Donald Trump took the presidential election on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, bringing to reality the concerns many political scientists held previous to the results.
Over 350 political scientists signed a Statement of Concern regarding Trump’s candidacy.
“There are several norms of the democratic process that have been violated,” said Erika Moreno, a professor in the political science department and signatory of the Political Scientists’ Statement of Concern. “The notion that you would identify a group of people and discuss them with a blanket stereotype and discuss the possibility of preventing them from entering the country is problematic. And it certainly hearkens policies that were enacted in World War II that we now know were unconstitutional but we carried them out anyway.”
The statement identified nine concerns including Trump’s stance on nuclear proliferation and the threat he poses to a free press.
“For all these reasons and despite our own differences on matters of politics and partisanship, we stand united in the conviction that a Trump presidency would pose a grave threat to American democracy and to other democratic governments around the world,” said the document.
Scott Hendrickson, a political science professor, expressed his concerns about the election and its future implications for the United States.
“Partly, I am nervous because, regardless of the outcome in terms of which candidate wins, I am concerned about what we are going to observe after that,” said Hendrickson. “Both in the month after November and in to December; and frankly even into the next six months to four years of that new individual’s term of office because clearly we have created a political environment in which people have become more and more partisan.”
Although the election brings unease on both sides of the political divide, students at Creighton expressed their apprehension with the process on election night.
“There are a few things that make me feel nervous about this election; it’s partisanship essentially,” said Nels Carlson, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. “The political system is so toxic and people who are willing to work across the aisle get knocked out all the time.”
Divisive policies and partisanship have seen their fair share of play in the 2016 election, especially in regard to immigration.
“Those are the sorts of the statements and policy positions that I think are deeply problematic and antithetical to what we believe in as democracies and as Americans,” said Moreno, in reference to Trump’s stance.
As of 2:52 a.m. eastern time Wednesday morning news outlets across the country announced Trump’s win with him at 268 electoral votes with 48.0 percent of the popular vote, totaling 57,059,504 votes. In Nebraska, Trump won 60.8 percent of the vote, totaling 447,355 votes.