Passions are running high after Donald Trump’s victory in the Nov. 8th election for US President. However, this is not the first US election with enormous stakes.

All US elections have been important in their times for varying reasons, but there are a few that I believe standout for being easily as important as 2016 if not more so. This is sometimes the case for their unintended consequences long after the election as for their immediate impact.

A few notes that I sent to worried friends about these elections a few days before Donald Trump’s election in 2016 are embedded below in PDF format. I hope they will be helpful putting the difficult campaign of 2016 (And the coming 2020 campaign.) into broader historical context.

US_Elections_Historical_Perspective