Trump's appeal shocked political elite, mainstream media

Russell McDermott, columnist
Russell McDermott, columnist

I went off to bed a touch after 1 a.m., just after a couple of major news outlets called Pennsylvania for Donald Trump. I knew it was over then. Of course it had really been over for a while. But the last returns came in slowly in the key swing states and they were too close to call. It seemed like hours that the electoral vote was stuck at 215 for Hillary Clinton and 244 for Trump.

Still, I soldiered on. Then a couple of more states reported and Trump was within 26 votes to the White House. It dragged on even longer. And then Pennsylvania. It was a heck of an election night. Sort of like the World Series of elections. Trump started in the lead and never gave it up. But it was close for a while.

Now we have a new president. The "we" is important.

Lots of folks are unhappy in the wake of the election. Marginally more than that are celebrating. I keep seeing Trump supporters on Facebook saying "the people have spoken." True, but they spoke for Clinton. It looks like she won the popular vote and only the Electoral College-which a lot of folks on the right hated Monday but absolutely love today-made Trump the commander in chief.

That's fine. That's our system and it worked as it should. It's not the first time a candidate has lost the popular vote and won the presidency. Probably won't be the last.

So, what will the next four years bring? Your guess is as good as mine.

Heck, I didn't think Trump would get this far. I figured the whole thing was a joke, a way for Trump to drum up even more publicity and increase the value of his brand. Some inside his campaign have hinted there might be more than a kernel of truth in that idea.

But then it got real. Very real. He started winning. Then he had the nomination. And now he has the White House.

Have to hand it to him even if you were a Hillary supporter. Pretty awesome effort no matter how it started.

Trump rode a wave of populist anger against the status quo in Washington. There are a lot of folks out there who consider our government to be corrupt and beholden to special interests and particular constituencies. Hillary Clinton came to embody that legacy, whether justified or not.

That anti-government sentiment carries over into the economic despair many feel as well. I can't remember who said it-lots of the words I heard on TV last night run together-but as one commentator put it, the poor are looked after, the very rich are looked after and the middle class gets nothing but the privilege of paying the bill.

Simplistic to be sure, but there is some truth to it. Middle-class wages have been stagnant for years. High-paying manufacturing positions have been shipped overseas and replaced with low-wage service jobs. The rich-who have benefited since President Reagan from tax cuts under the sketchy theory they would invest their windfall in U.S. and create good jobs-have made out like bandits. They even get bailouts and golden parachutes when they screw things up.

The poor-some on temporary assistance and a smaller but visible number who appear to be making a career of it-have a variety of social services to help with food, housing, transportation and even utilities. It's not surprising many who work to pay their bills and taxes feel they have gotten the short end of the stick.

Trump promised to "drain the swamp" and bring good paying jobs back to the U.S. He said he will crack down on government fraud and abuse. Like any good populist, he tells the people what they want to hear.

He also played to some less palatable aspects of populism as well. Every movement needs a scapegoat or two, and Trump was never shy about singling out enemies. His comments were sometimes ugly. The words of some of his followers uglier.

He tapped into a general feeling among straight, white, Christian Americans that they are losing their hold on the country. Since the country's founding they have made the rules, set the standards and everyone else was expected to follow along. That's changing. People of color, those of different religious beliefs and ethnicities and the LGBT community are pushing back and winning. That loss of power is frightening for many.

Is there some racism in that? Sure, but I would argue it's primarily unconscious. It's simplistic to just dismiss Trump supporters as bigoted or xenophobic. There is that element-white supremacists publicly backed him-but there are a lot of good, decent Trump supporters who would never knowingly countenance prejudice.

The big picture is many Americans are just feeling lost, scared, angry and betrayed by the system. Trump gave them hope that Democrats and mainstream Republicans have not. The political establishment and the media never saw it coming.

I don't know what Trump will do. I don't know what he can do. It's easy to make promises. It's harder to see them to fruition. He has to contend with Congress-even though both the House and Senate remain under GOP control-and the courts. He has to contend with the markets, where presidents have little control but catch a lot of the blame. He has to contend with foreign leaders. He has to keep his own emotions in check and look to what's best for the country as a whole, as any president must.

It's a tough job. And we should all hope he's up to it.

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