So one reason Trump won?: he threatened corporate America with the imposition of tariffs on their treasonous free trade outsourcing of American production, and working people in the rust belt were overjoyed.
And, incidentally, the title of that documentary of Michael Moore? Most brutally ironic one ever, Mike:
Realist Left
Realist Left on Facebook
Realist Left on Twitter @realistleft
Realist Left on Reddit
Realist Left Blog
Realist Left on YouTube
Lord Keynes on Facebook
Social Democracy for the 21st Century: A Realist Alternative to the Modern Left
Alt Left on the Internet:
Alternative Left on Facebook
Alt-Left on Google+
Samizdat Broadcasts YouTube Channel
Samizdat: For the Freedom Loving Leftist
I’m on Twitter:
Lord Keynes @Lord_Keynes2
https://twitter.com/Lord_Keynes2
There's more irony. Many of my friends see Trump as Hitler with bad beath. I see him as part Ron Popeil, part Andrew Dice Clay, and ... part Michael Moore. (With a touch of Mr Magoo.) I bet we've seen the last of the Andrew Dice Clay part though. But Moore was righter about more stuff than the rest of the Left. So was Thomas Frank. Will they be listened too? I expect the regressive left to double-down on their delusions instead.
ReplyDeleteMoore is a reason for Trumpism. Trump didn't start this thing. Trump just picked up a ripe fruit, It was there for him ready to be picked up. Trump is a symptom. That's the irony of It. The left is fighting the symptom, the harder they fight the more certainly they fail.
ReplyDeleteWait a minute, guys. I dont know american politics as good as you do and I do not share the idea that trump is hitler etc.
ReplyDeleteBut what are the figures ? Did blue collars massively endorse Trump ?
And if so, how did he lose the popular vote ? (Not that I like HC. Both candidates were despicable to me.)
From what I got, there was no massive shift. And if any, a shift to not voting. Hence the rather low scores from *both* candidates.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/11/10/2016-was-an-ordinary-election-not-a-realignment/?tid=hybrid_collaborative_1_na
After all, elections are pretty much non events and more often than not produce a very small event (a partly new team in power, implementing the same kind of policies as the former).
So every one on the left should keep cool and keep on supporting Bernie, getting co-workers unionised and having some no BS economics read by their fellow citizens.
The apocalyptic hyperbole has gotten particularly crazy with Trump, but it's been a presence in every US election I've witnessed as an adult. Every four years, the apocalypse will occur and the republic is doomed if the other party wins the presidency. Bush's victories were also viewed as apocalyptic by many on the left, and Obama's victories showed similar levels of hyperbole from his opponents on the right.
DeleteA question for those who aren't native Americans: Do other countries get this apocalyptic and hyperbolic about the other side winning during major election seasons, or is this a uniquely American feature of our democracy?
Yes, more white working class / non-college educated whites voted for Trump than voted for Romney, while more (upper) middle class white / college educated whites voted for Clinton than Obama.
DeleteThe apocalyptic rhetoric has been a staple of American democracy since about 2004 or so.
First off, as this article talks about voter turnout for 2016's election was closer to the norm for American presidental elections than 2004-2012:
Deletehttp://thealternativehypothesis.org/index.php/2016/11/13/the-myth-of-low-turnout-in-the-2016-presidential-election/
Secondly, Republicans didnn't bother showing up in CA, NY, IL, and MA.
Trump didn't work to motivate his supporters to show up in states where their efforts would have been wasted. Hence the deficit in popular vote in such places, which is all that the national popular vote gap boils down to.
Everone I know in Europe and Canada gets apocalyptic about only US politics. It's a disease. I have friends convinced Trump is Hitler with bad breath. One gets furious even at impartial analysis of why people support Trump, because neutrality is too good for him.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the most important fact being 46% of the potential voters not voting ?
ReplyDelete(It would also be interesting to have the data broken down by ages, social classes, education, ethnicity, etc.)