LOOKING BACK: Some reasons why Donald Trump won

This piece first appeared in The VOICE of November 12, 2016

It’s been almost four years since I wrote this piece after Donald Trump’s victory in 2016. Going through it, I still wonder if Trump will win again – especially because of #4, #5, #6 and #7

BY RATTAN MALL

DONALD Trump’s stunning victory shouldn’t actually have been so stunning – and here’s why:

1.Americans were just fed up with the establishment’s same old, same old tactics, especially as embodied by the Clintons – Bill, who was a two-term president, and Hillary, who was a senator and then secretary of state, and the millions they made from their connections to the rich and the powerful all around the world. That is why they were thrilled with slogans such as “Crooked Hillary” and “Lock her up”. The Clintons were perceived as being too greedy and too ambitious even by many fellow Democrats.

2. So when Donald Trump went ballistic about Muslims, Mexicans, women, you name it, most people compared that to the lies and deceptions of Washington, D.C. politicians. They just got pumped up about a chance to kick out the establishment figures – both those in the Republican Party and Clinton (actually, THE CLINTONS). Trump KNEW he could say anything against the establishment (“The system is rigged”) and his followers would just lap it up. Being outrageous and insulting really appealed to non-college-educated whites, especially males.

3. Hillary really didn’t help her own case by the sloppy handling of her email case that was only made worse by Bill meeting Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch at the Phoenix airport just before the FBI cleared her. How stupid was that?! So don’t blame the FBI Director for what happened after that. The Clintons created their OWN mess.

4. There is no doubt that Trump appealed to white racism – the usual mantra of ‘these guys (non-whites) are taking our jobs’, ‘they are changing or destroying our culture’ and so on. This group of supporters live in their own world and just don’t want to accept the multiculturalism that has swept across North America. They are ready to do ANYTHING just to turn back the tide – no matter how impossible that may seem. Donald’s victory may actually lead to a resurgence of white racism and cause a real headache for the law and order authorities.

5. BUT not all who supported Trump were racists. Many were and are genuinely worried about issues such as their Christian beliefs. Many are against abortion or gay rights and were worried that judges appointed by Clinton would turn the Supreme Court into a highly liberal court that would trample on what they see as their Biblical beliefs.

6. Not ALL Latinos / Hispanics were against Trump’s extreme rhetoric against “illegal immigrants” – not all immigrants. These Latinos (quite apparently a minority) regard themselves as Americans – not ‘Mexican Americans’; in fact, I came across such Mexican Americans in California back in 1991 who tried to be MORE American than American whites. That’s why there are so many Latino Republicans. (On the other hand, there were those who told me to learn Spanish or get out and that California was actually Mexican land stolen by the Americans and they were just claiming what was really theirs historically!)

7. There is also a lot of racism between blacks and Latinos – and Latinos can sometimes be more racist against blacks than even whites. I actually witnessed that in California myself. So not all Latinos were or are supporters of President Barack Obama.

8. To begin with, it was the HYPOCRISY of the Republican establishment that led to Trump’s emergence. It was so obvious and yet most media and those appalled at Trump’s manner of doing things, including the Republican bosses themselves, just kept waiting for his campaign to collapse. Well, it didn’t collapse – it THRIVED!

9. Many Bernie Sanders’ supporters could never bring themselves to vote for Clinton. Of course, there were those males who just didn’t want a female boss – but then there were those who did want a woman president – but JUST NOT Hillary!