Sixteen years and 6 days ago, I sat at my computer with its giant 12GB hard drive and hammered away on a class project for UCSD. Y2k had come and gone, all the satellites failed to fall from the sky and I chose to go back to school and finish a degree.
As I explored the limits of Windows XP, I also kept my TV on and watched the Bush/Gore results unfold. The night dragged on, my caffeine intake increased, the election results came in and proved to be… too close to call. Midnight came and went. Then 1AM. Then 2. It wasn’t happening. Too close to call. Whoa. My fixation slowly moved from my computer to the TV as I thought, “I am witnessing the craziest election in American history.”
Boy was I wrong.
November 8, 2016 blew that little millennial ditty out of the water like a hanging chad on Obamacare subsidized steroids.
Six nights ago I sat in front of my TV gripping a stiff Moscow Mule waiting for the Clinton dynasty to come roaring back like an STD on Slick Willie’s willy.
I drank. I waited. I drank more. I waited more. Slowly my jaw begin to polish the floor as the unthinkable happened.
Donald Trump won and became the 45th President of the United States.
No Way. NO. WAY.
So now as I sit and watch people scream and cry and overcrowd their safe spaces, I feel compelled to explain why he won. But first, allow me to put to bed two faulty explanations currently floating about as to why he won and shed some truth about the electorate.
50% of the country is misogynist and racist.
The first thing you dazed and zombiefied folks need to do is accept the fact that statement is simply untrue. Embrace it. Because if you are ever going to even remotely understand every other person you meet, (unless you really, REALLY live in a bubble) you need to know they are not secretly harboring contempt for women, minorities and unicorns. OF COURSE there are some who do, but it’s as remote as the Fred Phelps Baptist church.
Many, if not most, did not vote for Trump because they love him or even like him. Did you see the likeability polls? Not a lot of Trumpers love him. OF COURSE there are some who think he is Jesus with a comb over. But not many, and definitely not 50% of the country.
Hillary is a woman.
Seriously? Aren’t we over that yet? Anybody talk about Kellyanne Conway being the first female campaign manager to win a presidency? Condoleeza Rice anybody? Nancy Pelosi? A million and a half female mayors, senators, governors and so on? Really, nobody cares. If Condoleeza Rice ran she would have decimated Hillary. Sexism in politics is over.
OK, so, on to the reasons why Trump got elected.
- Government Corruption
People are sick of it. They are sick of the lies. They are sick of the double speak. They are sick of top government officials like Lois Lerner pleading the 5th. (I thought they only did that in the movies anyway?) They are sick of the response being, “I don’t recall”. They are sick of things like Bill Clinton and Attorney General Lynch having not-so-secret meetings and saying they were just talking about their favorite lemon meringue pie recipes.
Everybody knows it’s B.S. The liars know it’s B.S. Worst of all, the liars KNOW that everyone knows they are lying and they just don’t care; they lie anyway. Trump, as flawed as he is, represents at least the hope of dealing with the systemic corruption in government. Now pay close attention there – I said the ‘hope’ of dealing with the corruption, so save the whining about Trump’s corrupt business practices and so on, this is about who voters considered the best bet in dealing with the corruption, not who is the purest of the pure and fairest of the fair.
- Hillary Clinton
Her name alone should allow me to stop and say, “Enough said,” but somehow people still cannot understand how deeply people detest her. Look at her likability ratings – people just do not like her. They dislike Trump even more and they still couldn’t pop the chad for her. She lies and lies and lies and people know it. As many people as there were who just could not bring themselves to vote for Trump, there were just as many who just could not bring themselves to vote for her.
The deleted classified emails. Podesta and all the wikileaks emails. Benghazi. The deplorable remark. The FBI investigation. The countless sources (like former secret service men) who say she is an absolute horror of a human behind closed doors. The collusion to shut down Bernie Sanders. The list doesn’t end. Did people think she was competent? Sure. But competency sometimes isn’t enough, sometimes a legacy of nastiness and corruption (whether it’s perceived or actual) catches up with you.
