It appears that that “basket of deplorables” was a bit larger than Hillary Clinton expected. I was up to 4 am at Fox participating in the coverage of the election from New York. This was my fourth such presidential election as part a media team and it was fascinating to watch unfold at the campaign headquarters at Fox. History will judge the decisions of Democrats leaders in this election. As I have previously written, many in the Democratic National Committee and establishment (including allies in the media) did everything they could to engineer the election of Hillary Clinton. While they had an extremely popular candidate in Bernie Sanders as well as Vice President Joe Biden, they insisted on advancing Clinton despite her being deeply disliked and the ultimate symbol of the establishment that the public was rallying against. As the close race indicated, the selection of a Sanders or Biden might have produced a sweep of both the White House and the Senate for the Democrats. We will never know of course but what is clear is that Clinton was the least likely candidate to prevail in this environment. Democratic leaders lost possible control of both the Senate and the White House by forcing voters to vote for someone with record negatives. Voters were clear that they did not want Clinton, but the Democrats assumed that the “lesser of two evils” approach would again prevail. They were wrong. Many people voted for third party candidates and many people on the fence refused to pick the candidate most associated with the establishment and the status quo. I expect that history will judge the work of figures like Debbie Wasserman-Shultz and Donna Brazile harshly in the roles that they played and more generally in the failure of Democratic leaders to heed the clear demand from voters for a change in leadership. Hillary Clinton was a talented and historic nominee. However, she was also the very symbol of the establishment and heavily laden with the type of associations that the public was clearly reacting against.
The wins in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania shows precisely how reckless and cynical the DNC strategy proved to be. Clinton won only 18 states and the District of Columbia, though it did earn her 242 electoral votes. Now for the first time in decades, the Democrats have handed a Republican president both houses of Congress. They solved gridlock but not in the way that they had hoped.
I was astonished to see Clinton decline to speak to her supporters who had wait so loyally at their campaign headquarters. While she did concede over the telephone to Trump, I thought it was bad form not to come down to the headquarters and address the nation and her supporters. They worked incredibly hard and the loss was a terrible blow for them. They deserved better in my view and I felt truly sorry for both their disappointment and effective abandonment at that moment. Looking at the results coming into the headquarters, it was clear that no further “counting” would change the result as Clinton’s telephone call affirmed a short while later. It is the final obligation of a candidate in a presidential campaign to be with your supporters and show the nation that the transition of power would proceed, as it always has, in an orderly fashion. It was highly ironic given the well-founded criticism of the statement of Trump that he might not accept the results of the election — a view driven home by Chris Wallace (who was the gold standard for moderators in these election debates).
The greatest loser in this election was the mainstream media. As I previously discussed, I believe that Trump did bring much of the negative coverage on himself. However, I saw many journalists discard any semblance of neutrality in their coverage, as vividly shown in Wikileaks emails of coordination with the Clinton campaign. The priority for the media should be a serious reexamination of its coverage in this election.
In the end, the public wanted change and they got it. The fact is that many of the public has long felt that they no longer controlled their government and they were right. That is what makes this so revolutionary and transformative for American politics. Whatever a Trump Administration may hold, it will be shock to the system and that is precisely what tens of millions of Americans wanted.
I think many of the polls were polluted by both Confirmation Bias and Echo Chambering.
I am convinced several polls were crafted in order to provide a false appearance that Mrs. Clinton was significantly ahead of Mr. Trump, especially since many media were favoring one candidate over the other.
The Confirmation Bias is a fallacy that happens when one arrives at a conclusion and crafts formulae and statistics to support that.
Yet, we also cannot discount a measure of difference between who people say they support and who, if anyone, they actually do vote for. It is too early to analyze the data comprehensively, but anecdotally I have seen many people who supported Mr. Trump but were afraid to advocate their support because they feared soft levels of pressure from left leaning coworkers or associates and others who pulled the old SJW mantra claiming that anyone who votes for Trump is a rapist fascist white-supremacist commie. So they say one thing with polls and in the privacy of their homes or the voting booth do another.
Exactly Darren, the Issac types. It was actually the same for Johnson and Stein, but not as bad. Once again, the people who have to make a life for their families working through years of declining wages created by paying for enlightened elite warm & fuzzy ideals were thrown out. People have had enough of these over the top righteous folk.
Issacbasonkavich, did you treat the British this way.
I believe at least in the executive branch we will now see a trend toward a greater level of Meritocracy.
