100 days of Trump and the Left still have no idea why he won

ByMartyn Bradbury

I’ve read a lot of ‘100 days of Trump’ stuff and it seems to me that the Left are still unable to admit and accept why Trump won.

This matters because if the Left still can’t comprehend how Trump won, then they have little chance of beating this orange deranged revenge fantasist in 4 years time.

Let’s be clear. I am not some delusional lefty who sees Trump as some sort of hero outsider who will overturn the vested corporate interests of America’s Military Industrial Complex, I think he is a narcissistic tumour who has cleverly manipulated the economic anger and cultural fury of those who have lost the most from the Democrats neoliberal free market globalisation.

It is this total lack of self awareness by many on the Left as to why so many union, women and working poor voted for Trump that is the most problematic part of Trump’s first 100 days…

Why did Trump win? New worrisome answer

As the Democratic Party rebuilds itself for the 2018 and 2020 elections, Democratic strategists have been preoccupied with a pressing question: Why did so many voters who backed Barack Obama in 2012 switch to Donald Trump four years later, and what can be done to win them back?

Top Democratic pollsters have conducted private focus groups and polling in an effort to answer that question, and they shared the results with me.

One finding from the polling stands out: A shockingly large percentage of these Obama-Trump voters said Democrats’ economic policies will favor the wealthy — twice the percentage that said the same about Trump. I was also permitted to view video of some focus group activity, which showed Obama-Trump voters offering sharp criticism of Democrats on the economy.

Priorities USA, the super PAC that is working to restore Democrats to power, conducted focus groups of Obama-Trump voters in Wisconsin and Michigan – two states that Trump snatched from Democrats – in late January and polled some 800 Obama-Trump voters nationally at around the same time. The pollsters also conducted focus groups with so-called drop-off voters – people who voted for Obama in 2012 but didn’t vote in 2016 – in the same states and polled 800 drop-off voters nationally.

“[Hillary] Clinton and Democrats’ economic message did not break through to drop-off or Obama-Trump voters, even though drop-off voters are decidedly anti-Trump,” Priorities USA concluded in a presentation of its polling data and focus group findings, which has been shown to party officials in recent days.

The poll found that Obama-Trump voters, many of whom are working-class whites and were pivotal to Trump’s victory, are economically losing ground and are skeptical of Democratic solutions to their problems. Among the findings:

• 50 percent of Obama-Trump voters said their incomes are falling behind the cost of living, and another 31 percent said their incomes are merely keeping pace with the cost of living.

• A sizable chunk of Obama-Trump voters – 30 percent – said their vote for Trump was more a vote against Clinton than a vote for Trump. Remember, these voters backed Obama four years earlier.

• 42 percent of Obama-Trump voters said congressional Democrats’ economic policies will favor the wealthy, vs. only 21 percent of them who said the same about Trump. (Forty percent say that about congressional Republicans.) A total of 77 percent of Obama-Trump voters said Trump’s policies will favor some mix of all other classes (middle class, poor, all equally), while a total of 58 percent said that about congressional Democrats.

…just as we saw in Brexit, it is the local domestic working poor who face the most friction from neoliberal free market globalisation. For the hip young things that the Democrats were trying to win over, they have the education, training and social media micro-aggression skills to maximise their use of neoliberal free market globalisation, but if you are the working class, you don’t see any positive from it.

It is the working class in America who have seen their factories moved off shore, it is the working class who see their kids shipped off to fight America’s corporate wars, it is the working class who compete with jobs from mass migration.

By focusing on Russia, Democrats are ignoring their own failures in candidate and policy to explain why they lost the election.

Apart from the hypocrisy of America, a country who has meddled in and influenced almost a hundred other elections with brutal coups and right wing paramilitary death squads, blaming Russia becomes a rabbit hole inside a rabbit hole when you consider the ease with which the CIA or NSA can mask their own actions as Russian.

The attempts by liberals in America to claim Trump supporters have walked away from Trump have been shot down mostly because Trump supporters who have hurt for so long under neoliberal free market globalisation want Trump in there as a wrecking ball, when they hear the liberal media scream, they know Donald is doing what they voted him in for.

