Politics

Raw and Sincere – Gunjan Hooja

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As the Vice President of the Cornell University Democrats, I gave these remarks to our general body members the day after the election. A meeting that was supposed to be for all intents and purposes, one of celebration, was instead one in which we had to reel from an outcome that almost none of us had prepared for. The message encapsulated here is one I want to convey to the whole Cornell community. So we stand here at a different meeting than we thought. We stand here mourning the loss of what could have been and in fear of what will be.

Politics

NOBODY’S OPINIONS | Fallout

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In the wake of this week’s election results (and it really does seem like a literal wake), the American people experience at this moment an unprecedented and unsettling division. There are calls for revolution and for resolution, for peaceful protest and property damage, for faithless electors and for faith in the decision made by the citizens of our great nation. These are indeed trying times, when no one knows the truth from lies. This Tuesday, I too was shocked and uncomprehending, but it is important that as we move forward we create a compelling narrative to explain all that has happened since the cycle began in 2015. This means addressing all of the arguments circulating on social media, and that is what I will do here.

Politics

OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM | No One Should be Shocked

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I have heard a lot of people say that they were shocked by the election results, and I was in a  bit of disbelief myself on Tuesday night. Yet as I heard from speakers at the Friday walkout and from others in my life, no one should be shocked by what happened on Tuesday night. No one should be shocked that a racist or a misogynist or a xenophobic or a bigoted candidate, among other many other things, would be elected president of the United States. Why should we be surprised that an openly racist candidate was elected? We live in country where people can be murdered by the police on the basis of their skin and receive no justice whatsoever.