I was wrong. We awoke to the news that Trump had won. I am still digesting what occurred, but it looks like Donald was able to turn several important regions his way. The states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, for example, tilted heavily in his direction and I think it is because he spoke to the latent desire of people to have work to do. Nearly 100,000,000 Americans do not work – they are not in the workforce. They live on savings, on the earnings of spouses, and on the government dole. The inherent nature of man is to build, not to sit around. Trump tapped this quite effectively.
However, I still think it was Hillary’s election to lose and she did so by demonizing millions of Americans who supported Trump when she called them “deplorable.” That resonated far and wide. She also did herself no favors by running on Obama’s record, which is seen as lackluster at best. And, finally, the lingering sense that she broke any number of laws, including the famous “email server in the basement” nonsense. Anyone else would have lost their job and possibly gone to jail. I also think it was a mistake to let her husband campaign (even though I thought Bill did an excellent job governing our country). He brought up old wounds, including the whole of the “blow job in the Oval Office” stuff and the idea that they, the Clintons, were somehow above the law.
Let us speak truth to power, however. There were no coattails. The Republican majority in the House, still intact, declined by 13 seats. In the Senate, it dropped by one. Trump has no mandate. None whatsoever.
I voted for Trump, which is to say that I ticked the ballot box for Trump. However, truth be told, I voted against Hillary. I simply could not get past the character issue, even though I don’t for a minute think that Donald is an angel. I suspect, but will never really know, that many people did precisely the same thing.
This then brings us to the divide in our country, which is now precisely 50-50. If it turns out that she won the popular vote total, it will have been by the slimmest of margins. And that will only highlight the permanent division in our country. Look for increasing calls to split the country up. The east and west coasts went decidedly for Clinton, as they did for Obama and Gore and the first Clinton. They will never give up.
The election puts the lie to “big money politics,” Trump’s wealth notwithstanding. He spent an average of $5 per vote, while Clinton spent nearly four times that amount. He stayed on message and ran as much for himself as he did against Obama (which is to say, he made it clear that Clinton was in effect running for Obama’s third term). What her message was had never been clear to me. She spent her money reifying her base of voters but forgot about the tremendous numbers of people who had not made up their minds. Trump’s message was simply the better marketing plan.
Life will go on. The Congress will still remain somewhat of an impotent force. Trump will take months if not years to learn the levers of his control and power. As with Brexit, the markets will react negatively (they don’t like change) but will bounce back. The global economy will stutter along. Whatever Trump can do will take years to take hold. And he may then lose re-election in four years. Who knows.
Clinton has an obligation to fade away, but something tells me that her ambition to power knows no bounds.
