It’s official: Donald J. Trump will become the 45th president of the United States of America.
The results of the 2016 presidential election have shocked the media, pundits, and pollsters, who all declared a Clinton victory was certain. Newsweek even printed off thousands of copies of their latest issue with Hillary Clinton on the cover as the first female president.
So what happened? Why is it that virtually every poll had Clinton crushing Trump and emerging victorious? I have an explanation, and it’s not what you think.
There were only two revolutionary candidates in this race. The first would be now President-Elect Donald Trump, and the other is Bernie Sanders.
Despite their differences on policy when it came to race, the economy, and immigration, both Trump and Sanders had one policy in common: doing away with “free” trade agreements like the TPP and NAFTA.
Both made this issue central to their campaigns, both wanted to repeal NAFTA and veto the TPP, because of their disastrous effects on the job market, allowing many jobs to be outsourced to Mexico, China, Bangladesh, and other countries. Trump and Sanders had different ways of going about replacing these agreements, Trump’s being get the military involved and build a wall between us and Mexico, but the fact that the problem was finally being addressed for out-of-work blue collar Americans was not just attractive, it was uplifting.
More people flocked to Sanders because they were afraid to elect someone with the proposed human rights violations that Donald Trump had made, but once Hillary Clinton was named the Democratic nominee, it became much easier for out-of-work people, especially in the North, to hold their nose and vote red.
The Democratic party pushed all of their efforts behind Hillary Clinton, thinking that her “first female president” factor and recognition would gain her the presidency. Plus, who could lose to Donald Trump?
As it turns out, Hillary Clinton.
The DNC pushed neoliberal values in Clinton, which is evident in the selection of Tim Kaine, a man who swayed from the party line on abortion, but stayed steady with Clinton on free trade agreements, hawkish foreign policy, and bolstering of Wall Street and corporate interests, and towing the party line on economic relations.
Michael Moore said nearly a month before November 8 that Trump would almost certainly win, because what had been considered “Clinton Country”, aka, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, etc. were angry about losing their jobs, and Clinton’s message all but ignored them. Where Trump has the Bible belt, Clinton supposedly had the “rust belt”, as it is called for it’s manufacturing jobs.
Those jobs were outsourced, largely by agreements proposed, written, and supported by Hillary Clinton while she served as first lady, senator, and Secretary of State.
While you can bet that every white nationalist, racist, and far-right individual in the United States voted for Trump, it’s hardly credible that he won on the wave of hate alone. While it was a contributing factor, many white working class Americans who haven’t a racist bone in their body simply held their nose and voted for Trump because of his promises on trade reform.
Meanwhile on the Democratic side, the election had become a personality contest. A racist demagogue versus a “public servant” who fights for the people. But they failed their base because while they were pushing this agenda, Trump was pushing policy. Weak, feckless policy as it may have been, it was still policy, which is what the people wanted to hear.
Clinton spent so much time getting down in the mud with Trump, she couldn’t see that her whole campaign was drowning.
The nomination of Bernie Sanders would have succeeded in a Democratic victory. The only reason he wasn’t chosen, was so that the establishment Democrats could keep in place the powers that be, which feed them corporate money via lobbyists. And Sanders policies would not support that.
So remember this when going forward if you’re a classic liberal like myself and you are angered at this election: don’t be mad at Trump supporters for voting in the way you knew they would vote all along. Be mad at the failed elitist system that produced the only candidate that could lose to Donald Trump.
And to the neoliberals and loyal Democrat voters: always remember how you feel this day when you go to vote. The only way to make any progress is to vote for those who will create it.
