WHOM TO BLAME FOR THE TRUMP WIN

WHOM TO BLAME FOR CLINTON'S LOSS
 
In my own ordering, here's how I see it:
 
#1 The Democratic Machine, which must go
#2 Hillary Clinton
#3 Older people
#4 Women
#5 Hispanics
#6 Blacks
#7 Rural folks
#8 Millennials
 
We need a new and more responsive Democratic party that (a) does away with a patronage/crony system that rewards people for their work for the party with backroom support and (b) fully vets its nominees, eliminating those with major exploitable flaws like those which dogged Secretary Clinton.
 
Then there's Clinton herself, a person who's never enjoyed a lot of love and has used her power and position to advantage in terms of enjoying privileges and consideration unavailable to ordinary folk.
 
Older people, especially working class religious folks who it's been said, uncharitably (but with much truth) want to live in 1952 not 2016. They feel men should lead and be breadwinners, women should follow and make sure dinner is on the table when the hubby gets home. Is there a little racism there as well, especially in that yearning for 1952? Sure. However, we are still the same nation who elected Barack Obama and view him as one of the most popular of Presidents as he leaves office.
 
Speaking of women, they failed to show up in the expected numbers to ensure the first woman President. Many women, especially Christians, as I just said, believe that men are more suited to leadership and women more suited to support roles.
 
Most disappointingly, perhaps, was the lower-than-expected support of Hispanics, nearly 1/3 (29%) of whom voted for Trump. This despite his depiction of Mexican undocumenteds as rapists, murderers, and drug dealers. It turns out that many Hispanics agree with Trump. Also, those Hispanics who went to great trouble and expense to become legal citizens don't always sympathize with those wanting to get in the back door for free.
 
Many blacks, clearly, feel the Dems hae been taking them for granted. I doubt if many voted for Trump. More likely, a lot of them just opted out of the election entirely.
 
Rural folk who farm or are dependent upon farmers for their livelihood live on the razor's edge. They think people in Washington D.C. don't think much about them. Also, the great rural midlands, The Bible Belt, is where conservative, traditional values reign supreme.
 
Finally, clearly a lot of millennials opted either to stay home or to support a third party candidate. Bernie probably would have lost, too, and losing elections is just the way it is. As they get older, they'll realize that they have to share the country with people who disagree with them. With people who are, to put it bluntly, wrong. So it goes.

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Permalink Reply by matt.clerke on November 10, 2016 at 4:50pm

I'm surprised to see Rural folks so far down the list. So many articles I've read on this are putting them front and centre on the blame train.

Also, possibly the most alarming thing of all is that you only got (a little over, I think) a third of the population to vote. What the hell is everyone else thinking? Do they just not care about their lives and the lives of their countrymen? Like they had 2 choices: influence the result by voting (and try to get a government that reflects their values) or don't and just accept that the result might not be in your best interest, or your countries best interest. Wtf Americans? Wtf...

Permalink Reply by Pope Beanie on November 10, 2016 at 7:47pm

I'm surprised to see Rural folks so far down the list. So many articles I've read on this are putting them front and centre on the blame train.

Well, I see it more as rural folks feeling ignored, especially the white ones... which can be blamed on the size and sway of city folk populations. I also see China's rise in consumer product production as an unexpected and not dealt with sufficiently, and the rust belt had already been suffering for a decade from loss of auto production industry.

So I think a lot of our economic failure as insufficiently predicted fallout from not being able to adapt more quickly to a new global economy that was inevitable. Economic and political systems are so complex that I have expected for decades that China would damage us, but I didn't realize what the order of events would be.

You're sure right about the low voter turnout. I'm thinking the only solution (e.g. similar to reducing religious righteousness) is to better educate people and help them to think for themselves. That's a pretty general "fix" that I'm not even sure is possible, except (say) in cultures/societies that happen to be in a major, upward phase in their evolution... like China, albeit their success is largely driven at the moment from the top down.

Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on November 10, 2016 at 7:57pm

Blaming wastes time and exhausts resources.

Telling people so in ways that don't anger them is an important political art.

I don't have a lot of it.

Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on November 11, 2016 at 4:49am

One statistic sums up this election.  51% of American workers are earning less than $28k per year.  Think about that.  They take home less than $500/week.  If you are one of those people then you know what I'm about to say.  If you are not one of those people then listen up.

Add up your health care, dentist, meds, glasses, and the orthopedic insoles, etc.  Look at the cost of rent, utilities, insurance.  You might already be out of money and you haven't even yet eaten.  Public transit is failing, you need a new computer to find a better job - who the hell has been running this country for the past several decades?  People like Hillary.

