Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The Worst Offense a Candidate Can Commit

It is not such a stretch to say that Donald Trump, in refusing the accept the result of an election if he loses is committing the worst offense a candidate can commit.  Worse than murder?

Well, let's just put it like this.  Andrew Jackson killed a man in a duel.  But in 1824 the campaign split four ways with four candidates.  Jackson won the largest number of both electoral and popular votes. In such a case, the House of Representative, voting by states, chooses the winner from among the top three candidates.  Speaker of the House Henry Clay, the last finishing among the four, persuaded the House to choose John Quincy Adams over Andrew Jackson.  Adams then named Clay as his Secretary of State.  It is also known that the two men met in private shortly before the vote, although owing to a mysterious eighteen and a half minute gap in JQA's journal, the exact contents of that meeting are unknown.

Jackson, rather understandably, denounced the decision as a "corrupt bargain" and believed he had been cheated of his due.  He nonetheless accepted the outcome and later had his revenge by running again in the next election and winning handily.

So come on, Donald, Jackson was a man easily provoked, and he had a whole lot more provocation than you will.  Let's see if you can live up to his example.

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