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Discussion » Questions » Politics » Why are some folks STILL obsessing over President Trump's election a full year after the fact?

Why are some folks STILL obsessing over President Trump's election a full year after the fact?

From CNN:

On November 8, thousands of Americans say they will mark the anniversary of Donald Trump's election by meeting across the country to "scream helplessly at the sky." The Facebook page for the event in New York says 2,500 will attend and 15,000 are interested. The mood seems ironic, and the cool weather might put people off. But Trump would love it. He lives for division, he succeeds by driving his opponents mad. Screaming is a concession of defeat.

The emotions implied are understandable. Not only was Trump not supposed to win in 2016 on account of his personality and views, but also, by some counts, he didn't win. He lost the popular vote and captured the electoral college so narrowly that but for 80,000 in three states, he would've lost.

To the liberal mind, he triumphed by error, by accident, by Hillary Clinton's own fault -- forgetting to campaign properly in Michigan the same way that you might forget to fasten a window and, damn it, you let a burglar in. These are the tantalizing "what-ifs" of history that keep us all living on a knife edge. What if James Comey hadn't announced that the FBI was looking at some emails related to Hillary Clinton just days before the election?

The answer is that he did, so deal with it. The Democrats' constant, tortured analysis of what went wrong, howling at the moon in anger or jest, is not only backward-looking but an insult to the voters who made a rational decision to switch to Donald Trump.

They aren't all racists. They weren't all duped. They weighed up the candidacies of Trump and Clinton and concluded, on balance, that one represented change and the other continuity.

Having Clinton constantly on TV a year later -- like some exiled monarch, still furious with the peasants that threw her out -- only reinforces the sense that the Democrats are less angry with Trump than they're angry with the voters. And that is no way to win a future election.

It's a false analysis. Trump didn't win by luck. He won because he identified with the despair of enough people in precisely enough parts of the country. And the very fact that the inspiration for the liberal scream fest came from a Boston Facebook group, now shut down, points to the challenge that many liberals simply don't live in the parts of the country that feel this existential pain.

That's not a judgment on liberals: Not everyone who voted for Clinton was a rich, white college student. On the contrary, she won comfortably among those demographics who probably have the strongest claim to be alienated, marginalized and in real need of help, although not as convincingly as Barack Obama did.

Meanwhile, Trump, the outsider, managed to identify the concerns of powerful constituencies in the heartland: rising crime, bad infrastructure, war and job loss. Were his solutions the best? Most of the country thought not. Has his time in office begun to turn things around? Slowly, maybe, we hope. But the point is that on that November 8, 2016, Trump spoke to many Democratic voters in a way that the actual Democratic nominee failed to do. Rather than being frustrated at the Republicans for that, it makes more sense to scrutinize the Democratic Party.

This is happening: It feels like there might be a reckoning over the charge that Clinton and the DNC "rigged" last year's primaries. But where is the new generation of candidates to challenge Trump in 2020? What is the answer to Trump's new direction in foreign policy and trade? Is there a center-ground to fight on in the culture, a safe space from both televangelists and gender-bending radical pronouns?
 
Trump's popular support has slipped since last year, narrowing and solidifying on the hard right of American life. The Democrats have to both energize the left and occupy the center, which is very hard to do. But screaming publicly or internally won't help. Liberals risk becoming as obsessed with Trump's election victory as he is -- locked in a never-ending debate about the past, while the rest of the country dreams of moving on.

Posted - November 6, 2017

Responses


  • 1233
    Ultimately I understand why the leftist is desperate. For decades the left have known that if they lost an election it would only slow their agenda not reverse it. Trump is first republican president in generations who isn’t a RINO and has the money and balls to go up against the establishment.

