The outcome of the presidential election was, to say the least, shocking. Despite her loss in the electoral college, Hillary Clinton now has a lead of over 2 million votes over her opponent. Clinton supporters have recently found a small ray of hope that they believe to be the ultimate solution to the election’s unexpected outcome. By emailing their respective state’s electors, those against the president-elect have somehow fooled themselves into assuming that this alone will change the outcome of the election, and thus resolve the threatening hatred that Donald Trump has propagated — specifically the white supremacist movement that is developing in response to his win. But what these emailing constituents don’t seem to realize is that electors are not in any way impressed by the thousands of emails they’re receiving, and that the hatred being spread will not magically disappear in the case of a political miracle.

Since the electors do not vote until December 19th, those representing Trump states have been receiving thousands of emails a day in attempts to sway their vote. Each one is more or less the same, and a handful of electors have become so annoyed  that they have set up automatic responses for the determined persuaders. Most of these responses include claims of party loyalty over their disdain for the president-elect. None of this should come as a surprise, considering that very few electors have acted faithlessly in all of American history. Democrats have become so desperate that some are ignoring the fact that — regardless of how wrong poll predictions were — history is bound to repeat itself.

The problem with the email idea itself was not that it was ridiculously impossible. The true conflict lies within the people — the white supremacists who disguise themselves as the alt-right have been shown to salute Trump in Nazi style. Over 400 hate crimes have been reported since Trump was announced president-elect, showing how this behavior has become normalized before Trump has even taken office. Clinton pulling out a win in the Electoral College is not going to make this bigotry suddenly disappear.

America faces a problem right now that requires more ground work and community action than anything else. Those opposed to bigotry and hate must use any type of privilege or influence they have to speak up for minority groups targeted by the next president or his supporters. Educators must encourage self-empowerment and respect for all people now more than ever. The results of this election have been terrifying and it may seem as though the only solution is to kick the president-elect out. But attempting to interfere with the electoral process is unrealistic and would do little to address the prejudice gripping the nation. Instead of emailing electors, activists need to focus their efforts on protecting the citizens at risk under a Trump administration.

Opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of WSN, and our publication of opinions is not an endorsement of them.

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, November 28th print edition. Email Melanie Pineda at [email protected].