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| Eric Bush Class of 2020 |
I was at President-elect Trump’s new Washington, D.C. hotel,
completed just in time for him to move in down the street. For the protestors
outside, the hotel was a symbol of a president they would not accept. But for
us, it was symbolic to our submission to the reality that Donald Trump is
president.
My visit to the Trump hotel was for the closing banquet of
the Young Americans for Freedom fall conference. YAF is a conservative student
organization that preaches Reaganism and rejects the purely economic
conservatism many young people hold today. I think it’s safe to assume that
Trump was few of the conference attendees’ first choice, but a source of
optimism and hope for the future.
The timing of this conference was remarkable, the weekend
immediately following the election. Most of the speakers were still in shock. While
many of the speakers objected to some of Trump’s controversial statements, some
were more concerned about whether or not Trump is one of them, whether or not
he is a true conservative or if simply holds certain conservative ideals.
Even with skepticism, there was optimism. Speakers
reminisced of their days as young people in the Reagan administration and
ventured as far as to hope the same for us in the new administration. It was a
cautious embracing of a man who was “less likely to become President than the
Cubs to win the World Series,” as Reagan’s attorney general Ed Meese joked.
But if there was any submission that Trump is in charge and we are now beholden to him, it was the decision to host our final dinner in Trump’s hotel. We entered his palace to pay our respects to the unlikely hero of the Republican party. Just as numerous politicians – from Mitt Romney to Scott Brown – have visited Trump Tower over the past week, we too went through those massive, gold-plated doors.
But if there was any submission that Trump is in charge and we are now beholden to him, it was the decision to host our final dinner in Trump’s hotel. We entered his palace to pay our respects to the unlikely hero of the Republican party. Just as numerous politicians – from Mitt Romney to Scott Brown – have visited Trump Tower over the past week, we too went through those massive, gold-plated doors.
Eric Bush, of Louisville, Ky., is a freshman McConnell Scholar studying political science and finance.