- Clinton Family Fatigue
It’s crazy to think there is a huge block of voters who don’t remember the Bill Clinton years because they weren’t born or they were barely born. But for those of us who were (young) adults in the Clinton years, we remember all too well how tiresome it all got. Look, Bill Clinton is a different animal; he is a likeable guy. So likeable in fact, you just may find yourself going home with him. He can charm a room. But he is a scoundrel, a sex addict and everybody knows it. People just cant handle the thought of another eight long years of ‘The Clintons’. It’s just too much. The public is all Clintoned out.
- Political Correctness
Funny enough, it was in the Bill Clinton years when the concept of the PC made its way into the public mind. It was interesting at first, like a collective light bulb went on as people realized there was this strange code of speech and conduct that wove its way in between right and wrong. Something may not be wrong, it’s just ‘politically incorrect’. Someone may want to say one thing but they don’t, so they choose to say what’s ‘politically correct’.
But now the beast of political correctness has gotten way, way out of hand and people are finally fed up with it. Hate speech, college speech codes and so on, are to the point where it’s become its own brand of tyranny. One little slip up and you will be run out of town buddy. Big time. Talk about homosexuality in a negative way? You’re homophobic. Muslims? Islamophobic. Cross dressers? Transphobic. Bigot. Xenophobic. It’s out of hand.
Along comes Mr. Trump who says things so far out of the PC ball park Richard Pryor and George Carlin are stealing his material from beyond the grave.
The reaction? FINALLY. Finally, someone who says what many are thinking but are afraid to say. Clumsy? Yes. Offensive? Sometimes. But honest? Yes. People are so tired of the PC dance politicians do around hot button issues. Trump blew that all out of the swamp. And then some.
- Immigration
Open borders advocates will never get this so there is no point in trying to explain it to them. But to the rest of the sane world, we all know that borders do matter. Our southern border is porous, illegal immigration is still happening, and it needs to stop. The end. No racism. No hateful, anti-Mexican propaganda. No Gestapo rounding up quivering Mexican families in the middle of the night.
It’s simple, fix the border issue and then deal with the undocumented immigrant issue. This should be a no brainer but for those lovely little politically correct reasons it’s a hot potato nobody wants to deal with for fear of losing the Hispanic vote. This has been going on for FIFTY YEARS and people are sick and tired of it. And this overlaps the political correctness point – people are tired of being called racist and anti immigrant no matter how loudly they proclaim, “This is not about LEGAL immigration, it’s about ILLEGAL immigration.” Of course everybody knows this is a nation of immigrants but for God’s sake, it’s not a nation of illegal immigrants. Trump came along and said what many constituents think but their representatives are afraid to say. And about the ‘rapists’ comment – sane voters know what Trump was talking about and he was NOT saying all Mexicans are criminals and rapists. He said criminals, drug dealers and ‘rapists’ are coming across the border. Why did he say that? Because it’s true. All of them? No. But enough of them to where it is hurting our country and politicians have wrung their hands about it for too long.
- Obamacare
It’s not working. This was the most sweeping and divisive piece of legislation ever crafted and it was rammed down the public’s throat. There was NO bi-partisan support (unlike social security and civil rights). All of the promises about ‘if you like your insurance you can keep it’ proved to be false. Premiums are dramatically spiking. It’s obvious healthcare had issues needing correcting but what the public has rejected is a massive government ‘solution’ to the problem. People warned it would not work and unintended consequences would run amok. And they have.
Obamacare is very much the perfect picture of Obama’s governing style. It’s, “I know better, you don’t, I won, deal with it.” People grew tired of being ‘told’ what is good for them and if they question or object, they are cast as part of the alt-right, hateful, racist, vast conspiracy against all that is good and wonderful about Obama’s policies. Trump’s promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with something that actually works is a sigh of relief to many.
- Media
I remember the first time I heard about the ‘liberal media’. It was in the 80’s and a political savvy friend 20 years my senior enlightened me. I was like…”What?” I grew up naively assuming the media just told you the facts. The news was just information. Why would there be bias?
