Dear Editor,

Like most Americans, especially those who voted for Donald Trump, I have puzzled over the determined effort of democratic leadership to thwart Republican fulfillment of the agenda pledged by the president. The degree of obstruction has gone beyond reasonable boundaries. Example: a few days ago the house of representatives voted on a passage of measure to protect children from sexual predators. The republican plurality passed the legislation while the entire democratic minority voted against this seemingly non-partisan attempt to protect America’s children- go figure!

So what is it that gives democratic opposition its leverage? One guess is the constant outcry that Trump stole the 2016 election by a constitutional technicality but failed to capture the popular vote that went to Clinton by over two million votes.

A closer look at this conclusion, however, reveals the following facts: Trump did actually capture the popular vote in 29 states to Hillary’s winning only 21 states. Furthermore, her winning the majority of the nation’s popular vote would appear quite differently if California were removed from the mix. Hillary took the sunshine state by over 8 million votes to just over 4 million for Trump. So, guess what? By removing California’s tally from the equation the result would have been Trump winning by over 1.5 million votes.

California has for some long time now been a democratic stronghold. There are an inordinate number of Mexican-American voters residing in the state, many of which still believe California was illegally acquired and should still be a part of Mexico. One could well imagine how Trump’s wall building remarks played into that scenario. Furthermore, both Senators and the governor are democrats, and, lastly, the leader of the democratic party’s minority in the House is none other than Nancy Pelosi who represents a district that includes San Francisco, a declared a “Sanctuary”.

In view of all these facts it should evident that what would appear as more important than Hillary’s winning the popular vote is how California played such a decisive role in that outcome and thereby placing the spotlight on just how out of step this state has become with mainstream America.

James Dowd,

Warren