To quote my previous article of Nov. 4, “Election 2016: Is Another Contested Election in the Works”:
“What the preceding analysis suggests is that Trump’s ability to turnout a highly disaffected white working class base in the Pennsylvania to Wisconsin geographic “arc” may prove the determining factor in the election. Whether Hillary can neutralise that turnout by counter-mobilising suburbanites, minorities, and millennials (the least likely) in those same great lakes region “swing states” is the fundamental question in this election.”
(see the blog jackrasmus.com, or https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/election-2016-is-another-contested-election-2000-in-the-works/ for the full article)
This election was, as I continually have said since summer, a “rebellion of the working class” against the political elite of both Democrat and Republican parties. Trump was able to mobilise and turnout his base of non-college educated working class (combined with the traditional conservative rural, small town, small business base) more effectively than Hillary Clinton was able to turn out her base of suburbanites, minorities, college educated, and women.
More white non-college workers switched from Democrat and voted Trump in 2016 than they switched and voted for Reagan in 1980.
Clinton Latinos turned out to vote significantly less than they did for Obama in 2012. Obama’s Latino margin over Romney was 44%; Clinton’s only 36%. Women over 45 went for Trump, and millennials turned out in less percent for Clinton in 2016 than for Obama in 2012.
The states that put Trump over the top were once heavily working class and Democratic Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, with Michigan and Minnesota likely to follow as well when the final vote is tallied. These are the states most severely impacted by free trade, offshoring of jobs, and declining living standards.
Public Opinion polls totally mis-forecast the US election, as they did with the UK Brexit referendum vote last June. They predicted a 3-5% vote in favour of Clinton. The popular vote was in favour of Trump.
For a more in-depth analysis, and “what happens next”, see my follow up article to be published later today.
Featured image courtesy: Getty Image
About the Author
Jack Rasmus is the author of ‘Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy’, Clarity Press, 2015. He blogs at jackrasmus.com. His website is www.kyklosproductions.com and twitter handle, @drjackrasmus.
