The 2016 Presidential election will be remembered for ages not only for producing the biggest upset in the history of American politics, but also for the colorfulness of the primaries of both the Democratic and the Republican parties.
When Bernie Sanders, the little-known Independent senator from small state Vermont boldly stated that he was a Democratic Socialist, and then began his race for the White House as a Democratic Party candidate, hardly anyone took him seriously. After all, he was up against the entire Democratic Party machinery and their favored candidate Hillary Clinton. Many people were astounded by the fact that he was taking on the greed and irresponsibility of corporate America and the top wealthy 1 percent. And he was running with very little money, no media support and no political organization to back him up. But he ended up running one of America's most successful campaigns and came close to clinching the Democratic Party nomination after winning the votes of 13 million Democratic Party members in the primaries and caucuses, and after winning twenty-two states. Hillary Clinton became the Democratic Party nominee all right, but she counted enormously on Bernie Sander's support against the Republican Party nominee.
The Republican Party primaries turned out to be equally colorful if not more dramatic. With an array of 17 candidates, it was animated indeed. But the star of the process was Donald John Trump, a businessman and television personality with no political experience. He too ran against the media and the political establishment, promised to "Make America Great Again" and tapped the grievances of the population in a manner never seen before. He belittled those elites of his party who threw shots at him, reduced his rivals in the primaries to irrelevancy, and then clinched the nomination to the consternation of the Republican Party establishment, with many of the party's elites openly pledging not to vote for him.
Donald Trump cannot win! The media, pundits, pollsters, and scholars told the American people. Yes, it was difficult to imagine that Donald Trump could win against the Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton who had a formidable arsenal of the media, the political establishment, the financial institutions and the big corporations behind her. But he won the election, stunning not only more than half of America, but the clear majority of the people of the of the world who viewed him as a clown with no mettle. Donald Trump's victory was a feat that could not be attributed to his ingenious campaign alone.
In How Donald Trump Won the 2016 Presidential Election and Disarrayed the Political Establishment, Janvier T. Chando tells the story not only of how Donald Trump won the 2016 Presidential Election and how Hillary Clinton lost it, but he also provides a unique insight into the changing America that explains the emotions and ideas transforming the country. The author does so by taking the reader through a jolting ride that has hardly been experienced before. Some call it the start of a political revolution, others call it the set off an alarm that will resuscitate the political establishment. However, we emerge from reading this book with the feeling that we finally got to understand the epic events that made the 2016 race for the White House a historic election to be remembered for generations to come.