Well, now we know and have known for some time, media elites have an agenda. But now it has become so bad it’s impossible not to see. The hypocrisy, double standards, and bias drips out of the TV like an EPA regulation gone bad. The media had the world convinced Hillary would win in a landslide. They had me convinced. That Moscow Mule I was gripping was medicine to soften the blow of her victory. To watch their bewilderment was really quite amusing.
And the double standards. Wow. All this outrage about Trump’s sexual comments, crass as they were, was obviously being pushed and celebrated by the media as the final nail in the campaign coffin. What the media failed to recognize though, was the public remembered Bill Clinton actually WAS a sexual predator, he didn’t just talk about it on a bus with a group of guys. He did it. Multiple times. My God there is an actual video of him groping some poor flight attendant’s thigh.
Why wasn’t the media hammering Hillary on why she would stay married to a serially unfaithful husband? What kind of message does that send to young girls in America Hillary? If your husband screws around, shut up, get back in the kitchen and just deal with it then Hillary? Like Jackie Kennedy 1960 style?
Nope. None of those questions. None of the pundits echoing the 1998 cry of, “C’mon man, it’s just about sex,” like they did during the Lewinsky scandal. Double standards. Everyone knew it.
- Islam
Liberal atheists Sam Harris and Bill Maher are at the front of the line screaming about this one. Former Somali Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali who lives under 24 hour security in threat of her life is pointing this out.
Radical Islam is a huge problem and when you have a current administration and a potential future administration who won’t even use the term ‘Islamic terror’, your average Joe along with the previously mentioned intellectual, comedian and apostate, want to assault the pharmacist for extra Xanax prescriptions. It’s pure insanity.
You would think a Christmas party massacre In San Bernardino would wake people up.
Or a nightclub slaughter in Orlando.
Or Paris.
Or Brussels.
Or Nice.
Nope. Nothing Islamic to see here folks, just move it along and… remember The Crusades!
Again, Trump says what most are thinking but won’t say for fear of Ben Affleck crying ‘Racism’! (Since when is religion a race anyway?)
Fresh after the San Bernardino slaughter, by Muslims, from a Muslim country (the wife anyway), Trump suggests a temporary ban on Muslims until officials can get a hold on this.
Gasp!
Constitutional issues? Yes. Ethical issues? Yes. Logistical issues? Yes. A multitude of issues? Yes.
But those are not the issues. The issue is the contrast between politicians who daren’t even speak the name and the anti-politician who dares speak the ultra un-PC name of Islamic terrorism and maybe doing something about it.
- Dear World, I’m sorry I am white, male and American. Please like me.
Obama’s ‘apology’ tour to Muslim nations. Identity politics. White privilege.
It’s all part of the same ball of waxed shame.
Americans are tired of it. Tired of having to feel bad about where they were born.
Tired of being shamed because they were born to a white mom and dad who took them to church every Sunday and taught them how to shoot a gun.
Tired of watching America get mocked and taking advantage of by countries like Iran and Russia.
They are just tired and decided it was better to take a chance on a thrice married, brash, egomaniac who says what he thinks and doesn’t care if it is PC or not.
This is what happens when people get pushed, shamed, homophobed, Islmaphobed, name called, spit on (oh the irony), and forced to choose between a corrupt career politician and reality TV star business man who just might actually treat America like a flailing business, gather those around who are responsible and say, “Sorry folks, you’re fired.”
So in the name of American unity please, I beg you, try, just try and understand that for most people who voted for Trump, it’s not because they are hateful, idiotic, oppressive, racist, Nazi bigots, it’s for any mix or match of the reasons just given.
And the majority of those who voted for Trump are not blind to the concerns of the black community, or Hispanics or whomever, but they want to try and build bridges and figure out real working solutions, not just echo tiresome platitudes.
They want to understand.
But they also want to be understood. And if that happens, maybe we can get somewhere.
Keith, I fully enjoyed the read and the very colorful words that you chose in order to
get the massive points across. I will have to say to you that this was truly a breath of fresh air and would do whatever I can to encourage you to continue to write, in the future these very informative and historical reads. All being said “Keep up the articles.”