Since Donald Trump's big election win on November 9, liberals and third party sympathizers have desperately been searching for signs of hope regarding the current political climate. With protests happening across the country, it seems half of America refuses to accept Trump as their President. But what reasons are there for holding out hope, and what's the likelihood of any of those scenarios actually going down? We've broken it down below. Spoiler: it's not looking good.
- Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein's recount efforts are looking more bleak by the day. Stein raised 7.2 million dollars in an effort to fund vote recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. That's double the amount Stein raised during her own 2016 campaign. With Michigan's federal judge and the state Board of Canvassers stopping the recount today, there's no chance whatsoever that the recount will prove useful.
- Over 4 million signed a petition to encourage members of The Electoral College to vote for Hillary instead of Trump. Clinton would need a total of 38 College members to "faithlessly" switch their vote in her favor for any chance of claiming the presidency from Trump's tiny hand. There's not much hope to be had here since 31 states have punishments in place for electors who flop their vote. There's also the argument that she won the popular vote, but that hasn't swayed congress since 1979.
- The chance of Mighty Mormon Power Ranger, Mitt Romney, becoming Trump's Secretary Of State is on the table, which some are finding comfort in. I mean, I guess he's a non-racist Republican, which is better than some of the alternative options, but can we really put faith in the Secretary of State when the rest of Trump's cabinet is filled with climate change deniers and WWE magnates?
- Google searches for "how to impeach a president" have increased by 5,000% since Trump's win. There's certainly a possibility that Trump may be impeached over the course of his term if he does something the senate deems seriously awful. There's two issues with this "sign of hope". The first being a question of how much damage he's able to do before the threat of impeachment is even brought to the table. The second, if his actions prior to the election weren't bad enough for most of America, it's not likely they'll find his actions in office that bad either.
- Republicans are asking Liberals to calm the fuck down for a minute and consider that maybe, just maybe, the walking spray tan will be a good President. Stranger things have happened, but we're not holding our breath.
So yeah, maybe it's time to stop hoping, and start considering what you can do in the face of an inevitability of a shitty future.