oral College? It was to be elected, like the Senate, by state legislatures. They would elect proper gentlemen to be Electors, and the Electors would elect a most proper gentleman to be president. So when George Washington was elected, there was no national election as we know it. The state legislatures selected their Electors, and the Electors selected George Washington. It was later that, state by state, we started letting the voters elect the Electoral College. And the Electoral College, by its nature, gave extra weight to white voters in the slave states, because slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person but could not vote. And after the Civil War it again favored the whites in the Southern states, because black people were disenfranchised, but were counted toward the Electoral College votes. And it still favors more rural and conservative states today. So many people don’t want to change the system, and it is difficult to change, so we haven’t done it.
This year the voters selected Hillary Clinton by a very narrow margin. I take solace and strength from that. It was close, but more people voted for Hillary than any other candidate. In any other nation in the world, that would be a win. However, the Electoral College will choose Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States. We can complain that the system is rigged, but that isn’t going to change the fact that Mr. Trump will be our next president.
I say it was planned by a woman named Kay (Que). “Que sera, sera. What will be will be.” So, what now? I know that many of us are disappointed. I’m disappointed. Trump’s Electoral College victory seems to legitimize anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim prejudice. It gives encouragement to conspiracy theorists, crazy “birthers,” racists of all kinds, and the most vile kind of sexism. It puts the power of the presidency into the hands of a con artist, someone who has never served his country or sacrificed in any way up until now, who has no governmental experience, who has only a passing knowledge of world affairs, and seems to either not know the difference between truth and a lie, or does not care. And still – I hope he surprises us and turns out to be a good president, or at least one who does not do too much damage.
The other day Hillary Clinton said, “We must accept this result and then look to the future. Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.”
President Obama called on Americans to move forward with the presumption of good faith in our fellow citizens. “Sometimes you lose an argument, sometimes you lose an election. But the path this country has taken has never been a straight line. We zig and zag,” said Obama.
Finite disappointment ~
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who faced disappointment time after time, said, “We must accept finite disappointment but must never lose infinite hope.” Let’s say that again: “We must accept finite disappointment but must never lose infinite hope.”
What did he mean? He was saying that we cannot lose hope because disappointment is not forever. We have infinite hope because justice will come some day. Infinite hope, especially for those with religious convictions, is the antidote to overcoming temporary disappointment and hindrances to one’s important goals. Rev. Dr. King’s infinite hope, based on his religious beliefs, was not merely an emotional “pie in the sky” hope. King was a preacher, a liberal Christian, and had faith that somehow some day God would guide historical events to bring about justice in this world. And so he held to infinite hope for an eventual successful outcome for the Civil Rights Movement, despite the many temporary setbacks.
During the struggle to end racial Apartheid in South Africa, Archbishop Desmond Tutu frequently told those in power, “We have already won! You think you are in charge, but you are not. You can delay justice for a while, but we have already won. And because our victory is real, the best thing you can do is to join the struggle now for a new South Africa.”
Archbishop Tutu and Rev.