A Day Late & An Opinion Short
I didn't pay attention! Following left and right, east and west coast and Media outlets from abroad, that was Hillary's election. I even wrote a blog about it, published on Niume - self-assured that HRC will make the race. "US Putsch Successful" I titled it, and well a putsch it was, but with different actors and her opponent Donald J. Trump on the way to the White House.
Everything was set and ready - Hillary was supposed to be the 45th President of the United States of America. But her train got derailed and with it, all the media, the polls (even Nate Silver's reliable 538, but to his credit he always said that Trump has a chance), the pundits (me included). She won the popular vote, but stumbled on the electoral college. Like everybody else, I tried to analyze and rationalize, to make sense to what happened. This blog is basically a summation of several discussions and postings I had with friends on the phone and on facebook.
There are several points and most of the mass media continue to ignore them: values, especially social values (Race, Gender, Equality, Abortion) were not the distinguishing factor to put Trump into office. It's all about bread basket economics, an outcry for isolationism and the negation of managed democracy. To say it was ignorant people who put Trump into office is only partially right and misses the point. It's dead on when it comes to the social values, but that is a fringe group (and hopefully remains that) and is not the group who put Trump into the White House. It's economics, stupid!
Goodbye Ronald - hello Donald
The people basically voted to get rid of free trade (Nafta was envisioned by Reagan, implemented by George Bush and championed by Bill Clinton) and want the country under some sort of protectionism (hated by Reagan). Goodbye neo-liberal economics and welcome to whatever. Whatever being better than the status quo. Need some numbers, job losses since the implementation and directly linked to Nafta: Pennsylvania 36%, Michigan 25%, Ohio 30%, North Carolina 42% (Source Bureau of Labor Statistics via citizen.org) After almost 30 years of economic policies as usual and Hillary's pledge to continue said policies, the people said no.
While getting rid of neo-liberal economics the election results also in an outcry against managed democracy and a new acceptance of isolationism.
As George Washington wrote: "Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities."
Just replace "her" which at that point meant Europe, with now the world.
America alone
Several of my friends objected to the idea of America being isolated from the world. I disagree - America had an isolationist policy well into the 20th century - and if more on our own, means that less US soldiers are killed and put at harm and there is less collateral damage (what a nice word), it's not a bad thing. US polices in the Middle East (form the Levant to the Hindu Kush), in North Africa, in Central & South America as well as partly in Asia over the last 60 something years have only brought destabilisation, hatred chaos and stirred the fire (and lest I forget some big profits for some multinational companies.) Are these countries a direct threat to the US, no they are not.
Look at Central and South America - where our mingling "forced" the countries to either implement "socialism" (not necessarily a bad thing, if done right), to come up with their own protective trade agreements and groups and basically shutting the door in the face of the US. HRC is known to be a warhawk (Libya, Syria) and that is definitely a position which came to grief her. In a two year old poll a bit more than two thirds of the respondents said that the US should limit it's military actions. And that's a point which was completely ignored by the media and may have been part of Hillary's loss too, especially among female voters.
Panem et circenses
Juvenal, the Roman poet, titled his satire about the declining Roman empire "Bread and Circus games," where as the populace is kept silent and more or less force fed policies they gorge up, as long as they are fed and entertained. Which leads us to managed democracy. Hillary and democratic party's elite believed in her entitlement to be crowned as President. As long as we keep the masses silent, we can feed them whatever we want and put into office whomever we want. Not only did they not offer any other candidates to run against her in the primary, but they also ignored the appeal and outcry of the voters for change, who supported the Independent, Bernie Sanders. As I wrote in "US Putsch Successful" his candidacy got killed through wheelings and dealings of the party elite. If Sanders would have legitimately a chance to beat Trump - maybe. I think he had a better chance than Clinton, as he was an outsider like Trump.
Basically the whole thing is an election against the bipartisan establishment and politics as usual. Trump was simply able to snatch the Republican party's nomination and without Sanders going into the ring, people favoring the renegade.
