What Does the Trump Presidency Mean for Our Democracy?

Donald Trump obliterated the status quo in 2016 with his campaign tactics. Experts swore he would never win the presidency, yet here we are four years later counting the days until our regime change occurs. 

In 2016, I was one of many first time voters, dumbfounded with the reality before my eyes. A narcissistic clown stole the Republican presidential nomination from a panel of forgettable, institutionalized candidates. He would continually mock every person the Republican party had to offer, and he made a reality show out of the presidential election. 

I am by no means a Trump supporter. I did not vote for him in either election, and to be fair, I did not vote for Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton either. But this is not about who I voted for, nor my reasons for voting; this is an observation of the various “curtains” that were pulled back over the course of the last four years by President Trump and his insistence on disrupting the system. 

For years, the media insisted on force feeding the general public partisan disinformation in order to gain support, maintain viewership and thus remain profitable. 

This went relatively unchallenged and unnoticed by the masses for years until Trump repeatedly exclaimed “fake news” was trying to topple him. He found a way to earn free publicity and undermine the validity of whatever the press had to say about him.

It was a twisted strategy that ultimately resulted in a Trump presidency. 

The media is going to have to work at least 400% as hard to regain the trust and influence it once took for granted. In 2021, we need less clickbait, for-profit reporting and more informative, useful reporting across the board in every media outlet. 

Trump showed that in 2016 you could simply be a United States citizen with an audience to win the presidency. Before, there was an unspoken assumption that someone had to be “in the system” to win the presidency. 

Granted, Trump is a bombastic, arrogant rich boy who used his name and money to build a reputation. That reputation ultimately won him the presidency. He gave hope to a demographic of people that his success would translate seamlessly into an increased success for the entire country. 

You pair that hope in the swing states with an incredible disdain for Hillary Clinton across the country, and you end up with a confused democracy. 

Unfortunately, the other side of Trump making a mockery of our current system is not so hopeful and optimistic. Yes, you can be a reasonable, thoughtful U.S. citizen, come from the middle of nowhere USA and become president, it is possible.

However, Trump just showed foreign powers that the USA is much more vulnerable than its people are even aware of. Our own media is sowing the seeds of dissent in a republic of people who simply want to be happy day-to-day. I truly believe that is what the vast majority of Americans wake up and go to sleep hoping for. 

We are strong together, but we can not continue to allow partisanship and “first-world problems” to destroy the ideals our country was founded on. A government of the people, for the people and chosen by the people. We are the people who need to put our surface-level differences aside and acknowledge the incredible privileges we continually take for granted as a society in 2020.