Friday, November 11, 2016

A genuine worry

It's really quite painful watching passionate, intelligent liberals on American TV, such as Stephen Colbert, trying to process how such an offensive man as Trump could win enough support to get over the line.  (Although remember, he did not win the popular vote: especially if you take the third party vote into account, a substantial majority of those who did vote were against Trump:
Nationally, third-party candidates did relatively well in this election. With most of the ballots now counted, Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson gained over 3% of the popular vote, and the Green party’s Jill Stein got 1%. Altogether, candidates who did not represent either of the two main parties got around 4.9% of the popular vote (in 2012, third-party candidates only managed 1.7%, and in 2008, 1.4%).

It’s easy to see why people point the finger at third-party votes. In Michigan, where the election was so close that the Associated Press still hasn’t called the result, Trump is ahead by about 12,000 votes. That’s significantly less than the 242,867 votes that went to third-party candidates in Michigan. It’s a similar story elsewhere: third-party candidates won more total votes than the Trump’s margin of victory in Wisconsin, Arizona, North Carolina and Florida. Without those states, Trump would not have won the presidency.)
Anyway, I was watching this lengthy clip from Colbert's first post election show, and its clear he is emotionally upset about it all.  While there are many laughs to be had (I particularly like God's cameo near the end), watching it made me feel more anxious and depressed in sympathy with Colbert, even if, by confirming that the whole of the country hasn't gone nuts, it shouldn't:


7 comments:

not trampis said...

how come so many of these people do not realise Trump has a host of undeliverable promises?

This should be fodder for them.

Steve said...

I don't think they don't know that - the initial reaction is, I think, more about how such an unpleasant personality could get elected, and the gullibility of the 25% of the population that did vote for him.

not trampis said...

I think I might write about this next week but to my mind Trump never thought he could win hence his undeliverable promises and words of rigged elections

Steve said...

Yes, quite correct. Even the victory party venue they hired seemed so small - it looked and sounded like the modest rooms used in Australian elections, not US ones.
Many people - even JC over at Catallaxy - speculated he didn't really want the job but was doing it as a lark, and on the basis that "all publicity is good publicity" would work for his brand overall. (Having won, I certainly hope his hotels suffer from no Democrat voter ever wanting to stay there.)

Anonymous said...

Left wing echo chamber going full bore here. The problem is right in your face and you can't see it.

Steve said...

You should explain "the problem" Anon, and how Trumpian stridently anti-free trade policies are consistent with the views of all the economists at Catallaxy.

not trampis said...

Trump was much more left wing than Clinton. It wil be amusing when 'right wing' types realise this