The last eight years have seen partisanship at its very best, or worst depending on your point of view. Every presidential election has been essentially the same: the two main candidates sling mud at each other. Biased media outlets pretend to be fair and balanced, while the alternative media posts the most outlandish of content, playing on the fears of the gullible. But this presidential election cycle has been the most unconventional in recent memory.
This is more than typical whining over a candidate losing the election; this is a full out temper tantrum by adults. Adults who profess to believe in democracy, yet they can’t seem to accept the outcome when it doesn’t go their way. From people calling for their state to secede to riots and news outlets trying to get their audiences to cling to false hope that the Electoral College could go rogue and vote for Clinton.
Secession is not a likely outcome. If the Civil War taught us anything, it is that secession does not work out smoothly. Tens of thousands dead and a country torn apart because the powers-that-be could not resolve their differences like adults.
The New York Post wrote that Clinton could still be elected if the Electoral College goes rogue, if electors reject the candidate they're bound to and vote for Clinton instead.
This isn’t going to happen for several reasons, not the least of which is that the electors were chosen by the people.
We do not actually vote for a president; rather we choose the electors. Then the electors confirm the popular vote by pledging their vote to a candidate. For each election, there is a new slate of electors chosen either by that candidate’s party or the candidate him/herself.
The process is different in each state. By agreeing to be an elector they agree to vote for the candidate their state's population voted for.
Only two states, Maine and Nebraska, award electoral votes proportionally. The rest of the states appoint electors on a "winner take all" basis.
While electors could vote for whomever they wanted to, the possibility of more than 30 rogue electors is minuscule at best. According to FairVote there have been a total of 151 faithless (rogue) electoral votes in our history. The most recent was in 2004, which was most likely an accident since the elector voted for the democratic vice president for both president and vice president.
Secession and rogue electors aside, this election appears to have divided the nation even more. Anti-Trump protests are ramping up, along with riots and other criminal activity. All because the wrong person was elected, in their opinion.
They accuse Donald Trump of being divisive and misogynistic, among other things. But the accusations come no more or no less than they did against Hillary Clinton, and previous candidates during their campaigns.
However, what these individuals fail to understand, or maybe just do not care to understand, is that they contribute to the division. It is like a school yard argument over whose Dad can beat up the other's Dad.
It is childish and unbecoming behavior from people that are supposed to be setting an example for the younger generation. It is so bad that tests have been cancelled and counseling offered to college students distraught over Clinton losing the election.
To be clear, I did not vote for either one of them. I voted third party and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. I will not be put off by so-called reporters crying over Clinton's loss of the presidency and blaming third party voters (I will save my rebuttal to this myth for another article).
In the meantime, grow up America. Trump won the election and will be president. That is how it works. The last eight years we saw Republicans bemoaning Obama and how bad he was for the country, and I do not recall any riots. A few under reported protests perhaps, but no riots.
Whether Trump will be a good or bad president remains to be seen. Those that have read the Constitution know the president is nearly powerless to do anything outrageous without the consent of Congress.
The president tends to receive the blame for many bills and policies that simply are not his/her fault. Take the passage of Obamacare, as it is called: it was passed by a Republican-held House. Nearly everything Obama signed into law has gone through a Republican House.
Grow up America, you don’t get to throw a fit because your candidate lost.
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