Thoughts on Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States

Note: The following is a super slightly edited version of the article I've written for NEIU's paper, The Independent, released Nov. 21, 2016. It is my first thing to be published by something official!!! Enjoy!

Donald Trump has been elected to be the next president of the United States.

I can't say I voted for him, but it doesn't matter, since Illinois voted Democrat. Actually, if you look at the election map, practically all of Illinois was red, except for Chicago, making the whole state blue.

I'm not saying the election was rigged, but I definitely believe the election system is broken; and hopefully these next four years will show why it needs to be revised. I mean, we are 50 states, but only seven of them matter!?

In fact, the popular vote went to Hillary Clinton by around 200,000 votes, but the Electoral College majority went to Trump, making him the president elect.

This election has made the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the President all Republican. This might be cause for panic, but nothing has happened yet. It's possible they might have some good ideas. Unlike the past six years of Obama fighting the House and Senate, these new policies have a chance to not be a shell of what they originally started out as.

The only thing, I think, we can definitely take away from this election is what elections mean now.

This campaign has been nothing but slander and opposition for the other candidate. Say what you want about Bernie Sanders, but he campaigned like a mensch. He didn't run negative ads and he stayed on the issues. And he got booted out as soon as possible.

There are two major reasons why this is the worst thing about this election: one, because it allows the candidates to duck their stances on all the issues, and two, because no matter who wins, half the country's not going to accept the winner.

That's bad. Real bad. The population doesn't need to be happy with the result, but they do need to acknowledge the winner. And I don't think that's going to happen.

The people voted. They don't want a person who's right for the job as president; they want a personality. A personality who's fun to watch on TV, full of twists each episode.

Do I think Clinton or Trump are fit for the job? Not really. I thought Clinton would be able the handle the job, but most people, including myself, don't like how it's been handled: with every issue in a deadlock, because Congress is so removed from the needs of the actual populous.

I don't think we should treat this as the apocalypse, the way the media will have you click-baited into believing. Trump did not get to where he is by not having at least a few good points. Granted, it wasn't steaks, universities, a wall, or how to greet models, but, I think we should at least give him a chance. He does have some legitimately good ideas, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been initially supported by the GOP or elected to implement them.

America voted for an unpresidential candidate to be the president, and whether you agree with the majority or not, you still need to accept who our country elected to lead them for the next four years. Besides, moving is such a hassle.