The atmosphere at Columbia after the election took a noticeable turn toward quiet reflection and subtle unease. Just the week before, campus was buzzing with Halloween festivities and spirited Homecoming celebrations. But after November 5, a palpable sense of contemplation, uncertainty, and disappointment pervaded campus.
For many students, the election results have been tough to process. Conversations seem more tentative as students wrestle with complex emotions and attempt to make sense of the results. There’s a shared need for answers and closure, particularly around Kamala Harris’ loss, as people wonder what went wrong in the election and how Trump’s presidency might impact their futures. Students who were vocal about their expectations for the Democratic campaign are now reflecting on the party’s broader strategy, searching for understanding amid disappointment.
Professors have also taken a noticeably supportive stance, acknowledging the election’s impact on their students. In the days after the election, many offered words of encouragement and extended their availability, telling students that their doors were open for anyone who may need support. It was a unique moment where academic needs were superseded by the impact of a national event.
On social media, Columbia students expressed their frustrations and anger, solidarity, and reflections. Students made lengthy and impassioned posts, often condemning anyone who voted for Trump. Many students have repeated a common idea: somehow, America chose a convicted felon for president before a woman. For some, this reality stings, magnifying what they see as an ingrained societal barrier against women and minority candidates.
In some ways, the mood was similar to the aftermath of the 2016 election, though there were key differences. Then, the shock was accompanied by a defiant energy among the left—a sentiment that Americans could rally, resist, and push for change. This time, the response felt more somber, as many were left wondering what the rightward shift in this election meant for our cultural values and the future of American democracy. As the New York Times headline read the day after the election, “America Hires a Strongman.” The subheading? “This was a conquering of the nation not by force but with a permission slip.”
This time, the blow felt especially sharp with Trump’s victory in all seven swing states, the electoral college, and the popular vote. For students who believed their voices represented the values of a modern America, the election results felt like a betrayal of their hopes for progressive change.
In spite of these anxieties, we must not forget that democracy is resilient and dynamic. Every setback is an opportunity to regroup and reevaluate. It’s okay to feel discouraged, even defeated, but the fight for a better tomorrow isn’t lost—instead, it must come back stronger.
Columbia students aren’t happy with the election results. This, of course, was not a surprise. What was surprising was the coddling, infantilizing tone that the University took towards students in the days leading up to and after the election. For adults, knowing how to cope with upsetting news should be par for the course. At the very least, any university should want to foster students’ capacity for emotional resilience. But based on the election-related emails Columbia sent, I am no longer confident that the university values this trait at all.
Consider an email sent by Columbia College to students on November 4, the day before the election. The email advertised a “Post-Election Community Space” for students “looking for a processing space” or “hoping to decompress.” Done right, processing difficult news can actually be an immensely positive experience, and remaining optimistic in the face of a setback can be an opportunity for character growth. Instead, Columbia views discomfort with the election results as a sickness that a “community space” can help cure.
Following the election, Columbia set up “listening tables” outside Butler Library. While the university’s attempt to foster an environment of respectful discourse is a positive development, I fear that in practice, the listening tables may have little to do with listening to others and everything to do with being heard by others. Case in point—it’s hard to imagine that if Republican students came to the listening tables to express why they voted for Trump, there would be any interest in listening.
Arguably, “safe spaces” and other similar initiatives could be part of the reason Democrats underperformed in the election. Since the mid-2010s, universities have begun shielding students from ideas they don’t like. Many associate this movement with a broader cultural war—i.e. “wokeism”—and it intensifies the impression that Democrats have lost touch with the issues that matter most to working-class voters. Columbia’s promotion of “processing spaces” only reaffirms the stereotype that the elite are preoccupied with cultural concerns while dismissing dialogue that could resonate with the masses.
Perhaps most pathetic of all was an email sent out by Columbia News on November 6 with the subject line, “You’ve got this, Columbians,” promoting a “self-care workshop and opportunities for students to connect with CU Well Peer Leaders.” It’s hard to imagine that Columbia News would respond the same if the election swung in the opposite direction. If the University was truly confident in the student body’s ability to handle upsetting news, they wouldn’t have sent these emails in the first place.
