Of those I spoke to after election night, I found very few who were willing to stay up and watch the final results of the presidential vote. My wife and I felt the election was just too important so we stayed up to the wee morning hours to learn what the final determination was. Donald Trump wasn’t declared the winner until around 3 AM.
Americans turned out in droves to exercise their right to vote.
In the end, all of the pollsters, and I do mean all of them, got it wrong. Early on that night, many of the political pundits said Hillary Clinton had it in the bag – they, too, couldn’t have been more egregiously incorrect.
One network had a panel of about fifteen experts who were supposedly in the know. Several on that panel made no bones about the disdain they had for Mr. Trump. One of the men on the panel was responsible for reading statistics on how certain voter blocks cast their ballots for each candidate. On several occasions he reiterated the “uneducated,” those without a college degree, voted for Donald Trump in record numbers. I found that quite distasteful – it was as if those voters were lesser human beings to the network.
When the graphics were shown for several states my wife commented that 90 to 95% of the counties in those states were red, which meant the majority of the state voted Republican. The urban areas, ones with a high density population, were primarily blue, which meant those areas voted Democrat. The rural areas colored in red voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump.
The winner of the presidential election is determined by the Electoral College, not the popular vote. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, but lost the election. Donald Trump needed 270 electoral votes and got about 290. I was trying to explain to my wife that the Electoral College is more representative of the 50 states. If the election was determined by the popular vote, a candidate could win only 5 to 10% of the counties in a state and still win the election. That would be disproportional to the collective whole in a state.
How did the pollsters get it so wrong? How did the media get it so wrong?
In a nutshell, they failed to understand the mood of the country. It was a sour mood, one that was fed up with politicians and business as usual in Washington, DC.
For the last eight years, under the Obama administration, medium income for Americans has declined. Unemployment, although the rigged statistical numbers say otherwise, is unacceptably high. Food stamps are being doled out in record numbers. We’ve lost our place in the world as a superpower. Our enemies no longer fear us and our allies can’t rely on us. The credit rating for the United States has been slashed. The nation’s in debt to the tune of $20 trillion – that’s a staggering amount to comprehend. Electric bills of the citizenry are increasing because global warming seems to be more important than poor souls trying to heat their homes.
Barack Obama, in my opinion, has been lackluster as the leader of the greatest country on earth. If you’d like to peer into the thoughts of how Barack Obama thinks read the book “Obama’s America.” It makes great reference material in trying to understand how the 44th President of the United States could feel that his country isn’t exceptional at all.
Donald Trump said he would “Make America Great Again.” Hillary Clinton countered that claim by saying “America is already great, because we’re good.” A majority of Americans felt Hillary Clinton, who wanted a continuance of “Obamaomics,” wasn’t the best choice.
Oddly enough though, millions voted for Mrs. Clinton knowing she was untrustworthy and a lawbreaker.
In the end, there were more Americans who love this great land than hated it.
There were more patriotic individuals than those who subscribe to movements like “Occupy Wall Street” and “Black Lives Matters.”
Many believe the Obama administration has put a restraint on America’s potential. Donald Trump, a politically incorrect outsider, promised to unleash what’s been constrained and the voters resoundingly gave a whole-hearted thumbs up to that.
Greg Allen is an author, nationally syndicated columnist and the founder of Builder of the Spirit in Jamestown, Indiana, a non-profit organization aiding the poor. He can be reached at www.builderofthespirit.org.
