The election is over and it is time to reflect on the Trump victory. He won the Electoral College vote but not the popular vote, but it is the Electoral College vote that matters.
The Republicans have also maintained their majority in the Senate and the House, but this does not mean that Trump will have an easy time or that he will get blanket endorsement and approval from them. It means however that the Supreme Court will continue to be an important issue, but now with the Democrats playing the obstructionist game, as they did with Borg.
The path to the White House began with a march through the Panhandle (of Florida, where the rural, white vote overcame the urban diverse vote and we will see this repeated time and again), to North Carolina, Pennsylvania, to Michigan to Wisconsin. Trump was able to win the rural, white votes overwhelmingly and coupled it with enough support from white, working class in the cities. Two thirds of white women voted for Trump; he won 62% 0f rural vote; won 50-45 in suburbs ( she won the cities 59%-35%, but not enough to stem the tides; she got Blacks and Hispanics but lees than voted for Pres. Obama).
It was a populist revolt against Washington, against the elites, against the celebrities, against those who had "forgotten them, neglected them, disrespected them". It was a vote of fear, for the loss of identity ( to the hordes of "others", threatening their religion, their values, their way of life). It was a vote for nostalgia for the 60s of Opie and the Nelsons, of white picket fences and safe, tree-covered streets; it was a vote against uncertainty, the loss of a traditional way of life to a creeping unfamiliar, alien demography with their "exotic" practices. It was a last gasp of despair for a loss innocence.
So they settled for "an outsider", who is inexperienced, truth-denying, incoherent, inconsistent, uninformed, lewd, non-politically correct and loud, who groped women, poured scorn on minorities, threatened to lock up his opponent, defrauded his customers but who put on the mantle of champion of the common man, who would return them to the halcyon days when America was white and great " I will make America strong again", he called out repeatedly.
They believed. They came out in droves and he won. Now what?
The Republicans have also maintained their majority in the Senate and the House, but this does not mean that Trump will have an easy time or that he will get blanket endorsement and approval from them. It means however that the Supreme Court will continue to be an important issue, but now with the Democrats playing the obstructionist game, as they did with Borg.
The path to the White House began with a march through the Panhandle (of Florida, where the rural, white vote overcame the urban diverse vote and we will see this repeated time and again), to North Carolina, Pennsylvania, to Michigan to Wisconsin. Trump was able to win the rural, white votes overwhelmingly and coupled it with enough support from white, working class in the cities. Two thirds of white women voted for Trump; he won 62% 0f rural vote; won 50-45 in suburbs ( she won the cities 59%-35%, but not enough to stem the tides; she got Blacks and Hispanics but lees than voted for Pres. Obama).
It was a populist revolt against Washington, against the elites, against the celebrities, against those who had "forgotten them, neglected them, disrespected them". It was a vote of fear, for the loss of identity ( to the hordes of "others", threatening their religion, their values, their way of life). It was a vote for nostalgia for the 60s of Opie and the Nelsons, of white picket fences and safe, tree-covered streets; it was a vote against uncertainty, the loss of a traditional way of life to a creeping unfamiliar, alien demography with their "exotic" practices. It was a last gasp of despair for a loss innocence.
So they settled for "an outsider", who is inexperienced, truth-denying, incoherent, inconsistent, uninformed, lewd, non-politically correct and loud, who groped women, poured scorn on minorities, threatened to lock up his opponent, defrauded his customers but who put on the mantle of champion of the common man, who would return them to the halcyon days when America was white and great " I will make America strong again", he called out repeatedly.
They believed. They came out in droves and he won. Now what?
