We awakened to a nightmare Wednesday morning with news that Republican Donald Trump, the racist, sexist, misogynistic, xenophobic, anti-black, anti-Latino, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim, vulgar candidate for president, actually won.

His election initially caused global turmoil, with financial markets in the U.S. and abroad reeling. Dow stock futures nosedived 800 points Tuesday night before recovering.

His election also has wrought very real fears and uncertainty among large swaths of the population. 

The questions already have started, with Democrats second-guessing and blaming themselves like victims of abuse: What did we do wrong? Did we choose the wrong presidential candidate or vice presidential running mate? What did we do to cause this?

Instead, the better question is this: Why did so many voters choose an unqualified person with no government, military or political experience to lead the nation? 

Commentators are calling Mr. Trump’s victory a “white working-class pact,” sealed by the overwhelming support of white men and non-college educated white women. Where does this leave the huge segments of the population — people of color and college-educated women — who didn’t support Mr. Trump?

While Mr. Trump’s victory speech was so vastly different in tone from his viperous campaign rhetoric, we find it hard to believe that he truly wants to be a president for all the people.

Make no mistake: Our lives will be greatly impacted by a man who was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan; a man who arguably has never read the U.S. Constitution and clearly doesn’t believe he must live by it or the rule of law; by a man who threatened to unleash a special prosecutor on his Democratic opponent and put her in jail if he was elected president; by a man who said the answer to helping poor, urban communities is to bring in more police and a stronger dose of law and order; by a man who refused to release his federal tax returns, saying evading taxes made him “smart.”

We also don’t know if he will be more committed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interests for his own personal business gain than he will be to those of the American people.

There’s a sad irony in his rhetorical boosterism of America when we know already that many of the products he markets under the Trump label are manufactured outside of the United States. Is this what he means by “making America great again”?

And because he could end up having to fill several U.S. Supreme Court vacancies, including the one left open by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death in February, we have great trepidation. A list Mr. Trump released of potential nominees in May was laden with conservatives whose backgrounds indicate they likely would roll back abortion rights, civil rights and workers’ rights.

He has said his first action will be to repeal Obamacare, the federal Affordable Care Act under which millions of families, young adults and working poor have gained access to health care.

The headline on a U.K. Telegraph story said it all: “Dear God, America what have you done?”

As the young people say, “Stay woke.”

As a people, we have survived much worse than Donald Trump. And we won’t give up the fight during the next four years.

The struggle continues.