How I Experienced Inauguration Day at OU

On the 20th and the days after, I received an increased amount of messages from Germany. This, of course, was due to the president’s inauguration on Friday. My friends and family members wanted to know how I perceived the event and everything surrounding it here in the U.S. - so I thought this would be worth a blog entry.

I don’t know what I expected the day to be like. Maybe I thought that everyone would be talking about the president and the future, and the fears and hopes they had about it.

But reality was very different. In my first class, everyone just sat there apathetically staring at their phones – as always (to be fair, the class starts at 8.35AM). We even talked about different world religions, addressing the question of how being brought up in a Jewish, Christian or Muslim context shapes the way people look at the world. It would not have been far fetched to talk about current political events in this context, but we did not deviate from the syllabus for one minute. After class, people talked about their plans for the weekend rather than the upcoming change in the White House.

My next lecture started ten minutes before twelve. I looked around – the attendance was as high as usual. Most people seemingly did not want to lose attendance points for watching the inauguration or participating in a protest. But the guy next to me managed to to both: He watched the inauguration speech on his laptop with his left ear bud in, while still taking notes on our lecture about 17^th century Samurai culture with the right hand.

I came across a few people wearing “Make America Great Again!” shirts or caps during the day – one boy even combined the two fashionable pieces. And when I walked by the courthouse in the afternoon, there were three people standing there, holding up a sign: “Join the Socialists Now!” (although I was told that there was a larger number of protesters earlier).

I asked my roommate if he watched the inauguration. “Naah. I kind of feel like I should, but I kind of don’t want to...”

And this was the feeling I sensed among a lot of students here. I did experience little enthusiasm on either side, mostly rather silence.

At first, I thought this was due to the fact that people stopped caring. Due to the fact, that the whole spectacle went on for way over a year and people were just sick of it.

And while I still believe that that plays a role in many cases, the crucial point seems to be another: Controversial debates don’t seem to be possible anymore, not in a civilized manner. Here, in a young college town, liberal views dominate and do so in our classes. Although students have expressed their differing views to me personally after the class, no discussions were started during classes. Maybe people are hesitant to openly speak their minds because of the hard lines that are drawn between the opposing sides and the hard feelings on both sides.

Most Democrats do not have any empathy for Trump voters, especially students who belong to minority groups feel personally attacked by the fact that people would vote for him. Thus, supporters are put in an “enemy” category immediately. One African-American guy in my study group told me: “I don’t want to talk about it, because it is such a touchy subject. I am offended by the president, he offends me personally, and so do the voters.” This – very understandable – reaction of course does not provide the basis for dialogue or even convergence. On the other hand, people who sympathize with the new president get defensive and put the opposition into fixed categories as well. After a few beers, one guy from my class expressed his annoyance with “whiny liberals”, who “cry” about Trump – referring to class mates expressing concerns about the upcoming four years.

Mostly, the topic is only discussed in groups that already stand on the same side. Both parties seem to be anchored in their world views, feel misunderstood and often reject discussions – it seems like the emotional waves will have to be calmed first to enable productive political conversations again.