It happened. The sum of all fears. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lost, and the angry orange man who assumes most Mexican immigrants are rapists and drug dealers, who wants to ban all Muslims from entering the country, who can be heard on tape saying things about women that would make Archie Bunker blush, is now the most powerful person in America.
What went wrong? It was all but guaranteed that Hillary Clinton would win. On election day, before any results came in, FiveThirtyEight’s forecast model gave Hillary a 71.4 percent chance of winning the presidency. The New York Times gave Hillary an 85 percent chance.
Trump himself appeared to think he was going to lose, as all his talk about the election being “rigged” before it even happened seemed like an exercise in managing expectations.
But election night turned into a nightmare for Hillary and her supporters. The initial results from the east coast were discouraging, to say the least. Trump took leads in the swing states of North Carolina and Florida that he never gave up.
That wasn’t the time to panic, though. As long as she carried blue-leaning Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, Hillary would probably be fine. All together, those three states were worth 46 electoral votes this year.
The final RealClearPolitics poll averages had Hillary up by 6.5 points in Wisconsin, 3.6 points in Michigan, and 2.1 points in Pennsylvania.
In addition to her polling advantage, Hillary had history on her side as well.
Obama won Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in the last presidential election. He won all three of those states in 2008, too. Kerry won them in 2004. Gore won them in 2000. Bill Clinton won them in 1996 and 1992.
Hillary earned 232 electoral votes in this election. If she carried Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania like the last six Democratic nominees, she would have won 278 electoral votes and the presidency (270 is the magic number).
There are a lot of reasons why Hillary lost that the Democratic party just couldn’t do anything about. Russian meddling. Comey’s shenanigans. General misogyny.
Nevertheless, this election should serve as a wake-up call to the party. Democrats were too confident that a Republican nominee who went out of his way to offend every minority group in America had no chance of becoming president.
The demographics may be shifting, but the United States is still a majority white country. Many white Americans are struggling financially and feel like they’ve been abandoned by the entire political establishment. Trump was able to cast himself as an outsider and appeal to these people.
Policies supported by Hillary Clinton and Democrats in general, such as tuition-free community college and raising the minimum wage, would help the struggling white Americans who turned out in droves for Trump. We need to find a better way to get that point across.
Watch this news clip for more information about how Hillary lost because of the “anti-Hillary Rust Belt Region” as it’s called:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWtzOD0Mc6Y&ab_channel=WochitNews
Featured Image Via YouTube Screenshot.
