Last night's election stunned the nation. Many are finding themselves asking how it could happen. The answers are obvious.
Barack Obama got 69 million votes in 2008 and 67 million votes in 2012. Hillary Clinton got 59 million in 2016. That says it all right there. If you are a Democrat running for president, you need 65 million votes to win because the GOP will always get around 60 million (McCain got 59 million in 2008 and Romney got 62 million in 2012). As Nikto mentioned in the previous post, Trump lost the popular vote. He will get at most 310 electoral votes (Arizona, Michigan and New Hampshire aren't official yet). He won states like Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by very small margins.
What this all tells me that is that the Democrats completely failed to get out the vote. There as no invisible white vote. The Republicans turned out and voted. Period. People were not excited about Hillary Clinton like they were about Barack Obama. She just didn't excite that coalition that can get Democrats elected president. She was too much of an undesirable candidate. The Democrats also failed to read the electorate and realize that this really was a change election. Bernie Sanders might have done better. Even a younger and hipper progressive candidate would have seemed a better fit with taking the baton from Barack Obama.
I have to admit that I'm really at a loss for words. Abraham Lincoln...FDR...JFK...Ronald Reagan....and Donald Trump? Really??!!
If his past behavior is any indication, our country is going to be run like a banana republic with the world looking upon us in disdain and pity. All of the apocalypse dreamin' by the alt right is finally going to come true...except for real this time.
I hope we can all live with it.
2 comments:
Your candidate was not capable of beating Donald Trump, which perhaps warrants a look in the mirror.
Similarly, tens of thousands of supporters of your party are marching in the streets of cities across the country protesting (what exactly?) and disrupting not only the peaceful democratic transition of government but also simply the day-to-day life of Americans. That also warrants a look in the mirror.
Your candidate makes an excellent concession speech this morning at the same time that your co-blogger posts something that the prognosticators actually got right this election cycle...the reaction of those who are pro-Democrat to a fault.
I'm not sorry your team lost. I am sorry that more on your side are not heeding the words of your candidate. Or, perhaps more poignantly, not understanding them.
Imagine the change that could be effected if everybody who is "protesting" right now threw $5 into a hat that supported the medical treatment of those who heroically supported our country. https://support.woundedwarriorproject.org
Guess how many bought a mocha latte instead.
I know it's hard to swallow, personally, but your candidate said: "We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead"
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