Wired868 Wired868 for smart sport news and opinion
It might be the first time in the history of global politics that Russia elected a United States president. But that would probably be an over-simplification on last night’s election results.
In an era that places a premium on financial prudence, long term planning, skilled diplomacy and environmental awareness, the US electorate took one look at a short-tempered, tax-dodging, xenophobic, misogynistic, climate change skeptic, bigoted, adulterous, serial groper and said: Yeah, he will do!
Lift your skirt up, America, and think pleasant thoughts.
(Copyright Getty)
Expecting Donald Trump to make America “great again”, with a sales pitch so unsophisticated that it should be written in crayon, is like asking a six-year-old to drive you to work. She might get you there. But is it worth the risk? And what would your car look like in the end?
Yet pointing the finger of blame at the judgment of millions of Americans—or questioning the racial tolerance of more than half of the country—might also be short-sighted. This is, after all, a country that recently voted for Barack Obama. Twice!
So what’s less appealing than a young black candidate with a Kenyan father or an old white bigoted one? Apparently Hillary Clinton.
Presumably, given a choice between Zika, Ebola, Hillary and certain death, America’s first female presidential nominee could only hope to come in third. And that is only among voters who don’t believe in an after-life.
So then democracy is nothing more than a game show-styled popularity contest for politicians. And The Donald knows a thing or two about those—or at least he is more versed in that arena than discussing foreign policy and nuclear responsibility.
But I suspect there is even more to it than that.
Obama, as he stumped for Hillary, insisted that his Democratic successor was the most qualified candidate ever for the job of US president. Clearly, that was a double-edged sword. At a time when distrust of politicians is at an all-time low, promoting her credentials as the “supreme politician” might have been an own goal.
(Copyright AFP 2016/Jeff Kowalsky)
The public would rather trust a buffoon than a politician at the moment. And they proved it.
It is “Brexit” all over again. There are growing cross-sections of the population who are so sickened by their lot in life and incensed by the “rigged system”—and isn’t it ironic now to see the real cost of the Democratic party’s undermining of Bernie Saunders?—that they no longer trust conventional wisdom on anything.
Here on the two island republic—as Finance Minister Colm Imbert laughs at the weak suckers who are the victims of his price hikes—there might be growing numbers who are more open to the idea of the Movement for Social Justice (MSJ) or even Errol Fabien in the driver’s seat. Any port for a storm, as the cliché goes.
With the likes of Anil Roberts, Jack Warner and Anand Ramlogan followed by Imbert, Marlene McDonald and Camille Robinson-Regis, can things really get worse?
The answer is, of course, a resounding: Yes! Things can always get worse. Just ask any supporter of the West Indies cricket team.
The United States population is about to find that out.
Born, raised and indoctrinated in their democratic system, the “Yanks” decided to vote for the closest thing they could find to anarchy. It might go down in history as the most hair-brained people’s revolution of all time.
(Copyright AFP 2016/Yuri Cortez)
In their quest for a leader to address their lowered self-esteem, fear of foreigners and uncomfortable position under the heel of corporate America, they turned to an unscrupulous tax dodging, employee abusing, egotistical member of the parasitic oligarchy with a fake tan, hair transplant, foreign trophy wife and Russian premier Vladimir Putin on his My Lime list.
The turkeys, desperate, angry and confused, have finally voted for Thanksgiving.
Well, go ahead Donald. Grab ‘em by the pussy!
“A lawless, indisciplined and corrupt nation cannot fight crime.” Pastor Clive Dottin, The People’s Roundtable, January 2024. At The People’s Read more
“[...] It seemed that (…) the Trump Administration had taken aggression against Cuba as far as it could go. But Read more
“[…] Some of the main items agreed to in the MOU include the recognition by the Opposition of the legitimacy Read more
“[…] Mr Biden, you are on the wrong side of history… and you are repudiating the very policies of the Read more
Last Sunday, the state of our national dialogue alarmed two Express columnists. Martin Daly described it as poisonous (‘The country Read more
“[…] The Biden-Harris Administration has encouraged all embassies and consulates to fly the Pride flag on the same flagpole as the US Read more
There’s a lot of black hypocrisy, many were chasing the Trump dreams, with many of the get rich schemes endorsed by Trump!
Many put money into the Trump campaign via Billy Graham christian crusade!
In the name of Jesus many of you and your parents supported the KKK, take responsibility and forget the Jesus shit!
Another perspective on the result.
http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/robert-reich-what-donald-trumps-election-really-means
LOL! Did the “Gyal Meets Brass” guy write this, bcuz it’s fucking SALTY!
