Hillary Clinton lost the Nov. presidential election. She may have garnered 2.6 million popular votes more than Trump. However, she lost in the electoral college. That will not change. It is a fact. End of story. Like it or not, Donald Trump destroyed two politicly American dynastic families, the Bushes, and the Clintons. Quite a feat. One which will undoubtedly be included in a history book and debated in political classes for years to come.
Enough of the American voters, in enough states, voted to Elect Donald Trump, President of the United States. For many reasons, frustrated and anxious Americans wanted a change. Change very different from the change by President Barack Obama just eight years earlier. Sort of reminds me of the slogan of the 1920 Warren Harding campaign, “A Return to Normalcy.” The 1920’s was a volatile and diverse time. Not all positive and productive. The next four years may prove if history repeats itself, or new chapters will be written. It was fascinating to watch Wisconsin go for Trump. That state had voted Democratic in the last seven presidential elections. No poll before the election gauged the anxiety and angst in the nation, especially in states between the two coasts.
Maryland really is out in the cold, politically. Trump did not carry the state. Governor Hogan did not support Trump. The Maryland congressional delegation is predominately Democratic, with only Congressman who is a Republican. Is Andy Harris. The new Democrat Senator is from Montgomery County and has already been named to heady the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Then the first action of the new Baltimore City Council was to unanimously pass a resolution to belittle and chastise the new President-Elect. A real neophyte error for a municipal government in need of federal assistance.
The election is over. Hillary lost, and Obama will be leaving the White House. The efforts by advocates for the losing party has been offering excuse after excuse for the Clinton loss. The Russians were involved trying to influence the U.S. elections. Fake news sank the campaign. FBI Director Comey caused the Clinton campaign loss. The campaign did not appear in states they took for granted, such as Michigan. The facts are that the Hillary campaign simply failed. A coronation was not in the cards in 2016.
Americans came out and voted. Frustrated, disappointed, having waited for years, for improvement in their conditions to improve. Many middle-class voters spoke out and forced the change to happen. Changes which are taking place, as the reality of the election goes forward. A cabinet is being appointed.
Transition teams are meeting daily. Inaugural platforms and bleachers are being erected. There tangible examples of the transfer of power, in the United States, which occurs every four or eight years. January 20th, inauguration day is rapidly arriving. Washington D.C., and the rest of the nation is getting ready for the 45th President, Donald J. Trump.
Hillary, lost. The author, Richard Castle, wrote: “People change when you’re not looking”. To a large degree, that is what happened in the 2016 election. First, the Bernie Sanders phenonium threatened Hillary. Then, along came Donald Trump. Trump proved that people had changed. Especially middle-class folks in America. People had change while Hilly was rooted in the past. She produced numerous position papers, but failed to engage with many voters who cared less for vague platitudes but wanted conclusive promises, with specific outcomes. Donald Trump tapped into these desires. He now needs to deliver on those promises.
The Trump administration will certainly be different. Already implementing changes and planning more, government-wide. Trump faces enormous challenges. One of the initial challenges is the cyber-attack the Russians may have launched during this year’s presidential election. Also, the necessity to improve the US. Governments understanding and significance of this issue in national security and threats to the economy of the country.
While many still question the legitimacy of a Trump presidency. However, the inauguration of a Trump presidency will occur shortly.
Hillary won. It is time to move on.
Aaron Wright says
Fletcher,
Shouldn’t that be “2.8 million popular votes”, not “8.2 million popular votes”.
Gren Whitman says
Au contraire, Mr. Hall!
Nothing can erase the fact that Mrs. Clinton won the popular vote by a wide margin; The Donald’s blowing hot air by claiming a “landslide” for himself.
Maryland remains predominantly Democratic, and continues to lean liberal on environment issues, health care, public education, firearms safety, etc.
Governor Hogan refused to support Trump; he’s nothing if not a responsible pragmatist.
Our two U.S. senators remain Democrats, as are seven-eighths of our House representatives; several are in leadership positions in Congress, to Maryland’s advantage.
Rep. No. 8 — GOP right-wing Andy Harris, a staunch member of the House’s extremist “Freedom Caucus” — is an embarrassment to his district, to his state, to his profession.
For expressing its dismay over Trump, Trumpies, Trumpettes, and Trumpism, bravo to the Baltimore City Council.
My advice? Don’t toot for Trump too long; when he tumbles and the GOP is blamed for foisting him on our nation, we’ll remember exactly who supported him.
MARY WOOD says
I don’t understand those last two sentences. Does Mr. Hall mean she one morally ? We know she won the popular vote by more than 2 million. Where do we move on to ?
James Nick says
Mrs Clinton’s popular vote gap over trump is greater than the winning margin posted by 10 previous United States presidents who actually assumed the office. The vote margin in favor of Mrs Clinton leaves trump as the elected president most thoroughly rejected by American voters since Rutherford B Hayes in the election of 1876.
So yes, as Mr Hall states at the end in this latest op-ed, Hillary indeed won. Only in Banana Republics, authoritarian dictatorships, and in the United States with its arcane 18th-Century electoral process is it possible for someone to unambiguously win a convincing majority in an election yet be denied her legitimately-won leadership position. Combine that with trump being aided and abetted by thinly disguised Russian interference and blatant FBI sabotage and there is more than enough reason to consider a trump presidency as illegitimate. Perhaps if trump were to submit his long-awaited income tax returns and completely divest of all his conflicting business entanglements it might help mask some of the odor of illegitimacy that will hang over his presidency for the next four years. But that would be the rough equivalent of demanding trump produce his long-form birth certificate as well as an affidavit as to his religious orientation. And who would ever insist that an American president would have to prove his legitimacy like that?
Since it seems increasingly likely that questions of trump’s legitimacy will persist, Mr Hall as well as other conservatives will surely understand, and perhaps even be sympathetic to, the imperative now before all progressives in congress to adapt to the new, more modern, 21st-Century style of governance that has been shown to be so successful over the last eight years. Their most important mission must be to insure trump is a one-term president by mindlessly stonewalling and blockading virtually all his appointments and his agenda whenever and wherever possible. They should stand as one and give no quarter. Given the results of the last election this is apparently a winning strategy since the electorate will evidently blame the party in power for the gridlock.