Dear Editor,
Since I have been hearing and reading ad nauseam the intense criticism of President Donald Trump regarding his refusal to leave office and allow Joe Biden to take over, I thought perhaps Canadians need a lesson in some of the rules and regulations that govern the American Presidential Elections.
Since we, in Canada, do not have fixed election terms or cycles we have a tendency to assume their ways are the same as ours. Not so.
We may know each term is four years and if the candidate is re-elected after that term he can run for another four year term so then he may hold office for a total of eight years.
After two terms he cannot run for President again. That probably is as far as the knowledge goes for most Canadians
But are all the critics of President Trump aware that each term begins on a certain day and ends on exactly the same day four years later? I am going to give these folks the benefit of the doubt and assume they are coming to their conclusions due to ignorance rather that hatred.
So lets consider a few former Presidents and the terms they served and when they left office.
All the following Presidents listed below that were elected and not simply replacing a President, were elected on the Tuesday that follows the first Monday of the month of November.
This rule has been in effect for many years and that is why the election for the president as well as other offices took place on Nov. 3, 2020.
The problem those of you who are trashing Trump have over his refusal to leave office is the fact that although you know the date the election took place and perhaps even when Trump’s term began you do not seem to know when it ends.
Since Dwight D. Eisenhower became President of the USA, on Jan. 20, 1953 he, and many other elected president began their fourth year term on Jan. 20 of the year following their win and ended their term on the same day, Jan. 20, four years or eight years later.
The exceptions were Nixon who resigned early due to a scandal and J. F. Kennedy who was assassinated, otherwise not one of the presidents left office until January 20 and performed their presidential duties until that day.
Neither did any elected candidate declare themselves to be the president or even president-elect as Joe Biden and his cohort have done and then precede to act as if he is the president of the United States as of Nov. 3.
There is a process which it seems has been set aside for Sleepy Jo.
So just as Obama, Bush 1 and 2 , Clinton, Regan, Carter, Ford, Johnson and Eisenhower, Donald Trump has every right to serve his full term which will expire on Jan. 20, 2021.
So, can the Trump Trashers let it be?
Faye Pearson
Stettler, Alta.
