other side

I spent election night in my college-age sister’s apartment in Oakland, a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Side by side there are apartment buildings from distinct times of economic prosperity in the city. Some Victorian buildings exist in very close proximity to new buildings built for the off campus population of Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh Universities. History and the economic ups and downs of the last 150 years have left stretch marks in the city just as the steel boom left beautiful bridges across the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers and the coal dust from rapid industrialization left a permanent mark on the pillars of the Mellon Institute. 70 miles on US 22 East brings you to my mother’s hometown of Johnstown, PA. The marks History left there tell a different story, one of depression and natural disaster. After the great depression, coal and steel left Johnstown and never came back. The decline has been real for Johnstown, 40,000 out of 60,000 people have left since the 1950’s. When the only new buildings are Sheetz’s and McDonald's, people notice the lack of amenities. Once the town was destroyed by a flood in 1977, it has never rebound.

Pittsburgh didn’t either, after the election. The day after I witnessed a small protest in front of Hillman library which had fervent anti-trump speech which included calling him, “fascist” and “rapist”. 20 minutes later, the protest had been stopped by Police and the crowd had dispersed. Polls had Hillary on top on voting day, but Donald Trump prevailed, stunning the entire nation. The vote was close and the reaction was mixed, yet the nation had a broken voice. Some people feared they wouldn’t maintain their newly acquired rights, others cheered that they may have a job and see better times. Only tens of thousands of votes across suburbs of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Detroit decided the election. Certainly it left a question, “What happened?”

People point out that Hillary wasn’t a good fit, or that Trump found a huge audience, but neither is more important as is the culmination of 50 years of frustration in the rust belt. Unemployment is high in these areas which leads to poverty and resentment. The slightly fractured Democratic party, was talking about college for all, affordable healthcare for all, equal marriage rights, the protection of reproductive rights, but it didn’t really succeed in touching the people it needed to touch. They did not give their blessings.The Democratic platform missed people who are struggling in an economy that is unforgiving. It missed a middle class that is drying up from the middle of the country, out. The Democratic party is supposed to inspire change or a new way. It’s a party of looking to the future. Modern America likened to it, but neither Bill Clinton or Barack Obama could produce a significant heir to the Democratic throne. In a weird turn of events, Hillary turned into an establishment failure. The Republican fracturing during the race consolidated just enough to weather the storm of an established government that was, in reality, faithful to the people.

It’s over though. It’s more worthwhile to continue looking ahead. The political environment may be a toss-up a few years from now, but our rights could begin to soften and dissolve. There has been tremendous progress in human rights and climate change that lend themselves so kindly to a more beautiful society. However, the failure of the Democratic party to provide help for the people who needed it most, the working and middle classes of America, have allowed them to turn to a man that could cause a fearful amount of damage. The election was lost in underprivileged, depressed places of the United States, places that felt they could no longer vote blue. We may face some consequences.