Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States of America.
Truth be told, I didn’t expect to write that sentence. I suspect many of those living in cities, or on college campuses, did not expect that outcome, either.
That is the story of the 2016 election. The rural-urban divide has never been so stark, and this election, which has defied most common knowledge based on historical experience and recent polling, has completely changed the electoral map, as Donald Trump took states that were part of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s firewall and stormed into the annals of U.S. history.
The most important thing to understand is that millions of Americans voted for Trump for thousands of different reasons, some of which you may not understand, because you have not lived their lives. The man, Trump, is a man I personally believe is unfit, unprepared and uneducated for the office he seeks. But he is our president, and he has won this election.
This is key for the future of our country. You may disagree with him, you may believe that he is dangerous for our country and for our foreign policy as I do, but he is our president and this is unequivocal. The most irresponsible thing we could do is reject this man, to declare that he is “not our president,” as some undoubtedly will. We simply cannot afford this. We cannot afford four more years of divisiveness.
We face untold challenges in the coming years. The rise of China will necessitate a management of the relationship between the United States and the Chinese nation that is simply unparalleled in the history of international politics. Civil conflict worldwide has led to the establishment of international terrorist organizations and tragic refugee crises that destabilize entire continents. Climate change, if it is not curtailed, will spur on a refugee crisis that makes the Syrian tragedy pale in comparison. Domestically, as I have written in previous articles, we suffer from an epidemic of loneliness and suicide, neglect and distrust, purposelessness and lack of meaning.
But should we meet these challenges, in our lifetimes, there is a very real chance that we will welcome an era of unparalleled human prosperity. In my last article, I spoke about how technological change, if it is not managed, can cause huge disruptions in employment. But managed properly, the march of technological progress may make human labor unnecessary. I do not know what kind of system we will have to create, what kind of psychological change we will have to undergo, in order to make a world without work a stable place. Whatever system we eventually devise, I am confident that a solution is out there. And if we make the right choices, in our lifetimes, we could see an end to most disease, to hard labor, to poverty. We could see an end to the hardships that billions of humans have suffered for centuries. And this is not fiction; provided we make the right choices, this could be our reality. But only if we play our cards right.
It’s on us to make the right choices. It means we have to be more informed. It means we have to stop being so self-righteous. It means we have to compromise and listen, and do the tough and dirty work of achieving a future we so desperately want. This is a hard ask, but it’s not impossible. We have weathered worse storms in the past. It is our duty to ensure that we impress upon the president-elect the importance of this moment in humanity’s story. And, if history is any guide, we’ll weather the storm again.
So fight him on deportations, as I will. Fight him on foreign policy, as I will. Fight him on affordable healthcare. Fight him on our alliances and the woman’s right to choose. Defend the integrity of the media and our electoral process. Fight him on everything and anything that you hold dear. That is the beauty of our democracy. But know that there is no Clinton’s America and no Trump’s America. There is only the United States of America, and if we work together, anything is possible.
Aaron Bondar is a sophomore double-majoring in economics and political science.