Likewise, attempts to replace Trump is just wishful thinking. Could you imagine the civil revolt that would erupt if the establishment attempted to commit a coup and remove Trump from power?

Democrats can blame Russia, they can blame sexism and they can blame racism if they want, but the simple grim truth is that it was the Democrats own welded on position to neoliberal free market globalisation that cost them the election.

Living in denial about that simply makes it easier for Trump to keep those voters who have been left behind by neoliberal free market globalisation and helps Trump win in 2020.

Meanwhile this orange fascist has just sacked the FBI Director. 

 

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39 Comments

  1. to distill it down, this all heralds the return of class based politics and ultimately revolution–defined by me as “a fundamental shift in class power”, capitalism gets “retired” for good in other words

    of course the likes of the Mango Mussolini, using force and the intelligence state that most governments have, could invoke an authoritarian state, and with split forces might prevail at horrible cost

  2. Am in complete agreement with your analysis.Under Trump things are just going to get worse in all respects.Unless the U.S.left gets its act together, the future looks dismal. Increase the red wine storage facilities!

  3. “I think he is a narcissistic tumour who has cleverly manipulated the economic anger and cultural fury of those who have lost the most from the Democrats neoliberal free market globalisation.”

    Got it in one Martyn,
    Trump appealed to the large swing voters who were so dis-inchanted with Obama’s right wing plocies that they went to trump for revenge because they felt betrayed by Obama’s clea cozzy relationship with the corporate elitist mob.

    A book is about to come out about the making of Obama, written by a democratic supporter and a Historian and it showed that from the 1980’s to 2003 Obama was “a true leftie” social democrat but then in Chicago he mixed with the elite (Soros) and all their evil mob, to become then fashioned into the slick politician bought up by the establishment to sing their tune and favour their policies.

    Some say that for the Democrats to begin to win back either the senate or house the democrats will begin to move over to work with Bernie Sanders and his mob of the left in the months and two years going forward.

    I cant believe the toxic hate the left currently show!!!!

    It does them no favours here at all, as they need to act plausible not radicals!!!!!!

    1. left is right and right is left…many lefties voted Trump

      ( as the lesser of two evils, not that they were enamored of Trump, but they hated Hillary Clinton)

      …the trendo actors and actresses all voted Clinton…but really how blind were they to her corruption and warmongering?

      1. “The lesser of two evils” is not a justification, Buzzard. It’s a cop out.

        That’s like saying we’re ok having a National government instead of an Act government because National is the “lesser of 2 evils”. Does’nt wash.

        Let’s have Trump judged on his own actions, not on a hypothertical bogeyman (or woman in this case) who never became president.

        Otherwise, hey, National is better of the “2 evils” than Act, eh?

      2. RB, this is something you might want to check out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnQHPvaArU4

        Evidently, their is involvement by Eric Prince, founder of “Blackwater”, a private American military company that had contracts in Iraq. (For those with good memory, Blackwater contractors shot and killed 14 Iraqi civilians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academi#Incidents)

        Eric Prince is setting up a secret US-led mercenary army on behalf of Abu Dhabi.

        According to the NY Times;

        Such troops could be deployed if the Emirates faced unrest in their crowded labor camps or were challenged by pro-democracy protests like those sweeping the Arab world this year.

        More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/world/middleeast/15prince.html

        Eric Prince has connections to Steve Bannon and Betsy DeVos.

        As usual, this is the US propping up despotic regimes. But instead of the CIA, this time the US government is using private contractors. And Trump may be involved with money borrowed from the Russian Alfa Bank to fund his golf courses: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/09/politics/fbi-investigation-continues-into-odd-computer-link-between-russian-bank-and-trump-organization/

        The FBI is investigating a potential link.

        And people wonder why Comey was fired by Trump?

  4. Of course, it could also have been this

    “Contrary to reports in the media, the crowd sourced investigation labeled by some as “Pizzagate” did not begin with internet sleuths digging through the Wikileaks Podesta Files releases looking for pizza parlors and encoded language discussing human trafficking. It began with the shocking discovery that Hillary and Bill Clinton provided assistance to convicted child trafficker, Laura Silsby, resulting in a reduced sentence for child trafficking.

