As of November 23, 2024, Donald Trump has won 49.9% and Kamala Harris, 46.8% of the popular vote in the 2024 presidential election. Donald Trump won the popular vote by 1.6%. Kamala Harris got 1.5% more of the popular vote than Trump’s margin of victory in 2016. Cliff Rieders has interpreted these results to mean “Americans have reacted against what they see as a leftward drift of the Democratic Party and the United States in general.”

Hogwash. To say “voters in the presidential election wanted a course change” is pure conjecture.

There are no grounds for saying that “the American people” clearly expressed the direction the country should take “based on an electoral margin of 1,5%. Such a narrow margin reflects deep divisions within the electorate and misinterprets close elections as clear mandates. The opinion of half the American people is not the same as the opinion of “the American People.” Neither is Mr. Rieders.’

While Donald Trump’s victory margin resonates with close to half of those who voted in 2020, it also reflects deep divisions within the electorate regarding issues such as economic management, public health, immigration policy, healthcare, tariffs and trade, the role of government and the preservation of our Constitutional Republic and its democratic freedoms.

In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden won 51.3% and Donald Trump got 46.8% of the popular vote. Joe Biden won the popular vote by 4.5%. I don’t remember Cliff Rieders stating that Biden’s margin of victory reflected the American people’s desire for a change in direction reflected in a rejection of Trump’s inhumane immigration policies, or his opposition to “socialism,” rejection of gun control, media demonetization, anti-abortion or ant-gay laws and his rubber stamp policy towards the Netanyahu government.

The winner of a presidential election is entitled to serve a four year term as president, regardless of the victory margin. Elections decide who our leader will be, not what he can unilaterally do. He cannot bypass Congress or ignore the Supreme Court and cannot change laws without congressional approval. Elections determine our leaders, not their personal desires. The number of votes an election winner earns represents only part of the whole, while it excludes others who may hold differing views. The United States is a 50/50 nation. Each half does not represent the other. That’s why compromise, rather than domination, should be our guiding principle.

TIM MANNELLO

Williamsport

Submitted by email