The day after the election, Columbia's campus, usually bustling with activity, fell silent—classes were canceled, students exchanged tears, and emotional posts flooded social media. Columbia grieved Kamala Harris’ election loss.
But how did so many students fail to see this coming?
When a candidate wins both the electoral college and the popular vote, we must remember that liberals, conservatives, and independents alike voted to make Trump the 47th president of the United States. When a candidate wins all seven battleground states, we must remember that a good deal of our peers likely contributed to Trump’s win.
The results of this election, which many are calling a landslide victory for Republicans, not only show that the Democrats need to rebuild their party but that surprised students have been disconnected from the majority of the United States for the past four years.
If you’re asking yourself how a “sexist, racist, dictator” has just been reelected, I fear that you are missing the point. Character was clearly not the main concern of the 77 million Americans who voted for Trump.
Less than 30 percent of Americans have believed that the country was headed in the right direction for most of Joe Biden’s presidency. As James Carville put it, “It's the economy, stupid.” Indeed, the average American in this election described the economy as their biggest concern. Polls showed that 52 percent of registered voters said the candidates' positions on economics were an “extremely important” influence on their vote. One poll found that the top reason voters did not choose Harris was because they felt “inflation was too high under the Biden-Harris Administration.”
In contrast, many swing voters felt that the Harris campaign was defined by social issues, like abortion and “saving democracy.” In fact, the same poll found that the top reason swing voters chose Trump was because they believed “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class.”
I am not disputing that women's reproductive rights and social justice are essential issues for Americans, but if I were to ask you what other vital issues defined the Harris campaign, what would come to mind?
You'd likely find it a lot less difficult to describe Trump's policies, even if you disagree with them. Trump is economics: He wants to bring manufacturing jobs back to America. Trump is border control: He wants to stem the flow of immigration and deport illegal immigrants. Trump is honest: He wants to end corruption and “drain the swamp.”
The Democratic Party has become a party for wealthy elites, people who have the time, money, and resources to prioritize social issues—a huge privilege that many of Columbia's students have. The median family income of a Columbia student is $150,900, almost twice the median household income of the United States.
Democrats were so caught up in highlighting Harris’ moral superiority that they couldn't have open conversations with right-leaning Americans about the actual policies that motivated them to vote for Trump. Democrats failed to build bridges and, therefore, failed to win the popular vote.
When your ears are filled to the brim with the Democratic Party’s rhetoric, you become deaf to the concerns of Republicans and moderates. When you entirely surround yourself with people who share your politics, you never get a chance to understand those with whom you disagree. When you attend one of the most elite, cosmopolitan, and liberal colleges in the United States, it’s easy to lose touch with what the average American is thinking and feeling.
Lack of perspective in higher education has also been a massive factor as to why Democrats—especially those at elite institutions like Columbia—have continued to underestimate Trump's influence. Progressive academics seem to be almost willfully ignorant about the many reasons Trump is so popular with middle America. How can you claim to want to dismantle right-wing ideologies when you refuse to exit your echo chamber? How can you draw in your opponent’s supporters if you can't be objective enough to analyze how they persuade their base?
The Republicans are now the party of the working class. As Senator Bernie Sanders wrote the day after the election, “It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”
There is a false sense of political security at Columbia—maybe this election was the wake-up call we all needed.
What’s interesting about our community’s reaction to the election is both the collective anger and understanding about how Trump won. On Instagram, there were endless stories and posts from our classmates expressing their grievances, fears, and anxieties about what the next four years might look like. I personally share many of these trepidations. Our feeds have been flooded with long paragraphs of emotional testimony, as well as unapologetic attacks against those who voted for Trump.
One post I’ve noticed circulating consistently includes one of James Baldwin’s most famous declarations: “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.” Another mega-viral repost is an X post that simply says: “the only thing america hates more than a rapist is a woman.”
@aloomf/X
But there’s more to this story.
It is fundamentally anti-intellectual to declare that Trump won this election only because of our nation’s dark history with race and gender. Americans who live outside our well-insulated liberal bubble have been struggling on numerous fronts. Inflation from the pandemic has jacked up prices, and, as this election reveals, the Americans who decide elections voted for Trump because he successfully played his cards at the battle of political perception.
