John Eberhard
See Part 1 of this series.
The recent election of Donald Trump has shocked many on both sides of the aisle. I’ve seen many articles and commentators trying to explain what happened, and I think very few of them have gotten it right.
There are a few factors as to why Trump was elected and why Hillary Clinton lost. I’m going to list them out.
Trump Did Not Succumb to the Liberal Outrage Attack Machine
In one of my other articles I described a phenomenon which I call the Liberal Outrage Attack Machine. Here’s how it works:
- A Republican makes a statement
- Liberal politicians, media, or celebrities express outrage at the statement
- The statement is distorted to make it more general than it really was, and is disseminated by media, politicians or celebrities in its distorted, more generalized form.
- Liberal politicians, media, or celebrities demand an apology from the Republican
- Usually the Republican apologizes, thus basically “proving” the accusations by the outraged liberals
- Liberal politicians, media and celebrities say that the apology was “not good enough,” prompting the Republican to apologize again.
- Numbers 2 through 6 are repeated until the Republican is destroyed, forced to resign, etc.
This Liberal Outrage Attack Machine has been used extensively by liberals on any statement made by a Republican that can somehow be construed as offensive or can be distorted or generalized until it can be construed as offensive. And they have been doing this for about 15 years or so and have destroyed quite a few Republicans.
Trump was the first major Republican I have seen, since the Liberal Outrage Attack Machine has been in common use, who has foiled the machine. The main way he has done it is to just refuse to apologize. That takes most of the wind out the sails of the machine. And he also went on the attack against the media for their unfair treatment of him.
That doesn’t mean that there aren’t quite a few liberals who passionately believe the distorted version of the things Trump has said, and that he is a racist, homophobe, sexist, Islamophobe, etc. Just check out the tweets coming from liberal land in the past few weeks.
But it does mean that Trump survived. And that needs to serve as a template for Republicans in the future, because the Liberal Outrage Attack Machine is not going away.
Trump Spoke to Americans’ Anger
Americans were angry, at crazy things that were happening under Obama, and that no one was doing anything about:
- Obama’s endless apologies for radical Muslims, and refusing to do anything about it.
- Obama’s bringing in tens of thousands of Syrian refugees
- Refusal of the Obama administration to enforce immigration laws
- Obama making it so that men who “feel” that they are actually women can use girls’ bathrooms and showers (and if you didn’t agree with this there was something wrong with you)
- Racial riots, with Obama stoking the unrest, expressing sympathy for rioters and even inviting them to the White House
- The worst economy in recent memory
- Obama placing the ideals of a small minority of radical environmentalists above the economic well-being of the country
- Obama’s Iran deal was just plain ridiculous
- Obama appeared to be the first American president who actually did not like or admire America, and it was difficult not to conclude that he was actively trying to reduce America’s power and prestige in the world
- Obamacare. Fines and drastic premium increases. Nuff said.
People Don’t Trust the Media Anymore
The mainstream news media (MSM) in America are hopelessly biased towards the Democratic Party and against the Republican Party. I have written a number of articles about this, and there are numerous excellent articles and books about this phenomenon.
Basically, over the last 16 years, ANY appearance of non-biased reporting has been completely abandoned by the mainstream news media. I think they were in shock after the election of George W. Bush and vowed to work harder next time, which they did, in 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016.
The vast majority of all coverage of Donald Trump by the MSM was negative. And they protected Hillary by ignoring her scandals.
I think the MSM thought they could get away with this and that there has not been any negative consequences (aside from advertising revenue dropping by two thirds). They are wrong. People are not stupid, at least most people aren’t. I think that a lot of Americans have noticed this bias and don’t like it.
There’s one other point in all this. We pay these people, through buying newspapers or other means, for doing this job. We expect them to report news. That’s their JOB. Their job is not to give us a slanted version of the news, to dig up anything negative they can about one side, while ignoring the negative on the other side and not reporting it. So these guys have actually abandoned their job, and are acting as press agents for the Democratic Party. They are being treasonous to their actual job. And it distorts the entire political process.
If they had done their job during this election, Trump would have gotten 80% of the vote, and probably would have won every state except California (where I live), and New York.
I think that based on this election, that many Americans have completely stopped believing the biased liberal press, and will from this point forward generally stop listening to them. The New York Times and other media are now trying to offer lukewarm and probably insincere apologies, but I don’t think the American public are buying it.
The liberal media’s days of power are just over.
People Voted Based on Economics, Not on Race or Gender
Liberals have been quick to claim that people that voted for Trump did so out of racism and sexism. But they fail to realize that this election was not about race. It was about the economy, and people feeling that nobody was representing them or caring about their interests.
It Was a Repudiation of Government Elites
For many years I thought that the main struggle in American politics was Democrat versus Republican, liberal versus conservative.
But over the last 6 years I have come to understand that there is another dynamic going on, of which I was previously unaware. It’s basically government elites versus the people.
Many Republicans have campaigned over the last 6 years on the idea of stopping Obama from his executive over-reach and his far-left liberal policies. John Boehner talked tough while campaigning. But after the elections, did nothing to stop Obama. He passed the budgets including funding all Obama’s nonsense. He could have defunded Obamacare, that law that has been opposed by a majority of Americans from the beginning. He had that power. But he did nothing to stop Obama. He played golf with him instead.
Finally Boehner was ousted. But Paul Ryan didn’t do anything to stop Obama either. And he didn’t do anything to support Trump.
So it became clear to me and a lot of other Americans, that the elites just wanted to protect their own power and didn’t care what the Americans wanted. So they decided they needed an outsider. And that outsider was Trump.
Summary
I think that the election of Donald Trump was a huge victory for the American people, and against liberal ideology, the biased liberal mainstream news media, and government elites.
I am personally looking forward to getting people in charge of the government who are not far left liberals, so some of this insanity can stop. It’s going to be a big job, but I think we elected the right man for the job.
Other Reading
Dems Done in by the Politics of Hate
Jim Webb Addresses America’s Elites
Democrats not Trump Racialize Our Politics
Liberal Journalists are Biggest Losers in Trump Victory