It’s destiny
As it is many times in love, the presidency is destiny.
The results of the recently concluded presidential elections in the United States could have gone either way. The voters could have made last-minute-switches. Voters not inclined to vote suddenly cast their ballot. Why, the surveys showed that President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris were “neck and neck” in the race to become the 47th president of the United States.
But after the polling places closed, it seemed more like one neck was clearly ahead, and never looked back.
It was stunning because it was unexpected, at least to those who believe in surveys and in the power of Oprah. That Trump is a twice-impeached former president convicted of 34 felonies didn’t matter.
According to Newsweek, “President-elect Donald Trump pulled off a decisive victory in this week’s election, winning 295 Electoral College votes to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 226. Exit polls also suggest Trump will win the popular vote, with 46 of the 48 states declared shifting toward him since 2020.”
“Clearly the US is going through a major change with the truimphant return of President Trump to the White House. Fortunately, I have been here since 2017 and will be happy to work with many of President Trump’s team who will be coming back to office,” says Philippine Anbassador to the United States Jose Manuel Romualdez.
Full disclosure, my closest family members, both Filipino and American, are die-hard Kamala Harris supporters. Among my cousins, the vote was split.
Some called the United States of America the “Divided States of America.” Could be said about our clan, too.
In the end, I believe that just like in the early days of American Idol when the WGWG trumped the ladies, America isn’t ready for a female commander-in-chief— though it was ready for its first Catholic president in 1960, and its first African-American president in 2009. The seasoned Hillary Clinton didn’t make it in 2016. Kamala Harris was soundly defeated in 2024.
According to analysis by the Associated Press, “Trump succeeded in locking down his traditionally older, white base of voters, and he slightly expanded his margins with other groups into a winning coalition.
“Trump was able to make slight inroads with Black voters nationally, who made up about one in 10 voters across the country.”
The AP said that nationally, about eight in 10 Black voters supported Harris, “but, that was down from about nine in 10 in the last presidential election who went for (President Joe) Biden.”
While Harris won more than half of Hispanic voters, that support was down slightly from the Hispanic voters that Biden won.
And the women?
“Harris had the advantage among women, winning 53 percent to Trump’s 46 percent, but that margin was somewhat narrower than Biden’s. Biden won 55 percent of women, while 43 percent went for Trump. His support held steady among white women — slightly more than half supported him, similar to 2020,” per the Associated Press.
I had expected a more solid vote from the women for Harris, especially since she addressed issues on reproductive rights.
“Losing is unfathomably painful. It is hard,” Harris campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon reportedly said in an email to staff on Wednesday. “This will take a long time to process.”??
Filipino-American lawyer Mela Bengzon, a Trump supporter, says:
“Trump’s victory already made the stock market surge. Dow Jones, Nasdaq and S&P now up. So stock portfolios and IRA retirement portfolio are up. The Feds cut down the interest rate again by 0.25 basis points. I hope it leads to sustainable levels. As I tell my Democratic New Yorker kids who are feeling down, maybe your ‘friend,’ the person you like who is a woman, is not the right person to lead the country. America has never been one to go for identity politics based on gender, race, creed, etc. It’s what impacts them economically. And America is not just about the coastal towns and cities, it’s also about the forgotten rural middle class folk who are Asian, Black and Hispanic as well, who voted for Donald Trump to fix the problem. There’s a lot of work to be done. God bless Donald Trump. God bless America.”
My niece Trish Sotto, who follows US politics closely, says, “This decisive victory by (Trump) must compel Americans to confront themselves as they are — as they have clearly now become. DJT was the first Republican in 20+ years to win the popular vote. He gained ground across all demographics, in almost every ‘swing’ county in the US. We can no longer call this a shocking upset by a small but forceful fringe electorate. Most Americans of every possible color and creed now have fundamentally different values. What will that mean for the future of the world’s greatest power — a grand experimental society built on the promise of equality, justice, and opportunity for all?”
I wonder, indeed, what’s writ in the stars for America?
