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Month: November 2016

They laughed at Trump

Published by digby on November 10, 2016

They laughed at Trump

by digby

They never thought he could win so they dogged the hated Clinton with non-stop cries of “emails, emails, emails” to show they had “vetted” the new president and prove that they were “non-partisan.”

The right and the media finally got their revenge against “the Clintons.”  They must be so proud.

Now they have a job to do. They will need to cover Trump with the same fervor they would have covered Clinton.

Are you holding your breath?

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Some interesting charts for you to ponder as we try to sort out what happened yesterday

Published by digby on November 9, 2016

Some interesting exit polling for you to ponder as we try to sort out what happened yesterday

by digby

It may be about economic anxiety but I’m going to guess that it’s the cultural and social anxiety that won the day.

And a whole lot people just really like Donald Trump.

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Caught in the transition

Published by digby on November 9, 2016

Caught in the transition


by digby

Ron Brownstein’s worst case scenario came true

The worst-case scenario for her is that Trump’s blue-collar blitz narrowly pushes him past her in some of the Rustbelt states she needs, while she cannot advance quite enough among minority and college-educated white voters to overcome his non-college-educated, non-urban, religiously devout coalition in Sunbelt states like North Carolina, Florida, Nevada, and Colorado, much less Arizona and Georgia. Transitioning between her party’s past and future, Hillary Clinton’s nightmare is that she might be caught awkwardly in between.

A white man might have been able to walk that line. Putting up a woman after the first African American was just too much and she got caught in the vortex.

She won the popular vote. But she lost in Real America, where just enough of the new Democratic coalition couldn’t bring themselves to vote for her — mostly men of all races but not enough college educated white women too.

It was too soon. Even the prospect of the fascist demagogue Donald Trump wasn’t enough to overcome it.

Democrats give the best concession speeches

Published by digby on November 9, 2016

Democrats give the best concession speeches

by digby

And a woman is never as loved, especially by the media, as when she graciously accepts defeat.

Here’s Hillary Clinton earlier today:

Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you.

Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Very rowdy group. Thank you, my friends. Thank you. Thank you, thank you so very much for being here and I love you all, too.

Last night, I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country. I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans. This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked so hard for and I’m sorry that we did not win this election for the values we share and the vision we hold for our country.

But I feel pride and gratitude for this wonderful campaign that we built together, this vast, diverse, creative, unruly, energized campaign. You represent the best of America and being your candidate has been one of the greatest honors of my life.

I know how disappointed you feel because I feel it too, and so do tens of millions of Americans who invested their hopes and dreams in this effort. This is painful and it will be for a long time, but I want you to remember this. Our campaign was never about one person or even one election, it was about the country we love and about building an America that’s hopeful, inclusive and big-hearted.

We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought. But I still believe in America and I always will. And if you do, then we must accept this result and then look to the future. Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead.

Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power and we don’t just respect that, we cherish it. It also enshrines other things; the rule of law, the principle that we are all equal in rights and dignity, freedom of worship and expression. We respect and cherish these values too and we must defend them.

Now — and let me add, our constitutional democracy demands our participation, not just every four years but all the time. So let’s do all we can to keep advancing the causes and values we all hold dear; making our economy work for everyone not just those at the top, protecting our country and protecting our planet and breaking down all the barriers that hold any American back from achieving their dreams.CLINTON: We’ve spent a year and a half bringing together millions of people from every corner of our country to say with one voice that we believe that the American dream is big enough for everyone — for people of all races and religions, for men and women, for immigrants, for LGBT people, and people with disabilities. For everyone.

So now, our responsibility as citizens is to keep doing our part to build that better, stronger, fairer America we seek. And I know you will.

I am so grateful to stand with all of you. I want to thank Tim Kaine and Anne Holton for being our partners on this journey.

It has been a joy getting to know them better, and it gives me great hope and comfort to know that Tim will remain on the front lines of our democracy representing Virginia in the Senate.

To Barack and Michelle Obama, our country owes you an enormous debt of gratitude.

We — we thank you for your graceful, determined leadership that has meant so much to so many Americans and people across the world.

And to Bill and Chelsea, Mark, Charlotte, Aidan, our brothers and our entire family, my love for you means more than I can ever express. You crisscrossed this country on our behalf and lifted me up when I needed it most — even four-month-old Aidan who traveled with his mom.

