No Harm Spilt

The notion that Donald Trump has been elected President is just one of two competing narratives or truth claims, if you will. That he won the most Electoral College votes and hence the election is one narrative, but here is a competing narrative:

The Electoral College is a social construct that was originally intended to keep the masses from electing someone uniquely unqualified to be President. In fact (more about facts later), Donald Trump is uniquely unqualified to be president. Hillary Clinton, who is uniquely qualified to be President, won the popular vote, so the masses actually didn’t do what the Electoral College is supposed to keep them from doing, thus completely obviating the need for it to do anything. Hence Donald Trump was not elected President.

What about the fact that Donald Trump was declared the winner of the election on election night? That may be a “fact” for someone who watched, say, CNN on election night, but for someone who relied on her Facebook feed on election night, Donald Trump may never have been declared the winner. If the so-called “truth” is open to question, so are the so-called “facts.”

Is it a fact that Barack Obama is the President? It is for those who believe that he was born in Hawaii (a truth claim). But for those who believe that he was born in Kenya (a competing truth claim), it is not a fact at all. For them, as a foreign-born Muslim (another truth claim), Barack Obama was never qualified to be President and hence isn’t. Sure, for a majority of Americans, Barack Obama is the President, but not for 46% of Republicans. So much for the “facts.”

Similarly, for the minority of Americans who believe Donald Trump is qualified to be President and accept as a  “fact” that he “won”, he is President. But for the majority of Americans who believe Donald Trump is uniquely unqualified to be President and reject the “fact” that he “won,” he isn’t the President and never will be. Election night? It never happened.