Let me start off by saying that I am not in the habit of discussing matters of political or religious nature on this blog. I find those two topics to be highly volatile. People have such strong opinions on such things, that it’s rather difficult to find some kind of common ground. When it comes to politics, however, some things happen that I need to address. As many of you know, the 45th President of The United States was elected on November 8. Donald J. Trump came in and won the required amount of votes to become President. Everybody is aware of Trump’s brazen remarks regarding, well….EVERYTHING have not been politically correct. A lot of the stuff that he’s been spewing kind of made people think he was a joke.
Myself, along with many people all over the world, were not expecting Donald J. Trump to win at all. Some people thought Hillary Clinton was going to win in a landslide. It was real close, but Trump managed to beat the odds and make history. Whether or not that is a good thing, only time will tell. But, like many people, I was left reeling when I found out, and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. My initial reaction to the news was one of anger and hatred towards my fellow countrymen for allowing something like this to happen. I did not vote for Trump or Clinton. I knew that the candidate that I chose was not going to win, but I made my decision regardless because I felt it was the right choice to make, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. That being said, this was probably the nastiest and most contentious Presidential campaign I’ve ever seen. The news with all the white supremacist groups coming out to vote for Donald Trump was disheartening but not entirely unexpected. Then you start hearing about voter intimidation at the polls with people being threatened. It got very, VERY ugly. That being said, during the outcome of the election, Trump, Clinton and Obama were very gracious about the election. Trump made some very generous and kind remarks about Clinton and her service to this country, which was pleasantly surprising. Obama even called Trump to congratulate him on his win. There is graciousness in defeat, but how far that will go when Trump gets inaugurated in January remains to be seen.
What this election has shown is that the system that we have in place isn’t working right now. Trump said that the elections were rigged. That’s not entirely inaccurate, from my perspective. Why? The Electoral College. It’s broke as shit. Instead of actually voting for a person, we are voting for “electors” for the college. Each state gets a certain number of votes based on the population of said state. Here’s the thing: The majority of people actually voted for Clinton. So….why the disparity between what the people voted for and what the Electoral College voted for? It’s simple, when you vote, you are essentially participating in a popularity contest, which Clinton has clearly won. This election has proven to people that the Electoral College is broken at a fundamental level, and the only viable option, I feel, is to eliminate it entirely. So…does your vote actually matter? If you’re voting blue in a red state, then no, your vote doesn’t matter to the college. If you vote blue in a blue state, then it does matter. Does this mean you shouldn’t go out and vote? Not remotely. You absolutely should vote if you are able. It is your right, and quite frankly, your civil duty to do so. You may not take an interest in politics, but politics involves you no matter where you are or what side of the political spectrum you are on. When you vote, you’re speaking your mind. You become a part of the process and a system that is been in effect for over 200 years. Whether your candidate wins or loses is almost immaterial. What matters is that you spoke up. If you don’t vote, you forfeit your right to complain about the system that you complain doesn’t represent you.
For those of us that were taken by surprise by Donald Trump’s win, you have to realize that politicians, specifically presidents, have a 4 year shelf life. They are not elected to be permanent unless it’s a seat on the Supreme Court. This country has survived many things including bad presidents. We, as Americans, are a resilient bunch and we will bounce back, and we will bounce back HARD. So what, if Donald Trump is president for the next 4 years? What I see is a one-term president who won’t be back for seconds. What this election has given us is an opportunity to take stock of what has happened, what has been said, and what is to come. We are already seeing protests of the election across the country. What that means is that the people, particularly the 18-25 crowd are sick of the system being so “botched.” Does this all mean that Trump will be a bad president? Not necessarily. He very well could be a good president, and we, who voted against him, could be wrong. It’s entirely possible. Trump’s win was completely unprecedented and unexpected, so ANYTHING is possible. I have been pretty vocal to friends and family about how I felt about this situation, but I think, nay, I hope that this presents a real opportunity to change things for the better. I think people need to take a step back, breathe in deeply and think about WHY this happened. We are headed into an uncertain future, that’s for sure, but maybe we can learn from the mistakes that were made in this election so we can avoid them in the next one.