Amidst the political climate following the results of the presidential election, members of the College Republicans find it necessary to explain some of the key points resulting in a republican presidency, along with the media involvement and protests surrounding the election.
“We’ve been hearing over the past two years that it would be impossible for Donald Trump to be president of the United States,” said senior Joseph Carroll, president of the Augustana College Republicans. “The polls supposedly showed that it was impossible for Donald Trump to win.”
The past week the impossible was seen to be absolutely possible, as Donald Trump won the election.
“We were all surprised. I don’t think there’s anyone who wasn’t,” said freshman college republicans member Abrie Klink. Carroll points to evidence of this possibility in Donald Trump’s appeal to people who may have become disenfranchised.
“It was still surprising to see,” Carroll said. “But it was kind of a relief once it happened, like, okay, we weren’t crazy.”
The surprise is reasonably expected after a full campaign cycle of most major news outlets predicting the inevitability of a Clinton presidency.
Reasons behind why the nation may not have been aware of how many voters would come out for Trump on election day is do to the amount of coverage and criticism that was aimed at voters for the controversial Republican nominee.
“I wasn’t too vocal about my Trump support,” said junior Biniam Anberber, secretary of the College Republicans. “Trump supporters were really demonized across the United States, especially by the media.” he said.
Anberber figures that there were others who thought the same, meaning polls may not have factored in and that Trump supporters may not be vocal enough to be fully observed and considered in post election predictions.
“Trump supporters have been very hushed,” Klink said.
Besides this oversight, Carroll and Anberber also credit some of the victory to people tiring of a politically correct culture and media, major missteps by the Democratic Party in their nominations, and the use of racist and sexist to describe those who were vocal about their Trump support.
Carroll also gave his views on the reasons for some of the response following the election: “Some on the left feel very afraid, very concerned. I think a lot of that has to do with how the media portrayed Donald Trump as this absolutely terrible human being when they’re taking stuff out of context, using sound bites, then their response seems a little more understandable,” he said.
Klink agreed that a large takeaway from this election cycle was a feeling of distrust for the media.
“I think a lot of voters on the left were just fed by mainstream media.” Added Anberber, “and they had an unapologetic support for Hillary Clinton. I think a lot of people didn’t do their independent research, and that speaks to how much power the media has.”
Other than the results and the media, they also addressed the protests and riots following the election.
“I can definitely say that I can’t believe it’s at this scale” said Anberber. Carroll added that the violence needs to stop immediately, and has more concerns about the protests themselves.
“These are professional agitators,” he said. “I was actually at the University of Iowa’s campus on Wednesday after the election. I got to see students who were very upset. If you looked around, there were MoveOn.org signs. If you look, these protests weren’t student organized. They were organized by MoveOn.org, who were spreading these false narratives and scaring students into signing up for their political programs,” Carroll said. “It seems like a lot of hate is coming from the left right now. People are burning cars, breaking into stores, calling for the assassination of Donald Trump. This is unacceptable. It needs to stop.”
The College Republicans are optimistic for the months to come and looking forward for progress.
“With the victory of Trump,” added Anberber, “we saw individualism Trump progressivism and collectivism. We also saw how a lot of the United States runs off of emotion. People need to make that transition to do their own research, not follow the herd, be an individual.”  
The coming months will show how smoothly, or not, America begins to make this transition into a shaken up political climate.
“I just hope with the new president, we’ll become more united as a campus and as a country,” concluded Klink.