Tommaso Nigra, Reporter
The 2016 American presidential election was incredibly advertised by all kinds of media and largely discussed before, during, and after the election night, when Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency. The race to the White House between Hillary Clinton and Trump was the main subject on any possible TV channel and newspaper for months.
Now more than ever, American people have consequently had the chance to listen to a larger number of differing opinions and analyses of the election campaign and result. However, my personal impression is that not much space has been given to foreign points of view: have you ever thought about how America looked like to the rest of the world in these past months?
Since I’m an exchange student, other than having been really captivated by this race, I’ve also been able to observe Vashon’s community from another angle during this unusual campaign and after this unexpected result.
Before leaving Italy to begin my semester on Vashon Island, many people had told me multiple times that “You are so lucky, you will be in America during the presidential elections!” or “You will be there in a historic moment!” I heard very similar phrases said by most of the American people I met in the months between my arrival and the election night. I’m quite sure that almost every person who told me so wasn’t expecting to be so dramatically prophetic.
I noticed how mediocre the campaign was. It seemed to lack any political content and appeared more similar to a show than to a serious discussion. For the same reason, almost everybody seemed really tired of this embarrassing campaign and were just waiting for the end of the election.
Only a few people looked really worried about the result because I feel like many hadn’t even imagined the possibility that Trump could become president. “Disorientation” is probably the main impression that Vashon Island community gave me during and after that intense night. It was a really strange experience to see the combination of surprise and authentic concern in the eyes of the same people that two days before were placidly commenting on the last exit polls that forecasted an almost sure win by the Democratic candidate Clinton.
When I think about all the people I got to know in these months, it’s really hard for me to understand how a candidate like Trump could have won. Almost everybody I met here on Vashon seemed clearly opposed to Trump’s ideas. Carefully observing the electoral college map let me better understand how the various areas of the United States can differ so much in political opinion between each other. It’s really interesting because we foreigners sometimes tend to attribute the same characteristics to the whole country, when in reality, the United States isn’t as homogeneous as we believe.
I was personally shocked by the result as well because, even in Italy, Trump was considered mainly to be a sideshow, a weird and quite creepy product of the American culture. My friends and I, like many others, used to view him as a heap of all possible bad stereotypes about Americans, and despite the fact he had many supporters, we never thought that he would actually win the elections. Since I’m not American and I don’t have much knowledge of U.S. politics, my intention is not to evaluate the new president, but just to report the impression that he gives to many people in Italy and probably in other countries as well.
My opinion is that the election of Trump is a reflection of current U.S. economic and social conditions. Setting aside Trump’s political beliefs and ideas, the fact that he earned such a huge amount of support is a clear sign that many people in the United States are simply dissatisfied with their country’s government. Many see Trump as an alternative to a disappointing political system, and this is really similar to what is happening in a lot European countries, where radical right parties and movements have been exponentially increasing in approval, basing their campaign on ideas similar to Trump’s.
In two months I will be back home, and even if the elections didn’t go as I hoped, I consider myself very lucky to have been here in the U.S. while such an epochal event occurred. The future might look dark to many Americans. However, in these months I have learned how Americans can be hard-working, resourceful and really open-minded people, and I cannot imagine any president being powerful enough to change this country’s nature. My memory of America will never be associated with any coarse racist slogan, because none of them corresponds to the country that I have lived in. The “real” Americans for me will always be the ones who think that, no matter what, “The sun will rise in the morning.”