Instead of Anti Trump protests now there should be anti Democrats and anti Republican leadership protests. Basically this was an uprising of the independants on both sides - Trump, the non Republican, who now will go and destroy 40 years of bi-partisan neo-liberal politics and therefore showing "his" establishment the middle finger as well and being helped into office by liberal democrats who wanted change and felt betrayed by the elite.
WikiLeaks mattered more, than Clinton's email scandal, Comey's meddling in politics which the elite now uses as scapegoats and missing the point again. Scroll up and look where she lost - states where the white middle class was not included after the rebuild from the recession of 2008. All blue collar states. You can't simply accept climate change procedures and close the coal mines down, without giving the miners a new way to earn an income. If you don't have a job, don't have a future and you see your party (works both ways) only bickering about on semantics of a social agenda, but not coming up with a real solution, you finally flip the finger. All the shit the party is talking about is about (social agenda - fill in the blanks) - I don't care - I want a job and food for my family.
Don't believe me - look at conservative, deep red Texas - tons of jobs and money flowed here, Nafta losses were offset - result - Hillary Clinton made more votes in Texas than Obama did in both of his elections. Yeah Trump still won Texas, put Hillary only lost in the high single digits (9.2%) as Obama was 12 (2008) and 16 percent (2012) behind McCain and Romney.
Electoral College
Should it be abandoned? No - it was actually the only hope of the swing states to actually cry out and tell that they want things changed. They knew that if they would vote for Trump, they would deny Hillary the road to Washington and therefore politics or better economics as usual. I honestly believe that they didn't vote anti-"" or pro-"" (fill in the blanks).
Is it time to come up with a third party - maybe, maybe not, but the establishment of both parties failed its voters. It's time to clean house. While the Republican party needs to work with "their" president and adapt, the democratic party actually has a chance to get rid of their establishment and come up with a "new" party that actually cares, not only for their social agenda, but primarily in economical ways to put the middle class back on top.
And no - my view of the next President of the US has not changed - I still think Trump is a POS, a misogynist hater and loud, clueless bully idiot. But I give him a chance for the next four years to prove me, the USA and the world wrong and he may do that - elections are one thing, running the country a complete other set of shoes. Let him walk for a mile or two.
Sources: Images: Trump (DonaldJTrump.com); Reagan (Public Domain); Election pictures (by the author - © amu communications photo)
Other content: Bureau of Labor Statistics, citizen.org, election results via NYTimes and Wikipedia.
 |
| DonaldJTrump.com |
Everything was set and ready - Hillary was supposed to be the 45th President of the United States of America. But her train got derailed and with it, all the media, the polls (even Nate Silver's reliable 538, but to his credit he always said that Trump has a chance), the pundits (me included). She won the popular vote, but stumbled on the electoral college. Like everybody else, I tried to analyze and rationalize, to make sense to what happened. This blog is basically a summation of several discussions and postings I had with friends on the phone and on facebook.
There are several points and most of the mass media continue to ignore them: values, especially social values (Race, Gender, Equality, Abortion) were not the distinguishing factor to put Trump into office. It's all about bread basket economics, an outcry for isolationism and the negation of managed democracy. To say it was ignorant people who put Trump into office is only partially right and misses the point. It's dead on when it comes to the social values, but that is a fringe group (and hopefully remains that) and is not the group who put Trump into the White House. It's economics, stupid!
Goodbye Ronald - hello Donald
d |
| Public Domain |
While getting rid of neo-liberal economics the election results also in an outcry against managed democracy and a new acceptance of isolationism.
As George Washington wrote: "Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities."
Just replace "her" which at that point meant Europe, with now the world.
America alone
Several of my friends objected to the idea of America being isolated from the world. I disagree - America had an isolationist policy well into the 20th century - and if more on our own, means that less US soldiers are killed and put at harm and there is less collateral damage (what a nice word), it's not a bad thing. US polices in the Middle East (form the Levant to the Hindu Kush), in North Africa, in Central & South America as well as partly in Asia over the last 60 something years have only brought destabilisation, hatred chaos and stirred the fire (and lest I forget some big profits for some multinational companies.) Are these countries a direct threat to the US, no they are not.
