Just had a lot of loose thoughts floating around this morning and wanted to post in a semi-coherent aggregation of just why this is clearly a mandate by the masses.
Number one - the popular vote argument is for losers. I saw a great analogy this morning comparing it to the world series. Does the team who gets the most runs over 7 games get declared the winner? No. The team who wins 4 games does. Doesn't matter if the 3 losses are by a combined 100 points and the 4 wins are by a combined 4 points. Your strategy is to win games.
If the strategy was to win the popular vote, is there any doubt he could've picked up a few hundred thousand more votes by campaigning in Cali, Illinois and his home town of NY? Of course he could. But since that's not how you win, he conceded those massive states where she ran up the score on the popular vote.
Analogies abound. The football team with the most yards, or fewest penalties, or most turnovers, or time of possession advantage (insert favorite stat here) does not mean that team has more points on the scoreboard.
Number two - Media was against him. if we take nothing else from Wikileaks, let's not forget the light is clearly shined upon media-establishment collusion. Trump's campaign started as a joke to most.
Iconic pop culture giants like John Stewart and Stephen Colbert made him the butt of every other opening monologue joke. Robert DiNiro blasted him twice. The biggest pop stars and has-been rock stars told us how to vote.
FOX was no safe haven from the media collusion laid bare in the wiki leaks either. It was noted on this board that Megyn Kelly became bizarrely fixated on the sham gropers who came out of the woodwork in the weeks before the election. FOX is (was?) a vital cog in the GOP establishment - and the establishment was rarely much help, and often a direct hinderance. Even Chris Wallace, the only debate moderator who didn't seem to be wearing a Hillary campaign button completely failed to ask BOTH candidates if they would each accept the outcome of the election.
He was constantly mischaracterized as a racist, misogynist bigot etc by taking things he said out of context or just willfully misquoting them entirely. Nobody ever challenges the idea that he said all Mexicans are drug dealers and rapists, but anyone paying attention knew this was bullshit. What we are seeing with these dolts in the streets protesting the democratic election process is the consequence of telling morons over and over again that this man is a racist - in spite of the fact that in 40 years in the public eye, he never was accused of being one until he ran for president.
Number three - the GOP establishment was against him. Trump created a civil war within the GOP during the election and support for him was tepid at best. The guy defeated 16 GOP candidates. He was supposed to be early primary entertainment at best. And during the process of taking out every candidate one by one, the establishment tripped over their own hubris - taking him literally but not seriously. The voters who elevated him above the rest took him seriously and not literally. Critical difference, this.
The never Trumpers offered roadblocks no other major party candidate has ever had to endure. Mitt Romney's assassination attempts remain the most embarrassing, but the road is littered with run over GOP establishment wonks like Ben Shapiro, Jonah Goldberg, former presidents Bush, John McCain, and John Kasich. All are now sniveling around offering their support and congratulations like Gollum promising master he'll be good and won't stab him in the back any more, precioussss....
Number four - The Clinton Machine is the most powerful political force in history. It's been at the head of the democratic party power seats since the early 90's and commanded resources that even a billionaire like Trump could only dream of, and of course - not only unwavering support from the DNC, but active sabotage against her surprisingly hard to defeat on her own merit rival, Bernie the bitch Sanders.
They propped her up in ways the GOP never remotely even attempted to do for Trump. And had the support of Wall Street, Massive corporate entities, Entertainment Industry and international political favors and connections too extensive to ever really know.
Aside from those things, let's look at the staff and budget of both campaigns.
Clinton
campaign staff: 651
Ad Spend: $211 million
Trump
Campaign staff: 68 (and changed campaign managers 3 times?)
Ad Spend: $74 million (and self funded during primaries)
Why is this a mandate?
Those advantages existed for a reason - to create an impenetrable barrier to an outsider. In theory, yes, anyone can be president. But this election cycle revealed what we instinctively knew to be true - it's less about R v D or liberal v conservative and more about the common man v the power structure elite.
Even Trump - a world famous billionaire and TV personality was an outsider when it came to actually approaching the seat of ultimate power.
We the People saw this and enough of us saw through the veneer of bullshit spun by the pundits with their worthless polling data, the talking heads with their scripted character assassinations and the dire election day predictions of eminent defeat..... and voted for the guy anyway.
In the end, after all that, he's going to wind up with 300+ electoral college votes.
That is domination.
And by the way, people smart enough to see through the bullshit were also smart enough to vote down ticket in a way that gives him a chance to keep his promises. Throw in the fact that everyone knows full well that he will stock the Supreme Court with a lineup that will last for 30 years, and people elected this guy with their eyes wide open.
Yes we have reservations about him, and I think he should have his feet held to the fire like nobody ever has before, but he outperformed Romney with minorities and Hillary with women (comparatively). This isn't the result of uneducated rubes voting 'Merica. It's the result of a national wisdom that saw through the manipulation and validated the American democratic process yet again as the greatest form of government humanity has ever known.
This is clearly a mandate. Build the wall. Replace Obamacare. Tear up the Iran deal. Lower middle class taxes. Negotiate better trade deals. End the flow of Syrian refugees and work with Russia - you know, instead of blaming them for shit and starting WW3.
Get it done or suffer the consequences President Trump. Get it done and you will wind up on Rushmore. Fail and you'll be a joke. One thing though - underestimating this guy has proven to be his key strategic advantage. Do so at your own peril.
I was never a "Trump" guy. I voted Cruz in the primaries and fully intended to vote for Johnson right up to the front of the line at my polling place. I found myself looking at my ballot and even though this was one state where my vote really didn't matter, I just couldn't justify voting as a strategy, when what I really wanted was to see this guy drain the got dam swamp and roll the dice on everything else.