..Angry white men rule again..
I am not really surprised by the result of the US Presidential Election as it was the voiceless angry uneducated working class white males who responded to a “dog-whistled” message which was carefully coded and pitched as a hidden racist agenda to “make America white again.” But regardless of what happens, the great legacy of the first Black president Barack Obama shall live on forever in the Black Community that he inspired to strive towards greatness. We discuss this and more tonight at 9pm on the Black Agenda Project Online Radio Station…. and this Sunday morning at NALIS Abercrombey St POS from 11am. ( David Muhammad)
Interesting analysis.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/10/trump-small-business-whites-xenophobia-immigration/
..I understand all of that. Now let them pro-Trump Latinos, blacks and Haitians deal with Trump and his white supremacists..
Keith, one reason given for black Trump votes is that Donald Trump reached out to Haitian community who despised the Clintons for their involvement on their island through policy and their “charitable” interventions:
“Haitians had every reason to be untrusting of Hillary Clinton: her husband has admitted to destroying Haitian rice farming, thanks his neoliberal trade policies of Arkansas rice dumping in the 1990s. This was a huge blow to Haitian agriculture, which has never quite recovered. Even after the former President Clinton’s apology, the practice has not only continued, but expanded into peanut dumping. Just as disturbingly, Ricardo Seitenfus of the Organisation of American States (OAS), who was dismissed from his position after exposing the truth about NGO aid, as well as the source of the cholera outbreak in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, said that Hillary Clinton’s state department rigged the 2010 Haitian presidential election for Michel Martelly. Her state department intervened once more with Haitian politicians, convincing them to drop a plan to increase the Haitian minimum wage to 62 cents an hour.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/king-democratic-party-deserves-blame-electing-trump-article-1.2866238
And here we were all concerned about Trump supporters getting rowdy.
America the exporter of democracy doesn’t seem to like “one man, one vote” so much at present.
Now what does that tell you?
Well the eligible voters just elected someone which is the closest thing the western world has seen to an authoritarian or fascist leader since Nixon, Mousollini or Franco – so yea all American citizens or green card holders (myself) who didn’t want that have good reason to be rowdy
The new dispensation
Colin it’s misguided to start rowdiness when the man hasn’t done a thing yet. He’s only spoken and because there’s freedom of speech well …
If people want to start being rowdy they should wait until there’s something to be rowdy about.
Apropos what one throws out comes back. Too much irony here yes. It’s clear that these days were coming; who couldn’t see them needs some glasses.
Life is just full of ironies: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/09/anti-donald-trump-protests-new-york-chicago-san-francisco?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
She is fast to lecture anybody about wasting votes. Nonsense. If you think Gary is your best candidate then that is who you should vote for.
What’s to say that the Gary Johnson voters might not have had Trump as their second choice?
How presumptuous.
Everybody wants to be a shepherd
Close attention because when America sneezes Trinidad and Tobago gets the flu.
Seems the world, cause the Brits say the same thing
Saw this post early this morning.
Hhmm
The first world is swinging to the far right. It’s gaining momentum and we need to pay attention.
This was my status 4 hrs ago
“The anti-establisment movement, like renewable energy is taking root all over the world, except for TT, where people take pride in following the establishment’s orders”
Germany and France next.
https://www.facebook.com/notes/william-j-carter/michael-moore-foretold-it-with-amazing-accuracy-on-23-july-2016/10157659173930612
..Of course mothing will change..
The people have spoken. Democracy and the rule of law must prevail. It is left to be seen how ‘make America great again’ becomes more than an election gimmick. My opinion is that nothing will change for these voters who felt a connection to Trump. Less regulations, taxes and smaller government are some republican policy positions that will come at a high cost. The President elect and the Republican Congress will be under pressure to deliver on manufacturing jobs, immigration, etc, as they control all arms of government and will have no excuse or much wiggle room.
Interesting that all the polls were off.
The polls and much of the media were accused of being Democrat aligned. Maybe they were and Trump & his campaign new his real numbers better than the public did.
For the second time, after Brexit, in my life I heard the BBC World Service sounding biased…was so peed off
I hope it was not that persons were so sure of a Clinton victory that they did not vote.
No Joan, the Dems lost votes to the 3rd candidates and the Reps votes didn’t increase from last election.
Interesting indeed.
Have a look at this page
“Nationally, Donald Trump has won 47.5% of the vote, with Hillary Clinton taking 47.7% – yet this has translated into 279 electoral college votes for the Republicans and 228 for the Democrats.”
