Make America Laugh Again: Anti-Trump Protest in Jacksonville

Jacksonville had its first post-election anti-Trump rally on November 11, 2016, at Riverside Park. I went expecting to see the same kind of anger and anarchy that has been showing up in other cities. I’m happy to report that I didn’t see anything like that. The event started out with about ten people lighting candles and making signs with magic markers. Over the course of the next hour, the group grew to about fifty.

There was more sadness than anger. Some people are genuinely concerned about what happens next. That's understandable considering the President-elect's rhetoric and his past. The comments offered up were positive, focusing on the need for political change. There were no chants of “Not my President.” After about an hour, the group joined in singing several songs, ending with The Star Spangled Banner.

There seemed to be an acceptance that the results of the election weren’t what most of the people at the event would have liked. There was also determination about how to move forward. There was no burning of flags and no destruction of property. The event was an entirely proper expression of free speech. It would be nice if the demonstrators in other cities could follow the example of the participants in the Jacksonville event.

Grieving over a political loss

As a write-in candidate with no party affiliation, I was soundly defeated in my bid to represent Florida’s 4^th Congressional District. The winner, Republican John Rutherford, got over 168,000 votes. There were 477 write-in votes and there's no way to really know how many of those were for me. It’s fair to say that I was thrashed, throttled, and thrown under a bus.

Were my supporters upset? Deeply. Did they organize protests and then riots? No. After 24 hours, they all moved on with their lives. The courage of those volunteers is just unbelievable! They are an inspiration to me and I hope that others who are upset over the results of the election will look at them as role models. I know I do.

It was a Trump-ific and Trump-endous election!

Donald Trump likes the word terrific. Another good word is tremendous. And those two words can be combined: tremendously terrific and terrifically tremendous. Also, it’s probably time to add a few brand new words to the language: Trumpific and Trumpendous. It’s just a matter of time!

Abolish the Electoral College?

Getting rid of the Electoral College would require a Constitutional amendment, which isn't easy. According to the National Archives, “The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures.”

If a movement to amend the Constitution could overcome that very high hurdle, the amendment would then have to be ratified/approved by three quarters of the states. Here’s the insurmountable problem. The less populous states will never agree to give up any of their clout in national elections so that the more populous states could have more clout. It will never happen.

The states can determine what happens to their Electoral votes. Most states simply award all of their votes to whichever candidate wins in their own state. Nebraska and Maine split their votes based on the results of the election in their own state.

Also, there's an effort to get states to award their votes to the winner of the popular vote nationally. If states with 270 Electoral votes or more agree to that, it would ensure that the winner of the popular vote would win the election.

Renunciation of Citizenship?

People are saying “Trump is not my President.” Actually, unless people renounce their citizenship, Trump will, in fact, be their President. Like it, or not. Fortunately, there is a guidebook on how to go about renouncing citizenship.