Election 2016: The Death of Democracy

Yesterday, many of the ideals of America died, and it's not because you think. Yes, a Donald Trump presidency scares me as much as the next person, but the reactions of voters and overall sentiment of this election scares me a million times more. This is the first election that Americans are actually afraid to talk about who they support, and this is happening on both fronts.

I woke up in the morning to the news that Donald J. Trump would be the 45th president of the United States, and it was the strangest thing ever. As I walked around Carnegie Mellon's campus, a kind of gloom hung over like I had never seen before. Everyone looked more depressed, sad, and worried than usual. When I opened my phone, my Facebook feed was full of more fear, praying, and angry posts than I had ever seen before.

As I saw threats of unfriending all through my newsfeed, I noticed that a few of my friends were gradually disappearing throughout the day. This was probably the result of the fact that I had Vermin Supreme in my profile picture and had ironically liked Donald Trump's Facebook page for entertainment.

More shocking was the fact that these people were now targeting third-party voters like myself, who were not even involved in the electing of Donald Trump. Because I did not think that Hillary Clinton was fit to run this country (one look at WikiLeaks will show you just this), I was automatically in support of Donald Trump according to these people.

When you have best friends essentially tell you to f*ck off because you voted third-party, you know that this election has went overboard. The odd thing is that I respected most Clinton supporters for their respect for diversity, freedom of speech, and the opinions of others, but this tone was absent in many of their posts.

My reason for writing this is not to insult or call out anyone; it's to call out the fact that this election has gotten out of hand. It has caused a level of hate as great as anything that could come out of Trump's mouth. It has broken friendships, divided this nation, and caused a sentiment of fear, hate, and lack of understanding on both sides of the race.

If you truly think that "Love Trumps Hate" or that we should be stand together, we should be working to fix this nation and stand up against those that are truly racist, xenophobic, homophobic, and discriminate, not attacking our neighbors because they voted for the candidate that we didn't like.

Let's come together, work so that a respect for diversity, love, and freedom remain strong in this nation, and move forward. To everyone who insults me for voting third party, you have proved my point. I want no part in the sentiment in this nation caused by either side, and I'm determined to work to bring people together as I wake up in a nation that has been ripped by the seams by its own citizens. I hope that my words have made you think at least a bit about what has happened over the last election season, but if not, I'm sure you'll be unfriending me.