MacDuffie Community Responds to U.S. Presidential Election

On November 8th, 2016, Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States, defeating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. On November 9th, The Magnet senior staff interviewed a sampling of the community about their responses to the election and the president-elect. 

These are opinions of community members and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Magnet as a whole.

Did you expect this outcome for the election?

“I feel like the [outcome of the election] was absurd. I’m emotionally upset, embarrassed to be part of this country at this time right now. In a way I did [expect the outcome] I felt that this was going to happen, but I didn’t think this was actually going to happen. We’re going to have a World War III, a civil war, loads of chaos and disrespect.” – Junior Khaylen Mahdi

“I mean, I know that people are ignorant so I wasn’t really surprised, I wasn’t shocked; it was just like okay, whatever…  I somehow feel disgusted, like this is what I’m surrounded by? It’s a joke, especially if people are looking forward to Kanye in 2020.” – Senior Florence Tshimanga

“I expected Hillary Clinton to win.” – Senior Camellia Liu

“I thought that Hillary might win because most of the people were talking about her on social media and I didn’t think that Trump would win.” – Senior Tim Yu

“It’s so new. I’m still digesting the fact that the general population did not vote for Trump, that he won by the electoral college. I think it’s antiquated and I think that we need to think of new ways to change it and perhaps get rid of it. It was needed at one point but not anymore.” – English teacher Jennifer Rogers

“No! Definitely not! That’s why I just went to sleep because I told everyone Clinton gonna win.” – Freshman Arda Sengun

“No. I knew it was close, but both candidates had a lot of negatives associated with them.  To me, the biggest thing was change.  People wanted change, but the government is just running ragged, and we’re not even getting the truth.  People are looking you right in the eyes and saying stuff that is not true. – Science teacher Joe Stella

“I am personally happy with the outcome. I believe it is not gonna personally affect me, but I’ll be way less stressed because I don’t have to deal with an idiot in office.” – Sophomore Gabby Keser

“It shocked me a lot. I was expecting Hillary to win. I don’t think it’s going to affect me because he has Congress with him.” – Junior Vincent Pederson

What do you think this result means for you, America, or your country?

“[Trump] blatantly supports sexual assault. I think it’s sending out an awful image of us to the rest of the country. This message that we support racism and sexism and awful stuff; obviously, I heard this thing on NPR – it’s not hard for him to mess things up. He can’t even control his own Twitter. Why are we giving him access to the nuclear code?

I don’t think he is qualified. He has never done any kind of politics. I think it’s gonna really set us back and as an LGBT woman I’m gonna lose a lot of rights, which I’m upset about, but I think that we’re gonna be okay. I’m hoping we will stick together and become stronger because of this.” – Sophomore Georgie Brown

“I’m going to continue to be aware of social issues that affect us all and hopefully continue to be a positive, responsible part of our society as a whole.

Que vivra, verra.” (The future will tell.) – Head of Language Department Kevin Hillman

“I don’t think there’s going to be a big effect on my country, but the U.S. supports part of the military in Taiwan so small scale.” – Tim Yu

“I feel like there’s going to be a lot of problems between us and other countries.  Obama was a pretty good president, and he had ties to other countries that weren’t the best, but we still had the ties, but now that we have Trump as our president I feel like since he’s been talking so badly about different races, different religions, different cultures, that these ties are going to fall apart and we’re not going to have allies.” – Freshman Megan Jacques

“If you don’t change the way you’re studying for a test, don’t expect different results on the test.  Sometimes you need to maybe shock the system or do make a change and see what the results are going to be. I’m a little anxious, there’s no question, but either one I would have been anxious.” – Joe Stella

“Mainly for me, it has made me really take a closer look at what it means to be American because I thought of America in a very particular way that involved a country that was far from perfect but was making increasing gains in rights and race relations, certainly in women’s rights. The results of this election showed me a different side of the country, and concerns that I did not think were as manifest as they were. I think it’s very, very uncertain.  What’s going to happen now a lot depends on whether or not the Trump that we saw campaigning is who’s going to be our president or the Trump that we saw who is a much more subdued version of himself, who never once mentioned a wall, never once mentioned Obamacare that throughout his campaign said was going to be gone by day one of his presidency.  It depends on which Trump we get, and it also is going to depend a lot on what happens with Congress, what happens with the Supreme Court, so I guess we’re going to have to just wait and see.” – Dawn LaRochelle

“There’s a lot of people that are disappointed today. I think, I’m still processing it, but I think it’s really important to be kind and to listen to people that you don’t necessarily agree with. This is our process, and as flawed as it might be, we still need to, as they say, always take the high road and listen to others and try to find a way to work together even when we don’t agree. As far as what’s next, I sure hope there’s another female candidate that can finish the work. It’s hard to imagine a female that was more qualified.” – College counselor William Morris

