Further Thoughts on the Election

For the record, the USA has never been a pure democracy. It’s always been a representative democracy,  meaning the people select representatives who decide what’s best. When it works, this minimizes the usual B.S. of bad public opinion steamrolling over good public policy and angry or ignorant majorities ignoring rights of minorities. If the reps always vote the way polls say the people want, that’s not necessarily a good thing, as We the People often want stupid, ignorant, hateful, or short-sighted things.

On the other hand, if our representatives rarely or never vote the way we want, that’s a Very Bad Thing, as it leads to large numbers losing faith in the system and not voting, so a tiny minority can win the next election, which is what has happened this time.

According to unofficial reports, Clinton won a few million more votes than Trump — but almost 47% of the eligible voters did not vote. Some of that is due to GOP efforts to suppress votes, and that appears to have been more than enough to change the Electoral College outcome — but the bigger question is how do We the People regain control of our government if this many of our citizens are not involved in even the easiest form of participation?

Voting is not the only way We the People have an impact on what our government does, but it is the bedrock upon which the other ways rest. Certainly, having good candidates matters, too, but those candidates will be swayed by money and other forms of influence once elected if we don’t do more than just vote — and they can ignore our needs and choices much more freely if they know that all it takes is slightly more than 25% to get elected.

Actual democracy is messy and representative democracy is frustrating, but no one has come up with a better system so far. We the People need to be much more involved or watch these tiny percentages continue to run the country and do so badly.

The outcome of this election was NOT the voice of any so-called Silent Majority being heard. Nothing about America suggests that we are ever silent and the majority either did not vote or they voted for candidates that lost.