Contrarian Quick Take: No Recount for Clinton
I am absolutely, totally and completely opposed to any attempt to audit the vote count in any state from the 2016 General Election that chose Donald J. Trump 45th President of the United States instead of Hillary Clinton. It doesn’t matter that Clinton’s vote tally is now 2 million more than Trump’s. It doesn’t matter if the difference reaches 3 million, 5 million or 10 million votes. There is a principle involved here. We don’t elect our Presidents by popular vote. We choose them in the Electoral College at the state level and Clinton lost.
There will be no abolition of the Electoral College because it’s very difficult to alter the Constitution to accomplish that. The Founding Fathers designed the Constitution to make that sort of thing extraordinarily hard to do. Also, you should forget about trying to change state laws that govern how their electors are chosen. It’s far, far too late for that now. And by the way, you can’t rely on “faithless electors” changing the result and you really shouldn’t. This is how we choose our Presidents and Democrats, I’m sorry but you lost. As appalling and frightening as his administration may turn out to be, this country earned and deserves this President.
If you don’t like President-elect Trump, consider that an estimated 41.6% of eligible voters did not cast a ballot in 2016. That’s 96,421,324 people who simply decided not to vote. That means nearly 1/3 of you didn’t care enough on November 8, 2016 to make your voice heard. Why are people in support of some stupid idea made by a bunch of idiot election lawyers and egghead computer geeks that is 100% doomed to fail? If you think you may have made a mistake by not voting and are traumatized that Trump and his jolly pirate crew are going to be calling all the shots for the next 4 years, well…you should have thought of that 2 weeks ago.
And by the way, why would a politician with the long experience and savvy of Mrs. Clinton subject herself to an even more humiliating loss than we, the voters of the United States, gave her earlier this month? I urge her to stay out of politics and reject this call for a recount. The American people clearly do not want her in public office and I implore those behind this ridiculous notion to stop trying to find magic tricks that will upend the election process so you can put her in the White House.
I know this all sounds terribly harsh. Well, it is. I’m no fan of Trump either but I know when I’ve been beat. I ask that the great masses of broken-hearted progressives out there who still can’t believe it to please stop this madness. If you don’t like your new Republican national government, fine. Whine and complain about them about them to your heart’s content. Whatever. But if you don’t vote, don’t expect some legal or technological miracle to save you post-election. Focus on 2018 when the entire House of Representatives is on the ballot and most of the Senate. Concentrate on getting your local GOP statehouses and governors flipped from red to blue. Oh, you say Democrats can’t win the House because of gerrymandering? You say the Democrats have 23 seats to defend in 2018 to the Republicans 8? Well, Donald Trump was supposed to get crushed in this election. The Senate was supposed to go blue and even the House was supposed to be in play. Since when are we going to believe anything Nate Silver has to say anymore?
Look, it’s this simple. If you really and truly believe that “I wasn’t given any real choice” so you stayed at home instead, then may I suggest you and your fine sensibilities move to Russia? I can guarantee that you won’t ever have to worry about what your vote means or doesn’t mean there. One-way flights from New York to Moscow on good, reputable airlines start as low as $399.
Do you know what Privilege is?
Do you know what Privilege is?
It is the ability of being able to vote for someone like Donald Trump, to support him and his policies, and yet insist that you are not a bigot.
It is the ability to say “I Matter, Too”, “I’m Being Left Out” and “I Want My Country Back” when people like you have been running this nation ever since it was founded.
It is the ability to ignore the fact that if you are a white, straight, Christian man, you have never had occasion to fear who you are in this country and that so very many people because of the color of their skin, because of where they came from, because of what they believe, because of who they love or simply because they are women have had a very long time to become afraid of you and with good reason.
It is the ability to say something absurd like “The millions of people who voted for Trump can’t all be bigots”, including your family, friends and neighbors based solely on the belief that half the country can’t be so brazenly racist, sexist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, misogynistic and ultra-nationalist. Yes they can and yes they are, regardless of how as shockingly high a number that appears to be.
What allows us to rise as one people is the understanding that all of us are bigots to some extent. Nobody likes to think they are a bigot, but to some degree everyone is. I’m a bigot. You’re a bigot. Everyone is somehow prejudiced and it is something that each one of us must strive to overcome.
What many of us fail to understand is that prejudice does not require intent. All it requires is the refusal to acknowledge that there are so many people who hate and despise other people solely because of their race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. and then justify their hatred as something other than plain and simple bigotry. We must acknowledge once and for all that racism comes in many forms. It comes as traditions, rules, laws, codes of behavior and all manner of things above and beyond calling someone a cruel name or using an arcane label.
It is saying “You people are lazy”, “You people aren’t strong enough”, “You people cheat and are miserly”, “You people are an abomination against God”, “You people are all violent” or just “You people don’t know your place” and not understand that this is bigotry in its purest form. It is the delusion that by depriving basic human rights from others that you are just protecting your heritage, your religion or your “way of life”. It is excusing your own hatred as “just my opinion”. It is this belief that “No, it can’t be me. I’m not a bigot.” which permits institutions that allow bigotry to stand, function and grow unabated.
What is Privilege? It is the ability to excuse a man who divides the country using every form of bigotry there is and then speaks about unity only after he gets his way. It is believing that by having women and minorities on the staff will somehow make him immune to the charge of being a sexist, a misogynist or a racist. It is ability to ignore the reality that this same man, who by filling the West Wing with known racists, white supremacists and even eugenicists, sends a powerful signal to many in this nation that he intends to hold his grip on power by continuing to divide with fear and prejudice. And it is the inability to acknowledge that by supporting him, you have taken sides with a terrible man who has said terrible things against millions of your brothers and sisters and appears prepared to continue to do terrible things because he like all of us is a bigot. But not just any ordinary bigot. He is a bigot with near limitless power to act on his hatred.
November 8, 2016 may in all likelihood be remembered as the day when we literally decided to make this country as ugly as it could be. I remain curious. What was the Great Sin his opponent committed that you couldn’t live with? Perceived dishonesty? The potential for graft? The failure to acknowledge that These People Don’t Belong Here? The desire for vengeance and punishment for crimes that for over four decades the law could not see but somehow he could? What was it that for all the danger, the hatred and the bigotry that this man represents you still found him a better choice? How comfortable will you still feel about what you did that day when it’s Election Day 2020 and you have the chance to validate him yet again? How about four years after that when the true extent of the damage he has done can be seen? Or in ten years, when you try to explain to your children why you did it to begin with?
We were asked by his supporters to give him a chance. But how many chances do you want us to keep giving and how long do you ask that we wait? The next election cycle will undoubtedly be too late for some.
Maybe for all.
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