I go to sleep incredulous. I wake up and the first
thing I am is incredulous that Donald Trump will be in the White House. My stomach
and heart sink to my toes. My rational mind understands that this is so but my
heart still does not accept it. His interview on 60 Minutes gave
me some
hope but -- and it is a big but -- he has, during his campaign, lied so
much, (according to Politico 71%), turns
his opinion on a dime when politically necessary that I simply do not
know if the more moderate opinions he voiced during the interview are,
in truth, what he thinks and ultimately what he will do. His
administration will be, assuming he gets through the next four years,
scrupulously scrutinized. Trump's days in court are due soon as he has
been sued mercilessly from Trump University fraud to non payment of
workers, conflicts of interest, assaults on women and
unethical conduct including the definition of a "blind trust" for which
he will have to answer. Putting his businesses in his children's hands
is NOT the definition of a blind trust.
My
incredulity in large part is formed by the electoral win he achieved
despite how many
professional journalists, statisticians, pollsters, academics and many
others said HRC had a 98% chance of winning. Even all of the gambling
establishment put their money on her. When I heard and read
that I wrote about what I thought was a- soon-to-be Democratic
resounding victory before it
even happened. Yet when the states, particularly in the so called rust
belt, one by one fell for him including, incredulously, Pennsylvania, my
jaw dropped. How could I have fallen for so much and not been astute
enough
to read the tea leaves of those whites in the rust belt states to whom
Trump's message fell on cheering ears? In my defense, from the very first instant Trump came down the escalator and gave his speech about his presidential candidacy, I said to those closest to me that his words would have appeal. While Jon Stewart and other comedians were having an excitement and orgy of delight over the prospect for comedy of a Trump run, I was feeling pangs of fear that what Trump was saying would have resonance for a certain part of the electorate and it did. I never said it in my public opinions because I would not besmirch those opposed to nor would I advocate for anything Trump.
Hillary Clinton failed utterly to account for a group Democrats it once had -- white blue collar men whose milieu in which they live now looks like a bombed out Iraq with abandoned, decomposing buildings, few businesses and most importantly few jobs to be had in a once thriving sector. When she said she was going to rid the nation of its dependence on fossil fuels and coal, those miners who have lost their coal jobs en masse did not think about getting jobs among the elite of solar or wind energy. They simply said hey lady, what did you just say? Calling those who support Trump deplorables did not win her friends in the rust belt either but rather fell on cheering ears of the academic northeast and west including my own. She and we needed more of those who felt forgotten by Democrats and, collectively, the nation.
Ed Schultz whom MSNBC stupidly, in my opinion, let go, spoke to those people when he tried and almost succeeded unseating the anti-union Republican Governor Walker of Wisconsin. Those members of the electorate, who once were solid Democrat blue, color them Republican red now. One hopes it is not an indelible red we cannot erase to return in 2018 and 2020 to a beautiful shade of Democratic blue!
