In the days since Republican nominee Donald Trump became President-elect Donald Trump, I, like many Americans, have had some time to think about the results. As his win sunk in, a thought occurred to me: This is the first time liberal millennials have experienced losing a presidential election.
The last time a Republican won an election was 2004, meaning millennials have really only experienced President Obama’s two huge victories. Conservative millennials, of course, lost both of these, and liberal millennials won. 2016 would be the first time in which liberal millennials would be tested with losing a presidential.
And hoo boy, are they failing that test.
In the last two days a #NotMyPresident movement has sprung up, defiantly exclaiming to the world that Trump is not the dutifully-elected president. Politico has a solid piece on this phenomenon (read it here).
There’s a stereotype about millennials: that we’re the safe-space, entitled, participation trophy generation, lazy and obsessed with ourselves. I personally don’t believe that. The #NotMyPresident crowd, however, seems determined to check every one of those boxes.
Here’s the deal: Donald Trump is going to be the President of the United States. Obama has said it. Hillary Clinton has accepted it. It is done.
“But she won the popular vote!” the coddled masses cry. Jonathan Adler at the Washington Post has a great explanation of why the popular vote is irrelevant, essentially arguing that in a system that utilized the popular vote, presidential campaigns would be run entirely differently, with Trump and Clinton campaigning most heavily in states like California and Texas, so saying “she won the popular vote” really has no meaning.
She lost, and lost bigly. She lost states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, which haven’t gone Republican since before some of us were alive.
When liberal millennials angrily chant “NOT MY PRESIDENT,” they are simply refusing to accept reality. And, ironically, this will hurt them the most in 2020.
There is a real chance that Donald Trump is going to be a relatively moderate president. Yes, he’s probably going to put a conservative justice on the Supreme Court to appeal to the conservatives in Congress, but, as this election showed, that the Supreme Court really, really, really isn’t a big issue to (liberal) voters. Beyond that though, he isn’t exactly in lockstep with conservatives. He is anti-free trade, relatively pro-gay marriage, supports repealing the “bathroom bill” in North Carolina, and has not exactly hesitated to use the power of big government to further his own ends.
Imagine that it is 2020, and President Trump is running for re-election. There have been no major economic catastrophes. Relations with Russia have calmed, with an actual “Russian reset” having taken place. President Trump worked with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to pass a massive jobs/infrastructure spending bill back in 2017, and as a result, thousands of blue collar workers have a chance at new jobs. Under threat of high tariffs, companies have come back to the small rural towns that they left. President Trump also worked with Speaker Paul Ryan to pass the first major tax reform since the mid-1980s, returning money to the pockets of Americans across the country.
During the four years of President Trump’s term, liberals continued to shout “HE’S NOT MY PRESIDENT.” They continued to block highways and streets. They continued to defame, attack and malign those who supported the dutifully elected President of the United States.
Those who voted for Trump are now even more on-board and excited for round two.
Those who sat on the sidelines or voted third-party? They see anti-Trump millennials blocking hardworking Americans from getting to work. They see people who support the president called racist, sexist, xenophobic, stupid, and idiotic. And then they see the very possible hypothetical reality I laid out above. They’ll vote Trump.
Millennials and social justice warriors acted how they did for the last eight years because they could. Barack Obama was president. Times were good. They could stomp their feet as much as they wanted. They forced the country to accept social movement after social movement that it did not want, or wasn’t ready for. If you didn’t agree, you weren’t someone with legitimate opinions; you were a backwards bigot.
They stomped their feet so much that they didn’t realize that they were damaging the ground beneath them.
Until liberal millennials stop blaming almost everyone but themselves, they’re going to perpetuate the cycle. And as a result, Trump won’t be #NotMyPresident for four years.
He’ll be #NotMyPresident for eight.
