JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2124
DONALD TRUMP SHOCKS THE WORLD: HE IS PRESIDENT-ELECTWashington, D.C. (JFK+50) In a letter to James Madison dated January 30, 1787, Thomas Jefferson, commenting on Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts, wrote "a little rebellion now and then is a good thing...as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."
Early this morning, November 9, 2016, Donald J. Trump of New York was declared the winner of the presidential election of 2016 and on January 20, 2017 will be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.*
Mr. Trump's election represents widespread dissatisfaction among many voters with the performance of the Federal Government. Exit polls showed that 69% of voters were either dissatisfied with or angry at the current state of the government.
Donald Trump's election came in the wake of polling which predicted that Hillary Clinton would become the first woman POTUS by a considerable margin. Prognosticators said that Trump's path to the White House was narrow at best. His victory not only shocked the Clinton campaign, and the Democratic Party, it shocked the Nation and the World.
As CNN political reporter Dana Bash expressed it, "people are fed up with the way things don't work in this town." They want change, and now they have it, or at least beginning on the 20th of January next year.
Unlike Shay's Rebellion, this election, for the most part, was a peaceful protest, but it represents the spirit of Thomas Jefferson's sentiments. Mr. Trump has promised change to make this country better and to make the government more responsive to the wishes of the people. Whether or not he will succeed is yet to be seen, but the American people have expressed their willingness to give him that chance.
*Returns are still being counted but as of 4 o'clock Eastern time today, CNN has the electoral count as TRUMP 290, CLINTON 228 with 21 votes still in the balance. The popular vote totals are TRUMP 59,230,029, CLINTON 59,427,870. Third & fourth party candidates combined for 5,233,428.
This marks the 5th election out of 58 in which the winning candidate lost the popular vote. The others include 1824 (John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson), 1876 (Rutherford B. Hayes over Samuel J. Tiliden), 1888 (Benjamin Harrison over Grover Cleveland), and 2000 (George W. Bush over Al Gore, Jr.
SOURCES
"Jefferson's letter to Madison, A Little Rebellion Now and Then is a Good Thing," www.varsitytutors.com/
"Presidents Winning Without Popular Vote," by D'Angelo Gore, Fact Check, www.factcheck.org/
