Thread: Trump triumphs: Populism fuels surprising victory

Trump triumphs: Populism fuels surprising victory

Yesterday


Members of National Border Patrol Council cheered as Ohio was called for Donald Trump at the GOP candidate's
election party Tuesday night at the Midtown Hilton in New York. From left are Vice President Art Del Cueto,
President Brandon Judd and Lee Smart. (Tom Fox/Staff Photographer)

WASHINGTON — Republican Donald Trump on Tuesday struck a final blow to the nation’s political establishment, compelling a bitterly divided America to send his scorched-earth insurgency all the way to the White House.

The victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton closed out a noxious campaign that saw the billionaire outsider electrify supporters who were fed up with the status quo and frighten critics who considered his approach barely veiled demagoguery toward Hispanics, Muslims and others.

“Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division,” Trump said. “To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.

“I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans,” he said.

It did not come easy.

Trump had to wait until early Wednesday for the final call, watching swing states — many thought to be out of his reach — fall his way, one by one. Ohio. North Carolina. Florida. Iowa. Pennsylvania. The Clinton firewall crumbled in slow motion.

And then Wisconsin sealed the deal, one last nod to Trump’s powerful appeal to working-class Americans.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” he told an ebullient crowd in New York. “Complicated business.”

In the end, he triumphed in full over what he called a “rigged system,” with his snarling bombast producing few ill effects on the GOP’s control over Congress and other offices down ballot. Even in Texas, the earlier promise of a Democratic wave crested and then dissipated.

The result marked a stunning collapse for Clinton, who saw a seeming coronation to the highest office stymied by an email scandal and other missteps. And the stinging rebuke stretched to President Barack Obama, who said his policies — indeed, his legacy — were on the ballot.


Clinton called Trump early Wednesday to concede.

That came after Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta refused to concede earlier Wednesday, saying defiantly that his candidate is “not done yet.” He said, “Let’s get those votes counted and let’s bring this home.”

A Supreme Court vacancy. Rising national debt. The continued threat of the Islamic State. A reinvigorated Russia. Climate change. A broken tax code. A wobbling health care law. An intractable immigration system. The list goes on.

Trump pledged to “drain the swamp” in Washington. Now he gets to wade into the muck.

The one-time reality TV star began his quest by beating 16 GOP primary opponents, drawing massive crowds along the way. He struck a nerve with blue-collar voters anxious about immigration and the economy, fashioning a message simple enough to fit on a red ballcap: “Make America Great Again.”

But Trump also slung insults at Hispanics, Muslims, women and war heroes. He could never stay on message, ranting on Twitter at odd hours of the night. And he struggled to unify the GOP, with former President George W. Bush and other party leaders declining to vote for him.

Then there was the 2005 video of him bragging about making unwanted sexual advances toward women.
“Grab them by the p----,” he said.

Trump apologized for what he called “locker room talk.” But that mea culpa was soon blunted by sexual assault allegations from a dozen women, which he also denied. And his swaggering machismo — at its worst, misogyny — offered a stark contrast on the ballot.

“This race may very well serve as a referendum on the re-entrenchment of presidential masculinity,” said Kelly Dittmar, an expert on gender politics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

The very structure of the physical White House has reinforced classic gender stereotypes. The commander in chief has worked out of the West Wing — the nexus of power — while the first lady has been left to the East Wing to ponder home décor and party arrangements.

The dynamic has started to change in recent decades, in part because of the more substantive policy role sought by Clinton and other first ladies.

And the prospect of a Madam President may have motivated some voters eager to again overturn traditional cultural norms, eight years after Obama broke the White House’s color barrier. But the precipice of history did not mean history itself.

Clinton sputtered in the Democratic primary against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, struggling to shake the label of an out-of-touch Wall Street shill. She also never removed the stain of her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

Trump savaged Clinton as “Crooked Hillary,” raising the prospect of sending her to prison for misusing classified information. Her campaign foundered after the FBI announced late — and then later reversed course — that it might reopen its investigation.

“I made a mistake,” she admitted, though only after the problem had festered.

Those credibility issues harmed Clinton’s ability to build a broader base. And her more liberal policy stances caused her to struggle in the traditional Democratic firewall that is the Midwest, a less diverse region where Trump’s blue-collar message resonated.

“The bottom line is that people were fed up,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Dallas Republican who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. “They were fed up with an out-of-reach Washington elite.”

Having been the champion of the working class, Trump must fulfill his promises to build a giant border wall, rework America’s trade deals and dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

Like Obama and others before him, he will find that changing Washington in a dramatic way is no small task. Even with a Republican-run House and Senate, the status quo in Congress is gridlock. And the federal bureaucracy is a hulking machine.

In other words, this isn’t the private sector Trump knows so well.

“He will not meet expectations — it’s not happening,” said Dave Carney, a longtime GOP consultant who supports Trump. “Building a wall in four years? They can’t build a sidewalk in four years in Washington.”

That persistent quagmire may cause Trump to lose patience and revert to his Apprentice mantra: “You’re fired.” But he can’t fire everyone. And at what point do Trump’s loyal followers begin to lose patience, too?

“He better freaking deliver,” said Michael Hartley, an Ohio GOP consultant
close to Gov. John Kasich. “Or you will see an anger that makes this year look like nothing.”

Trump will also have to contend with the coalition of Latinos, women and college-educated whites who backed Clinton.

Turnout among Latinos was supposed to run up margins for Clinton in the Sun Belt and beyond.

And Republicans like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have long warned their party about losing the Hispanic vote — advice that went unheeded this year amid Trump’s rise.

“Is 2016 for Latinos what 1964 was for African-Americans?” said Andra Gillespie, an Emory University political scientist. “Where the contrast between the candidates and parties is so stark that ... now you start to see overwhelming supermajorities of Latinos voting Democratic.”

But it wasn’t enough. And now Democrats are bracing for what they considered unthinkable.

“If his rhetoric is any indication of what kind of president he would be, this would be a very dark and scary America,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio. “And now we will do everything possible to make sure that the United States is a country of opportunity for all Americans.”

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/2016-...rising-victory

Latinos and Hispanics have been SOLD OUT by scum like Joaquin Castro, because his Democratic Party has SOLD OUT the United States, and when you SELL OUT THE UNITED STATES, you sell out EVERY CITIZEN of the United States.

As to the "gop consultants", just SIT DOWN and SHUT UP.