She had it all—the pliant media, the tech oligarchs, Wall Street, the property moguls, the academics, and the all-around “smart people.” What Hillary Clinton didn’t have was flyover country, the economic “leftovers,” the small towns, the unhipstered suburbs, and other unfashionable places. As Thomas Frank has noted, Democrats have gone “from being the party of Decatur to the party of Martha’s Vineyard.” No surprise, then, that working- and middle-class voters went for Donald Trump and helped him break through in states—Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa—that have usually gone blue in recent presidential elections.
Yes, but. The Democrats also offer a vision of more taxes, more regulation for the ostensible benefit of unsubstantiated lefty causes such as global warming, more cronyism (see: more regulation), more divisiveness, more abuses of power against out-of-favor individuals and groups, and retrenchment in foreign affairs. Despite media spin, you don’t have to be an unemployed coal miner or small-business owner to oppose such things.
(Via The Right Coast.)
I guess wedding cake equality and bathroom regulations didn’t motivate the voters as much they thought they would.
“retrenchment in foreign affairs”: what’s that code for?
Code for “Sorry ’bout that. We elected a international naif last two times. Kiss and make up?”
Kotkin was aware of this early on.
I would just add that by demonizing Trump support and pushing it underground, they couldn’t measure it, analyze it, or, even more importantly, counter it and adjust their message. Instead they continued to scapegoat and smear the working people, whose only crime was concern for their own livelihoods and the future livelihoods of their children. The shallowness and bias, on their part, that lead them to using the working people as their whipping boy, cost them. I am befuddled at how oblivious they were and at their lack of self awareness.
It is not like there weren’t canaries in the coal mine like Bernie and Michael Moore. It’s incredible that they learned nothing from the Republican primary. The underlying message, is that it was not about Trump; it never was. It was about the Middle pushing back, and that is why the Trump smears fell on deaf ears. It’s not surprising that their strategy, if that is what it was, backfired.
It was also about Hillary. If they had had the same turn out as four years ago, it would not have been a Trump victory. Thank God it was the Hildabeast and not Michelle or some other multi-protected class bozo without the massive corruption baggage and off-putting persona. Even given the unmeasured Trump support, this was a squeaker. The intensity of the backlash by the progressive elites is far from full bloom.
I fear that as the going gets rough and if Trump starts backing off his hardline stands (especially refugees, immigration and Obamacare), the uprising will become discouraged and leave the fight. Attention span is short unless ideology is a primary life focus. The middle class is not ideological, the progs are and they firmly command the cultural power centers.
Death6
A nice cartoon from The Horn of Totalitarian Propaganda (http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/), part of my daily reading. ;)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cw6OQF1UsAAMq7J.jpg
“Despite media spin, you don’t have to be an unemployed coal miner or small-business owner to oppose such things.”
I’m originally from Michigan, and most of my rather large family still lives there. Before retirement, one of my brothers was a Union guy his whole life; in fact, he was the president of his Teamster Local for a time. His wife was a UAW shop steward. Neither of them had EVER voted anything other than Democrat in their entire lives, including voting for Obama twice. We simply couldn’t talk politics and so have avoided doing so for many years. Illegal immigration and Obamacare did them in. Both voted for Trump, and she even volunteered for Trump, making get-out-the-vote calls. I was astounded. For me, I guess they are just the tip of the iceberg.
“The intensity of the backlash by the progressive elites is far from full bloom.”
The Soros funded “Purple Revolution” may be part of it.
I think Trump should turn over the Clinton Foundation investigation to a competent DoJ division after cleaning out the Obama left. It will give Hillary something to do besides plot revolution.
Unless Obama pardons her, she should not get off scot free.
“competent DOJ division”? Not sure there are any. Haven’t they all been corrupted by progressive ideology?
Perhaps it might have to be a special prosecutor. I would have nominated Christy (but I think he is already tagged for Sec. of Transportation to fix up the bridges). Rudy looks good for AG so he’s probably out. Trey Goudy could certainly do it. That should keep the progs busy and blunt Chelsea’s political ambitions for awhile. Could even increase voluntary deportation from the entertainment and crony capitalist classes. Make for great TV as well. Kind of like ants under a magnifying glass.
Death6
“Both voted for Trump”: racists.
“voting for Obama twice”: hypocritical racists. The worst sort.
Dearieme:
“retrenchment in foreign affairs”: what’s that code for?
To hell with the rest of the world. The Middle East is an unfixable mess. Europe a bunch of ungrateful curs who have grown lazy from 70 years of America defending them. Latin America hates us when we “intervene” and hates us when we do not “engage.” More rubble, less trouble. As I have worked in Latin America, I am more interested in foreign policy than the average bear. That being said, I am getting more and more sympathetic to the “to hell with the rest of the world” sentiment.
PenGun: interesting cartoon, especially coming from you.
Dearieme:
“Both voted for Trump”: racists.“voting for Obama twice”: hypocritical racists. The worst sort
If you look at 2012 versus 2016 data [Put New York Times election into your search engine of choice], there are a fair number of counties nationwide that made the Obama-Trump switch, especially in the states that flipped from Obama to Trump. The percentage of the total vote that Hillary got in my home county was 13% lower than what Obama got in 2012. That 13% of the electorate wasn’t racist in 2012, so it couldn’t have been racist in voting against whitebread Hillary in 2016. Sexist? My home county has had no problem voting for female candidates for governor.[Home county- where I was born and raised, not where I now live.] Franklin County in New York state went from 62% Obama to 43% Hillary. Shiawassee County in Michigan went from 51% Obama to 37% Hillary.
