The 2016 Election Was A Win For Humankind

2016 was an election that will go down in history as an event that changed humankind. You probably are thinking, “Oh no, another wacky political nut who is going to try to sway me to a better evil!” This post is far more than that and is more of a thought-provoking piece for you to consider. For the past few elections, this post has been bubbling on the back burner in my mind and sometimes even spilling out of my mouth into some long dissertation to a blank-faced person.

Let’s start with a short story. Recently, I met with someone and tried to help them with their business because it was failing and needed work. Upon meeting with them, they did nothing but lie to me. At one point, I stood up and drew an imaginary line in the space between us and said, “Do you see that?” He answered “No,” and I replied, “That is the line between me and the bullshit you are talking now. We can either work together towards a resolution to fix your issue or you can walk away, but I warn you, when you walk away you cannot fix this by yourself.” What does this have to do with the election? Well, read on and I will jump back to it.

This election was an interesting race to watch, with each candidate having a unique following — from the false hopes of Bernie fans to the first female president war cry of Hillary. People feared a president Trump due to his behavior and his reputation with women. Now that we have gone through that roller coaster of negativity, we have “The Donald” as president! Am I surprised? Not one bit. You can ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that I predicted this outcome since his announcement. There are lots of reasons why I thought he would become president, but those are for another post some day.

So how did we get here, why are we here, and what do we do now that we are here? These are the common questions of anyone who has just been thrown through a washing machine of negative emotion. Like all things related to elections, this negative emotional roller coaster has been well studied and purposefully used to make sway you in the direction that the party favors. But what made this one different from other elections?

Here are factors that I believe greatly affected the election:

1. The ignorance of people thinking they can trust Facebook, Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other corporate-controlled entities for political information. Shame on you for thinking that. These are private companies and have every right to push you in the direction they swing. These are not reliable election sources!

2. The sharing of false information and propaganda is easier and more prevalent than ever. From fake news feed stories to just completely corporate-driven stories, it all goes on and controls people's minds.

3. America's love for big box brands. Lets face it, as Americans, we love to know we can trust that what we are buying is the real deal. How do we ensure we get that? We buy what everyone else is buying so we can go with the safety in numbers. This has lead to Trump having a following who truly does not even understand who he really is. They just know the Trump name.

4. Americans and our fellow nations are sick of the two big parties. Though "The Donald" is red right now, I do recall him being blue in the past. Does this make him the purple party? I think we have all noticed that in order to own a gun you do not have to hate abortions or agree with other fundamental beliefs of a certain party. We are not as simple as we once were. I predict that we will see new parties form in the future.

5. This is going to seem contradictory to number one, but due to the internet we have more information than ever. Thanks to groups such as Wikileaks, the world has gotten a glimpse of the power of the internet and all it can hold. The knowledge that the computer holds is endless, but make sure to fact check everything!

6. The power of an internet-connected world has leveled the playing field when it comes to fame and influence. What do I mean? Say if I do something, post it online in the right form, time, and place, it can go viral. Never before has someone who is a nobody been able to make that type of mark on the world.  Before now, you had to have an enormous budget to have this type of reach.

So back to my short story. Now that we are here and "The Donald" is president, what do we do about it? Well, like I told my friend who came to me for help with his business, it is time to draw a line and say that the bullshit can take a walk. Throughout the entire election, I have heard so much negative energy against this great country I live in and win in. I woke up this morning and the negativity was at an all-time high about the problem with Trump as president. Do you know the issue with this? If Hillary won, I would have woke up to a pretty equal amount of negativity. When and why did we get this way? Did the media get to everyone and really make them believe the shit they sling?

Earlier today, I spoke with my father on this subject and the fact that as Americans, we are all teammates. The recent amount of social posting of people calling America weak, questioning whether or not to leave, saying he is not my president, and so on is no different than a child who does not like his coach because he is not preforming. When you are walking out for the big game do you want your teammate saying, “I do not feel good about this one”? No way. You want him saying, “We got this one all the way!” As a country, we have to work together as a team to ensure we stay on top of our game, or another team (country) will be happy to take our place. Never let your competitor see fear or taste blood. Show them your relentless drive.

Wait, what?!? Did Shawn just say we are not preforming? Well not everyone of course. We Americans are one of the largest collaborations of hard workers in the world. I am saying we have a lot of players on the bench looking for water or to catch their breath. Why is this? People are inherently lazy and when America won for so long, we started to take it easy. The good news is we still have the best players in the world and now it is time to build better coaches for the future.

Remember when you grew up here and the world was limitless? Remember when you parents talked about a president as great? Well then wake up and change that back to the way it should be. If all 320 million of us Americans chose to take 5 mins each day to be more positive, you would be shocked by the growth of our great nation. If we all did this for one year, that’s 1.6 Billion Minutes or roughly 27 million hours a day or 189 million hours a week. The Empire State Building took only 7 Million man hours to build!

If we could all get back to working together and striving for greatness as a team, we humans are capable of great things. A president is a smiling face that impacts major decisions, but we the people make the country. I want you to work on stopping negativity in its path by always responding in a kind and positive manner. America is on the rise and we are lucky that for the first time ever, the system has shown us that we are in control. Donald is not a sign of the big Republican party but more so a sign of their failure to assimilate and their willingness to try to keep us under their control at any costs even willing to bend there morals and ethics. I do not even think I need to remind the Bernie fans how the Democrats BURNED them. Finally we the people have broken the two controlling parties. We the citizens are a force that can get anything done. Go team!