An avalanche of political discourse has spilled over the media pipeline the past couple of weeks in a futile effort to explain the results of this year’s presidential election.  For those who voted for Harris, it is a fruitless search for answers.

I’ve read op-eds, watched YouTube videos and heard podcasts where political pundits offer their version of why Trump won and Harris lost.

In my common-sense view, I’ve concluded I don’t know and neither does anyone else no matter how much data they pour over.

For me, I view the election results through a bare bones lens.  America had a choice for president:  one was a convicted felon and one was not.

And America chose the felon.

No matter why or how Donald Trump appeals to the public, whether they like his policies or his non-political correctness in his language, his actions on Jan. 6, 2021 of inciting a riot on the U.S. Capitol after two months of denying the election results and not working towards a smooth transition of power to his successor is more than enough evidence to be disqualified for running for president.   Yet for nearly half of all Americans, Jan. 6 meant nothing.

That fact is hard to wrap my mind around.  It’s like living in a society where half of the people feel it’s okay to drive recklessly (oh, wait a minute, we are already living in that society).

For Harris voters, the frustration of her loss is based on perception.  For months, pollsters concluded that the race was too close to call.  Most people ignored the fine print attached to every poll:  a margin of error of a few points.  Therefore, the polls for the most part were accurate.  In the popular vote as of this writing, Trump has 49.9% and Harris has 48.2%, with 2,600,000 votes separating them.  That’s close.  What is not close is the electoral vote which gives the wrong impression that the race was a mandate:  Trump collected 312 electoral votes to Harris’s 226 (270 is needed).  You can’t compare those two numbers mathematically.

The presidential contest has historically been close.  Five of the past nine presidential contests have resulted in the winner not reaching 50%; in other words, a plurality not a majority of Americans voted for the actual president.

“We live in divisive times” is a proclamation that permeates airwaves, as if the times we live in are unique, yet when it comes to raw votes, about half the country chooses a Democrat and the other half chooses a Republican for most of the United States’ history.  The electoral votes exaggerate the 50-50 splits.

Rarely does any president receive more than 60 percent of the popular vote.  John Quincy Adams was elected in 1824 with only 30.9% of the votes.  Imagine him trying to declare a mandate.  Can you guess which president had the second lowest popular vote?  Abraham Lincoln at 39.9% in 1860, often cited as the greatest American president.  More recently, Bill Clinton won with only 42% of the popular vote in 1992.

Only four presidents have ever received 60% or more of the popular vote:  Lyndon Johnson  61.1% (1964), Richard Nixon 60.7% (1972), Warren G. Harding 60.3% (1920), and Franklin D. Roosevelt 60.2% (1936).

American voters since the beginning have divergent views of who should lead our nation.  And when who we want loses, we wonder, “What the hell is wrong with the half the country?”  Instead of getting overly anxious, realize that such angst is part of our tradition.   America takes pride in its diversity in religion and ethnicity so it makes sense that we all don’t vote for the same winner.  That is what makes America great.  And the fact that every four years we get to reset all over again.