Streetbeats: American Election
/How do StFX students feel about the results of the American election?
On Thursday, November 8, two days after Donald Trump was elected the next President of the United States, The Xaverian Weekly hit the streets to ask students about their thoughts on the outcome. Here's what they said.
Alia, 2nd year Human Kinetics
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
Kind of disappointed. I actually didn’t think Trump was going to win to be honest.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
To be honest, I’m not quite sure. I was just reading a bunch of Twitter posts that my friend sent me of a list of people being beat up from racist thoughts and stuff. There’s a list that goes on for a few pages. That was kind of sad.
What will the implications be for Canada?
I definitely think we’re going to lose our close relationship with the US. Obama and Trudeau have a great relationship but I don’t see that happening again.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
Stay strong and remember what the States used to be before.
Brent, 1st year Psychology
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
Nobody really wanted him to win, but I think deep down everybody knew he would win. There’s more sexism than there is anything else in the USA. I think they’d rather have someone they don’t like over a woman being president, and the fact that there’s a lot of things she hid and people still don’t know about so that throws away her trust. Even though the other guys are stupid, she had a lot of things that she was hiding and probably would have been a worse president than him.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
A lot of shit. A lot of things that don’t make sense. He’ll probably try things and then realize that he can’t – being president doesn’t mean that you’re the boss of the United States, it just means that you’re the president. You still have to go through legislation and senators and everything else to get anything passed.
What will the implications be for Canada?
It’s hard to say. I don’t think Trump will mess with Canada. He’ll probably mess with other countries more like Russia. The only countries he’s actually been talking about between his debates, since he’s actually never mentioned anything about Canada, I don’t think that Canada is on his mind at all.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
Run.
Claire, 1st year Human Kinetics
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
Definitely didn’t want Trump to win. Definitely thought that they both were very good candidates, but Hillary was a lot better for Canada and the US.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
Not quite sure. I’m not really too big into politics, but I don’t see anything good happening out of it. He’s probably going to get a lot of things done really soon, so we’ll see if it turns out good or not.
What will the implications be for Canada?
A lot. The US and Canada are very similar and we’re all back and forth. I think the US definitely affects Canada a lot, so we’ll see how the President and Prime Minister work out.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
Move to Canada.
Emily, 1st year Arts
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
I don’t think that was a wise decision to elect Trump, but I don’t really have a say in it.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
I’m not entirely sure.
What will the implications be for Canada?
Not good.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
Don’t elect Trump.
Emma, 1st year Engineering
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
I’m going to say not great. I was joking in my head thinking it would be so funny if he won, but when he actually did I was like oh… Because you didn’t actually think it was going to happen.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
I honestly have no idea.
What will the implications be for Canada?
I don’t know, I feel like it’s scary because we’re so closely connected to the States, but I don’t really know.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
I don’t know, just to wait it out and then it might not be that bad. Fingers crossed.
Graham, 1st year Engineering
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
To be honest, I don’t really pay attention to American politics that much. I haven’t really, or I don’t know too much about it but everyone’s kind of freaking out.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
Not really sure. He doesn’t start yet right? January. So, I guess we’re just going to wait and see. In his speech after he was elected he did talk about representing all the people of America even though he insulted a lot of people during his campaign but he did talk about how he was going to try and represent everybody, so hopefully he won’t do too bad of a job.
What will the implications be for Canada?
Well, I think, I was listening to the radio this morning and they were talking about the trade agreements, for instance he’s talking about getting rid of NAFTA or making changes to it. It could have some implications in terms of the economy and stuff. Other than that, not too much I don’t think.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
Canada is not any safer than America so don’t try and move here.
Kuba, 4th year Business
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
To tell the truth, that’s a good question. I’m a Polish citizen so I won’t be that affected by this choice. Obviously Trump controls the position on for example Russia, and NATO will be very important to me. But I’m not stressing out super much because I know I have no influence over that, so I don’t want to waste my nerves concerning this stuff. I think that’s a bad decision for America but as I said, I have no influence over that, I’m not American, I’m from Europe.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
Actually, what I think is going to happen is that... Trump was very intense and in his campaign, but I just have experience from this kind of Polish conservative government – what they did in the campaign and what they did in office, they were less intense after they went to the office. They tried to adjust for what the whole society wants. I guess Trump, speaking to stuff was kind of way of gaining support, but I think in his office he won’t be as extreme as he was in his campaign.
What will the implications be for Canada?
