It’s not just the Deplorables, Stupid

-->

One of the questions that people keep asking in the wake of the Trump victory is, how to explain this outcome to your children. The awkwardness that is implied reminds one of the discomfort that surrounds giving “The Talk”. Yes, that one. You know, the one about where babies come from. Actually, some of Trump’s antics and utterances during the campaign and in his prior lives also included stuff that you would not wish to mention in front of the children. But that’s by the by.

The short answer to the question is that the Trump victory provides a lesson in civics. That you get what you vote for. Or, more to the point, what you didn’t vote for.

Let me explain.

As the post-election autopsy progresses, we hear that nearly half of eligible Americans didn’t vote. Of the half that did, 25.5% voted for Trump and 25.6% for Clinton, giving Mrs Clinton a paper-thin majority in the popular vote. Not enough for the winning magic in the electoral colleges because, for that, you need to win in the states with big Electoral College numbers. But in these, only 29.9% opted for Clinton, whilst for Trump 30.9% did.

It is significant also that, among those who voted in this election, 70% were white. Most of these (58%) voted Trump, whilst Clinton could only manage 37%. The 30% that were non-white included among them, 23% Black and Latino who, in the event, voted massively for Clinton (88% of blacks and 65% of Latinos). But, in their totality, their numbers did not amount to anything enough to make a significant impact.

You may well ask then, where was the demographic shift they keep telling us about when it was needed? The narrative, though, is that all kinds of obstacles were placed in the way of minority voters when they attempt to vote and even before they thought of voting. Not good enough, I say. We’re not talking about a Third World dictatorship here. If you didn’t want Trump to win, then you should have gone out to vote.No excuse is tenable.

So, it’s not just the Deplorables, stupid. It’s you as well.

And that’s what you should tell the children.

Tell Fren Tru

Vote For Clinton. Vote Democrats all The Way

I have had enough. There has been far too much nonsense coming out of America over the last two years as to who should be the next president of the United States.

I just don’t get it that there are actually people who want to see Donald Trump become potentially the most powerful man on earth. The idea is absolutely crazy. Apart from having no track record in government whatsoever, Trump is a morally bankrupt character who should not be let anywhere near the reins of government, even for the office of dog-catcher. Don’t misunderstand me. Dog-catching is an honourable profession and it is a good entry-level job in which rookies can cut their teeth in the arts of public administration. But between it and the office of President there is an immeasurable gap, which no rookie can hope to adequately bridge by merely going through the motions of primary electoral politics. At this point I can hear you say, "some motions, some primary", for this 2016 cycle.

But to put this man without a resume against Mrs Clinton who has a CV to die for is a preposterous bit of nonsense which, even American reality television must find breath-taking. There is absolutely no comparison. The best that can be said for the Trump experience and qualification is that he can leverage himself out of financial disasters that he created himself.

            Then there is the question of “trust” which, in the lexicon of this election can be re-stated as “criminal tendencies”. Against Clinton, several so-called crimes are listed: The Clinton Foundation shenanigans, so-called; official State Department emails sent from and received in a private email server: a Hillary@ hotmail.com instead of a hillary.clinton.gov one, for example. Negligent, perhaps. But criminal? Give us a break. And then, Benghazi. Will someone please tell me what is it about Benghazi that blows the wind up the skirts of Clinton’s detractors? Please, please tell. There is absolutely no moral equivalence with Donald Trump. The man has a charge sheet as long as your arm, starting with trampling over the civil rights of African-American’s equal access to his rental property in New York; then there is his dodgy manipulation of the tax laws that allowed him to evade decades of federal income tax; then there is his university, for which he is under indictment for miss-selling and racketeering. These should have been enough to disqualify anyone except in a party that has completely lost its way. And then, there is the man’s moral unfitness: He mocks the disabled, he abuses Mexicans, he imputes the impartiality of a judge because of his ethnic heritage, he makes fun of women for their natural physiological processes; he derides war heroes because of their religion. Good grief, is there anything that this man won’t do? And that is before we hear of his abominable predatory sexual activities, some self-confessed.

And yet, some of you want to vote for him?  But many of you know that he is not right for the country and the world because, polls indicate that many are reluctant to confess that they will vote for him because they are ashamed. If you are embarrassed, why put him in the White House, for crying out loud? The least you can do is to abstain.

For those of you who are American, and are sensible and patriotic, and have a feeling for the rest of the world, get out there and vote for Clinton and the other Democrats who are trying to make America a better place. The world is looking on.

Tell Fren Tru