A short comment on “Why Donald Trump Should Not Become President And Why I Disagree” by Angel Vigil, November 04, 2016.

Obviously the post was published 4 days before the election in support of Donald Trump and I would like to congratulate Angel for the victory of her presidential candidate, however I respectfully disagree with her arguments for the following reasons:

·      A healthy and constructive methodology in any election should be choosing the best and most qualified candidates for the job not voting for someone because we dislike his/her opponent.

·      The statement: “she is a criminal and should punished for the crimes she has committed” seems to be inaccurate. Hillary Clinton had only been under investigation and never been charged with any crime. We cannot call a person criminal unless he/she has been formally charged by the prosecutor and found guilty by the court of law. As Democrats are not supposed to call Donald Trump a criminal while he is not convicted in “Trump University Fraud Case”, yet.

·      Angle has a valid point about minimizing America’s involvement in the conflicts around the world and spending the resources in our own country, however we need to remember: 1- the effects of globalization is a reality of modern world and we are part of it, 2- it was a republican president who started two massively expensive wars. It was a Democrat president who brought most of our veterans back home.

·      Lying (to some extend) has become part of politics, we like it or not. So, in response to the statement in the post: “Anyone that lies the way Hillary Clinton does doesn't even take pride in herself, so she can not take pride in her country”, I refer Angel to “POLITIFACT” or many other fact checking institutions who have compared two candidates during their campaign and debates. A diagram from “Politifact” in below shows a comparison between president-elect Trump and secretory Clinton:

U.S. Presidential Election System

Expensive, outdated, and inefficient

History tells us that the founding fathers had legitimate concerns about the political system they were developing after achieving independence and they explored different options for replacing monarchism with a “government by consent of governed” for the new “Republic.” 

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 considered several methods of electing the President, including selection by Congress, by the governors, state legislatures, special group of members of Congress, and by direct popular election, however as a result of that convention and few amendments later, we have inherited our current Election system with some unique and often obsolete elements.

•        Voter Registration: this requirement of the voting process is a perfect example of outdated regulations. In the old days, you needed to register for voting so the state could verify your eligibility with certain criteria which some of them don’t exist anymore. It’s easier to provide U.S. citizens with a national identification card (like many other nations), which could be used for many ID purposes including voting eligibility verification.

•         Electoral College: in a historical context and with all the challenges that Founding Fathers had to solve, it was easier to appreciate the Electoral System but in the 21^st century it’s less complicated and more democratic to implement a “Direct Vote” and value the popular vote for the highest office of the land.

•         Election day: many of citizens don’t know why should we be voting on a business day (on a Tuesday in November), and it seems there isn’t a willing power to change it. Yes, historically we were an agrarian society traveling by horse and needed a day to get to the county seat without interfering... but we are not that society anymore. We are living in a different world.

   These are not the only problems our election structure is suffering from. The American presidential election process is very long and therefore expensive. There is no starting point limit for campaigns. Long campaigns don’t necessarily increase the participations, and often have negative effects on public affairs when people get tired of too much political noise. Here is a diagram comparing U.S. elections with some other democracies:

           It seems trying to change or improve the entire system of the presidential election might be a long shot, and perhaps hard to reach in one step, but replacing the voter registrations by using a national identification card and changing the Election Day to weekend or making it a national holiday makes it much easier for the voters and we can expect a higher participation rate.