Off the Path I'm Beating

     I absolutely apologize for being so late. I know some of you guys can't sleep at night until you've read what I have to say. My wife and I are on vacation this week and I completely lost track of what day it was. We were on our way home from Adventure Aquarium today when it dawned on me that I forgot to blog. I figured I would veer from discussing my thesis to talking about something even more frightening- the election.

     I don't want to focus on how terrible it is that Trump won. Let's be honest, he had a 50/50 shot and it's not like our other option was no Abe Lincoln. Truthfully, he hasn't even taken office yet so no one has any clue whether or not he'll be horrible at the job or not.

     Instead, I wanted to look at the aftermath of the outcome and how some people are behaving like petulant children. Protests? Riots (because what else should you call destruction of property)? Demanding an overhaul of the electoral college? Okay, maybe Al Gore would support you on that last one.

     What is causing these people to behave so poorly? This is the same behavior they most likely ridiculed at Pro-Trump rallies prior to the election. What happened to "When they go low, we go high"? So far it seems like Trump is throwing everyone for a loop by acting, well, unTrump-like. He seemed gracious and wasn't gloating in his acceptance speech. He's confusing me; I'll just wait for the other shoe to drop and hope to be surprised when nothing bad happens.

     First, I blame the media for portraying him as a boogeyman. Don't get me wrong, he seems downright deplorable at times and has said some pretty heinous stuff. But I've heard that multiple media outlets really tried to slant things in Clinton's favor. This type of propaganda causes those who don't fully read up on what's happening (unfortunately most people) to use sound bytes as the bedrock of their beliefs.

     Some people think that now Trump is President-elect, we are all racist now. As is the coast is clear and we can drop the charade. My wife has a friend on Facebook who posted an angry reaction to the election, warning people not to tell her "to be angry with white people." Why are you mad at me?

     I also blame people for not remembering anything from civics or government classes they took in school. Sorry if Clinton won the popular vote, but we were all taught about the electoral college and we can't change it just because the person we wanted to win didn't. It seems that most of these people (who all grew up getting ribbons and medals) can't handle being on the losing side of a vote.

How millennials saw the election going

     These riots and protests won't change anything. A radio host on 101.5 put it best when he said that America isn't a Banana Republic that will have a redo just because you don't like the outcome. If anything, these people are becoming the havoc and doom they were worried about. And don't say that Trump isn't your president, he is. Stubborn refusal to accept this fact will only lead to disappointment.

     So that's it. That's the rant. And I didn't vote for Trump.