Donald J. Trump now shares an historical anomaly with John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison, and George W. Bush. President Elect Trump is one of five men who have been elected president while receiving fewer popular votes than their opponents. Although votes are still being counted, it appears that Trump will have won the election with the widest negative margin of popular votes in history.
I am not pointing this fact out not to demean Trump’s victory, but rather to correct the mistaken belief that this election was a mandate for dramatic change. Like it or not, we are a divided country. Mandates happen with landslides, not squeakers. When Reagan defeated Carter in 1980, that was a mandate. When Johnson defeated Goldwater in 1964, that was a mandate. This election, filled with venom, anger, distrust and personal animosity, only magnifies our differences on a grand scale.
Trump deserves the opportunity to govern, however, if he governs the way he campaigned the divide will only grow wider. Using a sports analogy, Trump won ugly. I hope that I am wrong, but I suspect that things are only going to get uglier.
James Carr, Celina
