I was as devastated as all other democrats when Donald Trump won the 2016 Presidential Election. I did not, and still do not know how we are going to get through the next four years with a man like Trump as our President. As much as I was truly heart-broken, I was also completely shocked. We were all so sure that she was going to win, maybe even in a landslide, and I was already preparing for the Republican Trump Supporters to raid our social media with violent words and conspiracy theories of the entire election being ‘rigged’, just as they had done throughout the election process.
Instead, when Trump won, I was shocked to see the same reaction on my Facebook, but rather coming from the other side- it came from my side. Almost all of my fellow Clinton-supporters were raiding all of my social media with statuses and tweets about how shocked they were, which was fine at first because that is grieving and how they expressed it. But once they turned to the popular vote, the mood changed and everyone starting becoming a little more hostile. “The People have spoken and have chosen Hillary, the system (Electoral College) chose Trump”, talking about the election being rigged against the people because the candidate won through electoral votes rather than popular vote!
I couldn’t believe that my side, who criticized Republicans for the same behavior, was acting this way and even trying to sign a petition to abolish the Electoral College! Granted, this one wasn’t as popular as the petition to change electoral voters’ minds about the election, but that one is a little silly and not going to be taken seriously, while the call for the abolition of our electoral college was just too far. I sat in my US History to 1865 course while we talked about who supported the Electoral College and why, I decided to speak up and give my share, and I thought I would share it on Odyssey because I’m in need of an article for this week.
Let’s just please remember why the Electoral College was created. Everyone in the nation wants to have their voices heard, and a Popular Vote election would be a HUGE step in the opposite direction. If we had a Popular Vote election, the people of Montana and North Dakota would have never met Trump or Clinton, because all those two would be doing is pandering to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. The State of California, with a total population of around 38 Million, would have more votes than Montana, North & South Dakota, Rhode Island, Georgia, Florida, and Oklahoma combined. If one candidate convinced all of California to vote for one candidate, all of the other states’ votes would be worth nothing. In the Electoral College system, those combined states would defeat the other single state. If you ask me, I don’t want my President decided by a single state on the other side of the country, and having 4 times more power than my state does, rather than a bit more reasonable three times more.
I'm not saying that Electoral College is perfect. If we find a better way to elect our president, cool great that's awesome. Until then, don't trash it just because Clinton had more votes by a margin of .3% and she didn't get the election.
When the results first came in for this election, I too was mad at the Electoral College for robbing the Popular Vote of their President. But then I realized that I wouldn’t be too upset about it if my candidate had won. We’ve had bad Presidents before (ever heard of James Buchanan?) and we will have worse (#KanyeWest2020). Now isn’t the time to ruin a reasonable voting system just because we didn’t get what we wanted. I’m not saying we should sit and do nothing, but abolishing the Electoral College is most definitely a step in the wrong direction.
Clinton stood for love, and we just need to love each other really hard right now and for the next four years. Be strong and we will find a way through this.
