First: The pollsters got it more wrong than they did in 1949. There are reasons for that; they use landlines (which, ironically, was one of the reasons they got 1949 wrong).
Second: We got hacked. Putin announced right away that he wanted full, normal relations with the US. Yeah, I’ll bet he does. I have to say that I think had that happened, the result would have been even more lopsided.
Third: A lot of people lied about who they were voting for. This is disturbing, not just because they lied to pollsters, but because of what it says about the person they chose to vote for anyway – that people were ashamed.
Fourth, and, I rather hope, the most likely: A lot of these votes were not votes for Trump, they were votes against the Establishment. All of it. That helplessness and being ignored drove a lot of people to say “well, we saw Bernie got screwed, and I know Trump’s a jerk, but at least he’s not part of the Establishment. Maybe he can mess with them for a while.”
The fact that so many Americans could deceive themselves into voting for an admitted sexual abuser and proud adulterer, an alleged child rapist, an undoubted bully who takes pride in bullying people, a man who has cheated literally thousands of people of all walks of life but especially working people, a con man who couldn’t even say “you’re fired” directly to someone on a TV show (it was previously taped, really) — this is the truly concerning thing for this country. I am saddened, and anxious, for the future of this nation, my nation, the nation that created the Bill of Rights, which is now threatened.
Trump has the chance now to make good on some of his promises. Let us hope he decides, for the first time in his life, to take a higher road.
I see four possible reasons for this result:
First: The pollsters got it more wrong than they did in 1949. There are reasons for that; they use landlines (which, ironically, was one of the reasons they got 1949 wrong).
Second: We got hacked. Putin announced right away that he wanted full, normal relations with the US. Yeah, I’ll bet he does. I have to say that I think had that happened, the result would have been even more lopsided.
Third: A lot of people lied about who they were voting for. This is disturbing, not just because they lied to pollsters, but because of what it says about the person they chose to vote for anyway – that people were ashamed.
Fourth, and, I rather hope, the most likely: A lot of these votes were not votes for Trump, they were votes against the Establishment. All of it. That helplessness and being ignored drove a lot of people to say “well, we saw Bernie got screwed, and I know Trump’s a jerk, but at least he’s not part of the Establishment. Maybe he can mess with them for a while.”
The fact that so many Americans could deceive themselves into voting for an admitted sexual abuser and proud adulterer, an alleged child rapist, an undoubted bully who takes pride in bullying people, a man who has cheated literally thousands of people of all walks of life but especially working people, a con man who couldn’t even say “you’re fired” directly to someone on a TV show (it was previously taped, really) — this is the truly concerning thing for this country. I am saddened, and anxious, for the future of this nation, my nation, the nation that created the Bill of Rights, which is now threatened.
Trump has the chance now to make good on some of his promises. Let us hope he decides, for the first time in his life, to take a higher road.