HCH 13 / November 2016

The Failure of Democracy. The people bring a psycho-racist-clown to the White House, by Antonia Tejeda Barros

America has proved that democracy is a complete failure. Either that or a great deal of people on this planet are terribly stupid… How is it possible that a racist-sexist-psycho-dangerous-clown has been elected president of the United States? Some American friends of mine are saying that the Democrats will win in 2020; yeah, right, that’s if the world still exists…

I know that it sounds politically incorrect, but I have always been skeptical about the democratic system. This is the system that already brought to Spain far too many of right-wing conservative crappy governments, this is the system that revived the Neo-Nazis in Austria, and this is the system that has brought today a racist-sexist-psycho-dangerous-clown to the White House.

That’s why I almost never vote. Because the system is a failure. I have voted only in one occasion, and that was after the terrorist attacks in Atocha in Madrid in 2004, after Aznar-the-clown joined Bush-the-rat in his crusade for oil in Irak. But, if I were American, I would have probably voted on November 8. Because world peace was at stake. And now, after the results, the world can tremble.

But the sad thing, and the point is, that this racist-sexist-psycho-dangerous-clown is actually nobody. He alone would have never arrived to the White House. In the same way that Hitler was a nobody and that the Holocaust and gas chambers were produced thanks to the support, collaboration and willingness of 90% of the Germans (in ’42), Trump is going to be there thanks to the support of millions of common people, including many women and some non-whites. Funny, huh?

Donald Trump is openly racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic and aggressive. And millions of people have voted for him. Hitler was openly racist, sexist, xenophobic, homophobic and aggressive. And people loved him. Who’s to blame here? Hitler or the common Germans? Trump or the common Americans?

Another important point is that the votes in this election were very close. And that proves that democracy is a failure. What do you do with the millions of Americans who did not voted for Trump? Those millions of whites, blacks, latinos, native-Americans, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, straights, gays, poor and rich who did not vote for this clown? I don’t like Republican politics, but I do admire all those Republicans who did not vote for Trump. But in this crappy system, that wasn’t enough.

The big joke is that Clinton won the popular vote. In America, it doesn’t really matter how many people vote, because the math does not go per vote but per electoral college, and at the end, the only factors that matters are the “key” States. Clinton has won 232 electoral votes, and Trump, 306. But the truth is that Clinton won much more votes. According to The New York Times, Clinton got 65,844,610 (48.1 % of the votes) and the clown, 62,979,636 votes (46 % of the votes). This mismatch between the electoral and popular votes is the result of Trump winning several large states (such as Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) by very narrow margins, and Clinton winning large states (such as California, Illinois and New York) by much wider margins. So, Clinton has “won” with a difference of almost three million votes (2,864,974 votes), but has lost the presidency. Does this make any sense? Not to me!

Clinton: 232 electoral votes	Trump: 306 electoral votes
65,844,610 votes (48.1%)	62,979,636 votes (46 %)

The same happened in 2000, when Al Gore got 543,895 more votes than Bush-the-rat but lost the presidency (50,999,897 votes –Al Gore– against 50,456,002 votes –Bush–). Now, for the 5th time in US history, a presidential candidate has “won” while losing the popular vote. The other three times, all in the 1800s, took place in 1824 (Andrew Jackson “lost” to John Quincy Adams but won the popular vote), in 1876 (Samuel Tilden “lost” to Rutherford B. Hayes but won the popular vote), and in 1888 (Grover Cleveland “lost” to Benjamin Harrison but won the popular vote). The democratic system has proved, once again, to be a complete failure.

I really feel sorry for all those Americans who have fought hard against Trump (artists, musicians, famous actors, and many many many others). I really feel sorry for all the things that Obama build and that are going soon to be flushed down the toilet.

The United States is, with its 324,889,000 habitants, the 3rd most populated country in the world, after China and India. So, in a country of more than 300 million people, you get more than 200 million Americans eligible to vote. The biggest failure of the democratic system is that the system usually manages to convince only half or a bit more than half of the population to go to vote. In this election, the Americans eligible to vote were 231,556,622 people, but actually only 60 % bothered to vote (about 138,884,643). In 2008, Obama’s first election, that percentage went up a bit (62,2 % of elegible voters did actually vote), but, still, 62,2 % does not reflect everybody.

So, how can this elections (or any elections) actually reflect what Americans want? In an election where 231,556,622 people are eligible to vote, how can you make a government and put a clown as a president when 170,643,526 people did not vote for this clown? Even when 62,979,636 people voted for Trump (and that’s already alarming), there were about 168,576,986 people who did not vote for him. So, the democratic system is just wrong.

Total number of Americans eligible to vote	231,556,622
Total number of Americans who actually voted	about 138,884,643 (about 60%)

Total number of Americans who voted for Trump	62,979,636
Total number of Americans who did NOT vote for Trump	about 168,576,986

Trump is completely unfit for the role of mayor of a tiny town, needless to say president of the most powerful country in the world. He is like a 2 year-old boy who cries and shouts and menaces when he does not get his candy. Well, now he’s got his candy and, for the first time, I saw him just a bit more relaxed. But don’t let him fool us: he is incoherent, racist, crazy and dangerous, and he can push that button whenever he wants. Yes, that button is the atomic bomb, you folks.

We live far away, in Spain. But still the news is terrifying. If that racist-sexist-psycho-dangerous-clown starts pushing buttons and that stupid president of Spain follows him in another war, we’ll fly from here. The problem is: to where? Oh, well, politics suck, so probably we’ll go to Mars, where still there is no racism.

(Mushroom cloud above Nagasaki after atomic bombing on August 9, 1945)

 Antonia Tejeda Barros, Madrid, November 9, 2016

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