Dems shocked by results of nat’l elections

The Democratic Party of the Northern Mariana Islands has reacted to the re-election of President-elect Donald Trump stating that the results of the national elections came as a shock.

Last week, Trump came out on top in the presidential race last Nov. 5 and is set to take his seat as the United States’ 47th president come January.

“We called a meeting with our candidates immediately after the election to debrief and discuss the unofficial results of the NMI election. During the time of our meeting, we were also watching the results of the presidential elections and other races live on TV at our headquarters. The results of the races as they were called were a shock to all of us. It was in that moment where I knew the next four years were going to be challenging for our country,” said Luella Marciano, vice chair of the local Democratic Party.

However, Marciano remains optimistic that Democrats will continue their fight.

“I remain hopeful that our Democrats will continue to fight the good fight, and work beyond party lines to deliver for our people,” she said.

Party member and CNMI Department of Labor Secretary Leila Staffler echoed Marciano’s sentiment.

“All my life I have been taught that character counts, decorum matters, and mutual respect is a corner stone of democracy. Today more than ever I see how important it is to uphold these values and be the example I hope to see in the world. We are not done fighting the good fight,” she said.

Democratic Party central executive committee member Vicente Salas II, for his part, expressed his concerns about the role social media played in the national elections.

“We live in a concerning, if not troubling, time where heavy dependency on social media technologies as the primary means of information has given rise and prominence to a greatly evolved ‘Age of Disinformation.’ This past presidential election result was extremely indicative of that. Political influencer grifters, think-tanks, and mouthpieces operating in an echo chamber of followers seeking affirmation of their own beliefs all worked in tandem to ‘normalize’ Trump’s behavior, and that of his ilk, to the point too many voters were readily willing to sacrifice basic civil ethics, morality, and human decency, if it meant pushing their ‘prized horse’ through to the finish line. If we do not proactively take caution and implement safeguards even more fervently than what was commenced in 2016, we stand in great danger of walking headfirst into an era of normalized fascism and disintegration of civil liberties,” he said.

Meanwhile, incumbent precinct 3 Rep. Denita K. Yangetmai (D-Saipan) shared her well wishes by congratulating the 47th president.

“I personally extend my congratulations to our President-elect Donald Trump on his victory, and I am confident that our CNMI relations to the federal government will be unabated, especially that we now have a new CNMI Republican delegate-elect to Congress. I am confident, and I don’t see any reason for our relations to the federal government to be any different,” she said.

Previously, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios reacted to Trump’s re-election stating his administration is ready to work with the incoming Trump administration.