¿Qué pasó?
*I’ve been waiting for this. Henry Flores weighs-in on the Trump election. VL
By Henry Flores, NewsTaco (4 minute read)
By now some of you are wondering where I’ve been since the electoral fiasco of last week? Bueno, I’ve been trying to understand the recent debacle and trying to place it in the proper context. More importantly, I’ve been trying to be an anchor for my little family and close friends who are all devastated. My daughter, a neuro-psychiatrist, on the other hand is tending to a large number of people who have been going to hospitals in Houston for emotional support. She joined us on that fateful evening hoping to share the joy of the first woman elected president of the United States; instead we all sat in shock trying to decide how disappointed we all were that the country is now in the hands of a very dangerous group of people.
So, What Happened?
One answer to this question is that Ms. Clinton did not receive the support necessary to win her election. Well, she did but did not. She won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College vote. This is a structure that has come under increasing fire in recent years. The Electoral College was and is a bad joke that was played on the American people at the beginning of the Republic. The guys who wrote the Constitution created this absurd institution to keep the people from electing an uneducated, uncultured, nincompoop to the presidency. Ha! The joke is on them because the people finally did elect an uneducated, uncultured, nincompoop to the presidency!
By some estimates Hillary won the popular vote by two million or more votes so she was the choice of the majority of the people but lost enough states that she could not translate the popular victory into an Electoral College one. This also happened to Al Gore in 2000 when the Supreme Court in all their legal brilliance gave the presidency over to GW (I still have trouble saying this guy’s name). The Supreme Court did not allow a thorough vetting of the election findings and instead ruled, along partisan lines, to give GW the presidency. And, GW gave us the long war in the Middle East that we are still fighting and an economic recession that bankrupted large numbers of Americans and institutions.
Another Reason Hillary Lost
Another reason Hillary lost was that her core constituencies just did not turn out to vote. Oh she overwhelmingly beat El Señor Naranja (can’t and won’t say this vato’s name either) among her constituent groups but not by enough and they didn’t come out enough to overcome the other person’s voters. This lost all of the sates she needed to win, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa.
On the other hand, the other guy received the lowest number of popular votes for any Republican president in recent history. Generally, there was just low voter turnout across the nation in all states. And, low voter turnout, according to conventional wisdom, works in favor of Republicans.
But Why Did This Happen?
Well, to tell you the truth, I’m not sure why it happened and I’m not sure anyone really has the answer to this question. However, I think it was a combination of a lot of things. For instance, I think that the public generally was turned off by both candidates. One is a bigoted, misogynistic, idiot while the other gave the impression that she owned the office before she even got there. One was horrible; the other projected a sense of entitlement. One was base; the other acted regally. Neither was attractive to the people who counted.
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Then, we have the emotional reasons. One stirred up the anger that is seething among a segment of the population that feel that what little place of privilege they thought they had was slipping away and a bunch of immigrants, people of color, LGBTQers, women and irresponsible young people were stealing it from them. Others felt that the other candidate just represented the same old agendas that had our country wallowing in the same good economic place for years.
None of this entire mess made any sense and defied all rules of logic. Now we have to gird our loins, hold our heads up, and prepare ourselves for four years of an ugly political and social world that we let happen. Maybe this election will be a lesson and we’ll wake up and start thinking of why it is important to vote and vote the right way.
Henry Flores, PhD, is the Distinguished University Research Professor, Institute of Public Administration and Public Service; Director, Masters in Public Administration (MPA); Professor of International Relations and Political Science at St. Mary’s University. He is the author of Latinos and the Voting Rights Act: The Search for Racial Purpose.
