Kafkaesque...

Divisive, vitriolic, and hate-speech. These are just some of the words used to describe the long-winded, highly watched, and bewildering spectacle that was (thankfully) the United States Presidential Election of 2016.

Having slipped into bed before our southern counterparts finished closing their polling booths, I dozed off with the expectation that when I woke up and all was said and done, when the dust settled, when network stations called it a night, and everyone else went to bed looking to the future that I’d wake up with a familiarity that had long been held since the begging of the election. The same thought the international community came to expect… that the Democratic Nominee would be plastered all over the news beaming and hands locked with the defunct ex-president of hers giving speeches and shaking hands.

Instead I woke up seeing red (literally) everywhere. And just like that, with one sleep in between no more than mere hours long, the torch had proverbially been handed over into the hands of Donald Trump. This had left me, and arguably the rest of the world, in a state of haziness as we all took a gasp and left our jaws hanging in a collective disbelief wondering surely this must be an egregious hoax everyone is in on except me…right?

Moments passed and I sifted through three or more of my go-to news outlets and slowly it started to sink in. This was in no means going to affect me directly in the here and now, I did not live on the other side of the border, I did not vote Democrat or Republican, and for the most part, my day-to-day life wasn’t going to be altered in any dire way. Be that as it may, I couldn’t help but feel something had changed, I couldn’t discern if it was good or bad nor did I care to, but something had changed and I could feel it.

All I can be sure of in the interim is diplomacy dictates we refrain from being rash, gazing exceedingly down the rabbit hole and further speculating what a Trump presidency might or might not mean for the “free world”, and lastly retaining a bit of hope. Not for ourselves perhaps, but for those who’ve really lost out in this election, those silenced through the proliferation of bigotry, anger, and violence.

In a nation mired by an unfathomable and a deep-rooted divide, rage, and violence, only time will tell what the outcome America has plagued itself with.

#politics #economy #conflict #2016elections #presidentialelection #US #president #Trump