POL 166 HW#9- Opinion on Trump winning Election

I did not follow the election from the beginning. I did not see Trump making crazy personal as opposed to political insults against his enemies trying to be commander in chief. However, I do remember him becoming the Republican Nominee. He actually made it that far. I was already uncomfortable then, because how could he have actually won is what I thought, since the media and the people I'm around are so anti-trump, I really couldn't believe that he actually beat every other candidate and became the nominee. I would ask my friend, what does this even mean. But to be completely honest, what surprised me more, is that Hillary Clinton beat Bernie Sanders and became the Democratic Nominee. From that moment on, I was in acceptance that the politics were not in my

not in my favor. Donald won Republican and Bernie lost Democratic, nowhere in there, did I actually care about Hillary Clinton's accomplishment.

The whole time since then, I was led to believe falsely because I wasn't thinking of the accomplishments that Donald has made to even make it as far as he did, that Donald would not become president. Again, another example of it's not about Hillary winning, it's about Donald Trump Losing. Just like when Hillary won against Bernie, it wasn't about her winning, it was about the fact that Bernie had lost. The first time I uttered the sentence "can trump actually become president now?", I should have known that he was going to become president. There is some kind of invisible

force this entire election season that made everything go completely wrong. Bernie lost to Hillary, and then Hillary lost to Trump at the end.

So how did I feel when Trump had one initially? I came home at like ten at night, to see more red states than I was comfortable with seeing. The polls estimated a landslide so I expected to see a lot of blue. I had hope but the fact that it was that close made no sense to me. I was already in acceptance because the fact that it's this close means that with every advantage Hillary had, Donald still ended up getting this close to you. He has something. I wake up the next morning, and Trump is our new

president is the talk of the day everywhere. I felt like it was too awful to be true. How could he actually have made it this far. How could we let this happen. It's something I didn't like to think very much about initially. I was really upset at thinking it because my imagination didn't know what to make of it. He is blunt and unpredictable. I thought, he's going to start a war, that I do not want to be drafted into. It was sickening, and it just felt like such a loss.

However, this week has passed, and now I think differently. I really think to myself, president-elect Donald Trump is now the new face of our country. He actually took his name and made it presidential. I've always gone to the Taj Mahal as a kid and seen him featured in the WWE a few times, but never thought this guy will be president. I did not consider him president material, but here he is, the new president. He is the truth. I appreciate his victory just because he is an asshole, but he's real, and he won. It sucks, but at least we have someone that didn't promise a lot of "good" things, that we all know is bullshit, that won't be delivered because if you're making a profit at the expense of the working class whom you have no intimate connection with you know you're not really looking out for them. He promised a lot of shitty things, though. Building a wall in Mexico, deporting "illegal" immigrants.

We complain a lot that our presidents don't change or contribute anything in reality, and I think that is interesting. Because so far, everything since Donald Trump's declaration to become a presidential nominee has gone backward. Bad lost to good, and no experience beat experience. So as worried as I am about the uncertain path of our new president, I'm pretty sure that he will easily go down as a historic president, more than Hillary would have ever been, and as historic as Obama has been, and change for our country may actually happen now. Especially with congress being red all over.

POL HW 8

Gerrymandering:

Since there is no real quote to take from these Washington post links, I will discuss my opinion on gerrymandering. I think it's a complete fluke. The fact that there is a strategy that can take a minority count, and re-shape it to get a majority count, is really annoying to think about. Why? For the reason that of course, when it is convenient, you'll find a ridiculous way to flip a negative to a positive. However when it comes to minorities in the country, we are always the minority and there is no gerrymandering equivalent that exists that can have us the minority have our way. According to the post, "Gerrymandering is at least partly to blame for the lopsided Republican representation in the House." Because they have lost, but then found a scheme to win. Honestly, that is very annoying, and reading this article, gerrymandering is just one representation of our corrupted system. You should not be able to argue because you're the minority how the distribution of counts get done to affect the overall count. Because that makes no kind of sense. It should be, that the majority, is the majority, period. I think that is ridiculous. 

Homework assignment 7

Quote: "America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery — the great sin and shame of America!"

My Interpretation:
    In class, we started discussing whether or not the 4th of July was truly something to be celebrated or not. Very interesting argument and it was hard to say. The patriot in me says that yes, it should be without a doubt celebrated. To simply acknowledge the holiday, and celebrate it as hard as you can to acknowledge the anniversary of a time that our country gained independence from the tyranny and oppression of the British government is certainly something to celebrate. The passage itself mentioned, that there are men who have lived, and died already, for the cause of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That's something I most definitely overlook. The fact that men existed that were born, had their own lives, and died, many years ago, but molded our country into what it is today. Of course at the time when this was written the country was only 76 years years old, a mere infant of a society, as opposed to today where we are 240 years old. That's a tremendously long time after, a difference of 164 years since this piece was written. A lot has changed since the times this was written, and many men and women have lived and died. However, one thing is still a fact. Oppression STILL exists.
    Why did this quote stand out to me? Because it invalidated everything that America wants to make fact. We are false to the past, present and are in turn being false to the future. He implies humanity is outrages, our liberty is fettered, and that in the name of the constitution and bible, the greatest sin of America is slavery. I can argue, that today, we are STILL outraged! Who is happy with the state of the country? Are we not the land of the free, and should we not collectively feel the happiness we are supposed to be able to pursue? Instead, we have people like Donald Trump, fools, running for president. Someone like him, who is corrupt, and loop-holes his way around the country, does not pay his taxes, trying to be the commander in chief. Not only that, but we may not have slavery, but capitalism is a synonym. Making us work our butts off to survive, and not having enough knowledge or resources to "cheat" the system. The fact that there even is a system to cheat. And not only that, we are now facing the worst case of climate change in history. We have exceeded humanity and transcended to nature. If our land was not false, for certain, there would not be such a gap between rich and poor, and fools like Donald Trump would not be running for president. So should Indepence Day be celebrated? Up to you.