Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Liberals Elected Trump?

I was listening to an interview the other day, with a Utah polling organization, discussing Trump's first weeks in Office.

At least in Utah, it seems the majority of people don't really approve of many of the actions Trump is taking. particularly the immigration blocking and wall building bits.

The interviewer pointed out that Trump is only doing what he promised to do, so why such a negative reaction, even from those who voted for him?

The interviewer noted that this wasn't really such a surprise, given the exit polls. (Again, at least in Utah) The exit polls indicated that most people who voted for Trump were "Holding their nose" as they did so.

So, they didn't vote for Trump, they voted against Clinton. That is only marginally surprising, considering Utah has been strongly Republican for decades. But what was interesting from the polls was that the decision this last election seems to have hinged largely on one point.

The Supreme Court appointment.

This one point may very well have decided the outcome of the election.

Why was this one thing so important that it mobilized so many to take a position they didn't really want to take?


January 2010 - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on health care: “We’ll go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, we’ll go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in but we're going to get health care reform passed for the America people."

(a healthcare reform they excluded themselves from...)

2008 Prop 8  (Bill to establish marriage as valid only if between a man and a woman) passed in California by a 52% Majority. Ignore for a moment any personal feelings you may have regarding this, just consider this. It had a majority. It was overturned by one (1) judge who was in a same-sex relationship. (To take emotion out of this, try to imagine you passed a law making burglary illegal, and it was overturned by a Judge who happened to be a burglar).

Following that, there were several lawsuits against various Photographers, Bakers, etc... who refused to provide their services to same-sex marriages, where the legal system ordered that said businesses would render their services, or would lose their livelihood. Place these cases in context. First, they are not required or life-sustaining services (this is less important to the point of being nearly irrelevant but I mention it anyway). Second, these were all forms of artistic expression, which usually is recognized as free speech (Hustler Magazine won multiple legal battles against censorship on this ground, Political cartoonists and other satirists have wielded the free speech banner to defend their right to draw Mohammed and other religious figures...). So in effect, one judge was violating an individual's right to free speech, by ordering them to celebrate in art something which they felt was morally wrong. (again, you are welcome to disagree with their moral views, refuse to do business with them, encourage your friends to refuse to do business with them. By all means do, and good on you for sticking by your personal mores).


Also in 2008, President Obama made the following statement:
"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

What stuck in people's minds?

"Small towns"
"Bitter"
"Cling to guns or religion"


and then there were headlines like this from 2015: "Four years after agreeing to “sequestration” budget cuts, the White House has emphatically told Congress that President Obama will no longer abide by them and will use his veto to insist that lawmakers boost spending on defense and domestic programs alike."

Suddenly Pelosi's speech sounds like it is about more than healthcare. Suddenly it sounds like a call to war... against...?


So, roughly half of America wasn't just not getting things the way they wanted, they were actively being marginalized, bullied, backstabbed, forced to abandon their opinions, mores, ways of life... Treated as worthless, dumb, sub-humans.

If a black bear is in your garden, you generally can make a ruckus, chase it off, and that is that. If you keep chasing it, corner it, give it no place to go... well... then it may get desperate. This is true of most any animal. It is part of evolution, fight or flight... When flight is no longer on the table...

So... it seems to me, when I look at all the bits and pieces, that perhaps the liberals created  - and elected - Trump.



(P.S. perhaps we shouldn't have let the extreme left and right take over.)