A Wasted Election

The undeniable fact is that this has been a terrible waste of an election. You always want a clear winner. What we have now is certainly not a mandate for either candidate, the outcome is just too close and muddled to see a clear future path. Hillary will have the final popular vote by a wide margin, certainly in the millions, but the electoral tally is in Trump's favor based on about 1% of the votes cast in a few states. Several states barely went in Trump's favor that will most likely not break that way again. His electoral win is based on somewhere around 200,000 votes scattered across a few Midwestern states.

I am mystified now, a few days after the election, to hear smart analysts (many on the left) try to assign some sort of rational reasoning as to why people voted for Trump. I can tell you that that is a wasted effort. If you spend much time talking to Trump fans or visiting political forums you will see that there is no rational reasoning...or at least not one or two basic reasons. Most of what they say seems tied to some sort of perceived victimization -- a self-defined victim status -- based on years of talk radio rhetoric and Donald Trump's demagoguery. There are folks with seemingly rational pro-Trump arguments but most voted against their own interests because Trump told them to. It's not just being uninformed, it's being intentionally misinformed and willingly misled.

As much as we'd like to blame Trump voters, Hillary voters stayed home in important states. She had a perfect game plan on paper but it failed her in some key places. I suspect some were too complacent or influenced by last minute jitters or intimidation. There was a certain smugness tied to the polls.

Then, finally, we come to the third party voters, conspicuous by their silence in recent days. Whether "Never Trump" conservatives or "Bernie of Bust" progressives, they carry much of the blame for the outcome. If you work your butt off for Bernie and then abandon the only path available to advance or preserve some of his ideas, you are a failure.

Once the shouting dies down (if it does) there may be an attempt to find a center. Both governing parties are essentially centrist and rational congressional leaders will have to step forward if anything positive will get done. Some will say "Good luck with that" and maybe so. Trump's choices for his cabinet posts are mind boggling and will result in internal power struggles. After months of railing against Clinton as being a darling of the neocons, he favors John Bolton for Secretary of State. He picks Priebus as Chief of Staff and a White Nationalist as policy advisor. I hope he makes rational and upright choices for the rest of the cabinet officers but I do not expect it. Trump is a man with a damaged personal character and without a moral compass.

Some 200 years ago John Adams laid out a basic tenet of leadership for our country: "Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases." Sadly, I do not see that happening in the Trump administration.