The results of the election were a disaster for Democracy. The POTUS was never supposed to be a democratically elected position - that was what the House of Representatives was for. Don't blame the EC, or racism, or anything else for the millions of Dems who stayed home all across the country because Hillary wasn't good enough for them. Trump got fewer votes than Romney or McCain. This wasn't an uprising of the stupid people, it was a forfeit due to no-show by the (allegedly) smarter ones.
I don't "blame" the EC, that's just something that needs to be fixed. It could've just as easily saved us from Trump I suppose, but that's not the point. I most certainly and absolutely *do* blame racism, as there were millions of bigots who came out JUST BECAUSE he was their standard-bearer. As far as blaming "Dems", well if you mean mainstream DNC I agree with you. But no, it's not "the Democrats fault" that the idiots in charge put forth the only candidate unpalatable enough to lose to a racist pig like Trump. AND THEY HAD AN OPTION, but cast him aside for the sake of party loyalty, all the while ignoring the WELL KNOWN FACT that the only person America hates as much as Trump is Clinton. Don't forget, "She's wrong within normal parameters" was practically a campaign slogan. That's enough to get *me* excited about her vision for America, boy howdy. Christ, where do I sign up!? She wasn't good enough, period. We deserved better. And yes I held my nose and voted for her but *only* because I recognized Trump for the monster he is. Not out of any sort of enthusiasm, nor because she had a message I could get behind, and man did it suck. And I don't blame others for opting "none of the above" if this is the best we can do. And I ALSO blame the Republicans because if they'd called him a monster way back when (back when he was just a little baby monster, calling Mexicans rapists and quaint shit like that) THEY could've stopped it. Now they own it. As do we all, but don't let's put the blame on people disgusted enough with the system to give the whole thing a pass because THE SYSTEM REEKS. And now we've got to smell the sewage for 2-4 (or more) years. The Democratic voters let US down? No man. The Democratic party let the VOTERS down.
If nothing else, this should give the lie to the notion that the Democratic Party has a "built-in advantage in the electoral college," as has become near conventional wisdom in recent years. That was ultimately just a way of saying that Obama was a good enough candidate to win all the swing states, and thus win a greater percentage of the E.C. than the popular vote. But that's almost always the case for a winning candidate. Reagan got a big popular vote win in 1984, but it wasn't 98% (more like 58% if memory serves). In fact, Democrats have an inherent disadvantage in the E.C., as each state starts with 2 before the congressional seats are added, meaning that small states (most of which vote Republican) like Wyoming and the Dakotas have greater relative weight than large states. CA has something like 70 times the population of WY, but only gets 18 times as many electoral votes. Yes, there are small Democratic states (Vermont, for instance), but there are more Republican ones. And sure enough, twice now in the last 16 years we've seen the winner of the popular vote lose in the electoral college, and both times it was the Democrat. Not that this is going to change any time soon. I just thought I'd point out that the whole "Democrats have a built-in advantage in the Electoral College" meme is flat out wrong.
And on this point, we have a major disagreement! "I don't like the reality of my situation, so I'm going to pout until it changes, even if the ONLY alternative is that the Fourth Reich is American." Well congrats, pouters. It changed.
And the fact that CNN (not to mention 538.com) repeated this meme non-stop for months didn't help anything. In fact, it probably lulled some of the lukewarm voters into a false sense of security, keeping them home instead of voting. All along, the news outlets pointed out how hard it was for her to lose. Compound that with the "timely" FBI announcements and the Illegally obtained Podesta e-mail and you had the perfect recipe to keep voters home. The 24-hour news cycle needs to end. Trump took advantage of it to get free publicity, propelling him to the forefront of the Republican party. It lulled the voters into thinking Hillary was a shoe-in. However, the only realistic way to end this interminable bombardment of "news" is to limit (or stop) the time we tune in - something that I have already started.
I suppose we do, because I don't see it as pouting. I see it as disgusted, fed up, and seeing no viable alternatives worth fighting for (call that pouting if you want, but when the unwashed masses DID get behind someone exciting, the establishment poured cold water all over them...then demanded they get in line "or else" - you and I know that's a different animal from Trump, but for many it seems like more of the same...). I'm no big Michael Moore fan, but he called it. The rust belt, the "forgotten", the people slowly sinking into the quicksand...they're pissed off, and nobody is listening. That's something the Democrats COULD'VE addressed, if they weren't quite so elitist about it all (and yes, even *I* felt that throughout the process this year, and who's more leftie liberal than ME!?). So yeah, we've got a big disagreement but we *do* agree about one thing, the wrong man got in this time...unless we want to sit back and watch (and all pout together), we have to figure out a way to get everyone TOGETHER to fight back, and quick! And no, that doesn't mean chastising people for sitting out this giant douche vs. turd sandwich of an election - it means getting them onboard NOW, for NEXT time.
Idiots will abound in any large group. It's hardly representative. MOST young people voted strongly for Clinton (despite the fact that she SUCKED, they were smart enough to recognize the monster was worse than the non-message-bearing partisan hack).
That says it all, doesn't it? Trump got fewer votes than Romney and McCain. The only reason he won is Democrats stayed home. This loss falls squarely on the Democratic Party......
I do hope they learn their lesson. Assuming it's not too late I mean. For all of us. Next time I hear a DNC type tell me "You'd better vote XYZ or else!", I'm gonna yell TRUMP! until the cows come home.
