It is day seven into Trump’s America, yet the sky hasn’t fallen. In fact, the world looks much as it did before Election Day.
There was no shortage of scandal or mudslinging in the campaigns leading up to Nov. 8, but the current reality is that America has chosen its candidate, and it is time to move forward for the good of the nation.
Well, that depends on who you ask.
Since news of Trump’s victory broke around 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, thousands of millennial snowflakes have taken to the streets, rioting, burning the American flag and chanting “F— Trump!” to no end at various universities across the country. Without remorse, many have shamed conservative voters as ignorant and uneducated and refuse to accept the results of the election.
Additionally, these snowflakes have started a number of online petitions in attempt to somehow undo Trump’s victory. One online petition calls to abolish the Electoral College simply because Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, despite her being only the fifth candidate in history to win the popular vote but lose the Electoral College.
Another aims to force electors of the Electoral College to swap their votes for Clinton on Dec. 19, giving Clinton the office instead of Trump. This route is unlikely, however, considering electors vote for the candidate they are bound to 99 percent of the time, and it would take a swath of electors to swap their vote for Clinton in order for her to win. Additionally, electors are mostly chosen by state parties. Only 157 times has there been a faithless elector in the history of our republic.
While these forms of protest are not uncommon in America’s current era of “political activism” and “social justice,” there is a reason that college students act this way. When someone is treated like a child at such repetition customary of higher education, with safe spaces and the like, they will inevitably act like a child.
Last Wednesday, a plethora of university professors and administrators, from Cornell to Stanford, canceled classes and even postponed tests, giving our millennial snowflakes sufficient time to “cope” with the results of the presidential election. I highly doubt, had the Electoral College results mirrored Clinton’s popular vote majority, either of the above universities would have offered a day for students to cope with the election results.
What this portion of the electorate, specifically the world of Academia, fails to understand and must acknowledge before 2020, is that the fairest majority of the country (determined by the Electoral College) does not like being told how to live their lives. They don’t like being judged on the scale of political correctness, and at the end of the day, their wallet is more important than their feelings.
It’s no surprise that when forced to choose between the two most disliked major party nominees in modern political history, independents and undecided voters broke for Trump in the waning moments. When backed into such a corner, the middle class is mostly concerned with their livelihood and safety. After eight years of what they determine to be uncertainty in those key areas, a vote for change was likely inspiring.
Trying to undo the process now, or persuade electors into believing the prospect of a President Trump is too dangerous to our republic, is called sour grapes. It is also called failing to accept the results of the election and the will of the voters.
The founders intentionally established the Electoral College to protect us against a bare majority, and there was never any intention amongst the Continental Congress to create a pure majority-rule democracy. The Electoral College provides checks and balances to the process, preventing a single ideology or branch of government from dominating the political landscape. It was not until a partisan lens was applied, after the most unpredictable and unprecedented upset in presidential election history, that the Electoral College began to seem unfair for this crowd.
As we are a democratic republic, the Electoral College mirrors this ideology by acknowledging the 50 states and the District of Columbia as individual representatives of the collective masses, assigning each entity with a vote total that corresponds to their respective populations. This process and its greater purpose was well known and accepted by voters prior to Tuesday’s election.
Although his rhetoric may have disenfranchised percentages of every demographic throughout campaign season, Trump won the presidency the only way our county has ever awarded it. No petition by our millennial snowflakes can undo or discredit this feat.
Everyone is likely feeling some level of anxiety over what a Trump presidency will bring our country after such a long and turbulent campaign season. As Clinton supporters, it is only natural that our snowflakes are distraught after her unexpected defeat.
But the violent, aggressive and disrespectful response by millennials and other liberal voters thus far, and their attack on the Electoral College, will only reinforce the motivations independent and undecided voters had to break for Trump in the first place.