On Nov. 5, many members of the Elizabethtown College campus community voted either in-person or had already sent in their mail-in ballot weeks prior. The Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE) shuttled people to the local polling location at various times throughout the day and also provided “Etown Votes” stickers for voters who may not have gotten them due to mail-in voting or who may have just wanted to show off their enthusiasm.
That night, students watched throughout the night as the election results came in. Both the Etown Democrats and Etown Republicans held their own watch parties on-campus, both aiming to be a bi-partisan place for people to stay civically engaged.
That next morning, Donald Trump had been officially elected as the 47th President of the United States. Trump had won electoral 312 votes, exceeding the 270 he needed to win, and Kamala Harris had won 226 electoral votes. Trump also, unlike in the 2016 election, won the popular vote by more than 3 million people.
To respond to the political impact of this election, both the Etown Republicans and Etown Democrats put out statements on their Instagrams.
“This past Tuesday, the American people made a clear and decisive choice in selecting the leadership that will guide us in the years to come,” the Etown Republicans said. “The choice we make today will echo for years to come. We look forward to the leadership of the incoming Trump Administration and have full confidence that our collective future will be more prosperous.”
“Our hearts are with those in fear of the future,” the Etown Democrats said. “As VP Kamala Harris said in her concession speech, “we owe loyalty not to a president of a party, but to the Constitution of the United States.”’
Even outside of inherently political clubs, students around campus have been discussing their political stances and their feelings around the election as for many students it was their first opportunity to vote in a presidential election. The popular app YikYak, which allows anonymous posting, blew up with politicized speech and arguments.
“I am very pleased with the election result of Donald Trump, and I believe he will do a much better job in resolving problems with immigration, foreign conflict and strengthening the economy,” Junior Garren McKenzie said.
“I’m greatly disappointed in how the results of this election revealed how people seem to prioritize the economy over the rights of their fellow citizens,” Junior Antonia Raimondo said. “I thought people had more compassion for their classmates, friends and family and am sad to see that that is not the case.”
Counseling also held extra drop-in hours the week of the election to address this increase in fear and uncertainty for certain students. This impact was felt especially for the LGBTQ+ community, People of Color (POC), and marginalized communities as a whole. The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ crisis line specializing in people 13-24 reported a significant increase in calls, chats and texts following the election with ⅓ of the people reaching out being Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) youth.
To address the campus climate and give students more outlets to discuss the election outside of between peers and through counseling, the Monday as a tradition following the election, Nov. 11, the Political Science faculty, including Oya Dursun Ozkanca, Nathan Gibson, Craig Lang and Fletcher McClellan, held an election “post-mortem.” It aimed to analyze what happened and why it happened and what that means for Pennsylvania, the U.S. and the world. Around forty students attended the event
“Harris wanted the electorate to look ahead while Trump wanted them to look backwards,” McCellan said during the post-mortem covering part of the reason that Trump won the election.
“Take Trump seriously but not literally,” Gibson said.
No one in the post-mortem spoke in support of Trump but most tried to keep a fair perspective on the issue.
Any election outcome leads to a variety of feelings for students as well as the community as a whole. Over the next four years, there will be changes in the political landscape due to the change in party majority and the administration behind the presidency.
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