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37889032
Thanks for this very detailed analysis.
Having spent enough time in uk, usa and now canada to see this mess live and direct I would say this.
From a global perspective this second in line of 4 major democratic elections following brexit – Germany & France could be next
White man paranoia & racism after global recession venting their anger vs globalist. London wanted to remain – outside England wanted brexit.
While the whole world was in awe of Obama election win in 2008, this riled up racial resident in USA that a lot of people didn’t see – that was further accelerated by the slow growth from recession
This is why personally for much of Obama presidency I came back to trinidad and worked because of the lack of jobs due to recession and racial tension that was building
Big cities like New York, California, Philadelphia, Miami etc wanted clinton – rural american wanted trump
Problem is them people (those white folks) ain’t realize and can’t see that trump and brexit is a threat to them
So while a change candidate is clearly the vybe nnow these people are willing to ignore sense and use Trump as a swinging bat to hit the establishment. But they need to stop taking out their anger vs coloured people and immingrants like myself who have similar gripes in recession era about their life security and standard.
Fact that some white folks calling the black lives matter movement a racist thug element is a perfect example.
USA media has to take blame for terrible coverage, the overplaying of Clinton email scandal which was hardly anything and lack of proper investigating into the many trump scandals makes all those journalist with big degrees look horrible.
They fell for the Republican narrative and hate machine vs the clintons that going on since the 1990s
Then citizens have to take blame for this illogical choice.
How could it be possible that people consider Clinton a liar when by all objective analysis her political false statements is very low compared to Trump who lying is absolutely shocking.
How is it possible that 38% of people as the exit polls show think that Trump is unqualified to be president and 52% say clinton is – but they pick him
How is it possible Obama who has a 54% approval rating which is highest for an outgoing USA president since Reagen and they don’t give his legacy another term than clinton.
And for the Bernie Sanders people who may have voted Trump and third party – how could they not understand that if Clinton won and taken senate – Sanders would have become chairman of senate finance committee and he would have had control of how USA spends it money
This is one of the most power positions in Washington next to the president, plus via balance of power Clinton adopting all of his policies meant their voices were heard.
So in this broken world society of defective globalization, rising of white nationalism – I hate that i was proven right that Americans were dumb enough to vote with their anger and not their brains.
Thank to Canada for being the one western democracy which is holding it together and where as a black, caribbean immigrant millennial I can live in peach. The Western world needs a soul check…
I disagree with your analysis Colin. People feel disenfranchised, that doesnt necessarily make them racist. The north of England is not the City of London. The income brackets are at two extremes. Same for NY and Miami compared to Detroit. People will always seek their interest. People have seen their livlihood suddenly disappear, parts of the country are graveyards of factories
Savitri Maharaj I didn’t say all his supporters or brexit were racist – I acknowledged their anger which I and other black people, immigrants and minorities felt too while in the USA but let’s not pretend as if people had a problem with globalization before the 2008 recession when things were going well
And let’s not pretend also that racist white elements have fully endorsed trump and brexit – this has to confronted if the western world don’t blow up soon
If everyone made decisions based on anger without logically considering their choices – we won’t have a functioning society
Globalisation has been taken too far Colin. That EU project is a failure and more people will revolt peacefully. The racist elements are always being stoked and those in authority really need to temper their language since they are the ones doing the damage.
People have a problem when it affect them obviously. NAFTA has been a failure for the heartland of the US, you cant only be a service economy.
That is all true. I’m no expert on politics and wish not to sound like it. I Just speak as journalist and someone who has lived in North America long enough to understand and appreciate the society dynamics
however considering those problems and backlash against Globalization- I can’t see how any logical voters rightfully seeking a “change” candidate to bring back their jobs etc can vote for Trump
That is high level delusional like holocaust & climate change deniers
Hillary maybe be establishment – but Sanders is real change candidate and almost all his policies were implemented by her in democratic platform
Thus if one understands the branches of power in USA government structure as I explain above – voting for her and giving Bernie increased power in senate was the only option
On bright side she is getting more votes just Gore did in 2000 & we all know how things ended up in a Bush presidency
All supposition Colin. Bernie lost the Primary, so start from there. All polls predicted a Democrat win
Where is the supposition ?
Bernie losing primary doesn’t alter anything i am saying. I’m just noting fact that under a Clinton presidency he would have had one of most powerful positions in Washington
And although I wasn’t talking politics publicly during campaign except for privately with family & close associates – i personally always was worried about state of America racial tension and likelihood trump could win all time despite what polls was saying. I was on the ground – action of words for me
That is why one year ago i decided not to return to USA but come Canada.