The nation didn't "rally behind Trump."  He got fewer votes than Romney but he still won!  Why?  Because 7 million fewer people voted than in 2012.  Why?  Because the only reasons to vote were hate or fear.  Sure, there were racists who chose hate - but there were plenty of people who just hated taking home less than they did 20 years ago.  The Clinton alternative?  FEAR!  FEAR TRUMP!  Well, that got some people out to vote for her - but plenty of people stayed home because they just didn't see a path to victory.

The Democrats have shifted right with each election since Bill took office.  They shift right because they can get more donor money - then they look the working class voter in the eye and say, "what are you going to do about it?"

Well, I'll tell you what the working class voter did.  They didn't vote.

Have the Democrats learned?  Are they re-inventing a working class party?  No - they are blaming racists and bigots and planning to run Kaine in the next election.  Go figure.

Permalink Reply by Unseen on November 11, 2016 at 11:53am

Bernie Sanders is leading the charge to clean house, get rid of cronyism and patronage, and put together a real alternative to the Republicans. More power to him. 

Keith Ellison and Howard Dean are among those being talked about as...

Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on November 11, 2016 at 3:59pm

@unseen - I see it as requiring more than housekeeping.  The Democratic party has been shifting right for so long that it's now on a neighbouring lot.  Bernie Sanders would regain a LOT more credibility of he went back to the old foundation and began building anew.

Permalink Reply by Davis Goodman on November 11, 2016 at 7:05am
Who to blame for the win? I blame Trump and his scummy speeches, dirty crawling through the vilest common denominator, appeal to the worst insecurities of fearful people, horrid mistreatment of everyone better than him, his masterful manipulation of a meaningful narrative into a vacuous one and a never ending source of viciousness and repetitive insults that eventually stick to peoples faces...and only secondarily do I blame his entourage of those who know better yet helped him and only tertiary do I blame the poor people who voted for him...they will suffer the most....for generations. Blame trump. Put nearly all the blame on this monster of a pathetic excuse for a homosapien.
Permalink Reply by Unseen on November 11, 2016 at 12:14pm

No, Davis. Clearly a lot of people voted for Trump despite his racism, and sexism. They wanted a change they didn't see coming with a Democratic win. Also, a lot of people actively dislike Secy Clinton (I'm one, though I voted for her). 

This is still the country which elected a black man TWICE to the highest office and regards him as the most popular President of recent times.

The Dems and Ms. Clinton herself were the two biggest problems. And also, polling, which gave the party and her supporters the idea that she could just coast to victory. I'll never trust a poll again.

Permalink Reply by Pope Beanie on November 11, 2016 at 5:06pm

This is still the country which elected a black man TWICE to the highest office and regards him as the most popular President of recent times.

I mentioned to a black woman how I appreciated Obama (not even mentioning race), and her responses were 1) he's only half black and 2) all politicians are evil and she'd never vote for "Hitlery". She also ranted to me about the day's chem trails.

Permalink Reply by Unseen on November 11, 2016 at 10:16pm

She's hardly typical. As for the chem trails thing, many black folks are painfully vulnerable to conspiracy theories, especially ones supposedly aimed at killing blacks, such as the idea that AIDS was developed in a government program to eliminate the black race. For just about every black celebrity who dies, there's a conspiracy theory. It really hinders their progress. 

Even in academia, black professors promote the idea that Africa had high civilizations that Europeans refuse to recognize and give credit to. They claim many of the inventions Europeans and Westerners claim originated in Africa and that there's a white conspiracy designed to make blacks look backward and stupid. No doubt, they are right in some cases, but not nearly to the extent claimed.

The reasons why the white world of the Northwestern quadrant of the planet excelled and dominated have many coincidental causes: better crop bearing land, more resistance to disease, better access to minerals and other raw materials, better weather, and on and on. The book Guns, Germs, and Steel explains it very well. There is also a documentary based on the book. It is split up into episodes all of them available, I believe, on Youtube. Below is the first episode:

Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on November 11, 2016 at 10:38pm

@unseen - On the topic of the northwestern quadrant of the old world 'dominating', I believe there are just ebbs and flows in human progress.  Europe happened to be on a high tide when the 'new world' was discovered, and so became a very dominant world culture - but we're really only talking about moment in human history.  If you were suddenly transported to a thousand years into the future, and humanity was still thriving, I highly doubt you would recognize the dominant language and the dominant culture likely wouldn't seem the least bit 'European'.

Permalink Reply by Unseen on November 11, 2016 at 11:29pm

Watch the set of vi

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