Well, that was shocking.
I still feel sick and down and worried and ashamed about Trump becoming the next President of the USA. On the bright side (?), Clinton got more votes than Trump did, and he didn't get 300 electoral college votes, and most Americans did not vote for Trump (maybe only 60% who could vote did vote, and about half of those voted for him). On the dark side, he's appointed a man to be the head of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) who says the Clean Power Plan is illegal, is supported by the coal industry, and believes that global warming is a myth. And that's just one big post... ANYWAY, on Wednesday morning (Japan time) I got to my office and Hillary had an 85% chance of winning (so the experts said). By about noon it had been reversed and Trump was on his way to becoming the next president. In culture class Thursday, I had to laugh to avoid crying... and we spent about 60 minutes doing questions and comments about the election etc., and I told the class finally that after all I'm from California, not from the USA (I even melodramatically tore up my passport before their eyes at the end--and then when they gasped, told them it was only an expired one!). My English conversation class students asked a lot of questions about the Electoral College system: who are the voters in it, why does America do it that way, can they vote against their states, and so on. My two Korean students said that Korea only has a popular vote, and that their presidents can serve for five years with no re-election possible. In Japan, voters vote for politicians in their political parties, and then the politicians in the majority party select the prime minister. I wonder if America could get rid of the Electoral College system and just use a popular vote?? (It'd be too late for Hillary...) I guess I'm most disappointed because the result shows that too many Americans didn't want a woman president and because too many Americans chose a guy who's said such coarse, ugly, false things about women, minorities, immigrants, Muslims, and who whined about "rigged election" and refused to say if he'd accept the result of the election, and who has projected the image of a crude bully. I am trying to hope that the office, tradition, and system of the President will somehow make him a better leader, but am usually hoping that he does so horribly that people won't re-elect him. . . Sigh...
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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