I don’t know. All the people are saying that many people form the states will move to Canada, I guess that’s some sort of a joke. As I said, when I was looking at American elections I was looking from Polish perspective mostly because that’s where I’m from, and I was looking about how the implications of his choice and his foreign politics would affect relations with Russia, with NATO, and at the end of the day, security of Poland against eastern threats.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
Stay calm. I know they just chose a President so they have to accept that, and wait what’s going to happen. For people who don’t like Trump, I know this decision is too bad but it happened. And I guess just wait what he’s going to do. Nothing happened yet, he just got elected, so his acceptance speech after he got chosen was okay, it was kind of peaceful. He was saying was nice and stuff, so hard to say. We’ll see what’s going to happen right. Trump may have try to play a role in campaign to gain support but right now he’s going to be kind of different. But no clue, I would say I don’t have that much intelligence into American politics to have some great advice for Americans.
Patrick, 2nd year Physics
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
I think it was, honestly I think it was surprising because of the fact that people voted who didn’t normally vote and those people voted for Trump in this case. The amount of Democrats who voted to other elections wasn’t very high. So if you look at Obama’s elections there were 60-some, 70-some million people who voted for him, whereas in this case only 50-some million people have voted for Hillary.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
I don’t expect too much, honestly. Because as he said before, he will learn as soon as he gets in office. I think it will be a learning experience for him and also the new Congress as well as the country itself.
What will the implications be for Canada?
I think it will affect the trade somewhat. It really depends on the direction in which Trump goes. If he kind of falls the role and plays it as what would be expected and doesn’t get rid of NAFTA and doesn’t try and put tariffs on anything moving between the borders then I think everything should be fine as expected. It seems like Trudeau wants to make sure that happens. But if Trump decides to act out and for example get rid of NAFTA then we could be seeing trouble.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
Stay put and see how things go.
Evan, 2nd year Economics
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
Which one? Trump’s? I didn’t know if you were talking about that one or the ones in South America. It’s interesting, to say the least. His policies are protectionist and rather not stated to make an opinion on. There’s a lot of media bias against him so it’s hard to say what he actually has said and what is conjecture, so I’m trying to stay unbiased in the situation because the moment you say anything negative or positive about him you get called out about it very quickly. I’m just trying to stay out of it.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
In January? He’s going to have to deal with Russia and Syria. He’s going to have to deal with the trade agreements with Canada and China, and he’ll probably have to deal with the “South American promise” that he made about Mexico.
What will the implications be for Canada?
Either he’s going to reshape or destroy the NAFTA agreement with us, he’s probably going to try to pull the US out of NATO and reduce that. He’s either going to help us because we’re the closest trading partner and increase selling of goods or he’s going to hit us hard in our economy as well. It depends basically on how harsh he is with the change in trade.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
Let him be in office for a few hundred days before you start calling anything on him. Give him time.
Hannah, 2nd year Human Kinetics
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
I don’t know. I don’t know what to think.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
I didn’t follow it closely so I have no clue.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
I don't even know.
Lucas, 1st year Business
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
Really don’t have an opinion about it.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
I honestly have no opinion, no clue. I wasn’t really paying attention to it at all.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
Again, I don’t know. Expect change, I guess.
Syahrul, 3rd year Human Nutrition
What are your thoughts on the outcome of the American election?
As a non-American, I believe a lot of people not in America have been following the election for the past two years. I was kind of disappointed even though I know my American friends are really sad because of the results. I was kind of disappointed that Trump actually got voted in after all the things that he’s done, he’s a sexist, a racist, and all that. It’s kind of evident, but still they vote for him as a president. I know they don’t really like Hillary that much, but Trump is not really a good choice either.
What can we expect from Trump's first 100 days in office?
A lot of things that he’s said that he’s going to do, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy to implement even though the Congress is filled with Republicans. I think a lot of Republicans will veto his decisions and everything. It’s really uncertain, as we all know Donald Trump is very unpredictable in his judgments and positions, he changes his mind every second. You can’t really tell.
What will the implications be for Canada?
My girlfriend was talking about how she's getting worried about Canada and US has a long history of trade deals agreements, and if Donald Trump decides to go with what he said he’s going to do, it’s going to change a lot of things. There’s going to be a lot of disagreements between the two countries. Hopefully it’s not going to be bad. I’m just glad I’m in Canada.
If you could give an American citizen one piece of advice, what would it be?
Learn from your history. I took American History myself and you learn by choosing the wrong leader, you see the outcome of what happens. It took Obama 8 years to fix what Bush did and hopefully Trump isn’t going to ruin it. Learn from your history.
Some concluding remarks
What synthesis can we draw from these responses, if any? Rather than making a statement about political literacy on campus, I would posit that these results reflect the lack of actual political discourse involved in this election cycle. When the long lead up to an election is framed as a reality show, it makes sense for there to be little clarity once the dust begins to settle. What will Trump do in his first hundred days in office? To echo the sentiments of many of the featured students, we can only wait and see.
