The elections have been filled with so much drama, it felt as if I was watching a season of Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Except with a terribly written script, more scandals, more insults, and terrible acting. Welcome to Keeping Up with the Elections and here is what you wish you missed.

SCANDALOUS CANDIDATES

Let’s begin with the famous eight year Clinton email scandal. The scandal started in 2008 with Clinton’s email, clintonemail.com, registered under Eric Hoteham. Eric Hoteham is assumed to be a misspelling of Clinton’s former personal aide, Eric Hothem. A year later, news surfaced of Clinton having her own personal email. It is discouraged for a government official to have a personal email. In 2013, Clinton’s personal email was hacked by a Romanian man named Guccifer. Due to this email hack, in 2014, Clinton had to hand over printed documents of her emails (approximately 55,000 pages which is approximately 33,000 emails). In 2015 the state department checked her emails to see whether or not Clinton used her emails for anything misleading or if Clinton did anything wrong (CNN.com). Those eight years were constant finger pointing and an abundance of rumors. The scandal turned into a joke during the campaigns. This isn’t the show Scandal; government officials seem too scandalous nowadays making it harder for anyone to trust them or take any of them seriously.

Then there’s the uproar from all of Trump’s disrespectful comments. Throughout his campaigns he has made many terribly crude, racist, and sexist comments: “When Mexico send its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bring crime. They’re rapists” (Doniphon, Trump: Facts, Quotes and Trivia). He’s “admitted” that the women on the Apprentice “have flirted with [him] either consciously or subconsciously. [And] that’s to be expected” (Doniphon, Trump: Facts, Quotes and Trivia). Some say that as a businessman it is just a tactic to be known. Well if that’s so, he definitely succeeded. Whether people liked him or not, everyone knew him. If you search up his name in just seconds, millions of results will pop up. Articles of his latest comments, scams, news, interviews, meetings, locations, etc. appear. You did it sir, you made the whole world know you. And now that you’ve won, how will you rise up from all of the comments you’ve made? How will you get all the people who fear you, to trust you again? Whether or not these comments were campaigning tactics, many people were hurt. It created negative reactions all over the world, now that’s a tactic that brought fear and drama into the world.

RUTHLESS DEBATES

The presidential debates were constant interjections, off-topic, and some of their answers were targeted for each other.  I watched all of the debates and recently watched it over again. I noticed, whether or not it was for publicity, that each candidate did not act as respectful to each other as they should have. In all three debates, both candidates spent time attacking each other. In the first presidential debate, the moderator Lester Holt, asked Trump how he plans to create millions of jobs. As Trump went on, Clinton followed up with off-topic attacks and vice versa.  Eventually their answers drifted with Clinton pointing out that Trump “thinks climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.” Trump denied this statement and Clinton responded with “I think science is real.”

The question was about creating more jobs. Clinton discussed creating jobs through an investment plan then drifted off into discussing Trump’s thoughts of climate change. I do not understand the tactics of either candidate. There was a lot of ad hominem (attacking the person rather than the question) during the debates. The candidates were so focused on making themselves look better than the other that they forgot to actually answer the questions. Instead of discussing their plans they discussed their opponent’s thoughts on it. And let’s not forget Trump continuously saying “Benghazi” as if it will make him sound any better. The debates were messy and so were the candidates. It was like watching Kim Kardashian fighting with Kris Kardashian about her new boyfriend…unnecessary with some brutal language.

RESULTS AND UPROAR

The voting and results were a very close race. As of this printing, for the popular votes, Clinton received 48% (64,156,255) votes and Trump received 46.6% (62,238,425) votes (CNN.com). As for the electoral votes, Clinton received 232 votes and Trump 290 votes (CNN.com).

However, there were some votes that were considered invalid. Why? Some people decided to vote for ineligible candidates, like celebrities and a deceased gorilla. Yes, you read correctly. Some people actually voted for people who weren’t even an option. Some of the votes were for pop stars Selena Gomez and Harry Styles and deceased gorilla Harambe (independent.co.uk).

All over social media, rumors of thousands of people voting for Harambe were false. CNN reports that thousands of people did not vote for Harambe, simply a few people did. Those votes are considered invalid anyway and all the people who voted for ineligible people and animals did it as a joke. A joke that seemed funny in the beginning, then people realized that those “votes” could have counted for a real candidate. Good job! So funny!

Reactions all over America rose: fear, shock, anger, sadness, happiness. Question is why is everyone reacting and blaming? It seems a lot of high school and colleges were rallying against Donald Trump.

Colleges and high schools throughout California rallied and protested that Trump is “Not [Their] President.” It’s good that students from high schools and colleges express themselves and stand up for what they believe in, but Donald Trump is our president now, and the results cannot change.

The overall presidential elections may have been seen as a joke, but I guess we kind of learned from this. The lesson? To not treat the campaigns and elections as a joke. It’s time to start taking these elections and campaigns seriously. In 2018 the midterm elections are happening; if you want change, you can vote for your Senators and House of Representatives then. Upset about Donald Trump becoming our president? We should have thought about that when voting for a deceased gorilla. Rallying and protesting against Trump? I hate to say this, but Donald Trump is our president-elect. Join organizations and encourage others to vote, instead of holding marches that only help display public outcry but can no more change the outcome than I can. All we can do is accept Donald Trump as president and see how these next fours years play out.