    They’re right to be freaked out. As irritating as their anti Trump campaign is, they have no choice. We are going to destroy them. The leftist tears taste so sweet and this is just the beginning. 
      November 6, 2017 11:08 AM MST
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  • 13071
    Amen brother. ;D
      November 7, 2017 4:15 AM MST
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  • 1713
    Some people just can't take a loss and move on. I wasn't happy when my man lost, but I got over it and went back to my boring old life.
      November 6, 2017 11:24 AM MST
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  • Their negative obsession with President Trump is like a virus, that has, over time, had a corrupting influence on their morals, intellect, and ability to think rationally.  I can understand it when a 3 year old lays on the floor screaming and kicking their feet in a hissy fit because they didn't get what they want but when you see grown people doing it, it kind of makes you want to give them some Tinker Toys to play with to keep them from further embarrassing themselves. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at November 7, 2017 8:05 AM MST
      November 6, 2017 1:38 PM MST
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  • 19942
    You mean the way Trump obsesses over Hillary and Obama? 
      November 6, 2017 2:43 PM MST
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  • Agreed. Obsession works both ways but this question was about people obsessing over Trump not Trump obsessing over Hillary and Obama. My answer was according to the question asked.
      November 7, 2017 6:11 AM MST
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  • 19942
    Those obsessed with Trump are probably still in a state of shock that he actually became president. 
      November 7, 2017 12:44 PM MST
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  • 22891
    cause they cant think about anything else
      November 6, 2017 2:41 PM MST
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  • 6098
    Well you seem to want more to editorialize than receive an answer to your question.  But I think many people are offended by Trump because they see him as common and uncouth. They want to "perfect" the world and he won't be "perfected" - he's just a regular guy doing the best he can.  Which many of us can relate to.  And is a good policy to follow no matter who is president. 
      November 7, 2017 5:34 AM MST
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  • It seems that most of the people that are offended by Trump are those of the opposing party. Partly because he is common, and not a career politician. And partly because he is not so much uncouth as he is blunt, outspoken, determined and not easily pushed around or controlled. The career politicians hate the idea that Trump isn't a yes man or business as usual established career politician. He doesn't fit their mold and there's little to nothing they can do about it. So they obsess and attack.
      November 7, 2017 6:24 AM MST
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  • 6098
    Very true I think Hezekiah. 
      November 10, 2017 6:16 AM MST
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  • 13251
    Actually, I wasn't editorializing at all. All I did was post the CNN piece and pose the question.
      November 13, 2017 11:52 AM MST
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  • 5354
    He is a small man with a small mind, ill informed and superficial. I rather think that he himself believes that "Hillary gave 20% of USAs uranium to the Russians" even though it only takes a brief google search to debunk that rumor. Trump did not even bother to do that before he passed it on as a 'Presidential Truth'.

    Have anyone tried to count the how many long time members of the Republican party have given up their political posts and walked out, to avoid being seen as any part of Trumps base ? This post was edited by JakobA the unAmerican. at November 13, 2017 11:53 AM MST
      November 7, 2017 6:01 AM MST
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  • 6098
    There you have it. I rest my case! This post was edited by officegirl at November 13, 2017 11:53 AM MST
      November 7, 2017 6:07 AM MST
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  • 5354
    Always happy to help
    Have You checked how many politically active GoP members have walked after trump got elected ? :-)
      November 10, 2017 8:53 AM MST
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  • The anti-Trump behavior transcends obsession. It clearly falls into the category of fanaticism. Such is not only emotionally unhealthy, it's difficult to either understand or contend with by the rest of us. I guess there are distinct advantages to having a life after all.
      November 7, 2017 12:53 PM MST
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  • 3463
    I have wondered the same thing.
    Those who support him and believe his lies and give him a free pass for all the things he does are clearly obsessed with him.
    I sure don't remember them giving another president that kind of slack.
      November 7, 2017 12:58 PM MST
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  • 5354
    One reson for Ms Clinton being in the news so much, may be that it is much easier to get a real political comment from her on something that have happened. With Trump you may get just about about anything, no matter how unrelated to the question asked ;-))
      November 14, 2017 2:12 PM MST
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  • 7280
    Well if we don't remain cognizant of the national disaster that has befallen us in the last presidential election cycle, we may be doomed to repeat it.

    And when you have incorrectly totaled a column of numbers, you don't move forward from where you discovered the mistake, you go back to the beginning and undo it.

    The USA is way off course and desperately needs to stop and re-calibrate the compass on the Ship of State.


      November 14, 2017 6:53 PM MST
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