet next to one of Trump’s tweets from the last week: “The Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!” Although votes are still being counted, the Associated Press currently has Clinton winning the popular vote by almost 1.16 million votes, according to the Cook Political Report. Trump has always been the candidate of self-interest not principles; so, this deep hypocrisy is not surprising. But an important lesson can be taken from Trump’s Electoral College flip flop: In this time of great uncertainty and insecurity, we must be following important, deeply held principles instead of being bogged down in partisan politics, advocating solely for what helps the party or candidates we support.

When the Electoral College has caused two out of the last five elections to go to the candidate with significantly less votes, people have a right to be outraged, to question the justifications for our election process. But those of us who hold up signs that read “Abolish the Electoral College” should ask ourselves, would we still be protesting this system if Clinton has won enough delegates, but lost the popular vote? The Electoral College should be abolished because it is deeply undemocratic, not because it didn’t result in the President I wanted.

Similarly, while the anti-Trump protests on this campus and in cities across the country have brought up important issues surrounding immigration, Islamophobia, sexual harassment and police brutality, we must not allow these to become contextualized as only a problem in Trump’s America. The buzzword this week in news outlets, blogs and social media was normalization. The argument goes that Trump and his supporters have mainstreamed, or made more acceptable, bigotry, white nationalism, homophobia, xenophobia, etc. And to a certain extent that is true. Social media sites have been extremely useful platforms for people across the country to share their experiences with racism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination, immediately post-election. And according to the FBI, in the last year, U.S. hate crimes, many against Muslims, have surged 6 percent. Trump’s rhetoric is undoubtedly toxic and must be disavowed.

However, we must ask ourselves where were we when President Obama was deporting record numbers of undocumented immigrants. Where were we when Obama fully embraced drone strikes. It is important to be vocal in the face of a Trump presidency, but we must also remember that what we are protesting goes well beyond Trump. Professor Crystal Fleming, assistant professor of sociology and Africana studies at Stony Brook University, tweeted this Wednesday, “There are a lot of people condemning Trump’s white nationalism who never condemned the white nationalism of the ‘founding fathers.’”

In order to truly comprehend and struggle against a White House administration that welcomes anti-Semites, misogynists, racists and homophobes, it is imperative that the U.S. grapple with its history. Despite Washington Post articles that claim “Trump’s campaign made it safe to hate again,” we must remember that, in America, it has always been safe to hate. The United States is a country founded on white supremacy and patriarchy. The United States is a country that put Japanese Americans in camps fewer than 80 years ago, The United States is a country where almost 1,200 people, mostly people of color, were killed by police in 2015. The U.S. is a country where it is legal to fire someone based on sexual orientation or gender identity in 28 states. 

The anti-Trump protests must be about far more than saying “f-ck Donald Trump.” And they must be about more than finding fault with the GOP.  Rather, we must recognize discrimination in all of its forms, on the right and on the left — discrimination that in certain ways has been normalized by Trump, and in other ways has always been normal. We must remember that the things we are protesting now, would have had to have been protested under any administration. Police brutality, unjust immigration laws, transphobia and ableism are not exclusive to one party. The struggle to make America more equal, more just and more inclusive cannot start and end with Trump.

Lena Melillo  is a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law and gender studies.  Her column, “’Pop Politics,” runs every  Thursday.