The days of handing out ambassadorships to “bundlers” who have no diplomatic experience and only provided revenue in a spoils system based solely on politics and money are now over. And at the very least, the White House will not be for rent to those who provide graft and money to a political party.
Congress needs to recognize they now are going to need to accept a new normal.
Darren
You lose credibility with each post. The entire mob: Congress, Senate, Presidency, and soon Supreme Court is in the hands of idiots. Well, let’s see what happens; tune in next week.
I think you are absolutely right Darren. Even if they were idiots like issacbasonkavich thinks, (obviously they are not proven by defeating the Clinton machine) an idiot leading for the greater good is better than a genius leading to line their pockets.
My dark side gets what it wants. Let’s see how much of a beating America can take. The three stooges did their best, slaughtered a million people, ruined the economy, and made the US the laughing stock of the world. But that was nothing. Now we have a game show host as President and he is one clever dude.
You need an audience, however, and the audience just elected the fox to administer the chicken coop. So, you have the ideal audience, the master of illusion, and total control of the studio. Stay tuned, couch potatoes.
Bicycle Boy worry about Canada, Americans will worry about America.
As is the case with most naturalized Americans, I know more and pay more attention to America than those whose only claim was to pop out one day, somewhere in the US of A. Being born American is the illusion and Trump plays to the illusion. Read his book(s). Most Americans can’t name the capital of the state in which they live. That is why, perhaps, they just elected a fox to administer their chicken coop. The fox said, vote for me cuz I will protect you against the other foxes and the chickens came home to roost.
Some people missed that fact that Hillary is really disliked, and not trustworthy.
The “fox guarding the chickens” comment that’s been repeated here ( again) seems to ignore the widespread distrust of Hillary.
That was a very real factor, and possibly a deciding factor.
Oh yes Bicycle Boy you know so much more then the rest of us. Your the guy several weeks ago who said today Hilly would be president elect today and laughing at the rest of us. Yes The Canadian Bicycle Boy knows more then the rest of us.
You seem upset. But how does it feel to have your candidate beaten by such a looser as Trump? You describe Trump as a really horrible person, perhaps he is, But he beat the other candidates. What does that say about them?
It’s what it says about America that should be the issue. Not good.
MagodeOz or Wizadaboz says sit best. It’s a happy day God Loves The Infantry and all’s right with world. Tomorrow start planning for continued destruction of the SecProgs in two years and you can celebrate all over again. Next up the Wicked Witch of the West Benita Pelosillyni but as for this one.
Ding Dong the Witch is DEAD the Wicked Witch take a day off for celebrating and have fun reading the losers (one ‘o’) cry like a rat eating onions. Their turn is coming there is a new Guillotine in town.
Speak for yourself Isaac re: “As is the case with most naturalized Americans, I know more and pay more attention to America than those whose only claim was to pop out one day, somewhere in the US of A.” My neighbor, also a transplanted Canuck is elated that Trump won.
Autumn ..
I knew a number of Canadian students at college (Washington State, fairly close to the border.
Also have met many Canadians “snowbirding” in Arizona.
I have not found them to be arrogant, superior blowhards prone to “bending” the truth.
But there are always exceptions.
tnash – most of the Canadians I have met is Arizona do whine, however they are generally nice people.
And you were for Clinton, who is just the same, and was going to carry forward the same foreign policy. Once again, I asked for clarification why this was, or was not the case and got no response. In case you didn’t notice, look at the world, the slaughtering has not stopped.
The slaughtering was started by Bush, at least the present Iraq and area slaughtering. Trump will not go there. That is not the issue. The issue is the continuing erosion of the core of the country, the middle class. Trump and his trickle down ideas won’t work. Reagan’s didn’t. Bush’s didn’t. It’s not about trade deals and lowering taxes. It is about the ownership of America by the middle class, the majority, the worker. Trump is not about that, has never been about that, and if you think he will be about that; I have a bridge in Brooklyn that has just come on the market. The realtor is Donald Trump, or one of his kids, or wives.
“The greatest loser in this election was the mainstream media”.
I think that the pollsters were the biggest losers.
Polls can be off the mark, but I don’t remember a presidential election where that many polls were that far off.
The L.A. Times/USC poll was the only poll ( of the c. dozen? major polls) that pretty much got it right.
This is probably the biggest upset in American politics since Truman/Dewey in 1948.
Very surprizing to me…..I thought Trump would lose by a fairly substantial margin, especially in the electoral college count.
