WHY TRUMP WON AND HARRIS LOST IN U.S. ELECTIONS

Love him or hate him, Donald Trump never pretended to be anything other than what he was. He led an almost miraculous comeback, unprecedented in recent history

- MAKARAND R PARANJE

INDSIGHT, as the saying goes, is always 20-20. Now that Kamala Harris has lost, the honourable members of the US left-liberal commentariat, who were pushing almost delusionally for her victory till late Tuesday night, are now suddenly tripping over themselves to explain why. Besides having a meltdown, that is. It's baffling, if not infuriating, some who are blaming convicted felon and now president-elect, Donald Trump, for standing in the way of the first woman, in addition to a person of colour, becoming president. And he did it earlier too, by blocking another woman, Hillary Clinton. As if that is the only necessary qualification or desideratum for demanding the vote of citizens. No forgiveness, no reconciliation with 'Make America Great Again', some of them pledge, taking their cue from Harris' own acceptance speech. The fight must go on!

If the same experts and pollsters had felt the pulse of the people, they would have known all along that though she had an early advantage which, ironically, was because of her late start, she never really managed to connect with the people or relate to their problems. Her feel-good, inclusive rhetoric, frequent flip-flops over key issues, notoriously nonsensical word-salads, preachy and pompous repetitions, and incessant virtue signalling did not go down well with the people.