Over at The Concourse a writer asked Trump voters to email him to explain their reasons for voting as they did. Many replied and the various reasons are fascinating.
A Democrat who voted for Trump because he thought he would be a disaster and sink the Republicans
A guy frustrated by the increase of political correctness under Obama
A business owner concerned about taxes
An ex federal employee who said people who worked for the feds go through a briefing each year about email security, etc so he knew Hillary was lying when she said she’d had no such briefing
A MidWest Democrat who felt abandoned by the party and would have voted for Elizabeth Warren but would prefer even Trump to Clinton
Many more, some expected (immigration, Hillary hate, etc) some not. It makes for an interesting read.
When was it that American voters, as a group, could honestly be considered “deep thinkers”? Dismissing Trump voters like that is a recipe for future electoral losses-- something lots of Democrats seem bound and determined to ensure.
QFT. I don’t see eye to eye with John Mace much, but this is obviously true. Were all those people who voted for Obama in 2008 motivated by their thoughtful analyses of the long-term impacts of his plans, or by simple messages like “hope” and “first Black president”? As much as I’d love to believe the former, common sense tells us it was the latter.
I’m hopeful, even confident, that Trump’s presidency will cure enough chaos & tantrum voters from making the same mistake in future elections. Also, social cultural trends are not on the side of the current Republican party policies. So I’m also somewhat confident that this election is an anomaly, not an indicator of a long term trend against the Democratic party.
I do agree with this much - this election was the Democrats’ to lose; And they did.
Well, if they’re so stupid, we don’t want them ! stamps foot Stupid, stupid, stupid heads !
They are going to suffer greatly for their stupid choice of that big old stupid meanie, and we’re glad, glad, glad ! When they come crawling back we will offer to educate them, because we’re so clever, and they will humbly listen and then vote for their wise teachers.
As a business owner, I understand taxes (well enough, my CPA does the heavy lifting and finds me more deductions), and one thing I understand very well is that I don’t pay taxes on my expenses, only on my profit.
So, higher taxes do not in any way make it harder for me to run my business. And, as I am only paying myself in the lower tax brackets, it does not hurt my own pay either. The only businesses that higher taxes effect are ones that are highly profitable, and pay their owners very well.
Higher taxes on businesses encourage the business owner to take less money into their own pocket, and instead to reinvest it into their business, whether it be equipment (which to be fair, is more amortized than just written off), or employees.
If someone is complaining about higher taxes on businesses ,then they must be making the highest tax bracket (not their business, but how much the funnel out of the business for their own pocket) and so, I don’t know that I have all that much sympathy for them, they do seem to be doing pretty well for themselves.
Do you believe that national leaders have an obligation to raise the level of discussion and educate the electorate using fact based arguments or to dumb things down for the lowest common denominator by appealing to their worst fears by reinforcing biases?
Obligation or no I have a feeling that national leaders will always use the method which gives them the best chance of victory, and, like it or not, that’s usually the second option above.
And of course without victory all their noble ideals and goals for the country amount to nothing so whatever their beliefs it makes sense to choose the low road if that’s the route that will best assure the Presidency.
I wish I could be that hopeful. Fortunately, the Dems have a few years to regroup. I hope no one is even THINKING about running HRC again. (Please, please tell me know one is thinking this…)
“Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend !” I shrieked, upstarting —
“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore !
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken !
Leave my loneliness unbroken ! — quit the bust above my door !
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door !”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” *
Seeing the emails it is clear that, besides a significant number of Democrats not voting, a significant number of Democrats did vote for Trump too; but it is clear that once Clinton is out of the picture those voters are not so willing to favor the Cheeto in chief. So I don’t see much about those voters learning about how wrong they were, but taking their words at face value they are voters that will change alliance at the least provocation/broken promise.
I’ve been wrong about many things this past election cycle. (I think I even predicted Clinton would opt not to run). But I’ll eat my hat if she run in 2020.
In all fairness, more American voters voted for Clinton than Trump. And that’s not a fluke; the Democratic candidate got more votes in six of the last seven presidential elections. Given that, it’s hard to claim the Democratic Party is out of touch with the voters.
Hillary Clinton ran a campaign aimed at racking up extra votes in Blue states to help her popular vote numbers, which meant that she spent less time and money on contested states and ended up losing them. All her popular vote count really indicates is that she prioritized a high popular vote count over winning the race, it’s not clear whether she would have a clear popular vote victory if she had run a campaign aimed at winning, or if Trump had campaigned specifically for a high popular vote instead of winning the election. And even with her winning the popular vote, she had less than half of the votes cast, and less than a third of eligible voters. If you get less than 1/3 of voters motivated to come out and cast a vote for you, that doesn’t actually sound like you’re in touch with the voters.
I don’t think that harping on a really specific statistic that’s not useful for winning the presidency actually shows that the Democratic Party is in touch with the voters, especially when Democrats are also behind in Governor’s races, federal House and Senate races, and State legislative races.
