Bridging the nationwide divide: The election that shocked the world

As the states of the electoral map started turning red on Nov. 8, an increasing sense of horror and disbelief struck most of the Saratoga community, with people posting their thoughts on social media.

Most expressed shock that America could vote Donald Trump into power while some others were joyous at the surprise loss by Hillary Clinton. But whatever side people stood on, as soon as they offered their opinion, others would pounce to disagree, distancing friends and family members from each other.

In terms of “shock value,” AP Govt./Econ. teacher Hana Chen believes she has seen the impact of this election.

“Another thing that happened is that it seems Hillary Clinton was just not able to mobilize and appeal to urban voters in the way that Barack Obama was in 2008 and 2012,” Chen said.

Moreover, Chen attributes the inaccuracy of pollsters to the Bradley effect, which occurs when people do not tell pollsters the who they are really voting for, but instead the politically correct choice.

Chen said that variations like this normally count for a 3 percent swing, but polls also missed the entire demographic of uneducated rural white voters — many of whom felt the government had left them behind — and showed up in this election as rarely seen before to support Trump.

“They don’t have hate in their heart,” Chen said. “But what they do have is a sense that government has failed them; Donald Trump to them looks like someone who’s going to shake things up.”

Although Chen does not take a stance on the election, she has seen the aftermath of this “shock value,” a divided America, and encouraged all her eligible students to vote, no matter who it is that they vote for.

Sophomore Rohan Pandey, who openly voices support for Trump, said that although he does not agree with Trump’s stance on social issues like abortion rights and environmental regulations, he thinks Trump’s foreign policy will be an improvement from the Obama administration.

He attributes part of Trump’s success to citizens who want new faces that will bring actual change to the government and their mistrust of Clinton.

“People believed Trump was the right one to challenge the establishment, but the mainstream media was extremely biased against him,” Pandey said. “In the end, high rural voter turnouts, which was galvanized by the bias of mainstream media, contributed to a Trump success.”

However, the majority of Saratoga High’s students still expressed anti-Trump sentiments, as a combined mock vote of MAP 10, 11 and 12 classes recorded a 67 percent support rate for Clinton and a mere 7 percent voting for Trump. Results from Govt./Econ. classes followed the same pattern: 71 percent voted Clinton and 8 percent voted for Trump. Third-party candidates  such as Jill Stein of the Green Party and Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party drew the other votes.

With the nation’s political climate split nearly in half between those who believe in the president-elect’s promises of a better future and those who fear he will follow through on divisive campaign rhetoric and begin targeting groups such as Mexicans and Muslims, Chen thinks both sides need to try to find common ground.

“There’s definitely a palpable sense of a wound, a broken heart or deep disappointment,” Chen said. “How do we heal? We choose love, we choose support, we choose inclusion, and those are the things we heal from.”