Wow this is just whiney bitching, how do you read this?
Your conspiracy theory was off
Very much so.
A couple thoughts to add to the discussion. The theme that the economy and government are not working for the average citizens was a very specific and powerful message. When generations have grown up in a town with grandpa, dad and son all working at the neighbourhood factory….reliable employment and stability, and then such factories and plants one day disapppear altogether…the world of these folks is turned upside down in the most fundamental manner. Neither candidate offered details of any clear solution, but only one of them spent time and effort to specifically connect to the concerns and pains of those people. The establishment of that connection is a powerful benchmark in a campaign that was not sufficiently recognised by the media.
And then a related reality is the Clinton mobilisation of the political elite and popular culture celebrities during the peak of the campaign. This remined me of the last PM and Warner heading off to Tobago to canvass during the last THA election. They never realised the strength of the sentiment against them until after the fact. Just because a President and colleagues attract adulation and admiration in some communities and of course here in the Caribbean, doesn’t mean you can assume that they can help attract the people who blame them for not improving or connecting with their current daily challenges.
Two cliches might help here. The customer is always right. And that bit about where the buck stops.
I also note that the political target approach of vilifying [whether true or not] usually backfires like a political karma. It seems to galvanize support instead of decreasing. Not judging but I’ve seen it pay dividends to J. Warner, K. Rowley and now D. Trump.
Interesting point, especially when there was the incredible attempt to label it as taking the political “high road”.
Excerpt two from UK Guardian commentary: (and consider this Keith Look Loy, Caroline Taylor and Ian R Briggs)
“Why, oh why, did it have to be Hillary Clinton? Yes, she has an impressive resume; yes, she worked hard on the campaign trail. But she was exactly the wrong candidate for this angry, populist moment. An insider when the country was screaming for an outsider. A technocrat who offered fine-tuning when the country wanted to take a sledgehammer to the machine.
She was the Democratic candidate because it was her turn and because a Clinton victory would have moved every Democrat in Washington up a notch. Whether or not she would win was always a secondary matter, something that was taken for granted. Had winning been the party’s number one concern, several more suitable candidates were ready to go. There was Joe Biden, with his powerful plainspoken style, and there was Bernie Sanders, an inspiring and largely scandal-free figure. Each of them would probably have beaten Trump, but neither of them would really have served the interests of the party insiders.
And so Democratic leaders made Hillary their candidate even though they knew about her closeness to the banks, her fondness for war, and her unique vulnerability on the trade issue – each of which Trump exploited to the fullest. They chose Hillary even though they knew about her private email server. They chose her even though some of those who studied the Clinton Foundation suspected it was a sketchy proposition.
To try to put over such a nominee while screaming that the Republican is a rightwing monster is to court disbelief. If Trump is a fascist, as liberals often said, Democrats should have put in their strongest player to stop him, not a party hack they’d chosen because it was her turn. Choosing her indicated either that Democrats didn’t mean what they said about Trump’s riskiness, that their opportunism took precedence over the country’s well-being, or maybe both…”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/donald-trump-white-house-hillary-clinton-liberals
to simplistic in its breakdown…. as simple as this place is it is not that simple…. and since the English voted for Brexit, unless it is on the back pages, it hard to take anything they comment on politically seriously……
That doesn’t mean the author voted for Brexit or supported that view/failed to convince people to remain.
In fact they have already picked over the bones and might better understand what America is now trying to comprehend.
At the end of the day (I always hate that opening! Lol), it is Hillary’s responsibility to give voters a reason to come out and elect her. And she failed.
It is more a failure for her and her team than it is a success for fascists.
Sana, there is massive voter tampering and suppression of voting going on in Red states… you think it is easy to go in some places to exercise your rights in this country?….. she did her job…. white people did theirs….. and now we have TRUMP….
So it is the voters’ fault for failing to spot what a top notch president she would make? I think she wasn’t inspiring enough for Democrats and Independents. And Trump, with a fired up base, took advantage.
I’d love to her the voter turnout figures to see if there were much lower than the last two elections. That would make more sense.
Completely disagree, Lasana, re placing the blame *exclusively* on her. But just commented elsewhere on the thread as to why.
If I want you to vote for me, I must give you a compelling reason. If I cannot do so, it makes no sense me putting the blame on you.
It is my job to make you enthusiastic about what I am offering. She might not be the ONLY person at fault. But it was her show. The buck stops with her as far as I am concerned. Just as it did with Manning and it should have with Kamla.
