Chicagoland Area Reacts to US Presidential Election 2016
November 2016. United States of America. Barack Obama is near the end of his second presidential term. Donald Trump has just won the presidential election. No one saw this coming. Of course, there are numerous Trump supporters, but Trump actually winning the race? What a joke.
Media all across the nation were reporting Trump’s outrageous actions. He was shown making fun of a disabled people, making racist comments against minorities, vulgar statements against women, and still denied it all. In the media, Trump was shown as a clown. Even while being involved in scandals, there was no way the American people could vote a man, without political experience, into office.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, had just as much media time as Trump. Clinton was continuously portrayed as a liar and scammer because of her email server incident. Could she be trusted leading an entire country even though she has had a shady past? What if she campaigns a certain way, then acts differently? Is that considered lying to the American people? Regardless of the scandal, Clinton was the favored candidate for President of the United States, according to the media.
The state of Illinois is typically democratic. It is in the Midwestern part of the country and contains one of the largest cities: Chicago. Chicago is very diverse and located in the Northern part of the state. Being democratic, most people were bound to vote for Clinton. Of course, Clinton won the state of Illinois in the election.
Donald Trump won the election with 306 electoral votes, while Hillary Clinton had 232 out of the 270 needed to win. Many people were shocked and could not believe the result. After all the negative Trump coverage from the media, citizens were bound to vote for Clinton, right? Wrong. Mary Mitchell, columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote in an article, “Many of us were convinced the majority of voters would choose the devil they knew over the devil they didn’t.” Voters knew Clinton from her role as First Lady when her husband, Bill Clinton, was president. Trump is not known in the political field because he is a long-time reality star and businessman. Voters were left to choose the lesser of the two evils.
Chicagoans, like many others throughout the country, began to feel threatened and unsure of their future because of the new president-elect and his ideals. Many minorities seem to be targeted because of the racist words made by Trump throughout his campaign. Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, stated after the election to the Chicago Sun-Times, “To those families [who feel in danger], you are welcomed here in the city of Chicago. Your dreams for your children count. Your struggles to give your children a chance at the American dream are heard in this city.” Chicago being as diverse as it is contains all types of families and people trying to succeed in life. Mayor Rahm Emanuel tried to relieve the fear and welcome all those who feel threatened.
Kendall County, a suburban area, just about forty-five minutes outside of Chicago, had the same predictions and reactions as the city. In an interview, editor of the Ledger-Sentinel, the county’s smaller newspaper, John Etherdge, answered a few of my questions.
Q: Who was the projected winning candidate days before the election?
A: Most credible national news sources — including the New York Times — had pundits projecting that Hillary Clinton would win.
Q: Was the community/media outlets surprised with the results?
A: I think the residents of the Oswego/Montgomery and greater Kendall County community were as surprised by the outcome as the rest of the country. Note: Kendall County has historically been a Republican County, but the ticket of Trump/Pence barely edged out the ticket of Clinton/Kaine, 24,152 to 23,392.
Q: It has been reported that there have been protests and unfortunately, extreme discrimination since the election all over the US. Do you think residents of Kendall County will react or be affected by this going forward?
A: There have been protests over the outcome of the election, but those appear to be isolated and dying out. We have not seen any reports here of increased discrimination against anyone, but will continue to monitor the situation in police reports and elsewhere. I think much will be determined in the coming months by the tone the new president sets through his cabinet appointments and inaugural address in January. Will he/can he be conciliatory? Will he look to build bridges among our nation’s diverse population? Time will tell.
The reason why most people were shocked by the results of the election is because of how the media covered it. In a guest speech at Universita Cattolica, journalist from Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, Alessandra Muglia states that even Italian people were surprised by the results of the election. Italian media also had Clinton winning. Muglia suggested that the media are too concentrated on Washington D.C. instead of the local people. Trump won because of his silent supporters and those who stopped listening to the mainstream media due to its imbalance of coverage. It is apparent that both Italian media and American media covered the candidates and their campaigns incorrectly. Also, voters may have decided to block out all the media coverage and chose a candidate based on their own values and beliefs.
Despite all opinions and reactions of the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump is the president-elect of the United States. He will not taken office until January 2017. Americans will have to wait and see what he does in office. Who knows how this will unfold.
