By now, most of us are fully apprised of the situation. The most controversial political figure in a generation has won a second term as president.
In his first election, Donald Trump won the electoral vote but lost the popular vote. His opponents and political enemies immediately attacked him over the results, constantly questioning the legitimacy of his election—and the legitimacy of the constitutionally mandated Electoral College. When he was sworn in as president, his influence in American politics was under a cloud of disillusion and suspicion, and he lost his first bid for a second term. But he won his third electoral contest decisively. In addition to garnering well over the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch, he secured the popular vote as well—and it wasn’t even close. The victor still inspires consternation, vitriol, and disgust in Democrats, but he can look over a political landscape that he has more potential to shape into his own image than ever before.
In 2004, President George W. Bush secured a mandate in his reelection win over Sen. John Kerry. But we all know how that worked out. Bush quickly squandered his hard-earned political capital in advocating for a well-intentioned but failed scheme of privatizing Social Security early in his second term. His administration was bogged down by unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And the Great Recession sunk the fortunes of millions of Americans in 2008 while the federal government bailed out banks and businesses that were deemed “too big to fail.” Democrats swept to victory in the 2006 midterm elections to retake control of the Congress. In 2008, their presidential ticket cruised to an easy victory under the banner of “hope and change.”
Donald Trump’s resounding victory on Tuesday came as a surprise to most people. We were all told by the pollsters that this contest was close—maybe the closest in American history. Most of us were resigned to the prospect of having to wait days, weeks, or maybe even months before the winner could be declared. But as the dawn streaked over the skies of the nation the morning after Election Day, the scope of Trump’s victory was obvious to all. Trump secured a massive mandate with his win over the Harris-Walz ticket.
Click Here to Read More (Originally Published at World Magazine)
John is a professor of church history and philosophy and chairman of the Church History Department at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
