By William Lewis
We have now seen a return of college student street demonstrations, in some ways similar to the street demonstrations of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The strongest uprisings of the earlier period were primarily directed at stopping the Vietnam War. In many cases, college administration buildings were taken over by demonstrators. Occasionally the office of the college president was occupied. That situation happened at Columbia University. The earlier development began as a student call for free speech at the University of California, Berkeley. This situation spread to more colleges, especially in the northeast part of our country.
Today the student rebellion has begun as a protest against the results of this year’s presidential race. There is little likelihood that the results of the election can be changed.
The recent student demonstrations began in Oregon. Most of the students involved marched in the streets. It wasn’t like in earlier times when the student population carried our their rebellions on college campuses.
As I indicated, there is little, if any chance, that the presidential results can be changed.
In 1968 the most serious events of the violent student anti-war group were the demonstrations at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. It is expected that next year there will be a massive demonstration at the presidential inaugural. Hopefully, it will not get out of hand.
During the election Hillary Clinton received considerably more votes than Donald Trump. At present it stands at two million more votes, but Donald Trump won the Electoral College, and that is what chooses our president under the Constitution.
There has been talk of replacing the Electoral College with popular votes and that would require a Constitutional amendment. It is doubtful that that can be accomplished any time in the foreseeable future. The smaller states would oppose it because under popular vote New York and California could dominate the election with their huge populations.
This past year we have had the most unusual election in American history for president. It is interesting to see how this will play out during the next four years. We will see how Trump can deliver on some of his campaign promises, especially in creating a large number of jobs and making trade agreements more favorable to the United States. It will be good to see how these matters will play out.
The next four years will be an interesting interlude in how our American government progresses.