Speaking of Michigan, what really killed Hillary in Michigan was Wayne County, which contains Detroit. Trump got only 15,000 more votes than Romney in Wayne County, while Hillary got 78,000 fewer votes than Obama. A lot of black voters in Wayne County sat this one out. Trump won Michigan by only 12,000 votes. Had black voters in Wayne County voted in similar numbers to 2012, Hillary would have won Michigan.
“PenGun: interesting cartoon, especially coming from you.”
You have no idea. I have been laughing since the election of Trump. I did not think it was possible, but I was wrong.
You should understand I considered Hillary as far more dangerous, to us all, than Trump will ever be. So many people think I’m nuts right now. All my progressive friends are aghast.
I have even descended into actual cackling, which I’m pretty sure is not healthy. ;)
Ummm, how to put this? I get my way, what I want, which I usually am waiting to come around. It came around.
America is in terrible shape and it will just get worse in your country. You have a buffoon for a president elect and my long term desire for the end of American preeminence is in sight. As well I think he will just make deals everywhere, which I think is exactly the right approach. He shows little desire to fight with anyone, unlike the Hildebeast.
Much better for the rest of the world and the end of America as an overpowering bully. What’s not to like? A bit tough on you lot though, but you do have it coming.
By retrenchment in foreign affairs I meant that under Obama the USA threw away much of its post-WW2 dominance of the Middle East, much of our willingness to engage Russian subversion/aggression against Europe, and much of our status as a bulwark against Chinese expansionism in the Pacific. I doubt we will resume our leadership position any time soon, and I suspect that we and the rest of the world will pay dearly because of it.
Obama was someone the Europeans wanted – someone who’d take America down a notch or two, someone who wasn’t some kind of a Texas cowboy, someone who . . . One of my colleagues complained that obviously anyone looking at the Corps guys with their Corps boots would know fascism when they saw it. I thought more than said that much as we respected England (her home) those guys in boots had gone across the ocean twice in the 20th century and fought by her side when she was threatened, those trained in Aggie boots had landed at Normandy, and they had left their Texas farms and taken their engineering skills to Europe throughout the forties and fifties to help Europe rebuild but especially to keep those ancient angers from rising and killing again. The long peace that Mearsheim (sp?) described wasn’t always peace for us – but it was a remarkably long peace for them. We’d asked damn little from those countries in exchange – increasing NATO responsibilities as they prospered, for instance. Backing us and sometimes fighting beside us in the Middle East.
I wish Obama had not weakened our role and frayed our relationships with Europe, the Middle East, and Russia (we could always add South America).
I don’t expect them all to welcome Trump – I didn’t. I do expect them to have seen a spiral that may be slowed, may be stopped and, I hope, may be lead up instead of down. And if none of this happens, it is the rest of the world as much as America that will be the losers.
My fervent desire is for HRC and WJC to spend the first and as many subsequent Inaugural anniversaries as they have left in Federal custody.
The BBC lady on ABC this morning is sure the BREXIT vote would reverse if held again. The left never learns anything and, like the Bourbons, never forgets anything.
They still think Roosevelt ended the Depression.
I think Trump has some good ideas and I hope he is not talked out of them by the establishment.
First, immigration needs a pause for all sectors except, perhaps, skilled Europeans.
Second all Obama EOs need to be cancelled January 21. The EPA needs to be cleaned out. I’m not sure how he does it with Civil Service and all but government employee unions was an EO that should be cancelled.
Capital gains taxes need to go back to Reagan levels.
Obamacare needs to be replaced and the usual suspects are already on TV saying he is weakening. I don’t think so, but we will see.
Let the blue cities like New York and Seattle experiment with minimum wage.
Sanctuary cities should lose all federal funding.
That will do for Day #1.
Actually there is a lot that can be cancelled, and a lot for which there is statutory authority for the president to do as he wants, dating from the 1950’s and in the powers granted post 9-11.
But once you cancel unionized Federal employees by EO; then Civil Service rules prevail You cannot pick and choose who to get rid of. But you can have across the board reductions. Ask any military man who got RIFed.
We are over-administered, over-bureaucratized, and over-commanded on both the military and civilian sides. Most of them make work for each other and do not support the actual functions of government. So, for a start, how about a 25% across the board reduction in the number of GOFO’s [General Officers/Flag Officers] across the board, leaving the services to sort out who fills what slots, which ones are abolished, and which functions are merged and/or eliminated to keep the mission going. We have more GOFO’s than at the end of WW-II and fewer forces than before WW-II. There is a lot to be cut. And each GOFO has a tail of hangers-on who can go back to preparing for war instead of shuffling makework paper. Just do the cuts by attrition.
The same can be done across the board on the civilian side, making the cuts in the General Schedule [GS] employees at and above say GS-12 by attrition and the supergrade Senior Executive Service.
After that is done, the Trump administration can review and analyze, and decide whether to extend the process further.
And then [evil grin] the EPA, Department of Education, and several other Departments can have their HQ’s moved to Shemya, Alaska. If they want to stay employed, they can. If they want to resign/retire, they can. After all, they are not slaves.
All good points.
Meanwhile Trump has named Priebus Chief of Staff and Bannon Chief Strategist.
An explanation of how Trump will run his administration.
To accommodate those demands, managers need to control the timing and the content of what they do. Since what their bosses and the system impose on them are subject to penalty, managers cannot tamper with those requirements. Thus their self-imposed time becomes their major area of concern.
Managers should try to increase the discretionary component of their self-imposed time by minimizing or doing away with the subordinate component. They will then use the added increment to get better control over their boss-imposed and system-imposed activities. Most managers spend much more time dealing with subordinates’ problems than they even faintly realize. Hence we shall use the monkey-on-the-back metaphor to examine how subordinate-imposed time comes into being and what the superior can do about it.
This is why a successful businessman will be an earthquake in DC.