Anti-Trump Protests Are Negatively Affecting America
November 16, 2016
The election is over and Donald Trump is soon to be the next president of the United States. While Trump supporters are excited, many Hillary supporters are disgusted. As a result, people in many cities throughout the United States have taken their anger to the streets by starting protests and riots to express how they feel.
A major city that has had numerous post-election protests has been our home town, Portland. In the last week, there have been many people with signs in downtown Portland blocking traffic, demonstrating, and disturbing the city in various ways. Many signs said, “Not my President,” “Love Trumps Hate,” and many other sayings that show the disgust they have about President-elect Trump.
Portland Police arrested more than 100 people who vandalized property, started fires, and broke windows during the protests in Portland. Simply put, it is appalling that people are going to this extent to protest and still do it even though they should know nothing productive will come out of it.
The behavior by the protesters is disruptive and making many people scared who live or work in downtown. People who attend local colleges and people who own businesses downtown are scared to walk around because of all of the demonstrations and violence going on. This has also caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.
In my opinion, the violent protests taking place in downtown Portland are pointless and dumb. People are destroying valuable property and nice buildings because they are mad and frustrated about the results of the election. The reality, though, is that their actions aren’t fixing the problem, so why do it at all? Donald Trump will still be the next president, and these riots won’t change anything.
Many Portland Public School students also participated in a walkout on Monday. Hundreds of students missed school for this walkout and didn’t accomplish anything by doing it.
Destroying cities does not show that someone respects women or is not racist — it just creates more conflict and is one more thing this country has to fix. Riots create danger, make people fearful, and make it hard for people to feel like our country is unified.
It is very frustrating to scroll through Instagram or Twitter and see countless videos of people destroying cities, especially Portland. Many people working in downtown Portland didn’t deserve to have their valuables destroyed and their office windows shattered, yet protesters somehow thought this would help the situation that our country is in? It makes zero sense to me.
It was also disgusting to watch people burn American flags the day before Veterans Day, a day we celebrate all those who have served in our country, because they wanted to protest the results of the election. To some people it may just be a flag, but to others it meant so much to them that they fought for it every single day.
Although my belief is that people shouldn’t be protesting the results of the election, I do have respect for those who are peacefully protesting. These peaceful protests are more effective because the people participating are not disrupting the cities and damaging property. While these protests don’t change the outcome of the election, at least they are bringing people together as a community rather than as a riot.
It is an understatement to say that this election was long and painful. Now that it is over, I wish the protesting and riots would stop, being that Mr. Trump isn’t even in office yet. As an American citizen, one thing I hope for is that Trump will be a good president and will help our country. Even if this election has been upsetting for some, we shouldn’t destroy our cities, and should instead come together to support Trump during his presidency.
Creative Commons photo source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/nathanmac87/25084169014
Anonymous • Nov 16, 2016 at 11:03 pm
I am going to have to agree with you Hannah. It became apparent that these protests were more violent than peaceful, given a La Salle alum was just on Fox 12 talking about damage that was done to his car from a protest. I know as I tuned in on TV people were grafiti-ing parts of the freeway which taxpayers are going to have to pay for to fix. You are absolutely correct. Very little can actually be done by people’s outward disapproval of the president elect in these protests. It is extremely unrealistic that he can get impeached given that various parts of the government (which much of the government’s majority is now republican such as the senate and house) would have to approve as well as the FBI. Additionally, he has not actually done anything in the office to get them a reason to take such action. If anything, it seems rather hypocritical that president elect Trump received push back from democrats for saying “he wouldn’t accept” the election results, but when he won, many democrats did just that and went to protesting because of the outcome. However, their freedom of speech is absolutely protected, but vandalism and trespassing is not. It is hard to defend the argument that president elect Trump exerts disrespectful behavior when many of those same people are disrespecting property throughout the country and are saying negative slurs toward him (many of which get blurred on the news). That behavior arguably equates to the same behavior that they may disapprove in Trump. All in all, I agree and the intense protests need to end and they should investigate other means of communication to articulate their worries to the president elect.
Arianna • Nov 16, 2016 at 10:25 pm
One right that we have as Americans that many people in other countries do not have is that we have the right to express when we are not happy with something in the government. With that, I think that rather than being “dumb,” protesting shows that we care about the wellbeing of our country and the people in it. The majority of people participating in these protests are not “destroying cities,” they are peacefully expressing their unhappiness with the election of a president that has continually marginalized already vulnerable groups of people. By protesting they are saying that they are not going to accept Donald Trump’s sexist, racist, and discriminatory rhetoric. I do not believe it is fair to deem protesting dumb, because it is one of the only ways we can make our opinions heard. Also, I believe that insulting people’s actions in such a way is invalidating those opinions and putting down people for what they believe in, which makes it difficult for us to live as an inclusive society.
Stephany • Nov 16, 2016 at 7:44 pm
Oh one last thing! It is good that people are being brought together in these protests:-)
Stephany • Nov 16, 2016 at 7:42 pm
I see that you think these protests are dumb and are appalled at how “far” people are willing to go in order to show their dissatisfaction (or, as minorities would put it, fear and hurt) of the election’s outcome. But remember how far the police force and the media (specifically Fox News) go to justify the killings of unarmed people of color by police forces. Also, remember the war on terror we went through (which was going pretty far, considering the death toll of the war reached about 1.3 million people for an attack that killed just under 3 thousand people), and how easily rapist Brock Turner is allowed to walk free after only serving 3 months in jail. Why does this matter? This is important because the campaign that Trump runs under is one that promotes this same racism, Islamophobia, and sexism.
Sure, some protestors are violent, but they feel that that is the only way they are heard. Also, not all 112 people arrested by police were vandalizing property; many were told they couldn’t be in a certain area, and because they were, the police arrested them.
One last thing: I believe our country has never been unified. Slavery and the deprivation of human rights have never been something the oppressed groups have wanted. This leads me to believe that the only people with the illusion that our country is only being torn apart by the protestors or with the thought that America has been unified before are priveledged or (for lack of a better word and this is not taking a stab at you whatsoever) ignorant to the injustices the majority of the country’s population faces daily. The political group that arose in Portland due to this wants to change state laws to assure the safety of the many minority groups living in Oregon, and they believe protesting is a step towards that direction. However, the protest group that joined the peaceful protest Thursday was the Anarchist group, and they were the ones that started vandalizing (just trying to seperate them from the actual peaceful protestors).
All things aside I’m just voicing my beliefs and why I respectfully disagree with what you are saying.