Gotta love Mr. Hitchens.
Election 2016 has now concluded and the president is now Donald Trump. I am pretty satisfied with the results and glad that it happened in the way that it did. Trump was not supposed to win. Trump was confronted at every turn by the establishment elite, media, polling, entertainment industry, financial industry, etc. and yet still prevailed against their wishes. Why did this happen and why did Trump win?
Trump had a message that resonates. Trump was masterful at getting people enthusiastic to vote for him. Furthermore the growing movement of authoritarian progressivism is largely to blame. People have lost patience with the political correct movement and social justice with their selective justice. People are tired of political issues (terrorism, illegal immigration, trade, etc.) not being addressed and having establishment politicians tell you with their infinite wisdom how you ought to feel about said political issues. People are tired of not being able to discuss racial issues or gender issues without being labeled and lambasted. What essentially happened was a complete shift in the parties which was unprecedented. Who would have thought that the Republican party would run a populist versus a Democratic corporate candidate.
Where do we go from here? That is unknown but I think we have a good idea that something is going to happen given Republican control of all major branches. The Republican party is in a conflicted state with establishment Republicans at odds with the newly risen alt-right. The Democrats are a broken party with no real leader also divided between liberals and progressives. We could see major changes in the next 4 years from both parties. It would be wise though for Democrats to not choose a candidate among themselves instead of allowing the democratic processes to take place.
But I will end on a positive note. The world is still alive and the Sun came up. Markets will rebound as they always do. Life will continue on as God wills it.
So I am still undecided as to the best course of action despite the impending election on Nov. 8th. I am still torn between voting for Trump or voting for a 3rd party candidate. Perhaps I will write in somebody at this point. That being said I will not however be voting for Hillary Clinton on the grounds that she does not posses the proper judgement to hold the office of president. I thought I would quickly jot down a few takeaways from this past cycle before Nov. 8th.
- The media has lost all semblance of credibility. Long gone are the days of traditionally astute journalists who have been replaced by people obsessed with ratings and clicks. Sites like Huffington Post are so far up their political bubble that they have ceased to deal with the reality of this election as demonstrated by their giving Clinton’s chances a whopping 98%. This cycle has seen the media brazenly morph into the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party. The amusing thing is that in doing so they seem confused as to why their industry is dying and public trust is in the single percentiles.
- Politicians are not to be trusted ever. In light of the recent revelations through Wikileaks, one has been given a glimpse into the inner working and thoughts of a major political party. Lets just say those inner thoughts have not been pretty. I’m not of the mindset that its exclusively a Democratic phenomena either. Both parties appear to be strangely out of touch with their future voting base at the behest of pacifying their older cohorts of voters. This has increased the likelihood of discontent within the party and thus threatened their survival.
- People are tired of the status quo. Whether its the Bernie Sanders supporters or the Trump ones it is easy to spot the discontent people have with the current systems output. If Hillary is elected and does as she is predicted to do which is cater to her backers then I suspect those sentiments to continue to grow to a boiling point over the next 4 years.
- The Democratic Party is not democratic. The irony is strong here but at least their practices are finally being exposed for what they are. Using tactics like super delegates, the DNC anointing Clinton back in 2011, and the consistent demonizing of its progressive wing has left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. Unfortunately many of the people spurned by the Democratic party this election cycle are not willing to seek retribution out of fear from Trump which is largely hyperbolic in nature.
Anyway those are a few takeaways I have from this crazy 2016 election cycle. With the current trend as is I would not be surprised to see Trump take it given the roughly 60-40 odds. New Hampshire is the key.
Acerbity [əˈsɜːbɪtɪ] 