If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?
― Frédéric Bastiat, The Law
2016 marked a year that many in the west considered the worst year ever. The advent of the Trump administration lead to worldwide protests, Brexit left investors trembling and the polarisation in political dialogue marked the death of Rawlsian discourse and, to cap this off, many of our favourite childhood celebrities passed away.
Although, on the surface, this looks pretty bad, we must make it clear that 2016 marked not so much a turning point in western politics as it did a tipping point.
Mass immigration in Europe drove disenfranchised voters backflipping as social tensions heated up. Americans grew tired of the millennial cry for more free stuff while being slammed that they don’t do enough for minority groups, and all the while their middle class struggled and job growth slumped. To cap this off, nearly a decade after the GFC none of the bankers that tanked the worlds economy, for all but one, walked free and the taxpayer was still left picking up the bill for the Wall Street gamble.
This inevitably led to the rise of two populists. On the one hand we had the classical but somewhat bombastic, narcissistic nationalist and on the other we had a progressive socialist who most likely didn’t pass 7th grade mathematics. It could be observed at this stage that the establishment wanted neither.
Rather than focusing on addressing the struggles of the average American, the DNC went on an $1.5 billion dollar smear campaign to damage the credibility of their Republican opponent, employing Hollywood actors to relate this message, all the while sabotaging their own populist, so that the more “reasonable”, Wall Street-friendly candidate could take the lead.
What the DNC failed to realise was why populism was on the rise in the first place. They didn’t connect with the concerns of the average American and, even more importantly in this election, they offered no salvation for rural communities, regardless of how empty the promise would have been. This resulted in their inevitable downfall and, instead of admitting their own faults – admitting that they weren’t in touch with the average American’s challenges – they played the blame game, pointing the blame at Wikileaks, fake news and, eventually, the Russians, concocting the misleading headline “the Russians hacked the election”, which was an interesting position to take given…
This was, by all means, a misleading headline, or even “fake news”. What really happened is that the Russians may have had a hand in hacking the DNC server (an assertion for which no evidence has been presented to the public), from which they then released emails to Wikileaks detailing the questionable inner workings of the Clinton campaign, the sabotaging of Bernie’s campaign, the leaking of presidential debate questions to Hillary prior to the debate, Hillary’s Goldman Sachs’ speeches, which were as anti average American as you could possibly imagine.
This was considered “hacking the election”. Exposing the corruption – Wikileaks performing the job that CNN, MSNBC, ABC all failed to do.
The reality is, the email leaks most likely lead to many voters to distrusting the DNC and Hillary, or at least as much as they distrusted Trump.
But I don’t think this cost them the election.
Why? Well, I think it’s because voters aren’t idiots. They know that politics is full of back door dealings, elites that are either bought off or just looking after their own. They didn’t need the email leaks to question the Clintons’ integrity and they didn’t need Trump’s phones tapped to know that Trump is a guy with his own agendas and vices.
Hillary Clinton would make a sober, smart and pragmatic president.
Donald Trump would be a catastrophe.
―LA Times Editorial Board endorsement, September 23, 2016
No, the DNC lost the election because of the same reasons that they lost the House of Representatives and the Senate.
They did not meet the struggles and concerns of the average American. Let’s get it clear, people are most concerned with the welfare of others (minorities, LGBT etc), when their own welfare is being looked after.
The population is less likely to give a crap about refugee employment when their own is under threat.
And, instead of understanding this, the DNC went on to blame Wikileaks for exposing truth and blaming Russia (tapping into those cold war suspicions)… but ultimately, they blamed the children for being too stupid to see things through their eyes.
They had all the major media outlets on their side (save Fox), all the celebrity endorsements they could muster, all the polls in their favour, all the millennials thinking they were saving the world by electing a female president… but it wasn’t enough, because the voters aren’t children, and there is only so far a nice story will go to convince them.
It’s the same narrative that the White House has been peddling for years:
- Presidents can drop 26,000 bombs on countries they are not officially at war with and win a Nobel Prize.
- The middle class should pay more taxes so that the poor and the young can have their art degrees.
- Unemployment has decreased during the Obama term.
- The media is trustworthy, just look at “hand’s up, don’t shoot”.
All this translates into:
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
― George Orwell,
Who’s to blame for the 2016 election result? The DNC.
Many of the Americans who voted for Obama in 08 were out voting for Trump in 16. This isn’t because they are racist, hateful, misogynists, Islamophobic, transphobic, homophobic, fascist scum, it’s because they have real struggles, real battles and they are looking for a leader who at least understands those struggles and who doesn’t call them racist, hateful, misogynists, Islamophobic, transphobic, homophobic, fascist scum.
And, one month after initially writing this article… nothing has changed, with Clinton once again pointing the finger at everyone except herself, with the latest culprit being Misogyny, Russians, the FBI.
My prediction for the 2020 election: Trump. By a larger margin than in 16. Why?
1. Because the media message that this guy is a tyrant who will literally turn America into 1940’s Germany won’t have happened.
2. At this rate, the DNC still won’t have figured out where they went wrong; instead, they’ll still be blaming the children.