I will always be grateful to the creative, talented, dedicated men and women at our headquarters in Brooklyn and across our country.

You poured your hearts into this campaign. For some of you who are veterans, it was a campaign after you had done other campaigns. Some of you, it was your first campaign. I want each of you to know that you were the best campaign anybody could have ever expected or wanted.

And to the millions of volunteers, community leaders, activists and union organizers who knocked on doors, talked to neighbors, posted on Facebook, even in secret, private Facebook sites…

… I want everybody coming out from behind that and make sure your voices are heard going forward.

To everyone who sent in contributions as small at $5 and kept us going, thank you. Thank you from all of us.

And to the young people in particular, I hope you will hear this. I have, as Tim said, spent my entire adult life fighting for what I believe in. I’ve had successes and I’ve had setbacks. Sometimes, really painful ones. Many of you are at the beginning of your professional public and political careers. You will have successes and setbacks, too.

This loss hurts, but please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.

It is — it is worth it.

And so we need — we need you to keep up these fights now and for the rest of your lives.

And to all the women, and especially the young women, who put their faith in this campaign and in me, I want you to know that nothing has made me prouder than to be your champion.

Now, I — I know — I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but some day someone will and hopefully sooner than we might think right now.

And — and to all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.

Finally…

Finally, I am so grateful for our country and for all it has given to me. I count my blessings every single day that I am an American. And I still believe as deeply as I ever have that if we stand together and work together with respect for our differences, strength in our convictions and love for this nation, our best days are still ahead of us.

Because, you know — you know, I believe we are stronger together and we will go forward together. And you should never, ever regret fighting for that. You know, scripture tells us, “Let us not grow weary in doing good, for in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

So my friends, let us have faith in each other, let us not grow weary, let us not lose heart, for there are more seasons to come. And there is more work to do.

I am incredibly honored and grateful to have had this chance to represent all of you in this consequential election.

May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America.

The horror

Published by digby on November 9, 2016
The horror


by digby

I wrote this for Salon:

When I’m wrong I’m wrong. Yesterday I woke up thinking that the United States would elect a new president and remain a mostly respected world superpower and a reasonably stable global economic leader. I looked at the polls and believed that the chances of Donald Trump winning were so remote that it was not worth thinking about so I wrote a piece assuming that Clinton would win, something I am usually careful not to do. So, of course, the unthinkable happened.  

On the news that Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States, stock market futures nose dived, the dollar plunged and the whole world is in shock. We wake up today to a fundamentally different world the one in which we woke up yesterday. The nation our allies looked to as the guarantor of global security will now be led by a pathologically dishonest, unqualified, inexperienced, temperamental, ignorant flim-flam man. Things will never be the same. And we have no idea at the moment, exactly what form this change is going to take, which makes this all very, very frightening.

I don’t know what went wrong and it doesn’t appear anyone else does either. The polling showed a close race but it didn’t predict the massive upsurge in voting by white non-college educated Americans, including women, who voted for Donald Trump yesterday.  There were so many of them it was enough to offset the gains the Democrats made among Latinos and college educated white people. The diverse coalition of people of color, liberals and women I smugly predicted would win the day yesterday was not enough.

The talking heads are all explaining this as an anodyne “change” election. The Democrats were in power for 8 years and people just wanted something else. And they are angry about trade and elites and Washington. But this Quinnipiac poll from last spring actually indicates something more fundamental than that:

A total of 57 percent of all voters “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” with the statement, “America has lost its identity,” as 43 percent “somewhat disagree” or “strongly disagree.” Among all Republicans, 79 percent agree, while only 36 percent of Democrats agree. The highest level of agreement is expressed by GOP supporters of Donald Trump, as 85 percent “agree,” the independent Quinnipiac University Poll finds.  

The pattern continues as 62 percent of all voters, including 85 percent of all Republicans and 40 percent of Democrats agree that their “beliefs and values are under attack.” Ninety one percent of Trump backers agree, the highest of any candidate.  

“Many American voters, especially Republicans, are dissatisfied with their own status and the status of the country, but by far the most dissatisfied are Donald Trump’s supporters, who strongly feel that they themselves and the country are under attack,” said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz, PhD.  

“Trump supporters are true stand-outs. They want a leader who is very different from the leader sought by other voters, explaining the mystery many see behind Trump’s support,” Dr. Schwartz added.  

