Since my last blog post, Donald Trump was elected President of the U.S., something I would have not predicted prior to the election. Since the election, there have been protests against the new elected president as well as a rise of hate crimes against minorities. Donald Trump’s campaign was one like no other in the history of America. He spoke of groups of people, such as Latinos, Muslims and women, in very degrading ways, threatening the safety of these minority groups. His campaign was on the basis not America is not “great” anymore and that the Obama presidency has failed the country, which reflected the uproar of many white, middle-class Americans living in non-urban environments. Even if Trump didn’t carry out his plans, he has caused half of the nation to uprise in extreme support of his outrageous proposal and with him in office, they expect these plans to be taken out. Trump has created a group of radicals that the Republican Party has not expected to carry out. Yet, while Trump has benefited himself by running in the Republican Party, he has put the Republican Party in a powerful position, that inevitability the party has to serve him to a certain extend to keep order of the half of the country that supports him deeply.
Yet, this split of America, does not represent democracy. The two-party system, with extreme polarization, does emit democracy as it was meant to. Many Democrats and anti-Trump supporters, have expressed their strong opinion on the electoral college in this election. The electoral college is supposed to support democracy and in fact be the safety net to prevent such outrageous candidates in running and even becoming the elected President. Yet in this election, this was not the case as the electoral college, the system in which Donald Trump himself had publicly criticized it, had helped the candidate win the election. Trump is no longer stating that this system is diminishing democracy, yet millions of Americans still are. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, meaning that more people in the country voted for her, yet without winning 270 electoral votes, this means nothing to Clinton and the Democrats. Now, there are many petitions to eliminate the electoral college system as it is an outdated system that doesn’t ensure that everyone’s vote counts. Now to move on forward from this election, we need to become more involved with politics and push for change where it is needed.
I absolutely agree with everything that you mentioned, and it is quite upsetting what has been happening as a result of this Trump election. Like you said, even though America itself is considered to be moderate, Trump’s outlandish remarks have definitely stirred up some radical opinions–whether they be from extremists themselves, or people with these hidden beliefs.
Additionally, I understand your comments on the electoral college because it is supposed to represent a democracy and prevent some unprecedented issue, but with Trump’s victory despite his loss in popular votes, many are now questioning the electoral college’s effectiveness. Ironically, now that Trump has won, his comments about the system being “rigged” have remarkably died down, and I’m sure everyone is dying to know why.
I strongly agree with everything you said. I remember we had a class discussion on electoral college in political science. The electoral college was established to prevent candidates like Donald Trump from becoming president. However, Donald Trump still won despite losing the popular vote. It is undemocratic for electors to ignore the votes of the people,and unfair that millions of votes go to waste. Therefore, the electoral college should be eliminated. Although it would be difficult to eliminate the electoral college since a constitutional amendment has to be passed, which is very unlikely to happen. The small states would not be willing to reduce their authority and influence in a presidential election.
I agree with most things you said. No one could predict a trump victory so it was a shocker to all. The country is divided and polarized in yhe electorate. One thing we cannot do is eliminate the electoral college. If were to do that it might seem like all votes matter but it really wont since there are so many densely populated citiesl