By Kollengode S Venkataraman
On the basis of getting a majority of electoral votes, which is how we elect our presidents, the maverick Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, even though he got 2.5 million fewer popular votes. Trump will be our president for the next four years. We wish him well.
Alt-Right right-wingers filling the airwaves and their supporters nationwide are legitimately gleeful their candidate won. But the traditional GOP establishment and conservative intellectuals are taking a wait-and-see attitude towards Trump’s presidency. They have reason to be cautious. They are on uncharted waters even though they have the White House and the two chambers in the US Congress. Trump is not an ideologue, and is unpredictable. Further, he is a deal maker, a trait he boasted about himself as his strength on the campaign. So, he will be open to compromises on working with Democrats and compliant Republicans in Congress.
More importantly, for his electoral victory he owes nothing to the GOP establishment and Congressional leaders. He was victorious in the elections on his own strength in spite of the GOP establishment’s condescending opposition to him. Politicians have long memories. As a businessman-turned-politician, Trump may neither forgive nor forget his enemies. Thus, the GOP-controlled House and Senate leaders may find the maverick President Trump difficult to work with.
In the meantime, both political parties will dissect what went wrong and try to win back the White House. If Trump is ineffective, it will be easy to take the White House back; but if he delivers even half of what he promised, he would be changing the ground rules of American politics.
End note: The way Trump paraded, as in reality shows, potential nominees for key cabinet positions and the way the nominees obliged him in the charade are indications for President Trump’s style of governing.
For other articles on this presidential election, read here on the perversion of the two-party system, and here on the final stretch of the campaign between Clinton and Trump leading up to the November election.
* During the October Diwali celebrations among Indians in New York, Trump boasted this Hindi expression borrowing from Modi’s Ab ki bar Modi Sarkar.   ♣