She outlined, for me, a compelling range of concrete policy that I would have been happy to vote for – even if I didn’t find her particularly appealing. People have to take responsibility for responding more to hype than substance, to innuendo over facts. That’s the problem with the infotainment culture, and where individual voters, and the media, and the RNC, are all players in this drama. As citizens, we have responsibilities. We co-create in democracies, both before and after elections. To sit back and first expect to be moved into voting, or not to understand your role in holding those elected accountable, is where democracy breaks down. You then surrender your rights and your agency to those who take it more seriously. And to me that’s unconscionable.
Caroline, I’m not saying that anything you said isn’t true. I’m saying that at a basic level, if I knock on your door and offer you a product and you decide you don’t want or need it or are unconvinced that it will make your life better… Well, for me, the last person to blame there is the potential consumer.
Just as in our businesses, if we expect people to support us based on civic duty, we would starve.
They should. That would be nice. But it just isn’t worth thinking about to me.
You have to win them over or suffer the consequences.
You see, that’s part of the problem. Civics and consumerism should not be interchangeable or comparable. But capitalism and the infotainment culture have commodified everything, so that if you don’t “brand” your policy positions well, it fails. While the ideal politician, or should I say servant of the people, is one strong on substantive policy, charisma, and PR/marketing, that’s not always the case. If we treat them us as a commodity which, if the packaging and marketing campaign ain’t sexy enough we’ll take a pass, then we’re all up shit’s creek without a paddle. It’s our responsibility to search out the facts through the noise and the spin — because this is choosing your country’s leader, not a phone or a shoe. The shoe company wants your money so they can make money and sell you more shoes. But a politician — the best among them — is trying to affect the lives of you and all your countrymen. We then have to decide if that’s for good or for ill, and who we’ll either entrust with or deny that power. That’s where it’s a civic duty, not your Amazon shopping cart. If the shoe company goes out of business because nobody’s buying the sneaker, the only people that affects are those invested in that company. But if an entire system of government or country goes down because of inadequate voter engagement and/or poor leadership, then that affects everybody. They simply are not, nor should they ever be, comparable.
Excerpt one from UK Guardian commentary:
“He has run one of the lousiest presidential campaigns ever. In saying so I am not referring to his much-criticized business practices or his vulgar remarks about women. I mean this in a purely technical sense: this man fractured his own party. His convention was a fiasco. He had no ground game to speak of. The list of celebrities and pundits and surrogates taking his side on the campaign trail was extremely short. He needlessly offended countless groups of people: women, Hispanics, Muslims, disabled people, mothers of crying babies, the Bush family, and George Will-style conservatives, among others. He even lost Glenn Beck, for pete’s sake.
And now he is going to be president of the United States. The woman we were constantly assured was the best-qualified candidate of all time has lost to the least qualified candidate of all time. Everyone who was anyone rallied around her, and it didn’t make any difference. The man too incompetent to insult is now going to sit in the Oval Office…”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/09/us-election-result-throws-paris-climate-deal-into-uncertainty
The Americans don’t believe in Climate Change.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1602592743139511&id=172573132808153
Hahaha
UK Guardian figures: Among the more startling data to emerge from the poll:
White voters, who make up 69% of the total, voted 58% for Trump and 37% for Clinton. Non-white voters, who make up 31% of the electorate, voted 74% for Clinton and 21% for Trump.
White men opted 63% for Trump and 31% for Clinton; white women voted 53% for Trump and 43% for Clinton.
Among non-college-educated whites, 67% voted for Trump – 72% of men and 62% of women.
Among college-educated whites, 45% voted for Clinton – 39% of men and 51% of women (the only white demographic represented in the poll where the former secretary of state came out on top). But 54% of male college graduates voted for Trump, as did 45% of female college graduates.
More 18- to 29-year-old whites voted for Trump (48%) than Clinton (43%).
Analysis Presidential victory speech annotated: what Trump said and what he meant
Alan Yuhas reads between the lines of the Republican president-elect’s speech on the night of his victory over Hillary Clinton
Read more
Trump collected just 9% of black votes from the same age group, and 24% of Latinos. Compared with Obama four years ago, Clinton underperformed with black and Latino voters generally, winning 88% of the black vote overall, against Obama’s 93%, and 65% of the Latino vote, against Obama’s 71%.
Trump, meanwhile, while winning just 8% of the black vote, collected 29% of the Latino vote – two percentage points more than his 2012 predecessor, Mitt Romney.
