Swing State Politics -- Why They Voted for Trump or Against Hillary

I was watching Meet the Press this morning and they did a section on the voters of the upper Mid-West states. Why did they vote for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and yet also voted for Donald Trump in 2016? I wish they had shown more interviews. It was interesting to hear those folks and what was on their mind. It appears there were many things they considered, mostly the same issues everyone in the country considered. There was Hillary's criminality, Trump's business experience, racism, misogyny, and bigotry, and probably some other things the t.v. spot didn't reveal. It mostly came down to the fact they were still out of work and they didn't feel Hillary Clinton was the president who would improve their lives. Chuck Todd also made the point that during the Democratic primaries these same districts voted for Bernie Sanders. How you go from voting for Sanders to voting for Trump says as much about their feelings toward Hillary Clinton as it does about their feelings for Donald Trump.

It appears the biggest piece of luggage Hillary was dragging around was the NAFTA treaty her husband Bill Clinton signed into law long ago. She didn't sign it, but she got the blame. If many of these folks believed she was a criminal, then we would have to ask them if the Comey letters played a part in a last minute decision to vote for Trump.

That, in a nutshell, seems to sum up the election: lies, misunderstandings, and people who believe these things because they are desperate.

I suppose we could argue that the Republicans last left the economy in a shambles and the Democrats salvaged it, creating millions of jobs. I suppose we could show them how Hillary's e-mail problems were simply not criminal. I suppose we could show them the NAFTA treaty was a culmination of Republican treaties and policies begun under Reagan and that Bill Clinton only signed the law because the Republicans would have passed it over his veto anyway. None of those things would have been believed or of any value to those voters.

The desperation of these people who have lost their unions, their jobs, their businesses, and their lifestyles, has left them desperate. Desperation is irrational and yet real. It shapes our thinking in ways another person who isn't desperate can't understand. It can't be argued with on a rational basis. Worse yet for politicians, sometimes the desperate person is absolutely correct. Yes, we could tell them that when their parents voted for Ronald Reagan their fate was sealed. But, that vote isn't on them, is it?

What did the Democrats do wrong? Was it that we didn't take Mitch McConnell out back and shoot him to break the Republican filibuster? Was it that we told gays it was alright to marry? Was it that we kept American soldiers out of war and harms way and that left them back home unemployed and stewing. Maybe we should have been crazy like the Republicans and sent them to war so their family could at least be proud they died in war.

Sarcasm aside, it's really hard to blame Democrats for anything except perhaps not having the absolutely perfect candidate for that region of the country. We seem to get that a lot. If only we had better candidates. Then again, maybe if we had voters who would have given Democrats the House of Representatives, so we could actually implement all our plans, then the economy might have grown faster and employed more people. Again, with filibustering we weren't going to achieve that.

In the end, I blame the Republicans.

What can we do now? Continue to uphold the Constitution and our values, continue to offer great plans to make America an even better place, find good candidates, avoid circular firing squads and focus on helping people and fighting the Republicans. These aren't new ideas and the devil is in the details of how we do these things. But, we're smart. We can do this. And, perhaps now, more than at any other recent time, we're motivated to fight and not take the crap the Republicans usually dish out to us and America.

I'll also take the advice of my political leaders Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton: keep an open mind and give Trump a chance. Being negative because just we're upset isn't the best way forward.