As I mentioned in another article, CNN is going to eat a great deal of crow in the next few days. Watch them now snuggle up to Trump to avoid losing ratings in the near future.
The DNC made a strategic and catastrophic blunder in rigging the primary against Mr. Sanders and placing as our host stated a terribly flawed and corrupt candidate. The party alienated an entire generation of young voters who are now very upset with both Bernie being forced out, but also losing to Mr. Trump because of the DNC.
The time is now for a third party to take the opportunity to court the Bernie voters and disillusioned democrats as the DNC is now weak and humiliated.
On another topic Hillary LOST. There are many forms of justice and this electoral defeat is just one of many before her.
Darren
One can disassemble the machinery and ponder what went wrong until the cows come home. In the end there is only one result, the majority of Americans are clueless and xenophobic. The day America looks beyond its borders to seek solutions to its maladies will be the true turning point. Yesterday the chickens just elected a fox to administer their lives. So, line up, put your necks on this here chopping block and feel content that only so many will be taken. Trump is the 1% or did you miss that.
There is a difference between being xenophobic and wanting to protect the nature of the government given to us. Clinton shared she looked forward to the day when North and South American would be like the EU. Of course she would, that would drastically expand her opportunities as a grifter.
As Olly pointed out, people are optimistically but watchful. I think it was also Olly who said we have a much better opportunity to throw him out if need be.
Now put on your big boy pants and contribute something besides sour grapes. You are a very smart person, and some non egotistical observation would be much appreciated.
‘the government given to us.’ has been dysfunctional for some time. The sour grapes are focused at the system. The system just elected the fox to administer the hen house. Granted the hen that could have been elected-and was by popular vote-was no catch, but Trump is the problem that everyone accused Clinton of sleeping with. ‘the government given to us’ is a living entity the must evolve, and evolve with, society. The US is bigger than Trump and the ‘pork’ instructed members of the Republican Congress and Senate will obstruct him to some degree. However, reflect upon the damage done by the last idiot that was elected President for 8 years and his successor who was obstructed for the majority of his eight years and blamed for everything. Things have to change and perhaps Trump will be like having a tooth pulled. If the problem could have been addressed early on it would not have needed to be pulled or even drilled and filled. I just hope Trump gets pulled after four years, before he does too much damage. But, having followed the logic of-not the majority but close to the majority-Americans for the past thirty + years, it is doubtful that America will come to terms with its potential fallibility but continue to live the illusion as long as the momentum is there.
By the way, it is bad form to contest someone with the inclusion of phrases such as, “You are a very smart person…” It implies that if I don’t align myself with you, however, I am not a ‘very smart person’. One must differentiate between ‘smart’ and intelligent. Unfortunately too many voters could not do that yesterday. Trump is very smart, very clever, but not very intelligent. That, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to matter.
The sadness is that Trump didn’t say much of anything. He yelled and screamed the same accusations, the same cliches, defended by the same platitudes until enough people simply accepted. There was nothing there. The big question will be, what will there be there come January. Think Supreme Court. Think one step forward with lots of panache and several steps back to be blamed on the ‘other side’. Without Clinton, who will Trump blame? Of course, Obama.
Isaac…
Given that you brought up your claim that Trump is “not very intelligent”, I think you forgot to cite a source for your claim that Trump’s IQ was 107, v. 150+ for Hillary.
You were asked a number of times to substaniate that claim, and you never did.
So, here’s one more chance for you to back up that claim.
Or just confirm that it was another thing you made up.
I have estimated Trump’s IQ to be 125.
Hillary’s to be 140.
I’m so tired of being called clueless, xenophobic, deplorable, racist……etc. You are the one who doesn’t have a clue. The majority of Americans get of up everyday before the sun comes up and work all day long to support their families, friends, communities, and the ones who honestly can’t support themselves. They are tired of people like you sitting on their high horse acting like they have a clue what the real world is like. They are tired of being called all these things that they are not. They are tired of being told what to think. They are tired of being told how to act. They are tired of supporting people who don’t want to support themselves. Get over yourself. Calling people clueless and xenophobic is a reflection of your character, not theirs.
OK, now that you have been called ‘right’, how does it feel? You still elected a fox to administer this chicken coop. Time to come down to earth and realize what has just happened. Not to worry. This country is still bigger than Trump. Imagine the mess Bush made and take that as an idea. The rich will get richer and the clueless, xenophobic, deplorable, racist….etc will slip another notch down and out.
