What Do We Tell Our Daughters Now?

I am a proud girl dad, and my daughter, Karina, is the light of my life.

It hasn’t been easy raising a child as a single father, and I still mourn the loss of Karina’s mother in a car accident when my little girl was only 2 years old.

Karina is now 16 and heading to college in less than two years. There, she plans to pursue a degree in veterinary science.

But after Donald Trump’s unexpected win last night in the presidential election, I’m struggling with questions Karina has already begun asking me this morning: What happened? Why didn’t Kamala Harris win? Can women ever hope to achieve the highest office in the United States? Do the majority of Americans consider women to be second-class citizens?

Looking at the returns from last night, including the Senate races in many states, it’s clear that fear and anger are now ascendant in this country. It’s politically beneficial to scapegoat others: People of color, people from other nations who have come to this country to seek a better life for their families, and members of the LGBTQ community.

It’s also clear that the majority of Americans seem to think that if you happen to be female, you can’t be trusted with issues of economics, foreign policy, and national security. For those complex issues, we have to elect a convicted rapist and sexual predator who has openly lusted after his daughter when she was only 13 years old simply because he’s male and good at lying with a straight face.

What the fuck, America?! Do we need to learn the same lesson about the dangers of electing incompetent leaders yet again? The last time we did, it cost us over a million of our fellow citizens while Trump mused about injecting bleach and using light “inside” our bodies to cure a deadly respiratory pandemic.

This is a very dark day in our nation’s history. But it won’t end us. We’re too strong for that. Millions of us have only just begun to resist and prepare for the next election, which is now less than two years away.

Karina and millions of girls just like her can count on one thing if nothing else in these uncertain times: You are more than capable of accomplishing all of your dreams, and one day that will include watching as a woman raises her right hand on Inauguration Day and becomes president of the United States. Tens of millions of girl dads won’t stop fighting until that becomes a reality.