My Thoughts on the Election…

Alright, it’s been three days now since we’ve all determined the fate of the US for the next four years. While America itself chose Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the popular vote, 538 individuals (the Electoral College) entrusted with electing our leader went with Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.

First off, I just want to recall how this will be the second time in my lifetime that the candidate who won the popular vote did not win the electoral vote; the last time this happened was back in 2000 in the Bush vs. Gore race. Results like these have me even thinking why America needs the Electoral College, especially if we are not the true body to choose who becomes our president. Yeah, I get that the Electoral College itself tends to go by the popular vote in many cases, but why are we relying on a system that dates back to when the population of the United States when it was founded was not even 1% of today’s population in the nation? At this point, I really think it is time to ditch the Electoral College and base the presidential elections all entirely on the popular vote. Additionally, I think it’s an impediment that several states in the nation also have laws that prohibit their delegates from individually choosing candidates, meaning that there needs to be a consensus. The only state that went against this mentality was Maine, where Trump had one delegate and Clinton had the other three. The Electoral College will meet on December 13th to make their final decision and cast their final votes, and this is literally the slimmest chance Hillary could have in actually becoming our 45th president of the United States.

Next, I am really disappointed overall with the election, and the outcome just emphasizes that. I’m pretty sure Hillary Clinton (and Donald Trump as well) could have done better overall if Americans did not vote third-party. A lot of individuals chose to vote third-party this election because neither candidate could be trusted enough by our country’s citizens. However, I’ve really come to learn that voting third-party in this country never works at all. Trust me, if third-party voting actually worked, then I would have voted for a candidate on that level. However, I am actually party-affiliated, so I guess that’s why I felt inclined to vote for my party’s candidates.

Overall, I’d say that this election was eye-opening to Americans. On Wednesday, there was nothing but pure silence in the air at my college; students were absent from class (and I mean a higher number of students than the norm), and the ones I did hear conversing while walking along were just in disbelief. Then Wednesday night into Thursday morning, I see news of protests across the streets of cities like Baltimore, Chicago, and Seattle. There were protests locally here as well in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa, but not as bad as others across the nation. I do think that we need to accept Mr. Trump as our next leader, even though I disagree with many of his campaign antics and agenda, in addition to the individuals he’s eyeing for his cabinet. If Donald Trump is not a good leader, then I want to urge you to write a letter to your local congressperson, in addition to both of your state’s senators to petition his impeachment, once after he’s sworn in on January 20th next year.

To conclude, I will say that I am disappointed by this election, just like the rest of America for sure. This was my first time being eligible to vote during a presidential election, and I couldn’t have felt any more disappointed. Since I’ve been growing up on watching news and following a lot of what goes on, I’ve had a keen eye to following politics at a very young age. If I could have voted in 2012, then I would have; maybe even in 2008 as well. Getting out and voting is important, no matter what your political party affiliation is.

Feel free to leave your thoughts on the election in a comment! If you perhaps oppose or share my views, then I’d like to know why as well.