Dear Editor,
Hillary Clinton was projected by all and sundry to be the overwhelming favourite to win the US presidential election. She was the popular choice amongst immigrant communities, not least in the case of West Indians and Guyanese all across America, especially here in the largest concentration of expatriates, ‘Little Guyana’ or Richmond Hill and environs. Clinton’s defeat surely was not due to money, effort and voter outreach, because she outspent Trump and received more votes nationally than him.
So how come Donald Trump won, precipitating one of the most stunning upsets in history and prompting unprecedented widespread protests in a country which touts its democratic processes and readily accepts election results?
Clinton said the FBI is to blame for her loss after its embattled Director Comey sent a letter to Congress based on speculation only days before the election, announcing he was reinstating an investigation into whether she mishandled classified information when she used a private email server while being Secretary of State.
Although Comey announced a week later that he had reviewed emails and continued to believe she should not be prosecuted, the political damage had already been done, and the die was cast for Clinton’s defeat. Like the Titanic, her
candidacy was doomed to sink in spectacular fashion. In contrast to her primary rival Bernie Sanders, Trump went for the jugular, and an exemplary trailblazer’s life and legacy has been tarnished and truncated prematurely.
Here in Little Guyana, thousands came out to vote for Hillary in record numbers. However, our hopes were destroyed ‒ again. We have relived another painful loss, and a reminder that we are a nation of double standards. The same FBI crushed our efforts to attain recognition and empowerment, just as they did when civil rights leader and community activist attorney Albert Baldeo ran for public office in 2010, when they overreached with an impossible theory that Baldeo’s use of his own money in a city council election to repay his loans was a federal crime. Baldeo was acquitted of the underlying charges, but his non-peer Manhattan jury, after a long deadlock, convicted him of obstructing crimes he did not commit, a legal and illogical conundrum.
Similarly, the fallacy that the FBI’s actions are as American as apple pie, has perfunctorily gutted a great woman’s efforts, and we will be the losers for their egregious actions for generations. It is time for Congress to rein in such perverse actions of federal law enforcement officials, who are already immune from accountability.
Yours faithfully,
Kim Miller
New York