HAHA! It feels great! Now i’ll go tend to the coop and hopefully have some eggs left over! By the way, i’m real mean to the chickens, and I call them names.
Whine Whine Whine Whine Whine……….We’re coming for the rest of you next. I’m not the least bit concilatory.
Darren – I have posted several times that the polls were wrong. The polls were designed to make Hillary win by suppressing the Republican vote. Did not work.
Clinton did get the popular vote, as did Gore. Trump got less votes than Romney. A disaster is a disaster is a disaster, to use one of Trump’s over worked adjectives.
In the end America will have to be proud of electing a game show host, a carnival barker, a mob inciter as President. Stay tuned.
issac – you really, really are a sore loser. You need professional help.
I have yet to see a final tally of the popular vote.
As of c. an hour ago, the latest news I saw stated that Clinton “could” win the popular vote, when all of the CA.
votes were counted.
Do you know what we call stuffing in a Christmas Turkey? whine whine whine whine. In Spanish it’s frijoles.
Paul Schulte
…I remember your posts questioning the accuracy of the polls.
I think you also mentioned that you’d make something up if contacted by a pollster, just to screw with them.😊
tnash – you are right, I did, and I did. 😉
Paul….it’s unknown how much the “Schulte sabotag factor” threw off the pollsters.😊
tnash – it is clear that others had the same strategy.
Wow! The GOP is now on the clock. They have the Executive and Legislative branches, they will have at least 1 SC seat to fill, they have a majority of the Governorship’s and they have accomplished all of that because Americans no longer want the direction we were going in. They are willing to try something else. That being said, it’s one thing to tell the American people that the policies of the “other” side are wrong and a whole other thing to prove your side to be right. Trump and the GOP have everything aligned to prove their point. Let’s see if they really are listening to the people, because if they screw this up, the GOP will be over. If they get it right, we’ll have seen the last of the Democrats in power for quite some time.
Ignore everything you read in the papers. This has had and will continue to have nothing to do with anything other than the fact that Americans are bored at the moment. Americans are an isolated bunch typically amused by entertainment and gadgets. Lately there has been a waning of gadgets; so Americans have opted to morph their lives into one big game show. Stay tuned.
Sore loser.
Really? How’d you come up with that?
Bored? No. People were very definitely paying attention. Many do not like Trump, but they despised Hillary.
Blaming boredom as the cause of this upset is silly.
It must be hard to be so full of pride that you can’t look through your own biases in order to learn something. Trump did have a message in the end, and Clinton had none, other than “don’t vote for the other guy.” That only works as a skit on Monty Python. I have asked a handful of times for Clinton supporters to clarify her position on issues, and no one bothered to come forth. Maybe read my comment above. It is what I have heard from people, the Deplorables trying to work for a living in rural Appalachia. Pretty interesting though that our system still gave these people a voice, isn’t it? Maybe all you enlightened social engineers will carry out your Orwellian plans in the future, but not today.
So, you want the country to go the way of rural Appalachia, when times were good there: cousins having cousins, destroying the land to strip mine coal to pollute the world, yup, you got your wish. There’s enlightenment, agreed upon or not, and then there’s just beer and cheetos, porking your sister, and losing teeth, working for a living in rural Appalachia.
That’s right Issac. Next time you watch “Deliverance,” please keep me in mind. And I never go anywhere without my overalls and shotgun. And I bet you’re pretty cute in your spandex roadie shorts (gap-toothed wide grin..) I prefer SS and baggie shorts.
I guess your elite stature maybe not so elite, that you have to resort to Trump-style name-calling to make your case. Another example of how hollow the Clinton-elites campaign really is.
“Don’t think, mice, just push the lever and get your food.”
It’s a shame she is what we had for a choice. Bernie is too lefty for me, but he had pretty good integrity, but once again, tossing the moral and ethical route for the situational ethic may be the ultimate reason why they didn’t succeed. I haven’t looked at the break out, but if the election was that close, it appears to me that Bernie would probably have won. Maybe try the honorable route next time, it may work out.
Those darn tea party people are demonstrating in Oakland. What a bunch of sore losers!
Great column.
Like many of us who voted for Trump, I am delighted and a little apprehensive.
Change is always scary, but we need it.
Trump/Republicans, we gave you what you wanted. Time for you to deliver.
