Let me start saying that although I didn't like Hillary Clinton I was terrified of Donald Trump winning the election. His comments in areas like foreign policy, immigration or women issues and specially the real danger that all the progress we made in LGBT rights could be overturned by an administration full of homophobes made me worried about it. All my family voted for Clinton, and then we sat in front of the TV waiting for a result that seemed to be almost certain.
As the night progressed, we saw with crescent panic how the states that supposed to vote blue went red. After the last hope went down with Pennsylvania the reality set in. We will have Donald Trump as President for the next 4 years.
Much have been said in the following days about him loosing the Popular vote and the necessity of eliminate the Electoral College. Now, in my modest opinion, let me explain why that would be wrong.
America is not only made by 50 different States. The composition of those States is completely different from one to another. And that's exactly what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they created the Electoral College. Think about for a moment, Clinton won in almost every big city. From NYC to Miami, Houston, Dallas, Chicago or L.A. Of course, the city population have a more liberal view in issues like gays or lesbians, abortion or foreign policy. This is why we see the protests in many cities right now against the results. But this country is not made only by the cities. There are millions of americans that live in the countryside, they have other views, more conservative. I will not go deep to say if their views are right or wrong, that's part of another conversation. The point is that they have a right to an opinion also, they have the right to vote, and make their votes count.
If we get rid of the Electoral College, what can States like North and South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Alaska, Nebraska or Kentucky do? They are made almost entirely of rural areas and not a big population. But they know their votes count in a general election. If we get rid of the Electoral College, we will send a message to them. We don't care about them. The candidates wouldn't care about them neither. They would campaign only in states with big population: New York, California, Texas, Florida or Pensilvania. The whole countryside would be left forgotten. Why would they take the time to go and vote when they know they will not decide anything? That would be a big mistake.
Democracy is the ability to accept that you are not the only one. We need to accept the results and live with them. And maybe next time we will do better. That takes me to the next point. We are ALL americans.
A Donald Trump government is not an alien government. We need to give our support to him as americans, and hope his government success. At the same time his administration needs to understand that America is not only the GOP. Not everyone is christian, not everyone is a conservative. That's the art of being President. When his administration make a law, they need to make sure is not only for the advantage of christians, or republicans, or muslims for that matter. They need to, at least, try to make laws good for all americans: christians and muslims, gays and heterosexuals, whites and blacks. We all have rights, we are all citizens.
To those protesting now, I can only tell them: Next time, VOTE! and then hope for the best.