I'm in. He's my president.
Number one - the popular vote argument is for losers. I saw a great analogy this morning comparing it to the world series. Does the team who gets the most runs over 7 games get declared the winner? No. The team who wins 4 games does. Doesn't matter if the 3 losses are by a combined 100 points and the 4 wins are by a combined 4 points. Your strategy is to win games.
If the strategy was to win the popular vote, is there any doubt he could've picked up a few hundred thousand more votes by campaigning in Cali, Illinois and his home town of NY? Of course he could. But since that's not how you win, he conceded those massive states where she ran up the score on the popular vote.
Analogies abound. The football team with the most yards, or fewest penalties, or most turnovers, or time of possession advantage (insert favorite stat here) does not mean that team has more points on the scoreboard.
Number two - Media was against him. if we take nothing else from Wikileaks, let's not forget the light is clearly shined upon media-establishment collusion. Trump's campaign started as a joke to most.
Iconic pop culture giants like John Stewart and Stephen Colbert made him the butt of every other opening monologue joke. Robert DiNiro blasted him twice. The biggest pop stars and has-been rock stars told us how to vote.
FOX was no safe haven from the media collusion laid bare in the wiki leaks either. It was noted on this board that Megyn Kelly became bizarrely fixated on the sham gropers who came out of the woodwork in the weeks before the election. FOX is (was?) a vital cog in the GOP establishment - and the establishment was rarely much help, and often a direct hinderance. Even Chris Wallace, the only debate moderator who didn't seem to be wearing a Hillary campaign button completely failed to ask BOTH candidates if they would each accept the outcome of the election.
He was constantly mischaracterized as a racist, misogynist bigot etc by taking things he said out of context or just willfully misquoting them entirely. Nobody ever challenges the idea that he said all Mexicans are drug dealers and rapists, but anyone paying attention knew this was bullshit. What we are seeing with these dolts in the streets protesting the democratic election process is the consequence of telling morons over and over again that this man is a racist - in spite of the fact that in 40 years in the public eye, he never was accused of being one until he ran for president.
Number three - the GOP establishment was against him. Trump created a civil war within the GOP during the election and support for him was tepid at best. The guy defeated 16 GOP candidates. He was supposed to be early primary entertainment at best. And during the process of taking out every candidate one by one, the establishment tripped over their own hubris - taking him literally but not seriously. The voters who elevated him above the rest took him seriously and not literally. Critical difference, this.
The never Trumpers offered roadblocks no other major party candidate has ever had to endure. Mitt Romney's assassination attempts remain the most embarrassing, but the road is littered with run over GOP establishment wonks like Ben Shapiro, Jonah Goldberg, former presidents Bush, John McCain, and John Kasich. All are now sniveling around offering their support and congratulations like Gollum promising master he'll be good and won't stab him in the back any more, precioussss....
Number four - The Clinton Machine is the most powerful political force in history. It's been at the head of the democratic party power seats since the early 90's and commanded resources that even a billionaire like Trump could only dream of, and of course - not only unwavering support from the DNC, but active sabotage against her surprisingly hard to defeat on her own merit rival, Bernie the bitch Sanders.
They propped her up in ways the GOP never remotely even attempted to do for Trump. And had the support of Wall Street, Massive corporate entities, Entertainment Industry and international political favors and connections too extensive to ever really know.
Aside from those things, let's look at the staff and budget of both campaigns.
Clinton
campaign staff: 651
Ad Spend: $211 million
Trump
Campaign staff: 68 (and changed campaign managers 3 times?)
Ad Spend: $74 million (and self funded during primaries)
Why is this a mandate?
Those advantages existed for a reason - to create an impenetrable barrier to an outsider. In theory, yes, anyone can be president. But this election cycle revealed what we instinctively knew to be true - it's less about R v D or liberal v conservative and more about the common man v the power structure elite.
Even Trump - a world famous billionaire and TV personality was an outsider when it came to actually approaching the seat of ultimate power.
We the People saw this and enough of us saw through the veneer of bullshit spun by the pundits with their worthless polling data, the talking heads with their scripted character assassinations and the dire election day predictions of eminent defeat..... and voted for the guy anyway.
In the end, after all that, he's going to wind up with 300+ electoral college votes.
That is domination.
And by the way, people smart enough to see through the bullshit were also smart enough to vote down ticket in a way that gives him a chance to keep his promises. Throw in the fact that everyone knows full well that he will stock the Supreme Court with a lineup that will last for 30 years, and people elected this guy with their eyes wide open.
Yes we have reservations about him, and I think he should have his feet held to the fire like nobody ever has before, but he outperformed Romney with minorities and Hillary with women (comparatively). This isn't the result of uneducated rubes voting 'Merica. It's the result of a national wisdom that saw through the manipulation and validated the American democratic process yet again as the greatest form of government humanity has ever known.
This is clearly a mandate. Build the wall. Replace Obamacare. Tear up the Iran deal. Lower middle class taxes. Negotiate better trade deals. End the flow of Syrian refugees and work with Russia - you know, instead of blaming them for shit and starting WW3.
Get it done or suffer the consequences President Trump. Get it done and you will wind up on Rushmore. Fail and you'll be a joke. One thing though - underestimating this guy has proven to be his key strategic advantage. Do so at your own peril.
I was never a "Trump" guy. I voted Cruz in the primaries and fully intended to vote for Johnson right up to the front of the line at my polling place. I found myself looking at my ballot and even though this was one state where my vote really didn't matter, I just couldn't justify voting as a strategy, when what I really wanted was to see this guy drain the got dam swamp and roll the dice on everything else.
I'm in. He's my president.
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