Dear Editor,
Nearly all the newspapers and media houses throughout the world carried reports of Donald Trump’s spectacular and stunning victory in Tuesday’s US presidential election, but in my view it was not really victory for Trump, but a stunning defeat for Hillary Clinton. The Americans are fed up with the corruption and wrongdoing on the part of the lawmakers in Washington, and they wanted a change from the ‘hand-wash-hand’ happenings, where big donors get favours from the lawmakers.
They wanted someone outside the administration. Although the Trump track record is not excellent, they nevertheless preferred him to Clinton who has been accused of dishonesty in relation to emails, the misuse of the Clinton Foundation money, and the Benghazi fiasco, among other things.
Clinton was hoping to get full support from African Americans and Latinos, but she did not get enough to push her over the line, although she spent more than $2B, and received full support from outgoing President Barack Obama, the First Lady, Vice President Biden who all campaigned vigorously for her. On the other hand, Trump was denied support from top Republicans Mitt Romney, John McCain, the Bushes, and many others. Only Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York; Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker; as well as Chris Christie, the Governor of New Jersey gave him their backing.
Although it was a bitter campaign, President elect Trump at his victory speech in the wee hours of Wednesday called for unity and said he was prepared to work with the Democrats to make America great again. Clinton in her concession speech said that the defeat was painful, but also called for unity and said that she offered the President elect to work for a better country. Outgoing President Obama who is known to be at odds with Trump also called for harmonious working relations and a smooth transition. He added that the rule of law must be maintained. He said he will gracefully hand over the baton for the new President to continue the race for success.
Most of the Guyanese- Caribbean-Americans are Democrats, but I have no doubt that they will give full support to the new President, a businessman, who was not a politician before he entered the race less than two years ago.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