His logic was simple: Harris means prices will stay high, and Trump means prices will go down (“Are you better off than you were four years ago?”). Of course, there’s no actual evidence that such a reductive argument about our economy is true. But the Trump campaign understood that the granular details of their economic plan didn’t matter. What mattered was how they could make people feel.
What’s more, most Americans do not spend their time in an Ivy League classroom learning about white supremacy and race in America. It’s not that they inherently have hate or prejudice in their hearts, but rather that their American experience is fundamentally different from ours.
We may find voting for Trump to be problematic and indicative of an alarming willingness to overlook the president-elect’s expression of every “-ism” out there. But I cannot stress this enough: Most Americans aren’t thinking about this, and they do not care. Yes, you might argue that this is a source of privilege the marginalized do not have, to not have to think about the dynamics of social progress in our nation. But this is not the same as being a white supremacist, and in fact, it’s far from it.
This argument stands on ever-shakier grounds when we remind ourselves that Trump made unprecedented gains with minority and immigrant voters—exit polling found that white, college-educated women and voters over 65 were the only demographics that shifted toward Democrats since 2020.
Joe Catron/Flickr
I hope we can all remember that the vast majority of Trump voters do not wear that eye-catching ruby-red hat, and it is foolish and inaccurate to accuse those who do of being bigots. When we ask ourselves why Trump won this election from within the Columbia bubble, I hope that we all look at the bigger picture, which, without fail, is always more complex, confusing, confounding, and troubling than we may think.
As an athlete and a Kamala voter (not satire), I can tell you that losing is hard. It’s not easy to get over a loss, especially when my swim meets are as close as this election was projected to be. However, all of these projections were thrown out the window—“the people” had other ideas, and it turned out to be a blowout of paradigm-shifting proportions.
Jackson Cheramie/Columbia Sundial
I know you’re disappointed about the outcome of the election. Honestly, I am, too. I was looking forward to Kamala Harris’ victory speech being about her upbringing in a “middle-class family.” Fortunately, there are ways to get over a loss like this (as my teammates and I know too damn well), like drinking…and drinking…and drinking…and also reflecting. And even better, there are healthier ways to get over a loss and make the best of your new life, so here are five things you should be doing:
Listen to brat on repeat: If you can’t stand Kamala Harris being out of the picture, this album is sure to keep her essence in your mind. If Charli XCX said that “kamala IS brat,” then you’ve gotta respect it—after all, it’s her album! And, besides, nothing beats the feeling of submitting to Project 2025 while doing the “Apple” dance. It’s certainly much more palatable than listening to the Joe Rogan Experience, right?
“Nothing beats the feeling of submitting to Project 2025 while doing the ‘Apple’ dance.”
Buy a cat: That way, everyone can become a “childless cat lady,” as JD Vance put it. Who knows—hopefully, you all can collect an army of cats to overwhelm the new Republican Congress with cuteness (and I’m not talking about people who identify as kittens…), and maybe they’ll have more sympathy for you all. January 6 was pretty bad, but if you did it with a bunch of cats, it may work out for you.
Accept your future as a McDonald’s worker: It worked for Trump, so you might consider replacing your doom scrolling and time spent debating Karl Marx in Contemporary Civilization with something that might actually get swing voters to vote for you: giving them a Big Mac, a McFlurry, and a serving of 30-piece McNuggets.
Set up an encampment: As everyone knows, the protests last year achieved their goal of world peace, so a “Kamala Solidarity Encampment” right on the White House doorstep is in order—Trump might just resign.
Don’t kill anyone: Yes, having Trump in the White House again may suck. But that’s no excuse to pull a Kathy Griffin…or Thomas Crooks…or Ryan Wesley…or even a Khameini. I know he’s a big target, but violence is never the answer. And why kill a man when he will make life easier for Americans by removing the stress of voting? Under Trump, “you won’t have to vote anymore,” so why stress about elections and all that fuss? Voting is hard, folks—so hard, in fact, that very few Americans do it anyways (relative to the rest of the world).
So, my fellow Kamala supporters, don’t fret. Keep your heads up high and make the best of your life in part II of the “Trumpocalypse.” You’ll triumph over Project 2025 like nothing else—and you definitely won’t be a sore loser complaining that the election was stolen…right?