    Silsby was arrested at the Haitian border attempting to smuggle 33 children out of Haiti without documentation. Her sentence and charges were reduced after an intervention by Bill Clinton. In the aftermath of Silsby’s arrest, her originally retained lawyer Jorge Puello was arrested in connection with an international smuggling ring accused of trafficking women and minors from Central America and Haiti. The revelation of this news in November was either ignored by the Western media or attacked by Clinton controlled publications.”
    https://goo.gl/gwD1Jb

  5. Hillary loudly proclaimed as a women the presidential position is owed to me.

    The biggest suffers of war are women she claimed
    Not those who fight it but watch from afar.

    Men are evil and I am owed this was clintons entire platform

  6. The question for Americans needs to be, not ‘why did Trump win?’ but : Why was he a candidate? And, for that matter, why was Hillary a candidate?

    Something is fundamentally rotten with the system.

  7. Never fear Martyn, with Hillary Clinton claiming “I’m back to being an activist citizen ― and part of the resistance”

    and The DNC breath takingly claiming in Court that they “don’t owe anyone a fair primary process”
    (ie “we cheated Bernie, the public, the World, and the Progressives just so we could stick to the corporate project and end up losing to Donnie Tiny Hands…and that’s our right, that was our cunning plan, and we’ll do it again, thanks”)

    …its clear the DNC, (who aren’t what I’d call the Left, but anyway) and those that buy into Hilary’s leadership are clearly not able to acknowledge the truth of why they lost, as that would mean admitting that Neo Liberalism is fundamentally flawed, politically, economically, intellectually and socially.

    http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/dnc-argues-in-court-we-dont-owe-anyone-a-fair-primary-process/article/2621767

    1. Oh, Labour in NZ may take heart from that announcement, may they not?

  8. Middle and Working Class Americans chose Trump because they felt deserted by the Democratic Party.

    Just as Working Class Kiwis feel deserted by Labour, and for mostly the same reasons.

    The Democrats, consequently, have been perfecting their losing streak for a generation, watching their support plummet across the board.

    Just like NZ Labour.

    At some point, the Democrats got the idea that they could just cut out all that nasty electoral politics business and just go straight to the rich donors. So in the nicest possible way, they told the Working Class voters they could go and eff themselves.

    Just like NZ Labour.

    The Democrats now find themselves challenged by a resurgent, populist base of Party Members determined to clean out the stables and get real Working Class policies front and centre. The Establishment hacks, apparatchiks, stooges, professional pundits and elitist wonks are all shitting themselves.

    Unlike the New Zealand Labour Party, which still looks like an Undertakers and Actuaries Friendship Society meeting on a rainy Monday.

    Pity there’s no one on the Left here in NZ with the cajones to lead the charge and kick these time-servers out of the Party.

  9. Simple, we live in a modern day, globally intertwined, very complex world, where trade and other systems tie us into interdependency, so that we are left as mere tiny numbers in a system that so many of us feel we have NO way to influence anymore.

    The pro Trump vote was simply a wide spread protest vote, a rebellion by many voters kind of, to send home a damning message to the elites in power, that is not just the political puppet show elite, but the financial and corporate elite, who control the countries, societies and the whole globe that we live in.

    Sadly most Kiwis rather resemble “sheeples”, they go along with almost anything, or if they are disgruntled, simply moan and curse on talk back, or in their privacy, but who never organise these days and protest, unless it is about a liquor shop near their kid’s school.

    So perhaps that explains Trump’s success a bit.

    When you lose power, even lose your living standard, and feel like others always know better and patronise you, then people will eventually rebel, they nearly did it in France, but it will simply take a bit longer there, as Mr Macron will not deliver what he dreams of, and will stuff up, and that will offer fertile grounds for Marine LePen and others, to take advantage of.

    It will happen, just wait until the whole saga will unfold, eventually.

    1. We sadly have enough naive or idiotic people here and elsewhere still think that Donald Trump and his entourage are nothing else but the common people’s and the underdog’s “heroes” and “advocates”.

