2017: the Year Known as 2016

Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore

Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore

By Brittany Russell, Columnist

I’m tired. Any anger I had from before is worn out. I’m running on political fumes. I’m a political science major: I wake up in the morning and I walk to class just like you. But the first thing I hear every morning after I sit down in class, before I’ve finished my coffee, is “what did Trump do today?”

As I drink my pumpkin spice iced coffee, a tiny shred of hope that I still managed to keep alive, continues to die. Mainly because I want to sit through one class and not hear the name Donald Trump and cynically remember that at the end of the day, the most he’ll get is a tweet from Paul Ryan that says he did things wrong, but won’t say his name- the Paul Ryan equivalent of a slap on the wrist. Unfortunately, I am fully aware that as a political science major, it’s what I do.

But you know what I never, ever want to hear an opinion about again?

“2016 election.”

It is September 21, 2017 when I write this. I have just read a long opinion piece in the Gettysburgian about the opinions’ editor’s brave gamble that he lost by voting for Trump in 2016, using a large amount of reasoning that I honestly could not comprehend. I wrote a long piece in this very same document, talking about how his argument was nonsense and based on a moral high ground falsely constructed by pretending he was living under a rock and omitting facts.

However, I hit backspace repeatedly to write this instead. I deemed the original too mean because when I talk to Alex Romano in person, he seems like a pretty nice guy. There are plenty of nice Republicans out there, but they don’t want to be nice and listen to us anymore because we liberals and far left people can’t hear the words “I voted for Trump” without wanting to bite the person’s head off. I don’t want to be mean anymore. I’ll complain my heart out and be bitter and petty about this and that, but to actively go out of my way and be mean like that? Nah.

I also deemed it a rehash of the same points that keep getting made over and over again. That’s all we’re getting now. There’s no originality anymore. Hell, even Trump’s antics and the late night TV-jokes about it, once absolutely hilarious, become variations of the same negative views of Donald Trump about the same event. I’ve become so expectant of Trump to screw up royally that my default mood has become “disappointed, but not surprised.” On top of Trump’s shenanigans, Hillary Clinton’s reignited the 2016 talk with the release of her book. So did Bernie Sanders. Democrats are doing the same infighting that was brought out in the primaries on a smaller scale, while Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are failing to mitigate the damage Trump is doing.

That’s all it is right now. 2016, 2016, 2016.

If you want to preach unity, get that wretched number out of my face. The sight of it makes me want to crawl back into my bed, the one place where I’m not able to see what CNN notification is in store for me.

Everyone’s angry at each other, but honestly, anger is exhausting. It can get you through a sprint, but after that sprint you need to rest. I’m resting and I’m focusing instead on civil conversations to try and foster a more productive solution to the problems we’re facing. I’m looking to see if there’s some overlap in interest that may be multiple issues that can be solved at once. It’s not moderate or centrism; it’s peaceful and diplomatic to reach a conclusion favorable to as many as possible. The problems are complex and harder to unravel than you think. Anyone who wants to yell at me about saying any of what I said in this article needs to go enroll in a political science class, drink that coffee, and hear what Donald Trump did today. Listen to the 2016 rehash. Think about how there are no consequences. Just like me.

I never want to see an opinion piece in this newspaper about 2016 again. 

2016 is dead, and I’m murdering it here and now.

Author: Brittany Russell

Brittany Russell '19 is a Political Science major and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies minor. She is the music director for 91.1 WZBT Gettysburg and hosts a show Thursdays at 9pm. When she's not DJing or spouting off her opinions, she appreciates coffee, lipstick, puns, and corgis. Follow her on Twitter @supbruss.

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