Look at Central and South America - where our mingling "forced" the countries to either implement "socialism" (not necessarily a bad thing, if done right), to come up with their own protective trade agreements and groups and basically shutting the door in the face of the US. HRC is known to be a warhawk (Libya, Syria) and that is definitely a position which came to grief her. In a two year old poll a bit more than two thirds of the respondents said that the US should limit it's military actions. And that's a point which was completely ignored by the media and may have been part of Hillary's loss too, especially among female voters.
 |
| © A. Michael Uhlmann - amu communications photo |
Panem et circenses
Juvenal, the Roman poet, titled his satire about the declining Roman empire "Bread and Circus games," where as the populace is kept silent and more or less force fed policies they gorge up, as long as they are fed and entertained. Which leads us to managed democracy. Hillary and democratic party's elite believed in her entitlement to be crowned as President. As long as we keep the masses silent, we can feed them whatever we want and put into office whomever we want. Not only did they not offer any other candidates to run against her in the primary, but they also ignored the appeal and outcry of the voters for change, who supported the Independent, Bernie Sanders. As I wrote in "US Putsch Successful" his candidacy got killed through wheelings and dealings of the party elite. If Sanders would have legitimately a chance to beat Trump - maybe. I think he had a better chance than Clinton, as he was an outsider like Trump.
Basically the whole thing is an election against the bipartisan establishment and politics as usual. Trump was simply able to snatch the Republican party's nomination and without Sanders going into the ring, people favoring the renegade.
Instead of Anti Trump protests now there should be anti Democrats and anti Republican leadership protests. Basically this was an uprising of the independants on both sides - Trump, the non Republican, who now will go and destroy 40 years of bi-partisan neo-liberal politics and therefore showing "his" establishment the middle finger as well and being helped into office by liberal democrats who wanted change and felt betrayed by the elite.
WikiLeaks mattered more, than Clinton's email scandal, Comey's meddling in politics which the elite now uses as scapegoats and missing the point again. Scroll up and look where she lost - states where the white middle class was not included after the rebuild from the recession of 2008. All blue collar states. You can't simply accept climate change procedures and close the coal mines down, without giving the miners a new way to earn an income. If you don't have a job, don't have a future and you see your party (works both ways) only bickering about on semantics of a social agenda, but not coming up with a real solution, you finally flip the finger. All the shit the party is talking about is about (social agenda - fill in the blanks) - I don't care - I want a job and food for my family.
 |
| © A. Michael Uhlmann - amu communications photo |
Don't believe me - look at conservative, deep red Texas - tons of jobs and money flowed here, Nafta losses were offset - result - Hillary Clinton made more votes in Texas than Obama did in both of his elections. Yeah Trump still won Texas, put Hillary only lost in the high single digits (9.2%) as Obama was 12 (2008) and 16 percent (2012) behind McCain and Romney.
Electoral College
Should it be abandoned? No - it was actually the only hope of the swing states to actually cry out and tell that they want things changed. They knew that if they would vote for Trump, they would deny Hillary the road to Washington and therefore politics or better economics as usual. I honestly believe that they didn't vote anti-"" or pro-"" (fill in the blanks).
Is it time to come up with a third party - maybe, maybe not, but the establishment of both parties failed its voters. It's time to clean house. While the Republican party needs to work with "their" president and adapt, the democratic party actually has a chance to get rid of their establishment and come up with a "new" party that actually cares, not only for their social agenda, but primarily in economical ways to put the middle class back on top.
And no - my view of the next President of the US has not changed - I still think Trump is a POS, a misogynist hater and loud, clueless bully idiot. But I give him a chance for the next four years to prove me, the USA and the world wrong and he may do that - elections are one thing, running the country a complete other set of shoes. Let him walk for a mile or two.
Sources: Images: Trump (DonaldJTrump.com); Reagan (Public Domain); Election pictures (by the author - © amu communications photo)
Other content: Bureau of Labor Statistics, citizen.org, election results via NYTimes and Wikipedia.
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