Monday, November 28, 2016
Posted in
Politics
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President Donald Trump -- yikes! I never thought it was possible that Americans would elect such an unqualified, incompetent and dishonest candidate. But of course, they didn't. Hillary Clinton got 2,800,000 more votes than Donald Trump did. The problem now is the electoral college, which allows a candidate who doesn't win the popular vote to be elected president. Our founding fathers devised the electoral college because they believed that the uneducated citizenry couldn't be trusted to exhibit good judgement; but the citizenry is now largely educated, and the electoral college serves only as a tool to be manipulated by politicians. Twice in the last twenty years the Democrats have been robbed of the presidency by the electoral college. That needs to change -- but the Republicans won't allow it to change because it works to their advantage.
But there are other reasons Trump won:
(1) The 30-year campaign of the Republicans to smear the name of Hillary Clinton was successful. She was never a bad person -- and certainly not as bad as Trump -- but the Republicans managed to make her look like the worst kind of crook. Every little mistake she made was magnified a thousand times, while Trump's 40+ years of cheating business associates (to the tune of more than a million dollars) didn't get much press.
(2) James Comey, the director of the FBI, effectively threw the election to Trump by inserting himself into the election in a way that was outrageous and unprofessional. Having decided there wasn't enough evidence of wrongdoing to prosecute Clinton for using a private email server as Secretary of State, he nonetheless prosecuted her in the press. Announcing just eleven days before the election that he was re-opening the investigation effectively killed her chances of winning.
(3) Hillary Clinton doesn't have much charisma. Is she to blame for that? I don't think so. Americans would rather have an incompetent president with charisma, than a competent president without charisma. In other words, Americans (at least 47% of them) are foolish and shallow. We make our elections about personalities -- and not in a good way. Trump is narcissistic, greedy, racist and misogynistic, yet people ignored all that just because they liked the promises he was making (promises that he has no ability to keep).
(4) White people are stupid and racist. Yes, that's the real reason Trump won. Trump's entire campaign was an appeal to the racism of whites. He fed the notion that everyone was getting a break except for white people, which, of course, was never true. White people still have it better than every other group in the country. White people are so prejudiced that they feel discriminated against if they don't get special treatment. But the fact is that they DO get special treatment in this country -- I know because I'm white -- but they imagine that they don't. I have no doubt at all that most of the white people who rail against immigrants and refugees don't even know any immigrants or refugees. Bigotry is what it's all about. In that sense, the election of Trump was a reaction to the presidency of Barack Obama. White people wanted to "take the country back" from the "coloreds". Of course, Clinton is white too, but she was preaching a message of inclusion while Trump's message was one of exclusion. Exclusion won the day. At times like these, I'm embarrassed to be white.
(5) There's one more reason why Trump won, a psychological reason, and it's the same reason why the so-called "Islamic State" group has been successful at recruiting fighters from other countries. It has been shown that people who allow themselves to be radicalized are looking for simple, absolute answers to complex problems. They don't want to deal with the nuances that life throws at them. This is also true of conservative religious people, and of conservatives in general. The solutions that Trump was offering the country were not just simple, but simplistic: Build a wall! Throw the foreigners out! End all trade agreements! Withdraw from the world! Repeal Obamacare! Obey authority! Trust the police no matter how many people they kill!
Simplistic solutions for simple-minded, bigoted white people.
A couple days after writing the above article, I went to the local convenience store. There was a clerk working there whom I don't usually see, a middle-aged white woman. She was ranting about how all politicians are dishonest, which of course isn't true. I tried to pin her down as to which party she was against, and she said both. So in other words, this woman was ranting against everyone in both parties despite the fact that the parties take very different positions on the issues. She then said that politicians do nothing for the people, which, of course, isn't true either. I pointed out that Social Security and Medicare are good programs that help seniors, and she then said some things that astonished me. She said that when the government gives people benefits, those people become enslaved to the government. She essentially said that receiving benefits from the government hurts the people who receive the benefits. That's an absurd talking-point which Republicans have been pushing, and it isn't true. First of all, the people who receive benefits usually have some physical or mental problem which makes it hard or impossible for them to work. In my case, I am old and have health problems (but I still work from home as much as I am able). People who are under retirement age and receive benefits from the government usually have some other problem -- e.g., systemic health problems, injuries from war or accident, mental problems. Working to support yourself is easy for a healthy person, but for some it is impossible.
