Episode 18: We Need to Talk About America

In this episode, we processing through our five stages of grief following the results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, whereby Donald Trump is elected as the 45th President of the United States of America. Swedian’s back but still in the States, so this is also our very first internationally recorded and produced episode! We break down why, despite latest estimates declaring Hillary Clinton has won the popular vote by close to 1 million people, that Donald Trump is the winner of the election via the archaic electoral college system (which was created during the Civil War era as a balancing system amongst the states). We also share our own personal reactions to the night of November 8th, whether that’s Stephanie in Jakarta or Swedian in Washington, D.C., and why — even though both of us are Indonesian citizens who do not have a vote in the election — we still care deeply about the results (it’s not just because we’re politics nerds).

From an international perspective, we talk about the rise in hate crimes against minorities and Muslims in America due to the election of Trump, and how his victory is part of a growing wave of conservative populism across the globe (just look at the popularity of Rodrigo Duterte in the Phillippines and Marine Le Pen in France) that we as supporters and believers of progressive values must work extremely hard to curb. As part of that effort, we consider the various reasons why a lot of Americans, in particular white Americans, have voted for Trump in spite of his gravely divisive rhetoric and unqualified position. 
 
Lastly, we discuss how we can and must continue to fight on behalf of inclusion and diversity, whether that’s through mobilization & organization and/or through stepping out of our comfort zones and echo chambers, so that we can have constructive dialogue with the other side. We also wanna give a heartfelt shout-out and thank you to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who not only ran an extremely dignified campaign despite the vitriolic language lobbied at her throughout the last few years, but also gave an incredibly inspiring and empowering concession speech that reminded all of us that the fight is not over, and we have a lot of work to do. 
 
#werestillwithher #strongertogether
 
Thanks for listening!
 
PS: if you have not listened to our previous episode about the U.S. election, you can listen to it here.

For those interested in learning more about the topic, we’ve provided links to resources as well as other recommended readings.
7 REASONS DONALD TRUMP WON THE PRESIDENCY — courtesy of NPR
How Trump Won, in maps — courtesy of the BBC
Hillary won the Popular Vote — despite the majority of Americans voting for her, she still won’t be president
Trump’s victory another example of how Electoral College wins are bigger than popular vote ones — courtesy of Pew Research Center
Why the Electoral College is the absolute worst, explained — courtesy of Vox
The View from Middletown — a 10-part series by the Guardian about why Trump resonated with Middle America
Considering the Economic Insecurity Argument for Trump — courtesy of Al Jazeera
Social media echo chambers gifted Donald Trump the presidency — courtesy of the Independent
Hillary’s Concession Speech in Full — #werestillwithher
The Morning After | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee — the full segment about how white people need to take responsibility for this result
Autocracy: Rules for Survival — how to survive the Trump presidency and make sure he gets only one term
Rules for Radicals — the iconic book by Saul Alinsky about organizing for change
 
 
 
MUSIC CREDITS:
SOUL HIGH by RYAN LITTLE
MONTMARTRE by JAHZAAR
NIGHT OWL by BROKE FOR FREE