The Left Needs To Get A Grip, And So Do Trump’s Biggest Fans

Originally published on LonelyConservative.com

I made the mistake today of turning on the TV while The View was on. I didn’t keep it on for long, but long enough to know that the leftists need to get a grip on themselves. They were acting like the election of Donald Trump is going to bring back the KKK the likes of which we haven’t seen since the days of Bull Conner. (Oh, and isn’t it convenient how they always fail to mention that when the KKK had any influence it was run by a bunch of Democrats?)

It’s no secret that I’m not a big fan of Donald Trump, and I find the KKK people’s embrace of him kind of disturbing, but that doesn’t mean that the millions of people who voted for him are secret white nationalists. Just like all of the people who voted for Barack Obama aren’t all apostles of the church of Jeremiah Wright.

One thing that is pretty clear is that Obama didn’t have some left wing mandate when he took office. He might have thought he did, but the mid-term elections in 2010 and 2014 put that idea to rest. People just liked him, as a person, because he’s young and he’s cool. It wasn’t about policy.

As for Trump, he has a core of supporters that will stand behind him no matter what he does. But really, the only reason he won the election is that Hillary Clinton was such a horrible candidate. If Trump was that inspirational, if he truly led a massive movement, he would have won the popular vote and all of this talk of getting rid of the Electoral College wouldn’t even be happening.

So Stephen Moore’s declaration that the Republican Party is now the party of Trump, rather than the party of Reagan, is just preposterous. Yes, Trump won the Electoral College, but it was hardly a huge endorsement of Trumpism.

Let’s look at some figures:

In 1980, Ronald Reagan won the popular vote by 51-41% over an incumbent president. He won 44 of 50 states and smashed the Electoral College 489-49. In 1984, he was reelected in a stunning landslide, taking 49 of 50 states and obliterating his opponent in the Electoral College, 525-13. The only state that Walter Mondale in 1984 won was his home state of Minnesota.

In 1980 and 1984, Reagan twice won California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and even Massachusetts. He twice won pretty much everything.[…]

As Philip Bump notes in the Washington Post, Trump won Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin by 0.2, 0.7, and 0.8 percentage points, respectively — by 10,704, 46,765, and 22,177 votes. “Those three wins gave him 46 electoral votes; if Clinton had done one point better in each state, she’d have won the electoral vote, too,” Bump observes. “Or put another way: But for 79,646 votes cast in those three states, she’d be the next president of the United States.” Bump notes that more people were in attendance at the Ohio State Buckeyes football game in Columbus last weekend.

Moreover, as Nate Silver points out in an excellent historical analysis of Electoral College victories, Trump’s margin over Hillary in the Electoral College was a nice one but historically well below average (44 out of 54). It certainly ranks way below Reagan’s two massive victories (Reagan’s victories ranked 7^th and 3^rd out of 54).

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If there is any mandate to be found, Republicans in the House and Senate have more of an argument to make than Trump does. They kept the majority in both houses, plus Republicans now control more state governments than ever before. They write the laws, what they need is a president who will sign off. Now they have that, hopefully. And hopefully they will finally be able to follow through on their promises. If so I might re-enroll in their party.

For now, I’m only cautiously optimistic, which is better than the dread of the thought of Hillary Clinton in the White House. Then again, the way Donald Trump and Mike Pence used the power of government to save a thousand jobs in Indiana is kind of disturbing. Sure, it’s great that those people will keep their jobs, but at what cost to the rest of us? Since when are conservatives all about crony capitalism and economic fascism?

Oh, and now there are reports that Trump’s daughter Ivanka is going to act as the First Lady instead of his wife. That’s kind of weird, but I guess people could overlook it. But then the reports of how the wannabe liberal darling’s top issue is climate change should be a big red flag.

But hey, what do I know? I’m just a suburban mom in the flyover part of New York state trying to raise a family and make ends meet. If only I had the time to drink the Kool Aid maybe I’d feel differently.

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