Thursday, November 10, 2016

POSTMORTEM 2016 ELECTION






All the news programs are thinking conventional, politically accepted reasons for the Trump blowout.     They are ignoring the elephant in the room.

Most rank and file Republicans see the Democratic voters as elitist and it doesn’t help when news programs start expressing Democratic electorate as college educated vs Republican non-college educated electorate. 

The fact is, that a good percentage of Republican voters are poorly informed and somewhat fact free – these people gravitate toward the Republican Party.

After the announcement that Trump had exceeded the 270 electoral College vote a reporter asked one of the women celebrating what a Donald Trump presidency would mean.  The woman answered that he will give our country back.   The reporter asked what that meant and she was stumped, then answered: he will make America great again and give us back our freedom.   She had no idea of Trump’s policies.
 
The Democratic and Republican Parties are almost equal in registered voters, with the democrats usually exceeding by one or two percent.

However, around thirty-five percent of eligible voters do not vote.  Many of these are elderly or infirm, many are young people just out of high school and some feel not accepted because of race or poverty; but a goodly number are poorly educated white red necks living at or near the poverty level who fly their rebel flags or American flags, are racially prejudice, love their guns, feel superior to women and view neither party as something they can identify with.    They look at Hillary Clinton as uppity bitch, and Mitt Romney a rich asshole.  These dropouts don’t speak the same language or think the same as the people put up for election by either party – so they don’t vote.

Until Donald Trump. 

 The garbage Trump spouted connected with this group and they attended his rallies, registered and voted, some for the first time.

Reporters keep referring to the lack of jobs and the anger of middle class white men as the excuse for Trumps win, without addressing the point that a good percent of this country are not bright and easily manipulated, and they vote Republican and a new disenfranchised group has joined them.   Particularly in this election many of the most extreme elements were tapped into and motivated by Trump’s outlandish behavior.   

Like Brexit, most of the Trump supporters have no idea the consequences of what they have done.

What can Democrats do?  
Probably nothing: you can’t fix stupid.  
But perhaps it is time to go back to ZEN and take a breath.
the Ol’Buzzard


2 comments:

  1. They need to get rid of the DNC, they are great at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They have a habit of not supporting the popular candidate until they are forced to. Feiger in Michigan years ago was a prime example, he won the popular vote in the primaries and the party didn't support him until just before the election. This time it was Bernie.

    We need to demand accountability for the electronic voting machines. It has been proven multiple times how easy they are to be hacked. In 2012 Rove was so sure Rmoney was going to win Ohio and was truly shocked when the state went for Obama. Later Anonymous announced they prevented a hack of the results for several states, Ohio included. Until we have a paper trail for the machines we will never know if the totals are accurate of not. If the companies that make the voting machines also make ATMs, they can easily put printers in voting machines to give the voter a receipt and have a record in the machine in case of a recount.

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  2. Perhaps I am a historian by training and a bit of Hegelian, I am a tad more optimistic than you. Demographics favor progressives in the long run. The next 4 years could be unpleasant, but the tide could start to turn as soon as the 2018 midterms. In fact, it's likely to because there's no way Trump can make good on any of his economic promises. Once they actually repeal the ACA, the economy tanks, and we slide into a full-blown financial panic, Trump is going to look a lot like Herbert Hoover.

    The thing that baffled me most about the election was the number of women who voted for Trump. Wow. Lots and lots of internalized sexism there.

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COMMENT: Ben Franklin said, "I imagine a man must have a good deal of vanity who believes, and a good deal of boldness who affirms, that all doctrines he holds are true, and all he rejects are false."