I
haven’t really thought through what I want or am going to say here, so this may
seem disjointed.
Before
I get to anything else, I need to get this one off my chest: Bernie supporters,
just stop. Seriously, just stop it. I keep seeing Bernie fans posting stupid
macros reading crap like “Do you miss me now?” and “65%”. Yes, he polled better
than Trump and Clinton in the early days. And last night, the polls gave
Clinton a solid shot. It’s foolish to think he would have magically done
better. He did better than Trump in a couple of places that Trump won. So, of
course, many are concluding that Sanders would have won those last night, while
ignoring that he most likely would have lost a lot of the places Clinton did take. The simple fact is that
America isn’t ready for a Sanders. He’s actually too far left (under American
standards) for America right now.
Did
Sanders get screwed by the DNC? Yeah, probably so. So what? Like me, he was an
Independent. He only joined the Dem party in 2015. Did you think they wouldn’t work against an outsider who
only joined for an opportunistic gain? If you did, you haven’t been paying
attention to politics in your life, be it 18 or 80 years.
I
get it, you feel burned. And as a result, some of you voted for Trump. So
thanks for not giving two shits about the nation in your petty spite.
Anyway,
just stop it. We’re all hosed together, so let’s work on figuring out how to
blunt some of that.
So.
. . President Trump.
I
honestly didn’t think this would happen. Long before it became a common idea, I
had put forth the idea that Trump was essentially trolling the nation and
increasing his brand recognition even more and that at some point, it got away
from him. What I unintentionally ignored at the beginning was the absolute
field of crap he was up against on the GOP side.
I
knew that I didn’t want a Ted Cruz presidency. What I didn’t realize was just
how much everyone else hated Cruz.
And I wonder even now if he knew how much people hated him before his run for
POTUS. I didn’t know in the beginning that, for a brilliant neurosurgeon, Ben
Carson was painfully stupid and full of hate. Kasich was too bland to do really
get anywhere, and Rubio, well, Rubio just lacks a certain something. Spine
maybe? He seems not insincere, but not devoted. As for Fiorina, does anyone
even remember her making the run? There were some others, but they were
non-starters.
On
the other side, we basically had Clinton and Sanders.
This
election belonged to the Dems for the most part. I knew Clinton would be the
Dem candidate. I feared Cruz would grab the GOP nom.
The
biggest thing I got wrong was thinking that the citizens of the United States
had made more social progress than they had. I knew Trump’s isolationist,
xenophobic rhetoric would strike chords with a chunk of the populace, but I
underestimated the hate that still lives in the hearts of our citizens. Hate of the other, hate of women, hate of
change. That’s how Trump got the nom. He pandered to that hate, and he did it
by escalating his words everything and then having a spokesperson go on TV and
walk them back, with another spokesperson going on and saying even more extreme
things. I also never thought that he would stoop to endorsing actual Nazis and
white supremacists.
Again,
I was wrong.
But
that all together should not have carried to where we are today.
No,
that took some other factors.
Apparently
a lot of people, including Dems, simply don’t like Clinton and didn’t long
before any of the email crap. Some of it was misogyny, yes, but not all of it.
How
much of the vote, popular and electoral, would she have taken if not for the
past few months? Good question.
Let’s
see, there’s the email scandal. You know, that thing that has some calling
Clinton a traitor (she’s not, look it up), and a criminal (she’s not, you can
tell by the lack of crime). This was yet another attempt to make something more
than it was in order to damage Clinton. But come on, she’s been in the biz how
long now and not been busted? Either she’s not guilty or she’s a criminal super
genius, and we could use a super genius in the Oval. And when that was starting
to lose traction as a story (because, you know, she didn’t actually do
anything), Comey came along with his new right-before-the-election letter and
stirred it all up again. And then a less publicized letter that “Nope, sorry,
still nothing there”, but that damage was done. That hurt Clinton. I do believe
if Comey hadn’t done that (and there’s indications that he wasn’t supposed to
have done it), her tally in the popular vote would be better. I can’t wait for
us to find out if it was a load of crap based on incompetence on Comey’s part,
or if he intentionally interfered with the electoral process. I actually have
my doubts that we’ll ever find out. I firmly believe that Comey needs to step
down.
I
also believe that the F.B.I. needs a severe overhaul since it’s been
well-established that a fifth column, if you will, has been actively working
against Clinton based on some crap in a crap book. That’s not acceptable. Last time I checked, J. Edgar wasn’t running
the F.B.I. these days.
