Dear Editor,
The elections in the United States have come and gone and there is a lot of disappointment, so much so that thousands of dissatisfied voters have taken to the streets to demonstrate against the election of Donald Trump as Commander-in-Chief. There is no justification for the outcry, and one wonders why people are protesting when the elections were conducted in a free and fair manner. Moreover why are they destroying property in their silly exercises?
The candidates have spent billions of dollars in their lengthy campaign, and I am at a loss. To know why so much money is being utilized in advertisements, staff, travelling and other expenses to convince the electorate that they are the best persons for the office they seek, when these funds can be spent meaningfully. Of course nearly all the funds expended are from donations mainly from giant corporations, although some are from private individuals.
The candidates hardly utilized their own money, although it is reported that Donald Trump dipped into his funds.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign spent most. According to reports that came to a billion dollars, and yet she lost after more than a year on the campaign trail. She spent a sizeable amount in the preliminaries much more than she anticipated because Bernie Sanders gave her a run for her money, and she had to scramble hard to win. There were even allegations of leaks.
Big businesses made massive donations to the candidates of their choice, and of course they expect favours from them in return for their contributions. This was one of the reasons why Trump was successful because he campaigned against what he termed “the administration”.
The presidential election campaigns alone cost more than US$4 billion because there were a whopping 17 candidates for the Republican nomination while there were only six on the Democratic ticket. In addition to the presidential election, dozens of candidates campaigned vigorously and spent tens of millions to gain seats in the Senate and Congress. This has been the trend for decades maybe it is getting more costly and it seems as if this will continue for a very long time.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
