We will be ok
To the American public: we will be ok, I hope. I would be lying to you though if I told you I was completely comfortable as last night’s presidential race came to a close with the majority of the electoral votes tallying up under Trump’s name. While working in the ICU overnight I had pulled the election coverage up on the projector where we all watched as history was made. The county ICU was actually not that busy last night and I was even able to rest my head in the call room for a couple of hours, a very rare occasion. And yet, last night may have been one of the most restless sleeps I have ever had. I kept looking at my phone every 30 minutes. After Trump had won Ohio and Florida I was worried. Another couple of hours went by and then it happened. He got the magic 270 and was announced as the 45th President of the United States. It was all one big joke, until it wasn’t anymore.
The best word I can use to describe how I felt immediately was uneasy. I was born and raised in Southern California and it made me question the people of America- the people of my birthplace who I thought believed in equality and inclusiveness. After all, Trump disrespected almost every minority in this country- Latinos, Muslims, the disabled, blacks, females, the LGBT community- no one was spared. I am sure we all felt uneasy this morning. But as I thought long and hard about what could happen to me and my family, I realized that we will all be fine. As the day has progressed the uneasiness has subsided. My wife and I, as well as our colleagues, have discussed our feelings and concerns and the conclusion is that we will be fine.
At the end of the day I have always believed that most of the negative things Mr. Trump has said during his candidacy has all been one big act. It’s hard to fathom that he actually believes the things he blurts out himself. He is too successful of a business man in this world to actually have that type of bigoted and racist agenda. Like all other politicians before him he has made absurd promises that he will not be able to complete, I hope. I don’t think people will get deported, or a wall built; there will be no mandatory religious ID cards or ban on a religious group of people, the laws we’ve worked so hard to uphold will not be repealed and most people at the end of the day will be carrying out their normal daily lives. Trump being the business man he is played the game as correctly as he could. Even though he was a billionaire he somehow got through to blue collar Middle America. Was it because of his racist rhetoric? Was it because people were so sick of the establishment and felt that Washington wasn’t looking out for them? Was it because we as a nation are still ready to have a black President but not a female who has been more qualified than anyone before her? Maybe Americans just wanted change. Just like they wanted to change when they voted for Barack Obama in 2008. Whatever the reason, he won definitively and we now have to live with it and move on.
The one thing I think this presidential nomination has done is exposed America’s elephant in the room. The enormous divide regarding people’s belief systems and values in this country has led to a scary exposure of closet racists. And now they’re officially out of the closet so to speak. He made racism and hatred okay amongst Americans. He gave racist people a voice during this election. We saw this at his campaign rallies, we see this on Facebook and we are seeing it on the streets too. He has the power to fix this now and I believe he will. He has to. I think we all hope that President Trump will be different than Republican nominee Trump.
Going forward I do think Trump will have his successes as President. I do believe he will try to fix America’s infrastructure- our roads, highways, buildings and airports (let’s just hope they don’t all have TRUMP carved on to them). He will keep the economy afloat and in the positive. This was apparent with how the stock market closed today. The market was tumbling as he started to take the lead over Secretary Clinton. When he won, however, and the stock market opened this morning it wasn’t as bad as we had thought. Market analysts were predicting the biggest drop since 9/11. The market settled down and closed in the positive. He will have to work to regain about half of the American population’s trust and he has started this already with his acceptance speech. I also hope he appoints someone with experience to handle foreign policy, especially in the unsettled Middle East. There are articles out there from numerous legitimate sources that have said numbers of Middle Eastern powers have reached out to him and congratulated him today. This again goes with my theory of how people shouldn’t believe all the bigot rhetoric that we once heard from his mouth. And finally I think he needs to appoint someone responsible to handle his twitter account so he doesn’t go on unprecedented rants. I hope and believe as his presidency goes on he will become better each day. He has to, for the sake of the American people and our country.
As I was feeling uneasy this morning I rounded on my patients in the ICU, and then loaded Trump’s acceptance speech on my computer. I wanted him to put me and everyone else at ease. Surprisingly his speech was acceptable. It wasn’t moving like Obama’s acceptance speech in 2008, but he seemed grateful that he was elected and humbled. He told us that he wants to bring us all back together, that politics are nasty and we need to all work as one nation again now that this election is finally over. No matter how much we may disagree with what he has said in the very near past, he will be our president come January. President Obama said today during his speech that the election is like an intramural scrimmage. Both parties are actually on the same team and both want what is best for America. Maybe he wasn’t what’s best for our country, but we now have to all think about the bigger picture and ensure that our country stays the best county in the world. People like President Barack Obama, Secretary Hillary Clinton and now President elect Donald Trump are all examples of people who made it to the top when others discounted them. We can do the same.
As I read through my Facebook and twitter feed today I see a lot of Americans are angry, sad, uneasy and emotional. Some are saying they are leaving the country, others saying they will never accept Trump as President. I say this is my country no matter who is President. We need to let our voice be heard and take more action, rather than just rant on our social media accounts, me included. I will never leave my country. I belong here along with all the other majorities and minorities. We the People have the opportunity to be a part of the solution no matter how different our political views are or who our Commander –in-chief is.
-HASSAN PATAIL MD