Broken down by income bracket, 52% of voters earning less than $50,000 a year – who make up 36% of the electorate – voted for Clinton, and 41% for Trump. Among the 64% of American voters who earn more than $50,000 a year, 49% chose Trump and 47% for Clinton.
Lasana, I just was on the phone with my team manager , who is also a white female business owner… and in her own words, she hates trump but would NEVER have voted for Hilary.. No matter what Trump did, a large portion of WHITE America (including WHITE Females) we willing to have Trump win… and unlike minorities, they really dont see the president (and by default Trump) as the leader of anything, they just see him as that guy you put in office instead of that girl…. it is as simple as it gets…. no stress.. to the point of when I expressed my shock at what happened she was like “you expected another outcome”….. Mind you this is coming for a lady who has a degree from Cornell and lives in a state (MD) that traditionally votes democratic in General elections.. … And dont get it twisted, RACE was a BIG factor in this election… what do you think the slogan “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” is code for? We know for sure what it doesnt mean- taking into consideration the welfare of minorities (including women) in this country… And in America, the only way to get rural people to vote is to harp on something they all have in common.. dislike for anyone non white…. guess who helped push him (trump) over the edge? …. rural voting… they finally found someone who sounds just like them… not a bible thumping fraud… just a regular “merican” who dont like anybody of colour and willing to say it out loud….
But for Trump to win, thousands, tens of thousands or even millions of Obama supporters either switched side or stayed at home or a combination of the two.
What do you attribute that to?
..”Make America great again” is code for “Make white people run tings agaIn”. They hate non-white. Catholic. LGBT. Female. Immigrant. Anything that is different. You name it..
Racism+sexism+social conservatism+apathy/complacency. Check the margins he won by in the close states: Stein+Johnson is the difference, as is the percentage of folks who didn’t show up at all.
Lasana Liburd a lot of republicans voted for Pres. Obama in the last elections…. (traditional red states with hard core blue collar workers and low income and education went blue) …. Hilary couldnt carry these states because for the 1st time in a while republicans in these states has a different rallying cry they actually understood…. and that rallying cry had nothing to do with a female running for pres… it was… if you ever want the America you know and love (meaning white male dominated and little or no interference from women or “other” people) you better vote for me….. White males in this country were fast becoming an endangered species and if Hilary won, could have signaled the end of their dominance in Governance and it not only opend the door for minorites but also WOMEN….. so to some, the right order has been restored with a trump victory
Ian, I won’t doubt you when you say that Republicans voted for Obama. What I’m saying is if they were racist, they would have voted for Romney or McCain.
So their first motivation is probably not race. The challenge is the consider what that first motivation might be.
nah, McCain and Romney didnt represent them….. remeber obama came in at the worst financial time in the US history… he represented “hope that my 1mmm+ house which is now 250K can get back to that”… once that was settled and everybody money back in order (stock market back, house values back, kids could still go to private school) it is back to business as usual (who can we get in to get them out….. Obama’s timing was just correct…. trust me he would have struggled in this election also if the economic winds were as they are now, trump ran the same campaign and he wasnt the incumbent
Well, there you go. Then it isn’t as simple as saying racism won. Because there are other factors involved.
And, the elephant in the room, which Republic candidate would Hillary have defeated? Romney? McCain? Bush?
I feel this isn’t as simplistic a matter as some are suggesting.
all of the above….. Lasana you have to understand… rural America is a very scary place…. I coach games in places where if it getting to dark I leave right after the game…. and that is in MARYLAND (a blue state).. in this election and climate, Trump said aloud EVERYTHING they hold dear…. they are predominatly racist, white males with low income and low education… and once it became OK to say things out loud without any repercussion they felt fine to be American…. none of the mentioned candidates would have been willing to play gutter ball…. Trump swam in it, ingest de water, and purge out a victory….
Lol. I agree with that Ian. My only addition is that he didn’t win based on those voters alone. In fact, Trump collected 24% of the Latino vote and 9% of the Afro-American vote.
So clearly people responded to more than his race baiting.
oh many people HATED Hilary….. and those latino votes are predominatly Cubans who end up in FL and think they are white…. and 9% of a 12% population is no number at all …especially when those numbers are for people who vote becase it is safere to vote that way than democrat (yes in this day and age that happens)… the stats are real but you have to understand the history of this place to really interpret what they mean…..
Trump get a larger Latino vote than Romney. So, again, we are missing something here.
The assimilationists and conservative Catholics – “values” voters and those who want to pull the ladder up from behind them after they’ve gotten up top.
..”White” Latinos. Cuban exiles. Argies. Some Colombians.
Amery Browne, Keith Look Loy blaming Argies for messing with the stability of the free world now yes! ???
