Monday, November 14, 2016

Clinton V Trump

The US election for president has finally come to an end and I could not be happier. I live in a State that always votes republican so I feel like my vote never really counts except for in local elections. I voted for Hillary not just because I wanted a democrat to proceed president Obama, but also because I despise Donald Trump. I find him to be a repulsive egomaniac who is so far removed from ever being able to see life from the perspective of an ordinary person, that he can almost be counted as subhuman - or superhuman, I guess, if you respect such a maniac. Before I go too far into my issues with Trump, and Hillary as well, let me help clear up why Trump won even though he did not get the most votes.

THE POPULAR VOTE

The "popular vote" is the term we use here in the US to represent the ballots each individual voter casts to select their choice for president. Each person gets one vote and after all votes are cast, they are counted. The person with the most votes, wins the popular vote. The popular vote, however, is not how we decide who the next president will be. The popular vote is used by a separate body of voters to decide how they should cast the votes that will actually decide who the next president will be.

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

The electoral college is the body of voters appointed by each state's government, to cast the real votes that will determine who the next president will be. Every US state has 2 senators. Every US state also has state congress men/women and the number varies by the size of each state's population size. There is a formula that the government uses which says that every so many hundreds of thousands people with a state must have their own representative. Therefore, states with very large populations might have 20 or more representatives while states with smaller populations might only have 15 or less. For every state senator and representative their is a person chosen to cast a vote for president. The US has a total of 538 senators and representatives. Therefore, there are 538 people appointed to cast votes in the electoral college.

The electoral college's 538 votes are the only votes that actually matter. A simple majority is all that is needed to win the electoral college. A tie vote would be 269 votes each therefore the candidate who can get 270 or more votes, wins.

The electoral college voters are supposed to vote for the candidate who won in their states but obviously it it were that simple, the electoral college would be redundant. First off, some states are "winner take all" states and some are proportional. In the winner takes all states, the person who wins the state also wins all of the state's electoral college votes. In proportional states however, electoral college votes are dispense in accordance to the congressional districts won and the two senatorial electoral college votes will be awarded to the winner of the state's total popular vote.

Most importantly, the electoral college voters are free to vote how they please, in spite of the popular vote. Although they are expected to act as a rubber stamp on the popular vote, they could decide that either the popular vote or the candidate chosen by the popular vote, is flawed, and vote their own way.

ELECTORAL COLLEGE PROS/CONS

The greatest benefit to having the electoral college system is that it grants us the ability to change our minds before we inaugurate a candidate, if necessary.  If a candidate is found to be unfit for office after he/she has won the election, the electoral college can prevent a major mistake from being made by changing its votes.

Another upside to the electoral college is that it makes the vote for sparsely populated districts as powerful as those that are densely populated. If it were not for the electoral college, the concerns of people in small towns would be ignored by presidential candidates because those votes would essentially be inconsequential. Regardless the population size, there are only a few electoral college votes per state so presidential candidates work for each of them.

The greatest downside the electoral college is that a candidate can overcome the choice of the citizens by winning more districts rather than votes and thereby become president.

Another downside to the electoral college is that its members are a confidential body of people chosen by politicians and therefore cannot be directly held accountable to the public, for their votes.

CLINTON V TRUMP

Now that, that is all explained it should be obvious what happened in this recent election - Hillary Clinton chased the popular vote and won it while Donald Trump chased the electoral college vote and won it. Though the electoral college does not officially vote until December 19th, Trump will be awarded the majority vote barring some spectacular scandal that indicts his fitness for office or as a republican, between now and then.

Clinton began losing this election 8 years ago when during the primary election against Barack Obama, she and Bill crossed the line and implied that Obama was somehow unqualified to be president because of his race. That's when she really turned off many voters within her party. She already was thoroughly hated by most voters outside her party and she could not endure any internal instability. Prior to those unfortunate implications by the Clintons against Obama, most democrats were torn between their love/loyalty to the Clintons and the inspiration and fresh start Obama represented. The passion for the Clintons that Bill had so masterfully cultivated, died in 2008. Hillary needed much more than a "get out the vote" movement this time around because her electorate was disillusioned.

John McCain set the next piece in place, necessary for Hillary to not have a chance at winning in 2016 when he made Sarah Palin his running mate. What Sarah Palin did for the first time in a very long time was to give political voice to the extreme fringe of the right wing (racist xenophobes and extreme Christian conservatives). This group was a dying breed that was nearly cut off from all possible pathways to real political power until Sarah Palin became their champion. They organized in ways that they had not ever before and although they could not defeat Obama, they were able to get representation within the senate and congress in the form of Tea Party members and sympathizers. Over the next 8 years of Obama's presidency they continued to organized under various identities (Alt Right Movement and others) and they were prepared to bring out long uncounted voters to the polls. When Trump attached himself to their cause, he was rewarded with their 8 years organized "get out the fringe vote" machine.

Trump is a disgusting opportunist who's only goal is power by any means. He is not at all put off by the ideals of the people he has allied himself with so long as his alliance guarantees him a path to ultimate power.