2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)For the millionth time, Clinton won among those for whom the economy is the top issue. [View all]
Clinton and Democrats already campaign on economics...to a far more substantial degree than Trump did. Trump spewed lies and vague gobbledygook. "We're looking at jobs--big league jobs." Um, okay.
Clinton campaigned on universal early childhood education, expansion of health insurance with a reduction in premiums, 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, generating "enough renewable energy to power every home in America, with half a billion solar panels installed by the end of Hillarys first term," a substantial increase to the federal minimum wage, equal pay for women, debt-free and more affordable college, free community college, "a $25 billion fund will support historically black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and other minority-serving institutions," the development of new green industries, massive infrastructure investment, etc.
Unfortunately, the media didn't give a shit. It's all about spectacle and outrageousness, while pushing false equivalencies in the name of some screwed up notion of fairness.
Still, though, Clinton won among the working class. Again, she won among the working class. If some (not all) white working class voters have much different expectations than the working class overall, ask yourself why that might be.
Yes, there may be some Trump voters who were honestly taken in by a portion of his economic message so much so that they could overlook everything else or were somehow unaware of everything else (the long history of sexual assault, the long history of overt bigotry, the conspiracy theories he promotes, the Russia connection, his celebration of the housing collapse because he could profit off it, his stiffing the contractors/blue collar workers he hired over the years, his refusal to release his tax returns, his fraudulent "University," his tax plan that helps the wealthiest and harms the working class, etc.). And there are those who have internalized oppression so bad, they can't think straight. There are Ayn Rand-worshipping Christians (never mind that Rand was anti-Christianity) who think Trump is a great Christian and that Clinton worships the devil. There are those who think Clinton was running a child sex ring out of pizza joints. There are those who think Obama is a Muslim who was born in Kenya.
Well, good fucking luck reaching those folks.
There are also some who were just blinded by their hatred for Clinton, much of that hatred rooted in sexism and misogyny and a belief in the many lies spread about her through the decades (as opposed to the valid leftist critique that caused some to not vote for her or Trump while continuing to support Obama, even though Clinton's politics are basically the same as Obama's).
And then there are a hell of a lot of people who voted based on racism, xenophobia and a twisted Christian supremacy. Trump mania took off precisely when he suggested most Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers.
