Most people protesting in the streets the last couple of days have no idea what they actually want. The overall consensus amongst them is that Donald Trump shouldn’t be the 45th president of the United States because he didn’t win the popular vote. But that is not how the POTUS is elected, nor has it been since 1787. The Electoral College System has been in place almost since the country’s inception, and while have been several movements that have tried to repeal it in the past, almost none of the people protesting right now would have a problem with it if Hillary had won.
Regardless of what you think about Trump or Hillary, there was a clear winner in terms of electoral college votes, and only a negligible difference in the popular vote. Had Hillary lost the popular vote by a small margin but been elected President, the same arguments would be heard today except it would be Trump supporters wanting the popular vote to count. The winning side will never try to convince their opponents that they won by mere chance or due to a faulty system. People don’t care about how broken the system is or isn’t when they win, its only once they’ve lost that the idea of an unfairness is brought up to justify their loss. The real issue being fought for is not reforming the election process, it’s changing the election’s results, and everyone that thinks otherwise is delusional.
When Donald Trump said the system was rigged a few weeks ago, Democrats immediately jumped on his comment. His implication that he probably wouldn’t accept the results of the electoral college was met with widespread criticism and hatred, especially from those who are out there this very day doing exactly that. The only difference is that most media outlets and news sources seem to be pretty complacent with the protests if they’re on the “right side”. Somehow, Trump implying he’d cause riots is a lot worse than people actually rioting.
Lets imagine for a moment that the protesters get their wish: Trump gets prematurely impeached and Hillary steps into the Oval Office next year. What then? What does that say about democracy, if it is to be put aside when the wrong person wins? Trump getting kicked off the presidency because of nationwide protests would undermine the whole idea of elections. If the person with the rowdiest crowd gets the final say, democracy devolves into anarchy and civil war. Its easy to ignore the implications of getting what you ask for, but its a civic responsibility to be true to the results of an election all citizens agreed to trust.
The truth is, Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States of America. You can’t start thinking about making changes until to come to terms with that. If you legitimately care about reforming the election process, don’t complain about it the same week your candidate loses the presidential election. That’s just called whining. If Trump is so inadequate for the job, his mandate will provide many opportunities to impeach him and will probably make it easier to argue for change in the way the president gets elected. Its not unreasonable to believe that most people would be all for electing their chief executive through popular vote, but its all about timing it right.
Protesting now dilutes the message of “I want the system to change” with “I want Trump out”. Its hard to tell one from the other at times, because most people say they want both, but they only really want the former to achieve the latter. That’s why you don’t see any Trump supporters out there asking for popular vote to be implemented. This is an issue both sides probably want (the electoral college system is about as democratic as drawing a name out of a hat, and provides about the same sense of agency), but now they are pitted against each other because Trump is the only thing on everyone’s minds. Wanting the people’s votes to count is a noble endeavor, but this cannot be about Trump. He is short-term, this is long-term. We’re not talking about how the 45th is to be elected, but about everyone that is to follow.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/portland-oregon-anti-trump-protest-1-shot-after-confrontation-n682896
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/13/massive-anti-trump-protests-planned-for-inauguration-day-police-on-alert.html
The protests in Los Angeles and other major cities around the United States are in many ways ridiculous. While I do support the right to protest, what angers me is that a lot of protestors were using protests to loot and vandalize their own cities. It makes no sense to me. Also, I think a lot of people probably don’t think about the fact that if Trump were prematurely impeached and Hillary was installed as president, it would be completely un-democratic. It would be a shame to the democratic system that elected Trump in the first place. Just goes to show that our system kind of works. Instead of mindlessly protesting without a cause, I think people should get more involved at the local level so they can get the results they want from their politicians.
ReplyDeleteI really disagree with you when you say "he is short term, this is long term." Trump being the president physically may be just four years, but his policy changes will shred through progress for decades to come. He plans to dismantle the very livelihoods of hard working people, his tax policies have already revealed that it will likely screw over his faithful base of poor working class and favor the rich (no surprise) and his intentions for women's rights and healthcare will affect millions. I do agree both sides are very hypocritical, and if Hillary had won, Trump would have continued with his "rigged system" narrative. The electoral college is ridiculous though, it has been for centuries and it's a way to put a valve on the masses and make sure they dont pick an idiot, but I guess it didn't work this time.
ReplyDeleteChange can come before a presidency, we as a nation don't need to wait for racism to be implemented to take a stand against it. It's naive to think that Trump isn't at all affected by the protests, even with an ego as large as his. Look, less than a week after his election he already admitted he wanted to keep good parts of Obamacare (which he decried all campaign long), and he has doubled back on a good number of issues. It's naive to think that just because he backpedaled that will affect his policy, but his rhetoric has changed in the week since. It's not nearly the same polarizing vitriol as the campaign. We sincere and on going activism from the public Trump will realize he doesn't have a clean slate to do as he likes entering into office.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Allison, though. I'm not sure if I trust anything that comes out of Trump's mouth at this point, because it could very well change in the future. What concerns me most is what sort of policies he and the GOP will push for in the next four years, and this is more for the sake of people I know who are part of groups that feel excluded or even threatened by a Trump administration and a GOP Congress, and a traditionalist-leaning Supreme Court. Trump may feel inclined to bend under the pressure of the protests because they target him, but I mean Congress isn't as much in the overall public eye until the midterm-elections (and even then, in the past, people don't seem to care too much overall) Maybe I'm just being over anxious, but it's still something that I'm going to keep an eye on going forward.
ReplyDeleteThe protests and movements we've seen across the country are groan-worthy. Although this is a traumatic upset, instead of carrying on and worrying about which individuals will be occupying Cabinet positions, the public has been whining. I like your line of the flaws of the electoral system being the long term issue, because if Trump is going fail he's going to do so in the next four years. But the system itself will continue to be unchanged and unsustainable, and that's where amendments have to be made.
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