Editorial,
The Week in Review – Analysis, Commentary, Opinion
11.12.2016
The
Election and the Aftermath
Election night was
horrible.
By nine o’clock I could
see the conversation among the broadcasters had begun to turn. On CNN, on MSNBC
they were openly doubting Hillary Clinton’s chances of winning, and
acknowledging Donald Trump’s very real chances of a victory.
I wanted to be skeptical,
almost everything was falling they way most of the forecasters had expected it
to, the only difference between what was happening in reality, and what had
been prognosticated, was the timing. The fact that the votes in places like
Florida, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Michigan, and Wisconsin had not shown up
for Hillary as the clear winner, by ten o’clock through the whole race in
doubt.
My feelings went from
joyful optimism, to uneasy, to guarded skepticism, to bewilderment, and
finally; nausea.
I was lying on the couch,
and I drifted off to sleep for a half an hour here, and a half an hour there.
The news only got worse.
I had to turn the channel
away from MSNBC, because I could not watch or listen to their set of television
personality go into panic, to begin to make excuses, to search for anecdotal
reasons for why the election was not going as planned.
I found the moderators on
CNN to be a more measured group. That, in itself, was comforting.
Throughout the night I exchanged
text messages with friends, most of whom were as dismayed as me, some of whom
were snarky.
I am a person who was for
Hillary throughout the entire political season. My support for her never
waivered. I supported in 2008 during the primaries with President Obama. I have
great respect for her intelligence, her diligence, and her mastery of public
policy. I supported her, not because I agreed with all of her positions. In my
heart, I am much more liberal than she is. I supported Hillary because I
thought she would be the best manager of the Federal Government, and because I
believe that progressive change must be predicated first on sound management.
This remains my conviction. I still believe it is true.
Up until the moment when
Donald Trump took the stage, and announced that he had received a call from
Hillary conceding the election. I had a pit of angst in my stomach that was
making me feel ill.
The victories Donald
Trump racked up, in all of the “swing states,” appeared to be close enough to
merit a recount, and I would have supported Hillary if she had called for one.
There are many hundreds of thousands of ballots all across the country that
would never be counted if recounts were not triggered; overseas ballots,
absentee ballots, and provisional ballots especially; there were enough to
change the outcomes (theoretically).
However, Hillary
conceded. Such a course of events was not going to be.
The angst I was experiencing
evaporated almost immediately. I went directly too acceptance. The resolution
of those feelings was not dissimilar to the feeling I get when I read the Powerball
numbers and realize that I had not won the jackpot.
It is done.
Over the past few days I
have been listening to so many people express their dismay, their indifference,
their feeling of triumph.
The very few people in my
social network who actually supported Donald Trump, those people have been
quiet, I have not heard any boasting from them.
There are a larger number
of people in my social network who did not support either candidate, voted third
party, or did not vote at all. I have heard more from them; from them I have
heard expressions of hope, the hope that with the defeat of Hillary Clinton we
might be able to get a truly liberal, truly progressive third party might be
able to form. That particular group of people, always blind, and uncritical,
believe in the simple proposition that electoral justice will occur if people
have more options, as if A = B, but that is not the case at all. No such thing
could be guaranteed.
The vast majority of my
friends, supported Hillary, they went out and voted for her, they were hopeful
that she would win. Most of those friends were latecomers to Hillary’s camp.
Most of them had supported Bernie Sanders in the primaries, some had fully come
over to Hillary’s side, but many were merely voting against Donald Trump.
Most of the people I
know, if they voted for Hillary, they are as perplexed as me as to why a person
like Donald Trump could win the election for President of the United States. Donald
Trump is a man without a demonstrable sense of personal dignity; a tax dodger,
an abuser of women, a fraud, a phony billionaire, a liar, a cheat, a reality TV
star, a bully, a man who was so comfortable ginning up racial animosity among
disparate groups of Americans, that you have to assume he is a racist and a
bigot himself.
They are searching for
the answer as to why this happened. To them I say, give it up; you will never
know.
A smaller number are only
interested in moving forward, getting past their feelings and stepping out with
a determination to reassert progressive agenda in the next cycle.
I am with them.
There are many, very many
of my friends who are stuck in the middle, desiring to move forward but still
looking back, still trying to find the person, persons, or ideology to blame.
Hillary Clinton earned
more votes, but Donald Trump won the election. Blame the electoral college.
Ninety million eligible
voters did not vote at all. Blame their indifference. Though if they had voted,
there is no reason to believe the result would have been any different.
Enough votes were cast
for third party candidates, that if there had been no third party candidates
Hillary might have won. Or, those people might not have voted at all, or their
votes would have been cast in the same proportion as went for Hillary and
Donald anyway.
There is no way to know
the answer to these question, and such idle speculation is useless.
Some people are asserting
that if Bernie Sanders had won the Democratic Primary, he would have beat
Donald Trump easily. There is no way to know. There is no reason to believe
that a candidate who could not win a primary, could have won in the general
election. He might have done better than Donald Trump with some demographic
groups. I think that is a fair assumption, but you would also have to assume
that he would have done worse with others. The campaign would have been
different. To suggest that it would have had a different outcome…that is
vanity.
Some would like to blame
the media; for not taking Donald Trump seriously, for not exposing his sex
crimes, for not exposing his cheating and his fraud, for not exposing his ties
to Russia. That is who I would like to blame, and yet nevertheless, his
supporters heard those stories and they did not seem to care. His supporters
voted in a guy who is openly supported by the Klu Klux Klan and the American Nazi
Party. His supporters are people that deny the science of climate change, and
will tell you to your face that the planet earth in only six thousand years
old. There is no amount of truth telling that can sway those voters.
Some would like to blame
Hillary for her own flaws as a candidate; for the fact that she was not more
adept at controlling her narrative, that she was beset by spurious
investigations, that she seemed to take certain states for granted, like
Wisconsin and Michigan, never campaigning there after the primaries were over.
The person who bears the most responsibility for Hillary’s loss is Hillary
herself. As much as I have been proud to support her, this is true, and she
knows this true. Nevertheless, she is not to blame.
The factors leading up to
the election of Donald Trump are myriad. It is not one single thing.
If you have ever read the
tawdry soap opera that made Leo Tolstoy famous, War and Peace, you might be able to see the truth in this. The
principle reflection in that novel is the awareness that complex events are
governed by complex factors. It is impossible to trace all of the antecedents
of those events, many powerful social forces are simply cancelled out by other
powerful social forces. Even though Napoleon took credit for his victories, he
was not responsible for them, and the same is true of his failures.
Most of the people I know
who are playing the blame game, are really just looking for a way to serve
their own vanity, for the vehicle by which they can reassure themselves that
they were right about something all along; that if only they had been listened
to, if only more people had voted for Bernie Sanders, if the media had been
more objective about Donald Trump, if the FBI had not leaked information about
their investigations that were underway, if there had been no spying by Russia,
no Wikileaks etc…then their candidate would have won, and they would be right
after all.
It is time to give up
that vanity, and move on with what we know to be true. The Republican Party has
an unprecedented control of government at every level. Their agenda is
dangerous, divisive and harmful to America, and the world at large. There is an
election coming in two years, and two years after that. Progressive minded
people need to unify, consolidate their strength, compromise with their
numerous factions, and push forward to a brighter future.
