Donald Trump’s election was clearly a rude shock for the
ruling elites of the country, and I can understand the disbelief and dismay the
next day. But he did win, and not even by a close margin (290 to 228 electoral
votes). Yes, the popular vote counted
may be slightly in Hillary’s favor, though in many states absentee ballots are
not counted unless the election is close, and historically absentee ballots
tend to go 2-1 for Republicans, so the real popular vote is probably closer,
and may even be in Trump’s favor. But in any case it doesn’t matter – our system
runs with the Electoral College vote, for good reason (see my earlier post on
that).
But we are past the first day. As President Obama said to
the Republicans when he was elected “I won. Deal with it” (his version was wordier, but essentially the
same message).
So why, four days after the election, are there still anti-Trump
demonstrators in the streets? This isn’t
a banana republic (I hope) where crowds refuse to recognize election results.
So why is there a movement, led largely by elites and media
stars, to subvert the Electoral College by convincing electors to abandon their
pledges? Over 60 million people voted for Trump. Do you think the heartland of the nation would
really stand for such a tactic? If it
succeeded there really would be armed rebellion in the streets.
When Obama was elected President lots of conservatives and Republicans
were unhappy, but they didn’t march in the streets or propose to undo the election
result. So why are liberal followers acting like petulant children? Parties lose
elections. Then they pull up their socks,
figure out what they did wrong, and go to work to win the next election. They
don’t sulk.
But what I see tonight on the web, in the press, on TV (all
largely dominated by liberals) is a constant drumbeat trying to delegitimize
our duly-elected next president. Yes, they may not agree with him (that’s
reality in politics – sometimes people who think differently then you win), but
he is the next president of our nation, and deserves our backing and goodwill at
least at the start of his term. If he screws up, then it’s fair to
attack him.
Part of the problem, of course, is that Hillary and her team
did everything they could to demonize him, and they were pretty good at
it. And the media, hardly unbiased, helped,
by being a bit selective in quoting him and editing the clips of him. And it is
still going on. I see an article tonight from People Magazine which distorts what he said in his 60 minutes
interview. (they report that he intends to prosecute Hillary. He actually said
he not only hadn’t decided about that, but that he didn’t want to hurt her, and
anyway he had far more urgent priorities).
I’m not happy with some of Trump’s positions, nor some of
his language. And I didn’t vote for him (or Hillary either). But he is our duly-elected next president. Let’s
get real and move on.
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