On November 10, I attended the final Democracy Café of the semester with my club, Model United Nations.  The final café focused on the election results and people’s reactions to it.  After discussing the actual numbers and figures, there was an open dialogue where people to voice their opinions and concerns.  Political science Professor Claire Abernathy led the discussion.

When we went over the results, we discussed not only the overall results but the states and demographics.  We also compared them to the 2012 election, primarily comparing Clinton’s voter turnout with the turnout for Barack Obama that year during his reelection campaign versus Mitt Romney.  This year there was a significantly lower voter turnout among most demographics, which I didn’t find too surprising considering most people were unhappy with their choice in candidates; Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are the two most unfavorable presidential candidates in US history.  Clinton won big in most categories, especially with women and millennials, but Trump’s victories with males, whites, and the uneducated was able to overpower Clinton’s other victories “bigly.”

After we discussed the results, we discussed mainly policy before getting into personal concerns.  Most people agreed that Donald Trump’s actual policy probably would not pass Congress as he does not have much support from the Republican establishment (or the Democrats, obviously) who now run the Senate and the House of Representatives.  The Republicans will, more than likely, be able to pass their agenda though, and Donald Trump will most likely sign anything the Republicans send his way.  This might include repealing Obamacare, overturning Roe v. Wade, increasing Military and Defense spending, and destroying women’s health care and taking away their reproductive rights.

I spoke up a few times during the final portion of the café when we discussed our concerns.  My concerns were very similar to most of the students; minorities are going to be terrorized.  Not even specifically by Donald Trump or the Republicans, but by the radical supporters who got Trump into the White House, like the KKK.    Someone brought up the point that we should try to look beyond personal opinions and whatnot and focus on policy, but I, like several others, do not think that’s possible.  We agreed that considering the majority of Trump’s campaign was based on very personal attacks, it would be nearly impossible to just focus on policy, and even if you could look to Trump’s policy, you can’t look past the personal attacks his supporters who now feel validated are making.

Overall, I would say the café was certainly a success and it was very nice to have a controlled yet open dialogue about everything.  I was totally devastated when I found out Clinton conceded to Trump and the results had been difficult for me to talk about, but the café helped me to talk about it, and seeing that I was surrounded by who people agreed with me and disagreed with Trump made me feel a lot better about the future for this country.