.”The Europeans of South America” LOL..
Hahahahaha. Well it WAS a very messi campaign season.
???
Thanks Deb. I think that partly explains it. And that would be Hillary’s failure to fire up her base
I agree with Lasana Liburd, I don’t think it was about race alone. Trump did appeal to the white person from rural areas and was saying things that they were thinking and probably saying in their communities but not able to say in “public”.
Also Caroline Taylor has been making the point that the issue of abortion , equal rights for the LGBT community etc were a factor. Also Obama Care was a big issue for people who voted for Trump.
Also another component I think we are missing is US manufacturing. Trump’s rhethoric would appeal to persons who either work in major manufacturing or who used to work in manufacturing but have lost their jobs.
I work for a US steel company and our share price closed 12% higher yesterday than it opened………..12% (It actually went higher during the day but came back down).
I don’t live in the US but to say its only about race is to oversimplify the issue.
Ahhhh ….. for once I see Ravi post something interesting.
Now while the vast majority of Trump’s supporters are Anglo-Americans, there are significant portions of communities of color who supported him as well. These are the “wanna be’s” or as they are called in the African American community, “Uncle Toms”. These are the people desperate to be accepted by white society, often times they are people of color who themselves are racist against othe people of color (usually black people), their support of Trump is their declaration that goes “Hey, look at me, I’m not black, I’m one of you, accept me”.
So you think ALL those voters were either racist or uncle Toms? And the same as Brexit voters?
So you won’t consider that there might be another possibility?
I would consider any possible explanation that sounds credible.
That there might also be a growing hatred of politicians. And that Hillary might be the embodiment of many of those qualities they distrust.
Look at Bernie’s appeal too and Corbyn’s in the UK.
More than either candidate, Bernie’s appeal was based purely on his stance on the only relevant issues that truly mattered.
Some of them are also “values voters” (ha!) for whom abortion, marriage equality etc was/were the deciding factor(s).
Actually Lasana, race was the biggest influence, but it was masked by nationalism, religion and economics.
I might have explained before that for the past 20 years the American demographic has been changing at an alarming rate, in a fraction of one’s lifetime one visibly sees their communities changing right before their eyes. Not only do your neighbors not look like or speak like you anymore, now they practice unfamiliar religions and their numbers are beginning to rival your own.
Couple that with the change from local manufacturing economies to those of highly skilled labor where members of long established communities must now compete with these alien newcomers for these jobs and you have a perfect recipe for xenophobia.
If you notice while Trump’s campaign did not welcome African Americans, it did not actively try to alienate them. That’s because African Americans have been here as long as white Americans have, speak the same language and practice the same religion. What Trump supporters are most threatened by are those people who aren’t white, speak other languages, practice less known religions, create their own communities, maintain their native cultures and compete with white Americans for jobs as well.
So you see …. regardless of how you spin it, it always boiled down to race with them!
So you’re saying that they didn’t consider blacks the outcasts?
They didn’t consider blacks at all!
Lol
The number of blacks who are being shot dead now. Afro-Americans are being a rock and a hard place.
In more ways than you realize.
One thing that stood out to me during this election season that happened to coincide with a series of police killings of unarmed African Americans caught on video is the lack of support the Black Lives Matter movement recieved from other communities of color …. and how much support the African American community gave to the communities attacked by Trump’s campaign, even though there is a considerable amount of discrimination against the African American community by those beleaguered communities this election season.
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20161109/news/khan-the-trump-supporter-got-it-right
..Lasana. The Republican Party is the party of racism. You vote for KKK-approved Trump – you a racist..
Yes. But for Trump to win, it meant that possible tens of thousands of people who voted for Barack Obama decided now to vote for The Donald.
Are those former Obama voters racist?
That’s not necessarily the case… many who never voted came out for Trump. Some who voted Obama went third party or stayed home.
Yup. According to Michael Moore that’s one of the main reasons Clinton lost. If people could have stayed home and voted on their Xbox or whatever it might have been different. But in overwhelming numbers Republicans.. especially in the heartland …they were more willing to take the trouble to get out there and line up to vote.
If the Republicans had a candidate that excited them and the Democrats did not… Is this really the fault of Democrats with X-boxes?
Hillary lost against one of the most repulsive candidates of all time. And I think she should look at herself for the reason.