There is a wide partisan division among American voters on the statement, “The government has gone too far in assisting minority groups.” Agreement is 45 percent among all voters, 72 percent among all Republicans and 18 percent among Democrats. Agreement is highest among Trump backers, 80 percent.  

Agreement with the statement, “What we need is a leader who is willing to say or do anything to solve America’s problems” is 53 percent among all voters, 68 percent among all Republicans and 39 percent among Democrats. Trump backers agreement is highest with 84 percent. 

That’s Donald Trump. And it explains why they like him. He is a nasty piece of work who will say and do anything. But they have confused Donald Trump winning with “solving America’s problems.” He’s a con man who tells his marks whatever they want to hear — and they are the marks.

The rise of the global alt-right signals a major backlash against multi-culturalism, modernity and technological change. It’s happening around the world and now it’s here. Donald Trump’s campaign CEO, Steve Bannon, is the intellectual (if you want to call it that) leader of that movement in the US and he has the President elect’s trust so we will undoubtedly be talking much more about this aspect of his presidency as time goes by. But for the average American voters who came out in droves to vote for Trump, the backlash was mostly motivated by something simpler, which was articulated by one of their most admired leaders, the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre:

“There’s no telling how far Obama will go to…reshape America into an unrecognizable country before he leaves office. And when he’s finished, he intends to go out with the coronation of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Yeah, I have to tell you eight years of one demographically-symbolic president is enough.”

They wanted their country back and so they took it. And now they will build a big beautiful wall around it so they can keep the riff raff out.

I’ve been writing about Donald Trump non-stop for the past seventeen months. I thought I had written my last words about him yesterday. But it looks like I’ve got another four years to go.  I suspect there is going to be a lot to write about.  He is a unique figure in world history, the product of an ossified party, a rising movement and polarized country that has been swinging wildly between two incompatible visions of America. Yesterday we went careening off into uncharted territory. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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Rude awakening by @BloggersRUs

Published by Tom Sullivan on November 9, 2016

Rude awakening
by Tom Sullivan


Photo by Hustvedt via Wikimedia Commons.

The woman greeting Republican voters yesterday wore a thick, black shawl in sunny, seventy-degree weather. She cheerfully recommended a sheet of candidates who were “pro-life, pro-Israel, constitution and liberty.” In between customers, she reminded herself of a prayer she was supposed to pray every few minutes. After one, she raised her hands and spoke to the cloudless sky.

Her “grab-them-by-the-pussy” presidential candidate won last night.

A 30-ish man in a skin-tight, muscle shirt climbed out of his pickup truck and declined both our offers of candidate information. A Trump voter, maybe. After three minutes or so, he returned to his truck and left. That might have been a hopeful signal for local Democratic candidates. All he had time to do was vote for president and leave the rest of the ballot blank. Were there many more like him? After massive early voting, who knew the race for president would be as tight in this state as it turned out?

As elsewhere, the election in North Carolina was not so much a change election as a mixed bag. Some Democrats lost by razor-thin margins. Donald Trump won the state by four points over Hillary Clinton. Democrat Roy Cooper beat incumbent Governor Pat McCrory by a mere 5,000 votes out of 4.7 million cast. (There will be an automatic recount.) Sen. Richard Burr retains his seat in the U.S. Senate. He defeated Deborah Ross by 6 points.

The national results were numbing. A friend running across the country in Washington state lost her legislative race by just over 500 votes. Russ Feingold lost his senate bid in Wisconsin to Ron Johnson, thought a goner just weeks ago. It appears Hillary Clinton won the popular vote last night, becoming “the fifth U.S. presidential candidate to win the popular vote but lose the election.”

Even before the night was over, Paul Krugman pondered whether America is a failed state and society:

We thought that the great majority of Americans valued democratic norms and the rule of law.

It turns out that we were wrong. There turn out to be a huge number of people — white people, living mainly in rural areas — who don’t share at all our idea of what America is about. For them, it is about blood and soil, about traditional patriarchy and racial hierarchy. And there were many other people who might not share those anti-democratic values, but who nonetheless were willing to vote for anyone bearing the Republican label.

As if to punctuate the point, a campaign manager witnessed at a polling place in a heavily Republican county south of here a Republican poll greeter calling out “White Power” after a black couple declined his offer of a slate of GOP candidates.

The press “has no idea what they’re in for,” tweeted Eric Borhlert.

Digby will be along presently with sharper analysis.