Nobody In the Mainstream Seems to Understand Why Donald Trump Won in 2016

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 Here are some of the factors that played into Trump's 2016 victory:

  1. Trump invoked economic populism: He spoke on trade and job creation in states that Hillary Clinton ignored. Sure half of his speeches on the matter were lies and the other half were hype, but speaking to the concerns of blue-collar workers was enough to get votes.
  2. Voters still wanted change: There were quite of number of 2012 Obama voters who voted for Trump. It's hard to believe that these people because racist or misogynistic over an election cycle. It's more likely that after witnessing Obama bailing out banks, escalating drone strikes and ignoring the needs to working class protesters voters realized that the only change Obama represented was his appearance. 
  3. Trump was willing to attack members and ideas of his own party: Calling out the Iraq War to Jeb Bush's face, bullying Marc Rubio and making Ted Cruz look like a untrustworthy moron gave Trump the "maverick" label he needed to convince right-leaning independents that he wouldn't be a tool of the GOP (they were, of course, wrong). 
  4. Bernie Sanders lost the Democratic Primary: Similar to Trump, Sanders ran on economics. The key differences were (1) Sanders is a true believer and (2) Sanders thought that focusing solely on economic issues would be enough to traditional party voters to support him. Alas, the Democratic Establishment exploited that to paint Sanders as problematic with issues of race and gender, giving Clinton the ability to label Sanders as too fringe to get elected. Not having Sanders in any true power role in the Democratic Party lost the support of the True Base, and with Clinton not making a true concession to progressives, she didn't have the numbers or enthusiasm to match Trump. 
Now in 2020, everyone seems to be in denial of these factors. Trump would rather fearmonger about a Biden Administration leading to civil unrest (even though we're experiencing this right now under a Trump Administration) and push for tax cuts (a true staple of the GOP). The RNC wants to paint Joe Biden -who wrote the crime bill- as a law-hating socialist. The DNC, meanwhile, has dusted off their 2016 strategies and added "Trump is a puppet of Russia" to the mix. Joe Biden is basically arguing that Trump is rude. Sanders continues to be ignored when he's not falling over himself trying to get his supporters to vote for Biden. Voters who don't find either candidate appealing are either being ignored or shamed for not supporting the right tribe.

The candidate who offers immediate relief for the current crises (the pandemic, unemployment) and long-term solutions that would at least minimize any similar occurrences to negligible can win this election in a landslide. And I'm including any possible third party option in that scenario. Otherwise, it boils down to the old Reagan saying, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" 

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