What Hillary Should Have Said - And Still Can

Nov 9, 2016, 2:30am

"My fellow Americans:  The Associated Press has just declared Donald Trump to have won the election to be our next president.  This was done even though more Americans voted for me than for him.  This simply isn't right – it isn't fair – it isn't just – and it certainly isn't democracy. In no other country in the world is the person who comes in second declared the winner.  We Americans would not think much of any nation that ever tried to do such a thing.  We would think it absurd – a travesty – a bad joke.  Yet here in America it has now happened not once but twice in the space of just 16 years. 

"In 2000, more Americans voted for Al Gore than for George W. Bush, yet Bush was declared the winner.  We now know what a terrible decision that was, both because of the way it insulted the core principle of democracy and because of the terrible things the Bush presidency brought about (the current mess in the Middle East and the worst economic recession since the Great Depression among them).  We simply cannot afford to allow such a terrible and unjust decision to go unchallenged yet again.  The stakes are too high, the hour is too late, and the dangers and flaws presented by Donald Trump are far greater and more obvious than those of Bush ever were.

"You might recall that during the course of the campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly made wild claims about how this election was rigged.  We now see that it was rigged.  It was rigged not against him or against me but against democracy itself.  This rigging is the result of an antiquated electoral system developed a very long time ago under very different circumstances by people who are long dead and who no longer have to suffer its consequences.  We the living deserve better.      

"Had my opponent won the popular vote but lost the election, I'm sure this would be obvious to him.  Indeed, he and his supporters would be screaming bloody murder.  I call upon my supporters to be at least as fair-minded and vocal about this matter as he and his supporters would be in similar circumstances.  Indeed, I call upon all Americans who love democracy to stand up for democracy and demand that the delegates to the Electoral College next month cast their votes for the person most Americans voted for – period. 

"If those delegates refuse to do this – if they instead choose to insult our democratic ideals by giving the great and awesome powers of the presidency to our country's second choice rather than its first – I call upon those who voted for me to pledge to engage in a nationwide strike until the will of the majority is recognized and justice is done.  I invite all fair-minded Americans who didn't vote for me to join us as well until justice is done.  Justice, after all, isn't and never should be a partisan issue.    

"With your help, and with the help of millions upon millions of other Americans who love democracy and are willing to defend it to their dying breath, we will prevail and I will become your democratically-elected president in January.

"Until then, let this be our slogan:  No Democracy – No Peace!  No Democracy – No Peace!  No Democracy – No Peace!

"Thank you and good night."