However, I also know a young fellow who is trying to get government assistance because he has ADHD. He's able to work, but working full-time would be difficult for him. Whether or not we give benefits to people with borderline health problems can be debated. My point is that the vast majority of people receiving government assistance have a legitimate need for assistance. If those people aren't helped, they often end up on the streets, and they often die young.
But getting back to the store clerk, she was undoubtedly one of those dummies who voted for Trump. What's amazing is that her anger at politicians and the government is entirely misplaced; it is based on lies that she has bought into. She undoubtedly thinks that a lot of able-bodied young people are mooching off the government, though that isn't true. But what's also amazing is that she was railing against government programs that she herself may need some day. Indeed, if she continues to spout her bizarre political ideas to customers, she may end up unemployed -- at which point she would receive unemployment compensation and food stamps, both of which are government benefits. And while she's receiving unemployment benefits, will she be enslaved to the government? When she gets old, I assume she will collect Social Security benefits. If she doesn't, she won't survive, since the convenience store is certainly not giving her a pension. So Donald Trump and the Republicans have managed to convince this woman that everything good that she is getting from the government is not good -- and thanks to idiots like her, we now have an idiot as our president.
The magic of Donald Trump and the Republicans is that they have managed to make a large swath of the population feel angry and aggrieved, though they really have very little to be aggrieved about. The people who feel aggrieved are the ones who often have a great deal but don't value what they have, or who imagine that what they have is not so much. I've managed to avoid that pitfall by always comparing myself to poor people in third-world countries. Compared to them, I am wealthy. My moderate-sized apartment, with its electricity, heat and running hot water, would be considered a palace in some countries (of course, I pay 60% of my income to live here). I do, in fact, know some truly poor people, and those people generally feel thankful for whatever they get.
Oh, and there is one more thing that amazes me: Donald Trump showed us that you can lie and lie and lie and a significant portion of the population will believe you as long as you tell your lies in a convincing way, even though there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Being in an "information age" is not protecting us from misinformation. People don't bother to find out what the truth is.
But there are other reasons Trump won:
(1) The 30-year campaign of the Republicans to smear the name of Hillary Clinton was successful. She was never a bad person -- and certainly not as bad as Trump -- but the Republicans managed to make her look like the worst kind of crook. Every little mistake she made was magnified a thousand times, while Trump's 40+ years of cheating business associates (to the tune of more than a million dollars) didn't get much press.
(2) James Comey, the director of the FBI, effectively threw the election to Trump by inserting himself into the election in a way that was outrageous and unprofessional. Having decided there wasn't enough evidence of wrongdoing to prosecute Clinton for using a private email server as Secretary of State, he nonetheless prosecuted her in the press. Announcing just eleven days before the election that he was re-opening the investigation effectively killed her chances of winning.
(3) Hillary Clinton doesn't have much charisma. Is she to blame for that? I don't think so. Americans would rather have an incompetent president with charisma, than a competent president without charisma. In other words, Americans (at least 47% of them) are foolish and shallow. We make our elections about personalities -- and not in a good way. Trump is narcissistic, greedy, racist and misogynistic, yet people ignored all that just because they liked the promises he was making (promises that he has no ability to keep).
(4) White people are stupid and racist. Yes, that's the real reason Trump won. Trump's entire campaign was an appeal to the racism of whites. He fed the notion that everyone was getting a break except for white people, which, of course, was never true. White people still have it better than every other group in the country. White people are so prejudiced that they feel discriminated against if they don't get special treatment. But the fact is that they DO get special treatment in this country -- I know because I'm white -- but they imagine that they don't. I have no doubt at all that most of the white people who rail against immigrants and refugees don't even know any immigrants or refugees. Bigotry is what it's all about. In that sense, the election of Trump was a reaction to the presidency of Barack Obama. White people wanted to "take the country back" from the "coloreds". Of course, Clinton is white too, but she was preaching a message of inclusion while Trump's message was one of exclusion. Exclusion won the day. At times like these, I'm embarrassed to be white.
