Dear Editor,
When Donald Trump was elected as President of the United States of America in 2016, it was a point of contention that he did not secure the popular vote and, in fact, received almost three million votes fewer than Hillary Clinton. It is, therefore, even more, impressive that after being defeated in his reelection campaign by Joe Biden in 2020, Trump returned to the polls this year and not only won the Presidency for his second non-consecutive term, but by all accounts, despite the final figures not being tallied as at the moment of me penning this, he will also receive the popular vote and would end up with approximately four million votes more than Kamala Harris.
I think the demographic breakdowns will reveal a story regarding the waning popularity of the Democrats with certain groups within the US, but as a whole, this indicates that not only has Donald Trump been able to grow his support amidst an unprecedented number of scandals and controversies, but also that the American people will no longer blindly throw their support for candidates that have failed them in government, even if their ideals might align on certain issues.
While the initial narrative of this election result has been centred around the impressive comeback of Donald Trump, as it should given his herculean accomplishment, it should not overshadow the fact that this is as much an indictment of the Joe Biden Presidency and the Democratic party as a whole for not only failing to deliver on promises made in 2020 but also for the decline of the nation as a whole and the living conditions of its citizens. Despite the claims made by the White House press team over the past four years, the American people have arrived at a consensus that there has been no improvement made to their way of life during this term, and there is no hope that these circumstances would have changed had Kamala merely continued the duties of her current Commander in Chief.
That Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would point to metrics regarding unemployment and inflation in defence of the economy when the diametrically observable tangible reality of what the working class are facing every living day is a testament to how out of touch the Democratic leadership has gotten with the electorate and the conditions which exist in their country today. Talking points about abortion rights and LGBT acceptance do very little to aid single mothers working multiple jobs to provide for their children and try to keep them from a life of crime, hence the reason that Kamala lost so much ground amongst the female voter pool, despite being a woman herself.
But this isn’t as egregious as the Democrats furiously scratching their heads in ponderance of how Donald Trump’s popularity among that group is increasing at the same that he is campaigning on the promise to deport illegal immigrants en masse, despite the fact that the voting LatinX community is so extremely vast and diverse that it is absolutely ridiculous to ever think that this would generate a sympathy vote among people who share nothing in common except the American misunderstanding and misclassifying of their unique identities.
This all being said, Donald Trump deserves all of the credit and acclaim for this victory that no other Republican candidate would have been poised to pull off as he powered through a barrage of attacks from the Democrat party for the past four years. Of course, this is not dissimilar to Kamla Persad Bissessar, who has been exposed to the same types of political witchhunts and attacks that have dogged Donald Trump, all while the PNM has been running the country into the ground. As such, I am sure that Kamla and her team are looking at this result in the US with great anticipation that she might be able to replicate this victory when she faces the polls next year.
Best regards,
Ravi Balgobin Maharaj