by Zack Downing, Staff Writer
In a year where the Chicago Cubs won the World Series and Leonardo Dicaprio won an Oscar, the winner of the presidential election ended up being the biggest surprise.
On Nov. 8, Donald Trump snatched the presidency away from Hillary Clinton in what has been called the biggest political upset in the history of the United States.
The reactions from Americans have been all over the map. Trump supporters rejoiced and acted like they expected it all along. Newscasters were stunned on live television, and celebrities made long, melancholic posts on Facebook about the state of humanity.
Many of Hillary’s supporters did that as well, posting all over the internet about how distraught they were. However, most of them woke up the next day and continued their lives as if nothing had happened.
Not all opponents of Trump sat quietly, though. Following the election, there were mass protests all over the country fighting the election results.
Crowds of people marched through the city, chanting sentiments like, “Not my president!” against their president-elect. Some protests even got violent, with enough aggression to be categorized as riots.
The wave of protests was met with just as much controversy as the man who triggered them.
Some claimed that the protests were outrageous and unnecessary, and that the election results should be accepted.
Others defended the protests and said that Trump supporters would have done the same thing against Hillary.
Never in history has a presidential election been met with such widespread organized protests.
Do the protests prove that Trump is the worst president-elect we’ve ever had, or do they prove that Hillary’s supporters are immature and cry when they don’t get their way?
Now, it is true that this generation of new voters is perhaps the most thin-skinned, entitled, and stubborn group the voting booths have ever seen.
They took Bernie and Hillary’s losses not in an open minded way, but as world-ending events that would somehow ruin their lives.
That being said, I still think the anti-Trump protests were ultimately not a bad idea.
It definitely communicated the message that people weren’t simply unhappy with the election results, they were angry.
The Executive Office has never seen revolt like this, and it’s hurt Trump’s reputation even more than ever.
Now, I don’t condone the violence that has been seen at some of the events. Peaceful protesting is effective, but once you start hurting people and property, you become the bad guy.
Another problem with the protesters’ attitudes is that a lot of them think the protests will somehow change the tide of the election; that somehow the government will see them and say, “Hey, maybe we should switch presidents.”
That can’t and won’t happen.
Putting forth your opinion in a public setting is great, but stop acting like you’re waging war on the vote count. Your candidate lost, their candidate won, democracy works that way.
The public’s outcry against Trump doesn’t mean anything when a few weeks ago the public outcried for him while he was still just a candidate.
Another thing I must mention, I’m sick of people blaming the Electoral College for Trump’s victory.
Many unorthodox ingredients led to his win, but the political system of our country isn’t one of them.
The “Electoral College” in itself is a misleading name. In reality, it’s 50 different state elections that combine into the entire United States’ vote.
Trump won the right states and campaigned more intelligently, and because of his strategies he won. Hillary never even visited Wisconsin, an important state she lost.
If the Electoral College benefits anyone, it’s the Democratic Party anyways. They have California in the bag every election, with 55 electoral votes.The real reason Hillary lost isn’t a rigged election or nationwide racism, it was voter apathy.
You see passionate Trump supporters all over TV, you probably know some, and the South is full of them. Where have you ever seen a passionate Hillary supporter? We live in the most liberal state in the U.S., and yet I have never met someone who was crazy about her.
If the protesters have anyone to blame for her loss, it’s themselves. Where were they before the election? There were no giant Hillary rallies, no calls to action, no one was on the side of the street with Hillary signs. They all thought the election was in the bag, and because of that we had the biggest upset in history.
Maybe anti-Trump protests should have taken place before the election, when it actually would have mattered. That would have made more sense.
In conclusion, the protests are good for communicating a message, but bad for making a difference.
Trump’s our president for the next four years, and you’re gonna have to vote next time to stop it from being eight.