Last night, despite almost every pollster’s opinion, Donald Trump was elected as the next president of the United States. Almost every polling organization and every poll got it wrong. With that much (false) information, all of the media climbed onto the same wagon and are now are stunned at the outcome. This outcome was almost guaranteed from the beginning. This is my opinion why “they” all got it so wrong, and what lessons the Republican Party must learn from it.
Donald Trump didn’t win the election. The Democratic Party lost the election and even the mainstream Republicans did everything wrong to almost lose the election as well.
The Middle and Lower Class Voted Against Hillary Clinton And the Democratic Party
They were casting their votes against the people who were costing them their jobs, putting family members out of work, allowing jobs to go overseas, and then not doing anything to replace those jobs. Hulking, rusting, ex-factories dot the landscape geographically and symbolically across middle and lower class America. They remember the days when there were good jobs paying good wages. Donald Trump said he was going to change that and “make America great again.” If he had stayed specifically on that theme and shut up about everything else, he would have won the election in an unprecedented landslide. He didn’t, allowed the Republican mainstream to distract him, and that’s how the pollster’s were seriously misled.
Middle and Lower Class Voted Against People Getting Paid to Not Work
The working classes, that is, the laborers, the craftsmen, the journeymen, truck drivers, and such are very angry about what’s happening to their paycheck. Medical care is too expensive and now they have to pay a penalty for not being able to afford medical insurance. Other taxes and fees are eating up way too much of the paycheck to begin with and then watching all that money go to people who do absolutely nothing except have babies makes these workers livid. The money should be going to build better roads, schools (that teach something useful), and infrastructure. They feel that this welfare state must stop. It must stop now. Anyone who will shut down that gravy train for able-bodied non-workers will get their vote. There are far more hourly-wage workers than upper class voters, so when these workers get angry enough, they’ll vote. Yesterday they did.
Middle and Lower Class Voted Against Our Education System
The schools no longer teach kids how to do anything. Kids don’t even learn how to make a birdhouse, an apron, or boil water anymore. When they “graduate”, they can’t spell, can’t read, can’t write. The arithmetic they’re being taught doesn’t make sense to their parents. The parents know (and have been carefully taught) that the only way out of hourly minimum wage labor is education. Washington has systematically destroyed that education system and has taken control away from the local community and sent it to Washington D.C. They voted against that system yesterday.
Middle and Lower Class Voted For the Constitution
They believe … strongly believe … in the rule of law. They know that guns aren’t the problem, but feel that Washington D.C. is the problem. They genuinely don’t like people with penises peeing in their daughter’s bathrooms at the store and at school. They are very concerned about the erosion of religious freedom. They believe in the Ten Commandments and that America is a god-fearing Christian country. They voted against those who think they can ignore the law of the land and take away our inalienable rights at will. The so-called Clinton Foundation, the classified email being carelessly handled, standing by and doing nothing when Americans are being slaughtered and then lying about it, followed by one sordid revelation after another got to be too much. While Donald Trump is far from any kind of a paragon of virtue and truth, they could still vote for him because he at least sounded like he believed in the rule of law and the Constitution. Further, just about every vice Mr. Trump has was tolerated by Ms. Clinton in her husband. They feel the Supreme Court has too much power and too many justices are going to need to be replaced in the next four to eight years. They want people on the Court who will uphold the Constitution as they swear to do when they take the oath of office.
The Pollsters Asked the Wrong Question
The pollsters and media seemed to concentrate on “who are you going to vote for?” rather than “what are you going to vote against?” A significant number of people who voted for Donald Trump yesterday didn’t make up their mind to do so until they actually walked into the voting booth and had to make a decision. While they wouldn’t say before the election that they would vote for Hillary Clinton, they also wouldn’t say that they were going to vote for Donald Trump. Most of the pollsters seemed to have classified these folks not as being “undecided” but as “non-voters.” A big mistake.
My Last Rant On This Topic
All of the above is my opinion as to what happened, but doesn’t necessarily reflect my own personal beliefs. While I could not bring myself to vote for either of the two candidates, I did vote. But, I live right now in a state that votes overwhelmingly Democratic, so my vote for anyone other than Hillary Clinton wasn’t going to make any difference in this election.
Comments are open on this blog, but all will be moderated. Useful and interesting comments will be approved. All others will just be ignored. This blog also gets cross-posted to Twitter and Facebook. I’ll probably ignore most of the comments (if any) posted there.
Roland, that was a great assessment. I would also add that class warfare and the various isms and phobias labels also played a factor. I know I was tired of it.
I want to share your astute observations with our family. We are confidant that you have accomplished a great work on your mission.
what a pleasant surprise it was for us to see you there. We hope to be able to get together to hear all about your adventures when you return. Linda and Perry