“I think what needs to happen now is that we need to come back to center a little bit. We’ve seen a lot of extremes in this election–things have been said by the candidates and people in the media…there has been so much back and forth. It’s like a pendulum, and I think things will kinda settle down a bit. I mean, there’s certainly going to be a particular direction of the country. [Yet] I don’t think a lot of the fear that’s associated with a Trump presidency will actually come to pass. I think it will be reigned in a bit. I do believe in our constitution, I do believe in checks and balances. The media has a lot to do with how people perceive things, and I think it’s not going to be the scary apocalypse a lot of people seem to think it will be. I think we’ll be okay. It will be a different kind of path that we’re on, but we will all come together eventually because that’s what we do in this country.” – Jodie Boduch

“I am concerned about a Trump presidency which might result in the instability of the country, economically, environmentally, socially. Access to quality education and affordable health care, as well as the maintenance of environmental and consumer protections are just some the issues that, in my opinion, could be negatively impacted. I supported Clinton in the election because I felt as though she was the most educated and experienced candidate. I was also hopeful that finally we would have a woman in the oval office.  The fact that we don’t and that her candidacy and person were met with such unbridled hostility makes me wonder if many in this country do not harbor
misogyny, in terms of fear of and hostility against strong, powerful women.  We can only move ahead with hope and resolve as we continue to believe in what is greatest about this country, irrespective on any particular political leader.” – English teacher Carol Tomkiel

“My opinion, is that Trump represents everything that this country isn’t. And I’m a pretty big believer in the American dream. So, I always see light before the dark I guess.

I think it’s a really good time, a really good time for this country to reflect on its’ place in the world, and just, where we are as a country with human rights, and where we are as a country as far as who we are. We’ve been through worse times, I think.” – Music teacher Mario Flores

“I think it will be a good thing. Because like people say extreme words during the campaign but they calm afterwards, like it always happens, so it should not be like building a wall or anything like that.” – Sophomore Carrie Lu

“I think we’ll band together as a group of people and hopefully I mean get through it obviously together and trying to be hopeful and optimistic that he’ll make the right choices and not really be who a lot of us think he is as far as being a little bit bigoted. I’m hopeful that he will surround himself with the right people so that he will make the right decisions and that other countries will not look down upon us and start conflicts.” – Jennifer Rogers

“I think for some people him winning might be a better situation for taxes, obviously for other people not so much, so I think it just depends like who you are and what your identity is. I think he’ll do good with Russia, I think he’ll [anger] other countries for sure.” – Freshman Grace Drost

“If someone wins who you don’t want to win, you’ve got to wait to see what he does.” – Senior Dolly Cupak

“Our president is supposed to make connections with other countries and not tear them down. Pence is really homophobic. Pence is Trump, but he has a political background. Being a part of the LGBTQ+ community, it’s terrifying that Mike Pence is Vice President. I think it’s really terrible that [Trump] would speak about Latinos like that.”  – Freshman Martina Lopez

Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images

Who did you support throughout this election?

“For the first time in my voting history, I voted for a third party candidate, and I voted for Jill Stein.  The reason is I was a big Bernie Sanders supporter, his platform very much aligned with my point of view.  Hillary Clinton I think is very smart, and very competent, and I think would have made an adequate president, but I did not find her inspiring. I felt that she was not going to do enough to change the status quo and raise the bar for progressive issues that I care about.  It’s interesting for me because I grew up, first of all I was told from the time that I was a young girl that my ancestors who were Jewish fought and died for the right to vote in Middle East countries.  The second thing that was always ingrained in me was that you should vote for a major party candidate but if you didn’t a) your vote was a wasted vote or b) worse, that meant you were essentially giving away your vote to your least favorite candidate.  I really rethought that point of view with this election and I decided particularly since Massachusetts is not a swing state, I felt that I wanted to take a principled stance and vote for a candidate that I really liked rather than someone who I can barely tolerate.  I would have voted for Hillary Clinton had I had no choice or had I been in a swing state.  Secondly, I feel that third party candidates, even if they don’t win, they have a big impact on the United States policy.  Two examples: Ross Perow, he won 20% of the popular vote, he moderated Bill Clinton a lot.  On the flip side of the coin, Ralph Nader and his 30 party candidacy made the environment a big political discourse.”  – Dawn LaRochelle

“I was supporting Trump.  Now, was I vocal, going out and knocking on doors and making phone calls for him?  No.  Is he perfect?  Far from it.  Nor was the other one–far from it.  You just had to pick the things that were important to you and then make a decision based on that. I like Mike [Pence]. I think he’s good, I think he’s a straight-shooter.  He’s conservative, but I think he’s got a good heart. ” – Joe Stella

“I didn’t really like either of them, I didn’t really like this presidential election.  With the two candidates I didn’t really agree with either of them, but I would have rather had Hillary than Trump.” – Meghan Jacques

“I’m with her.” – Jennifer Rogers

“I’ve been a Republican, at least I thought I was, but as soon as Mr. Trump was the nominee, I said ‘I’m voting for Hillary Clinton.’” – Dean of Boarding Students Dina Lyman