      How wrong they were.

        1. Come on, when they are evil, do not even compare them, face up to the truths, thanks.

        4. and speaking of “naive or idiotic people here and elsewhere”…are there still any true believers in Hillary Clinton around?!.

          RB, pointing to another person and saying “s/he is worse than XYZ, therefore that justifies XYZ’s election” isn’t much of an argument. You can validate just about anyone by pointing to someone else.

          Clinton isn’t President – Trump is. Therefore, he stands on his own record; his own actions; his own utterances. And thus far, they all seem pretty damned abysmal: https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2017/05/09/trumpwatch-whats-a-few-more-nails-in-the-planets-coffin

          1. we are talking about why people voted Trump and did not vote Clinton ( and why the Left still hasnt learned)

            ….Trump voters were not all stupid fascists by any means…many were working class, many were women most…and most were disgusted with Clinton and what she did to Libya and also her corruption and her backers….who are the absolute worst of the most ruthless capitalists

          2. Yet, RB, it seems that Trump’s record and behaviour apparently cannot be discussed without supporters chanelling Hillary Clinton, and posing her as a “bogeywoman”.

            Why is that?

            It reminds me of National supporters who supported Key by pointing to Helen Clark.

            The upshot? Neither Trump nor Key can stand on their own, for their record, without drawing criticism.

            Hence deflection to Clinton and Clark.

    2. RB, considering that RT.com is closely aligned with the Kremlin government (as is Fox TV with the Republicans in the US), it appears that the Russians leadership has taken off their kid-gloves when it comes to the Trump Administration.

      (Which is why keeping an eye on RT.Com is a valuable insight into Russian government policy.)

      I hope saner heads prevail in the Kremlin – we certainly won’t find any in the White House.

      1. If I want to watch an intelligent assessment of the international current affairs I watch R.T. If I want a bit of a laugh with how very ignorant commentators [with the odd exception]analyse events I watch Fox.If I want to watch insane commentators determined to destroy the planet I very occasionally watch C.N.N., with 3 red wines so I don’t get depressed!

  12. Spot on Martyn. I said the same before the election and got roundly castigated by the Hillary adoration society . Trump was never the issue, merely the punishment. The calls were “Anybody but Trump”. For that we were expected to swallow systemic corruption and the effective sidelining of huge swathes of the people. They were to “fall in line” and be lorded over and shitted on again, forever, so long as one thoroughly nauseous faction beat out another equally nauseous faction.

    It would seem to me that in this whole post election charade there are a lot of anti democratic power plays going on. The risk is to support and collude based upon position and personality, as opposed to taking the medicine and fixing it democratically, and properly. To follow the current path will cede what is left of democratic process to the “Deep State” and the moneyed Washington elites. If you want the New Fascism don’t look at Trump, he can be elected out, look to the unelected power seekers.

  14. And by ignoring the absolute rage of the working class these false ‘ leftists’ will continue to fail.

    As in England , as in New Zealand , as in America .

    And that’s probably the best medicine they could have ever been dished out.

    A good dose of their own shit and an even bigger dose of reality.

    And for that I’m glad Trump won.

    2. Really, Katipo? So Trump is provoking WW3 with Nth Korea and opening up the Arctic for oil drilling and you’re glad?? Why should the whole world suffer because you think the “absolute outrage of the working class” has been ignored? If that’s the price for assauging working class rage, then it’s a damned high cost to the environment and the people of the Korean peninsula. (Or the next place Trump decides to bomb)

  15. “It is the working class in America who have seen their factories moved off shore, it is the working class who see their kids shipped off to fight America’s corporate wars, it is the working class who compete with jobs from mass migration.”

    *Come in Mike Treen.

  16. Look Martyn the Democrats did it to themselves. They shafted Bernie Sanders and this is the outcome. Its easy and they need to own up to it.

      1. I don’t get this “Bernie would be different” song sheet. He might have been streets better than Clinton but he would still have been beholden to the Democratic party paymasters. Look at how the Deep State, the Washington elites and Wall St are still wagging the dog. IMHO the emasculation of democracy in the US has reached epic proportions and Bernie was no fix.

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