My take on the US presidential election 2016: a dissident view from a liberal

The following was prompted at my health club yesterday by a discussion of the election with a fellow member, born and raised in a mining town of the Rust Belt, spoke to me of people in Seattle who had stated that they "would never think of setting foot in a Walmart" and will probably not go on ad nauseum about "how fucked up this country is" (devoted readers of Seattle's The Stranger, for instance).

I know my ideas are unorthodox, but from my perspective the irony of the U.S. presidential election in 2016 was not the outcome that the talking heads had predicted.

Much of the mainstream and liberal media forecast that it was the Republican Party which after the presumed defeat of Donald Trump would have to do soul-searching and reconcile itself to not being able to attract people of color.

The terrible irony--for I am a democratic socialist and am devastated by Hillary Clinton (a decent, diligent human being)'s defeat is that it is the Democrats who will have to do as much if not more soul searching.

To be blunt, the Democrats' loss in the Rust-Belt states was due to reverse racism as much as an echo chamber of coastal elites.  They have not been able to appeal to less educated, blue-collar workers in decades.

Calling people "dumb racist white people" is deeply insulting.

The tragedy of the Democrats' misguided rhetoric (and policy) is that Donald Trump is on path to cut taxes primarily for the extremely wealthy, including income and capital gains taxes.

Hillary Clinton--after prodding, albeit from Bernie Saunders--would have raised taxes overwhelmingly on the top 1% and provided mild relief for the lower and middle classes.

The  anger of the white working classes in America against the federal government is based on the fact that they have an aversion to taxation, especially when they do not see any direct, or even indirect benefit, to it.

All Donald Trump, the worst demagogue America has seen since Huey Long, has to do is decrease taxes for everyone (but, sleight-of-hand, primarily the 1%) and somehow come up with a plan to create jobs and prevent job loss to China, etc. and--voila--he wins their support.

In the meantime, expect the plutocrat to axe government programs right and left that benefit the lower and middle classes to benefit the 1%.  Starving the government, in the long run, will make people even more angry at the inefficiency and inefficacy of the federal government, snowballing into the maximal dismantlement of the government, the guiding philosophy of the Republican Party and one held so dear to the Tea Party and, increasingly, to the white working class.

...

Enough, too, of wholly blaming white people for the state of race relations in America.

The white working class, no matter how, was clearly taken for granted in the Rust Belt, and Hillary Clinton did not even attempt to do reach-out or visit Eastern Pennsylvania or other areas outside of the large urban centers (Philadelphia, Detroit...).  Obviously, her internal pollsters--like the public ones--did a poor job, just as the ones who helped set up her email server when she was Secretary of State.

Once a time, the Democratic Party stood for the working class, especially the largest sector of that demographic, the white working class--instead of ignoring or looking down or blaming it.

Clinton's strenuous appeals to women, Hispanics, and others did not pan out very well, and as a racial minority myself, I will dare to say that African-Americans were not especially motivated to go to the polls because, unlike Obama, she was a white person (and hence could not and would not identify with as strongly).

We already know as well that white women without college educations also were not moved by Clinton's candidacy despite the awful things that Trump had been caught saying on that Access tape ("I tried to f--- her...just grab them by the p----").  I don't know how anyone can see this as anything but clear gender betrayal.




No one is angrier than I am than that that blow-bag/demagogue/plutocrat Trump won.  It is the worst political news of my entire lifetime.   My disappointment that Hillary Clinton, a decent, smart, hard-working person with incredible experience as First Lady, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State did not win after two campaigns in which she showed her fortitude and in debates in which she showed great dignity in the face of the relentless assaults of Donald Trump ("She has hate in her heart," "I'll put in you jail once elected,"  and "You're a dishonest person").