Politics
The election is over, so what is there left to talk about in this section? The hysterical overreaction to the election results, of course!
This week, the guy who told people they were fired on The Apprentice was hired by America. It was an astounding result to many, but for many on the left, their astonishment quickly turned to fear. And as we all know thanks to Yoda: "Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering."
Media voices were on the whole unhelpful at calming everyone down. Buzzfeed's doomsaying about Trump certainly didn't help matters at all. And although Stephen Colbert initially struck a note of frustration but urged unity on Election Night, he followed that up with this nonsense encouraging the #NotMyPresident crowd: "...for eight years, a lot of people wouldn't accept that Barack Obama was President of the United States – for instance, Donald Trump."
First of all, he's speaking about the birther movement, which (a) was a fringe group of fringe groups that absolutely no one took seriously and (b) didn't debate whether Obama was president, but rather where he was born. So Colbert is just patently wrong here. But more than that, statements like this divide rather than unify, in a time when our nation desperately needs unity.
Speaking of statements that are unfounded and divisive, here's Van Jones claiming that Trump was elected because people are racist, and that this election represents a "whitelash" against President Obama. This is a ridiculous and insulting misreading of the election results from someone who is supposed to be a trusted political analyst on CNN.
First of all, Trump was running against Hillary Clinton, not Barack Obama. Second, exit polls showed that Donald Trump actually performed better with minorities than Mitt Romney did in 2012. "But he won white working class voters due to racism, right?" No, Trump won white working class voters because of his economic message, which blamed their troubles on illegal immigration and bad trade deals. Sure, he did so in a way that attracted the little-but-loud white nationalists of the alt-Right, but I get the feeling that Trump does not agree with their ideals.
To suggest that the largest group of American voters voted primarily due to racial hatred is itself racist and dehumanizing toward white working class voters. Van Jones and others pushing this line of argument need to be more responsible in their reactions and seek to understand why the white working class vote switched allegiance to Trump, rather than taking the easy cop-out of "most Trump voters are racists."
Now I'll briefly address one facepalm-worthy argument I've heard in response to the election: we should abolish the Electoral College, because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, say some prominent liberals and Michael Dukakis!
Here's the problem. One, there may still be uncounted ballots (7 million of them!), so we don't know the popular vote totals yet. Furthermore, there's no guarantee Hillary Clinton would actually win this election in a national popular vote system – and let's be honest, the only reason some on the Left are calling for the abolition of the Electoral College is because their candidate didn't win under its rules.
We live in a representative democracy, not a pure democracy – and thank goodness we do. Pure democracy entails governance by popular majority and actually suppresses minorities. A pure democracy is also much more prone to cultural and legal change at sudden and harmful speeds, because people are fickle. This causes resentment to build up amidst minority populations that may explode violently. The Electoral College moderates democracy in favor of minorities.
So let's follow the Domenech Rule and pump the brakes on abolishing the Electoral College, in case we ever end up in the popular minority.
And now I suppose I should write about the protests.
People have the right to free speech, even when that speech emerges from anguish and anger, and I respect that right. However, protesting a free democratic election simply because you don't like the result moves the needle from "having a legitimate grievance" to "throwing a temper tantrum."
Protests like those of this past week divide America further, and actually assure reluctant Trump voters that they made the right choice, especially when those protests turn violent. I would assume that confirming Trump voters in their choices is not the result the Left wants.
Yes, #NotMyPresident, Donald Trump IS your president. You may not like it. I didn't like it when America elected Barack Obama to office. But I didn't go out into the streets and march with signs calling Obama a threat to our democracy while damaging property.
I hope and pray our country can unite in the face of Trump. This is not a great start.
Movie of the Week
This update is already far too long, so in brief: I went to see Arrival. It was the best sci-fi movie I've seen since Interstellar, if a bit slow at points. You should go see it. 4/5 Stars.
Sports
My goodness, college football. Just when we think we have you all figured out. Three out of the top four teams in the playoff lost this week, but they were undefeated, so none of them are eliminated from playoff contention.
However, I'm going to break a bit of protocol here and violate The Rules. (GASP!) Oklahoma State is a team I have overlooked. They lost to Central Michigan due to bad officiating, so they really have only one legitimate loss, and they've looked very good these past few weeks, so they reach the playoff after surviving against Texas Tech this week. (No, Oklahoma, I'm not letting you in to contention yet. You have two actual losses.)
In addition to Oklahoma State, the teams still in contention for the College Football Playoff according to The Rules are Clemson, Louisville, West Virginia, Michigan, Ohio State, Western Michigan, Washington, and Alabama.
The less said about my Baylor Bears this week, the better. I'll let Our Daily Bears do the talking.
Etc.
I apologize for the politically heavy Update. Hopefully this will be the last one that is so unbalanced. After next week's Update, I will be taking a three-week break for exams and traveling home from law school.
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