By: Olivia du Pont
2016: “It was a landslide!” 2020: “Voter Fraud!”
Do these words ring familiar? These are the words that came out of Donald Trump’s mouth after he won the 2016 election. Donald Trump won the presidential election in 2016 by the same margin that Joe Biden won this year’s 2020 presidential election, yet according to Trump, this year’s win for Biden was caused by fraudulent voting and cheating on behalf of the Democrats.
So why are Liberals the deviant ones, straying from social norms, for claiming Joe Biden as the new president of the United States? Why were Trump supporters in 2016 not the deviant ones when they claimed him their president? The same votes that claimed Trump’s victory four years ago are what claimed Biden’s victory just a couple weeks ago. So why are their thousands of protesters marching down Washington, D.C. claiming Trump won the election? Aside from Trump’s clear narcissism and manipulation, this may be explained by his use of social control. The uncarefully chosen words Trump uses often appeals to American’s whom are attracted to his ideas of establishing an America like the one we had decades ago, and labels the Liberals as outcasts. According to Social Science LibreTexts, “Social control refers to societal processes that regulate individual and group behavior in an attempt to gain conformity” (LibreTexts, 2020). Trump’s lack of censorship and ridiculous claims of victory has given him a sense of power to his supporters, who have and will continue believing everything he says.
So why are the Liberals the deviant ones? In my opinion, we are the ones fighting for American democracy, and for the voices of all American’s to be heard equally. Yet, we are seen as the deviant (more than) half of the country. But why? Well, because deviance is going against societal norms or those in power. By not conforming to Trump’s viewpoints and his absurd claim to victory of the presidential election, we are straying from the words of the president, and therefore, we are straying from the societal norm of believing in and trusting the president of the United States. The president is supposed to be someone who leads the people of their country, all the people. It is unlikely everyone in a nation would agree on whom should be put in power, but the United States has not seen such divide in decades. Towards the end of January, when Joe Biden officially becomes president of the United States, things may begin to shift. Joe Biden will be responsible for establishing some form of social control, and Trump supporters will become the deviant ones. So, where does this leave the United States, if we are constantly divided? In the past, Republicans and Democrats have been able to maintain some form of respect for one another, with the knowledge that at the end of the day, we are all American’s. But now, people are angry, and rightfully so. We live in a country that has a racist justice system with law enforcement that was originally created to capture runaway slaves. We have yet to fundamentally change our system. Therefore, our problem is not that those who oppose the way things are are deviant, but rather, that those who support the way things are are not seen as deviant. We as American’s must question why those who are still fighting for Trump are not seen as deviant before we are able to improve, and before we are able to have an election that does not completely divide the nation.
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