How history will judge 2016

On Nov. 8, the U.S. will conduct its 58th presidential election since the adoption of the Constitution. It’s part of a sequence that goes back some 227 years, a longer period of continuous representative government than in almost any other nation.

Yet at the same time, the American experience with presidential elections has been limited. Three of those 58 elections were uncontested: George Washington in 1789 and 1792 and James Monroe had no opposition, with one electoral vote cast against Monroe so that Washington would be the only president unanimously elected.