The Electoral College is in one hell of a spotlight right now. Votes may still be coming in, but it's pretty clear: Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. However, with 305 Electoral Votes promised to Trump, he's been pronounced our President-Elect, and over the last two days we've all been learning how (or if) we can deal with that. One way to deal? Not dealing with it. A Change.org petition has started urging the Electoral College to use their votes for good and not evil and instead, on December 19th, place their votes for Hillary Clinton.
How could that possibly work? If, like me, you had an Electoral College-related headache at least twice today trying to figure out what's going on here, it's actually not too crazy: the Electoral College was essentially created for a situation just like this. As this incredibly in-depth Huffington Post article details, the system was set because of a distrust of democracy among the American people. "[Alexander] Hamilton raised the danger of what he called 'tumult and disorder'," the article states, "If the people voted directly for President, there is the probability that an election will 'convulse the community with . . . extraordinary or violent movements.'"
Well, hey, if electing an ignorant reality star who supports sexual violence and the assassination of his political rival doesn't sound "extraordinary or violent," then the Electoral College might as well pack it up and call it a day. And yo, if they went that route, Hillary Clinton would win the election! In short: we're screwed, because the Electoral College finally, officially makes no sense at all.
Now, is there any real hope that our friends in their Electoral Fraternity #arewithher? Well, to quote Washington Post's brutal, dream-crushing article, "Ha ha ha ha ha no." (Side note: I hate this article because it hurts me, but I also feel the writer might feel the same.) But since it seems there's really nothing we can do to stop the end of days (January 20th), why not grasp at a final straw and sign this petition anyway? I once learned from the Princess Diaries soundtrack that miracles happen, once in a while, if you believe, so consider me signed up for a miracle. And you can too!
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