Presidential Elections by ©2016 Sarah Becker “Differences in political opinions are as unavoidable as, to a certain point, they may perhaps be necessary,” President George Washington wrote Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton on August 26, 1792, “but it is to be regretted, exceedingly, that subjects cannot be discussed with temper [calmness] on the one hand, or decisions submitted to without having the motives which led to them, improperly implicated on the other….” Pundits now describe the Presidential campaign of 2016 as the “nastiest in our lifetime.” According to Republican President-elect Donald J. Trump’s campaign rhetoric he won “a rigged election.” His campaign strategy, reminiscent of Republican Richard Nixon’s 1968 conservative southern strategy, was ingenious. On November 8, 2016 Trump became America’s fifth President-elect to lose the popular vote—to Democrat Hillary Clinton by more than 2.7 million votes—and win the Electoral College. Trump may play fast and loose with the facts, but his appeal—especially to the undereducated, rural white male—is real. He is Mr. Brexit, an alleged nationalist opposed to globalization. A billionaire real estate developer disposed to improving the country’s infrastructure. A climate denier: Trump “Digs Coal,” was until recently invested in the Dakota Access oil pipeline and supports fracking. Windmills are unsightly and he opposes the 2015 Paris Agreement. Full-fledged parties, with national platforms, campaigns, and conventions, did not emerge until the 1830s. Andrew Jackson’s Democrats, the ongoing Democratic Party is the result of an 1825 split in Thomas Jefferson’s 1791 Democratic-Republican Party. The Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln formed independently in 1854. President elect Lincoln’s November 6, 1860 victory so upset the State of South Carolina it held a secession convention on December 20, 1860 and seceded from the Union; Mississippi on January 9, 1861. America’s Civil War began in South Carolina on April 12, 1861….