(5) There's one more reason why Trump won, a psychological reason, and it's the same reason why the so-called "Islamic State" group has been successful at recruiting fighters from other countries. It has been shown that people who allow themselves to be radicalized are looking for simple, absolute answers to complex problems. They don't want to deal with the nuances that life throws at them. This is also true of conservative religious people, and of conservatives in general. The solutions that Trump was offering the country were not just simple, but simplistic: Build a wall! Throw the foreigners out! End all trade agreements! Withdraw from the world! Repeal Obamacare! Obey authority! Trust the police no matter how many people they kill!
Simplistic solutions for simple-minded, bigoted white people.
* * *
A couple days after writing the above article, I went to the local convenience store. There was a clerk working there whom I don't usually see, a middle-aged white woman. She was ranting about how all politicians are dishonest, which of course isn't true. I tried to pin her down as to which party she was against, and she said both. So in other words, this woman was ranting against everyone in both parties despite the fact that the parties take very different positions on the issues. She then said that politicians do nothing for the people, which, of course, isn't true either. I pointed out that Social Security and Medicare are good programs that help seniors, and she then said some things that astonished me. She said that when the government gives people benefits, those people become enslaved to the government. She essentially said that receiving benefits from the government hurts the people who receive the benefits. That's an absurd talking-point which Republicans have been pushing, and it isn't true. First of all, the people who receive benefits usually have some physical or mental problem which makes it hard or impossible for them to work. In my case, I am old and have health problems (but I still work from home as much as I am able). People who are under retirement age and receive benefits from the government usually have some other problem -- e.g., systemic health problems, injuries from war or accident, mental problems. Working to support yourself is easy for a healthy person, but for some it is impossible.
However, I also know a young fellow who is trying to get government assistance because he has ADHD. He's able to work, but working full-time would be difficult for him. Whether or not we give benefits to people with borderline health problems can be debated. My point is that the vast majority of people receiving government assistance have a legitimate need for assistance. If those people aren't helped, they often end up on the streets, and they often die young.
But getting back to the store clerk, she was undoubtedly one of those dummies who voted for Trump. What's amazing is that her anger at politicians and the government is entirely misplaced; it is based on lies that she has bought into. She undoubtedly thinks that a lot of able-bodied young people are mooching off the government, though that isn't true. But what's also amazing is that she was railing against government programs that she herself may need some day. Indeed, if she continues to spout her bizarre political ideas to customers, she may end up unemployed -- at which point she would receive unemployment compensation and food stamps, both of which are government benefits. And while she's receiving unemployment benefits, will she be enslaved to the government? When she gets old, I assume she will collect Social Security benefits. If she doesn't, she won't survive, since the convenience store is certainly not giving her a pension. So Donald Trump and the Republicans have managed to convince this woman that everything good that she is getting from the government is not good -- and thanks to idiots like her, we now have an idiot as our president.
The magic of Donald Trump and the Republicans is that they have managed to make a large swath of the population feel angry and aggrieved, though they really have very little to be aggrieved about. The people who feel aggrieved are the ones who often have a great deal but don't value what they have, or who imagine that what they have is not so much. I've managed to avoid that pitfall by always comparing myself to poor people in third-world countries. Compared to them, I am wealthy. My moderate-sized apartment, with its electricity, heat and running hot water, would be considered a palace in some countries (of course, I pay 60% of my income to live here). I do, in fact, know some truly poor people, and those people generally feel thankful for whatever they get.
Oh, and there is one more thing that amazes me: Donald Trump showed us that you can lie and lie and lie and a significant portion of the population will believe you as long as you tell your lies in a convincing way, even though there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Being in an "information age" is not protecting us from misinformation. People don't bother to find out what the truth is.
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