Like many of you, I woke up last Wednesday shocked and disheartened by the results of the election. My late grandmother, Stanford ’48, always told me to find the positives in life, and it has been hard to find any at all in the last week. After all, it seemed that the country I love voted to give the nuclear codes to a candidate with no domestic or foreign policy experience, who ran a smear campaign that insulted pretty much every race, class, and gender of Americans. Trust me, I understand and share your disappointment, and I can only imagine what those minorities — personally victimized by our next president – are feeling right now, but letting the election results stop you from living your life won’t do anything about the outcome.
First, there are a couple reasons to remain hopeful during this difficult time. If there is ever a time for people to rally together to fight what many see as an existential threat to democratic values now is the time. People have been (for the most part) peacefully protesting all over the country. I have seen more political Facebook posts this past week than any other in my life. We have to tap into this energy.
Secondly, I don’t believe that all sixty million Americans who voted for the President-elect are racist, sexist, xenophobes. The President-elect has said things that seem to indicate that he is. But I share President Obama’s repeated optimistic belief that most Americans are, on the whole, a decent, patriotic people who sometimes don’t have the time to be well-versed in all political affairs. We live in “the Stanford Bubble,” so it’s hard for us to understand the challenges of rural, hard-working Americans who feel that they have been left behind. Voters wanted change, and as David Plouffe, President Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, wrote on Saturday, “It really was a change election. … and there was only one change candidate.”
I do believe many Americans, especially the people voted for Mr. Trump, fundamentally do not understand how the White House works. The ability for a U.S. President to implement change is a function of the people and the intellectual capital he brings into the administration. I learned this when I worked on economic policy in the Obama White House during my quarter at Stanford in Washington one year ago. And as Robert Dallek, who taught a presidential history class I was taking at the time, recently told the New York Times: “A new president is really vulnerable and open to all sorts of influence by strong-willed advisers. Trump’s appointments over the next six weeks will be very significant because they can show whether he wants to create some unity in the country, or whether he really intends to deliver on his ideas.”
If the names being floated by Trump’s transition team are any indication of what his administration will be like, Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” of special interests and corrupt politicians in Washington won’t hold true. His transition team is full of career lobbyists that hail from the very industries they would be tasked with regulating. A Trump Cabinet with the likes of Newt Gingrich as Secretary of State, Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, and Sarah Palin as Interior Secretary doesn’t seem like the anti-establishment change that will help the people who voted for Mr. Trump. Indeed, it is entirely possible that the Trump Administration’s “anti-establishment” policies will adversely affect working-class Trump voters the most.
Late one evening at the White House last fall, my boss took my co-worker and me on a walk to the West Wing Colonnade. Looking out at the Rose Garden and the Oval Office, he told us that President Obama keeps a plaque on the Resolute Desk that says “hard things are hard.” Turbulent times may lie ahead for the country, but do not let this election keep you down. Keep taking advantage of the educational opportunity you earned here at Stanford. Get involved in state and local government. Volunteer your skills at a non-profit that advocates for issues you care about. Work at a startup that is going to make a positive difference. Make real change. I’ll see you out there along the way.
—Nicholas Obletz ’17
Contact Nicholas Obletz at nobletz ‘at’ stanford.edu.