Anyway,
yeah, the resurgence of the “new” emails seemed designed to bring a fading
issue right back into the minds of the voters.
Social
media . . . Anti-Clinton forces masterfully used social media against her. It’s
pretty well established that many people only read headlines, and that many who
read more than the headline only read the first part of an article or item. And
that we remember headlines, especially
negative headlines, while forgetting retractions or the material below the
headline. It’s an old trick. And boy howdy, did people rely on that basic bit
of psychology. There were so many anti-Clinton headlines, ranging from the believable
to the outrageous that even Snopes couldn’t keep up with them. But we remember
negative headlines. Way to shape the voter headspace. There wasn’t nearly the
volume of anti-Trump headlines, and many of those were simple reporting on
actual things. But frankly, I’m pretty sure many people don’t care about facts
or truth unless they align with the narrative in the person’s head.
Don’t
forget the Reds. No wait, I mean the Russians. The Reds are running the country
now. We all know that the neo-Soviets have been actively interfering with the
election (which I personally consider to be an act of war), thought for Trump’s
benefit (he does love him some Putin) or just as an anti-Clinton measure. And
we’re probably going to let them get away with it. Which means it’s going to
happen again.
Wikileaks/fugitive
and alleged rapist Julian Assange. At some point in the past, Wikileaks
released some documents that uncovered some uncool shit on the part of the U.S.
government. As a result, the name “Wikileaks” gained some measure of credibility.
Assange and other anti-Clinton forces have traded on that credibility during
this election. Because Assange has some sort of beef with Clinton. They did so
be releasing quite a large number of emails, including those that indicated the
DNC worked to undermine Sanders (see above). But frankly, so far, there hasn’t
really been anything terribly shocking or evil in those emails.
But
there didn’t have to be anything actually there. Why? Because we remember
negative headlines. Suddenly, Wikileaks was breaking all kinds of news and most
of it was crap. But by combining negative headlines with the word “Wikileaks”,
that gave those headlines even more traction in the minds of readers. Readers
who didn’t read a single leaked email, let alone the what, 50k or so? Was
Assange doing this on behalf of the neo-Soviets? I have no idea. Maybe, but
maybe he just wanted to screw Clinton over since, as I said, he seems to have a
personal problem with her.
Let
us not forget the role the 24-hour scramble-for-ratings media has played in all
of this. You know, the liberal Mainstream Media that the right likes to whine
about? The same LMSM that has spent a year propping Trump up while scrambling
to make every single bit of information about Clinton seem like a HUGE scandal.
If you think I’m kidding, go back and look. The media has effectively ignored
or only glossed over most negative stories that have come out about Trump
except for the Pussy Grabbing, while pounding on Clinton like she was a
stubborn nail. How often did they talk about the multiple rape allegations
(including a mildly retracted one by an ex-wife)? How often did they talk about
Clinton’s health, on the other hand?
No,
as I’ve indicated for a while, the Fourth Estate has long been a semi-abandoned
crack house. It needs to be burned down and rebuilt.
And
with all of that, as of this writing,
the popular vote stands at
Clinton:
59,796,311
Trump:
59,589,821
What
happened the last time the Reds lost the popular vote but won the electoral
college? Anyone? Bueller?
Right,
a depressed economy, a destroyed surplus, a greater degradation of
Constitutional rights. Oh, let’s not forget the more than a decade of fucking
war most of which served no actual legitimate purpose.
The
biggest problem that I see, among all these things, is a perpetual problem.
Look at those voter results. Go ahead, take a look, I’ll wait.
59,796,311
+
59,589,821
=
119,386,132
There’s
still about one-half of the country’s potential voters who Are. Not. Voting. I
have to say, I’m actually moving towards the idea of voting, at least in POTUS
elections, being mandatory.
I
know that today, it seems like hate has won a big victory. And it has won a
victory of some sort, but it’s not as big as it seems. The people against
Clinton threw pretty much everything
at her and she still took half the
popular vote.
Assuming
Trump follows through on his campaign rhetoric (and honestly, who knows if he
will?), with Congress being tipped to the Reds, the next 4-8 years are probably
going to be rough. I think we’re going to see a fair chunk of our progress
rolled back.
But
she still took half. That means of
the people who cared enough to vote, an awful lot of them are still trying, and
still want a better nation.
We
lost this battle. Let’s not give up and lose the war.
Stay
safe, and help keep others safe.
Peace.
