EVERYONE is talking about how the Electoral College screwed us, and for the second Republican administration in a row, ignored the popular vote. Well, there may have been a discrepancy, and while the Electoral College definitely chose the wrong person both times, there’s more to it than that. Donald Trump was elected because he got the most Electoral College votes, which are calculated every ten years based on the Census. The population of a state determines how many Electoral votes that state gets, and all but two of them (Nebraska and Maine) have an all-or-nothing format in which the person with the most popular votes gets the entire count of the Electoral College votes. Therefore, the larger the popular (like in California, New York, Texas, Florida, Ohio, and others) the more Electoral votes and the more influence your state has on the outcome of the Presidential general election.
Everyone is talking about getting rid of the Electoral College because it elected Donald Trump. However, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Getting rid of the Electoral College would allow entire states to be ignored. States that have a small population would never sway an election voted on by the entire country. Even now, small populations get only 3 electoral votes. That’s the minimum. They deserve a voice, too. Moreover, the 2020 U.S. Census will probably give more Electoral votes to Democratic states than the 2010 Census, giving less and less influence to Republicans.
It’s clear what’s happening here: Democrats are moving. They’re huddling together in Manhattan and Cali and creating, well, some of the greatest places EVER but leaving behind states that, since they left, are now nearly 100% Republican.
If you want Texas to vote Democratic and you’re a Democrat, move to Texas and vote there. If you’re already in Texas and are a Democrat and who wants Texas to give all of this Electoral votes to the Democrat running for President, then DON’T LEAVE TEXAS! We already have enough people in California and New York and all over New England. We need Democrats to spread out. We need that one brave Democrat to move to Kansas, set up camp, and create a safe space for other Democrats to sneak in. It’ll do us no good to have an 80% Democratic state somewhere and only 20% elsewhere when we could have 60% in both states, getting all the votes in both places.
Donald Trump didn’t win just because of this, but when no one is there to calm down crazy Republicans because they’re left all alone to their conspiracies and their birther lies and their sexism and their homophobism and their racism and their…geez, they’re messed up!
The point is they’re never going to change if you don’t help them. We need to foster inclusivity. We need to walk up to a Republican and prove we’re not bad people. We need to find the moderate Republicans who will flip their friends who are so far gone that they won’t even listen to us, but we need to give those moderate Republicans a reason, and fleeing their states like those Republicans have a disease is not going to work. Insulting them in not going to work. What will work is waiting for them to be enlightened and stop treating everyone like crap, but I think it’s worth noting that they might be getting larger so I don’t think it’s safe to just let them run rampant and assume they’ll die out on their own.
We need to protest against their disgusting behavior and that of their representatives. We need to grow our Democratic base. We need to have record voter turnout for all future elections. This election should remind us that, no matter what we feel, we’re wrong if we think not every single vote counts. We need every single Democrat to vote for all positions, not just for President.
This country is divided. It’s okay that the other side won this time. Congrats to them. Seriously. We need to support them. However, we need to support ourselves, too. We have a voice, too. No matter who wins, the side that lost should continue to have their voice, as much as Trump and his base doesn’t want that. So, we need to ensure that we flood the streets, keep protesting, make our voices heard, and get Trump to listen to us or at least get a majority in the House. We won’t get a majority in the Senate in 2018. That’s for sure. However, we can definitely try to get a majority in the House, but we’re going to need A LOT of help.