Another Shot Heard 'round the World

On November 8^th 2016, the citizens of the United States of America headed to voting polls to elect a president. The Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was seen as likely to win by several media outlets and political commentators. The election was already making history by the primaries. Two candidates shook the ideas of both parties. On the left, a progressive socialist Senator from Vermont was rallying a large group of young people who had previously been labeled as uncaring about politics and entitled to their rights. The authoritarian corporate Democrats were strongly opposed to Senator Sanders', stance as a democratic socialist who was opposed to money in politics. The Democratic party wasn't alone in its division, on the Right a business man also posed as anti-establishment but a polar opposite of Senator Sanders. Donald Trump was billionaire business man from New York who with his faux populist economic stance and nationalistic ideals brought to life the prejudiced underbelly of the Republican party. Many republican politician despised Trump but his supporters were clear and the primaries revealed him as the Republican Presidential nominee. The authoritarian Left eventually blocked Sanders and Hillary Clinton rose to be the nominee for the Democratic Party.

The frantic prepping for election was many times derailed by scandal on both sides. Trump's numerous comments and tweets went viral stirring uproar for the left. Two quotes from Trump insinuating sexual assault: “Yeah, that's her. With the gold. I better use some Tic-Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful- I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just a kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,”(Donald J. Trump). The Democratic party were also seeing there share of scandal. A private email server scandal with the Democratic nominee caused massive distrust toward the candidate and yielded not one but two FBI investigations in both of which Clinton was cleared however the damage to her levels of support of both Democrats and Republicans.

At nearly 2:30 am eastern standard time on Wednesday November 9^th the results were in Donald J. Trump was the 45^th President of the United states by way of the electoral college. The popular vote was won by his competitorby more than 2.5 million. Immediately following election, their was out cry and celebration from opposing sides. Protests began overnight in small towns and cities alike. Rallies for and against the new President filled social media, News and the streets.

LGBTQ people, Immigrants, Muslims, people of color, woman and many other minority groups attempted to unite and speak out against campaign promises from Trump and his Administration that could violate their rights. Open talks of how to be an activist spread and senators, congressmen and state officials began being flooded by post cards, letter, emails and phone calls.Perhaps the most memorable protest on this side was the Women's March. The day after the Inauguration Washington D.C. Was flooded not with supporters of the new president but groups in protest. Bearing pink pussy hats, rainbow flags, protest signs and symbols of unity any were between 500,000 and one million people marched in Washington DC and remained fully peaceful with no arrests. Outside of Washington millions across the country and across the world marched for the cause in groups ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands.The left again wasn't alone in new found activism. Trump supporters were very vocal and both celebratory and later discontent with lack of fulfilled campaign promises.

Most of this information is known and has been paid attention to. What has had less coverage is the relevance of these events. The discontentment form the majority of the population is notable as it is one of the lowest rates of approval in history however the rival party of the current president is approved of at levels that would be detrimental to nearly any candidates success. But on the horizon groups like Wolf-Pac and Justice Democrats are rebelling against the platforms of the two major political parties and wanting to clean house on our governments corrupt and bribe passing behavior. The group Wolf-Pac is running far left progressive candidates at the local and state levels with the eventual goal of passing a constitutional amendment to establish publicly funded elections. The Justice Democrats are a new political party who is breaking away from the money in politics and trying to get back to fighting for progressive values. And finally a new generation of activists watch eagerly with copies of the constitution in hand ready to step in for the cause.