Jack London, the Republican candidate for Chester County Treasurer who lost in his bid for the seat against Democratic challenger Patricia Maisano, need not point to himself as the blame for his defeat on Nov. 7. Nor should any of his Republican colleagues who were also defeated by Democrats in their bid for the county row offices of controller, clerk of courts, and coroner – in an election that shook up the balance of power in county government for the first time since 1799.
They are far from alone. London, Dr. Gordon Eck, Norman Macqueen and Robin Marcello join a fraternity of respected Republican candidates all over Chester County who, simply by virtue of having an “R” next to their name on the ballot, were joined in a domino tumbledown of wide-margin defeats, the impact of which has not been felt in this Republican stronghold in well, forever.
No, Nov. 7 was not a personal indictment levied by voters against any one Republican candidate near and far, but a universal one that hammered home a message of anger, disgust and vitriol, delivered not just by lefty twinkies and liberal snowflakes but by all rational-thinking people who have simply had enough.
This was a referendum on our Tweeter-in-Chief, case closed, with no exceptions, which flies directly in the face of punditry, who cling to the far-fetched belief that the results of this election were influenced by changing demographics. 
Since his unprecedented election and subsequent inauguration nearly a year ago, Donald Trump's presidency has been measured by an endless string of incendiary comments that own the tenor of repugnancy. He's taken on immigrants, a decorated war veteran, a Gold Star family, the NFL, fellow Republicans, his opponents, the legitimate media and members of his own cabinet, and that's just on his Twitter account. Away from his I-phone, the level of his performance on the job has tanked in direct proportion to his approval ratings, which now stand at a paltry 35 percent -- dreadful when compared against his predecessors. Want proof?
Trump has obstinately chosen to leave the U.S. out of the Paris Accords. His refusal to properly denounce white supremacists in Charlottesville broke new ground in awkward back-stepping. From the podium of the United Nations, he taunted a loose cannon third-world dictator with an itchy finger by applying him with a nickname, and may have committed a war crime by publicly threatening to destroy North Korea with a nuclear arsenal. He canceled the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have promoted U.S. trade at the expense of China. He signed a Muslim ban that not only led to problems in the immigration system, it ignited further stereotypes of foreigners and refugees. He has continuously denied Russian interference in his 2016 election, despite a mountain of growing evidence that's piling on the front door of the White House, proving otherwise.
Most importantly, and more times than can be easily counted, he consistently shows an utter disdain for the truth.
In the normalcy of the day-to-day operations of the Kennett Consolidated School District, the presidency of Donald J. Trump has absolutely nothing to do with the superb work that has been done over the past several years by Republicans Heather Schaen and Kendra LaCosta, two long-time and well-respected members of the school board...except in the voting booth. Their defeat, likely another knee-jerk reaction in a long line of retaliatory votes against Trump, is on course to set off an even larger firestorm of protest by the mid-term elections of 2018.
How far will this movement go is anyone's guess, but the truth is this: The freight train of incompetency coming from the White House, led by an ego-driven conductor on a collision course of his own invention, shows no sign of slowing down. It's a little ripple that has just begun to churn, and there is no telling who it will take down next.