I was not happy when Bush won in 2000. I didn’t think he had the character to lead the country. His initial speech though sounded great, and I was good with him. Then, as we saw, his lack of character was exploited by those around him, he did a 180, and here we are. We need to hold the government’s feet to the fire this time. And now, we have someone we can truly throw out.
Religion in government is going to accelerate fanatically.
As opposed to the current religion of the Elites, who put themselves in God’s position? I am all for keeping religion out of government, except for the base ideals our country was founded on… don’t steal, don’t kill people, all the basics. These basics were thrown out the window by the elites and in the end the Clintons and the DNC just looked like any mob movie, and the people called them on it. Same ‘ol, same ‘ol. We’ll just hope we don’t live down to Pete Townsend’s famous lyrics.
“I’m all for keeping religion out of government…”
Your sentence should have ceased there.
In going over this morning’s Wednesday morning quarterbacking for the election, most people made their decision about the time they found out about Hillary’s secret computer. Wikileaks (God bless their soul) helped cement that decision.
I’m sure you saw lots of the posts as well, but there were reports of an engineered “soft coup” by the intelligence community, they were the end source of the email leaks to wikileaks. I guess these “behind the scenes” people and the greater deep state at large felt Clinton was a danger to the country and the world. Hopefully more on this whole thing will come out.
slohrss29 – I did see those who thought the info was coming from within the government, ours. I am not sure how I think about that. I am not comfortable with the US government spying on its own citizens, even Podesta.
Paul, it is a very uncomfortable thought. I’m not saying it’s right, just that “we should have seen through NORAD the huge flock of chickens that were coming home to roost” (from a hedge poster). Podesta and the Clinton people were out-decepted by way-better deceptors, who decided she was not the one. I did read an article that reflected what I had been thinking: Clintons are at best, opportunist crime people. Their email scheme was so ill-conceived from the ground up (why didn’t they do it under a private domain for starters???) it reeked of opportunist amateurism. Hard to believe these perpetrators were dumb enough to think those emails would stay secret (since they went through with the whole effort, it is safe to assume they did not want the info exchanged to be on the public record).
The data collections centers are recording our whole electronic lives. Clinton was a victim of a system she helped to create. They can now take select information and build a narrative of your life to follow whatever is decided to accuse you of.
This whole thing just goes to show how the unelected mass of government can really call the shots. I don’t think the framers had this type of thing in mind! My hope is that government can be whittled away now. We don’t need 16 different intelligence departments, who we know most likely exist to compete against each other. Maybe all you big government Clinton supporters might take away something from all of this.
Paul, Trump owes Assange “big league” – let’s hope he does the right thing and lets him about of the embassy.
Autumn – maybe he will give him the internet back.
God raises up kings & puts them down then laughs
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury.
Power actually is in the consent of the governed. Hence the coming destabilizing buffonery.
Power actually is in the consent of the governed. Hence the coming destabilizing buffoonery.
Slohrss29, amen!
Very well said Professor; it was good to read your analysis. No time for celebration though, it’s time to start dismantling the status quo and to relegate the complicit media to ash can of history. The real struggle starts now, probably in ways that many of us would have foreseen. Hold on for the bumpy road ahead.
And yes, the Deplorables comment hit home with middle America, many of whom are the silent face of the nation, who get up, go to work everyday, try to do right by their kids, and struggle so that they may have had the same opportunities that their parents and grandparents had. This group (which includes myself) resents the self-described elites who, though born yesterday, are conceited enough to command the knowledge and authority of what’s best for everyone.
My personal hope is that there were enough votes to have a legitimate third party, and both Democratic and Republican parties will be burned to the ground to make way for new leadership.
After the last 16 years, let’s see what he does.
Yep, that’s the big question.
Biden? How would Biden have been less of an establishment figure?
Well done. I am relieved that Clinton will not be President. Filled with a measure of concern that Trump will be! Let us hope that Bismark’s famous remark proves correct.
Now JT will get his nomination to the DC Court of Appeals. Quid pro quo and one more schmo.
Moe, Larry, Cheese.
Time to grow up and move on LHO.
Really unpleasant pair of postings.
AW it’s over grow up.
Music- to the tune of the Armour Hotdog Song:
Hitler! Call him Hitler!
What kind of people call him Hitler?
Fat kids, skinny kids, … kids who climb on rocks.
Dumb dwibs, Hillary snibs, even dwibs with chicken pox…
Say Hitler.
\Donald Hiitler.
The dogs, kids, like…
To Bite!