We saying the same thing essentially. Trump as despicable as he is to most of us was able to fire up the diehards with his vitriolic rhetoric so much that they made sure they got out and voted. Whereas more Democrats might have been so apathetic towards Hilary that they just couldn’t be bothered. How do you explain Florida with so many blacks and Hispanics in the South and Trump was able to pull it off. Of course there was also the vote splitting spoiler here
Nah man, Lasana. That’s reductive. She and the DNC are *part* of the problem, as is bigotry, but democracy requires participation. Sometimes (most times?) the options aren’t great, but you bloody well participate. You research the platforms (not just how much charismatic the candidate seems to be), and you make your best choice. Because if you don’t, you’re as much a part of the problem as those who do. Brexit foreshadowed this: millennials and remainers stayed home and others indulged in protest votes because they didn’t realise their vote actually counted. They didn’t think the worse of two “evils” would be ascendant. Shame on the Brits, and now on the Yanks. They, and the rest of us, have to lie in the bed they’ve made. I’m all for protest votes, btw, but for me they are a luxury in safe seats (where I’ve always been registered, both here and in London), not in nail biters.
Caroline, I disagree. The youths aren’t buying that anymore and I don’t blame them. Democrats didn’t really get to choose their nominee because of the whole super delegate system that made a farce of the democratic process.
It is the establishment saying this is who WE say you have to vote. Do it or mayhem will ensure. And people decided they don’t want to play in that dirty game anymore.
This thing isn’t working Caroline. We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
The Democratic Party hoisted its own choice to run against a populist leader and lost.
I don’t see how it is the fault of the electorate. Nobody is obliged to do anyone a favor. Hillary and everyone else must prove why they deserve that vote.
Personally I will go out and vote. I’d rather send in a spoilt ballot than not vote at all. But I understand why some don’t want any part of it.
It is time for viable third parties. Faith in traditional politics is at an all time low. And with good reason. We don’t need to look far for examples.
Responded elsewhere, as this convo is split in two. I don’t disagree on the issues around the two party system. Here or in the UK or the US. But, as I said, democracy works best when people participate. I’m a millennial, would you believe. I’ve protest voted more than I have anything else, and in two different countries. But I have zero patience for people who do not participate – you’re either part of the problem, or part of the solution. And to paraphrase what Dante said, the hottest spots in hell are reserved for those folks, who at times of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. It’s usually some manifestation of laziness, ignorance, and arrogance, and I have no patience for it. While I roll my eyes at folks who voted third party in battleground states and essentially handed Trump the election, I respect that they cared enough to presumably do some research and participate. The final part of the participation equation is holding elected officials accountable, and anybody who hasn’t done something – whether staying informed, writing or calling their elected representatives, penning letters to the editor, lobbied for legislation with other like minded folks, or done whatever they can however they can to keep these folks honest…again, they’re part of the problem. To quote Clinton: anger is not a plan, far less an action.
The Republican Party machinery was nowhere behind Trump, this was HIS campaign and Hillary screw ups became public knowledge
Lasana – lovely article. Well said and well done. ?
Thanks Los!
I don’t believe the biggest influence on this election was race though. Racists alone won’t make you president.
Part of it has to be the glass ceiling…the consistent niggling problem for women everywhere that some men don’t get…you can be more than qualified, and still have a man chosen in front of you… >>> “Polls tell us most Americans believe Trump has sexually assaulted women (to name just one potential disqualifier). A majority also believe Clinton “can’t be trusted”, for unspecified reasons. We’re back to the ancient conundrum: a woman can’t be that smart and commanding, so either her womanliness or her smartness must be counterfeit. To set that hazy discomfort next to a sexual assaulter and call these defects “equivalent” is” … [an injustice]
https://www.facebook.com/bunnybos/posts/1600995106592787
What are the facts or numbers to suggest that Lasana Liburd ?
Antoinette, Hillary might simply not be the poster woman for this campaign though. Hillary is distrusted because she is Hillary. Not because she is a woman.
Trini Don, for starters Trump got 19 percent of the Latino vote and 9 percent of the black vote. That’s off the top of my head. Exact stats are on thread.
It also stands to reason that Trump would not have won without thousands of voters who backed Obama. Either by them switching sides or not voting at all or both.
How can you prove that any of those persons are racist?
I agree with what u said Lasana Liburd to Antoinette Sankar…
..Revenge of the Nerds. Trump the buffoon elected by white people tired of a black President, immigrants, and the browning of America. In 2016 USA can’t elect a female president. KKK time!..
..As in Hitler’s Germany, the Left, minorities, the different, will be under pressure for the next years..
>>>The answer is, of course, a resounding: Yes! Things can always get worse. Just ask any supporter of the West Indies cricket team.
The United States population is about to find that out<<<