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WOW!  I never saw that coming.  President Trump.  To a point, it feels like people who, after watching the World Trade Centers collapse, kept saying, "it didn't seem real.  It was like watching a movie."  This is a very different type of American tragedy, but as I watch it, I feels like I'm watching a bad movie.

This is how I'm getting through my morning:

Thank God for her...

Hillary Clinton's political career is over, and Trump supporters are eagerly waiting for her to get hauled off to Guantanamo without charges or a trial.  Her biggest crime was she was 30 years too soon for this country to accept.  Then again, where the heck this country will be in 30 years remains to be seen.  This morning, my retirement fund is taking a beating.  Just because Trump was elected, my retirement is pushed back 2 to 4 years, and that's BEFORE any Trump economic policies are initiated (shudder).

What happened?  Thinking about it last night (I didn't sleep much) I've come up with a list of reasons on why Trump won, and although the analysts and numbers people might have some different theories, you can't deny all of these played a part; some larger, some smaller.

Before I get into the list, I've already heard from some Democrats starting to float the idea of a conspiracy of a magnitude I can't grasp.  Considering how many states voting systems would've had to be undermined, and how each of those states vote differently from each other, that's laughable.  Democrats in swing states just didn't show up (more on that in a bit).

Here's why I think Trump won:

Racism

Racism is indeed alive and well in the USA.  We all knew it was still here.  When you hear someone say, "Obama is black so racism is over," that's racism to it's core.  The root cause of the racism has changed.  Older racism was based on the incorrect feeling other races were inferior, and it still exists in the darkest elements of our society, but this modern racism is additionally fueled by our blame someone else culture.  You didn't get a job?  It wasn't because you weren't qualified; it was those damn Latinos!  You didn't get into college?  It wasn't because you didn't have the grades; it was because black people took all the scholarships!  You don't have any money?  It's not because you were foolish with your money and did't save it correctly; it was the Jews!  This modern racism is directly cultivated out of the resentment of the 1960's civil rights movement, and now it's gone mainstream.  Yes, racism is alive and well, and by cultivating the unbelievable racism against our first black president, and embracing the white power culture, Trump got them to show up and vote.

Misogyny

The comedian Patton Oswalt said it best last night on Twitter:  "What I've learned so far tonight; America is WAAAAAAAAY more sexist than it is racist.  And it's pretty F-ing racist."  There's a definitive sexism in America today, epitomized by WOMEN wearing t-shirts encouraging Trump to grab them by the P-.  It's bad enough this frat boy world has been legitimized, setting this country's fight for women's equality back 25 years, but to see women so gleefully root against their best interest is mind numbing.  They must really like that 75 cents on the dollar.

Idiots 

There's a incredible amount of Republican voters who are stupid.  They just are.  When they went into the voting booth yesterday, their only motivation was to vote against Hillary.  At no point did they actually think about what they were doing, because if they did, they'd realize they're idiots to even think about voting for him.  Much like the aftermath of Brexit, when Britain realized they'd voted for an absolutely insane idea, Republicans, after they get done with their high-fiving and their chest bumping, will start to second guess themselves.  They're the idiot who throws their phone into a lake, right at the moment where they release the phone from their hand, when the throwing of the phone seemed like a great idea.  It won't take long before the reality of what they've done sets in.  Here's the wildest part of the idiots; no matter what disastrous policies Trump puts into place, they'll always find a way to blame the Democrats, regardless of how out of the loop the Dems are.

Fake Religion

Evangelicals can now officially give it up.  There is no way I will EVER take your Christianity seriously ever again.  Your first God is voting against Hillary, your second God is voting against Democrats, and then you embrace Jesus, but only the parts which don't interfere with the GOP political platform.  He's the least Christian candidate I've ever seen, a villain straight from Biblical passages itself, and you proudly put him on your shoulders.  He likely has sexually assaulted women, his wife has a less than Christian past (remember when you hacks got upset because Michelle Obama wore a sleeveless shirt? I've got some photo's to show you!  Who am I kidding.  You've already seen them and you don't care!), he proudly bragged about grabbing women by the P-, and, until recently, he was facing charges of raping a 13 year old at a party thrown by a known pedophile, but he's the guy you think is Christian.  For goodness sake, he doesn't even know the books of the Bible.  You justify your love of him by saying 'everyone has faults,' but you never gave Hillary any leeway on HER faults.  Nope, you're frauds and I'll never take your Christianity seriously ever again.

Debbie Wassermann Schultz

DWS, by her pandering to the Clinton camp for a potential cabinet position, actively tried to make Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee, while she was in charge of the DNC.  No one was fooled by her claims of neutrality.  Back when RT Rybak and Tulsi Gabbard brought up their concerns, her vindictiveness showed me the truth.  Bernie hurt himself by not competing in the Southeastern primaries/caucuses, but her undeniable favoritism helped drive a wedge between the Democrats, which was utilized to perfection by Trump.

The FBI

The FBI went out of their way to make sure Hillary Clinton lost.  This whole dog and pony show about the 'new' e-mails was a red herring, a canard designed to make Hillary look unelectable right before the election.  Rudy Giuliani and Rep. Jason Chaffetz worked with the FBI to ensure the release of the fake information had the most effect, and FBI director Comey's Sunday admission was designed to make it seem like the FBI has done their due diligence, but his 'findings' were specifically released on the Sunday before the election to give the FBI minimal cover, while reaping the benefits of their fake allegations.

Voter Suppression 

You can't deny the GOP has masterfully thinned the ranks of Democratic voters by creating incredible hurdles for Democrats to vote.  They even bragged about it in North Carolina.  Today, victorious state Republican parties are writing new voting restriction laws to be passed ASAP.  This is going to get a lot worse.

Blind Allegiance

The GOP had a toxic candidate, someone who clearly should've driven the moderate and Reagan Republicans away from him.  They had very little national coordination of a get out the vote campaign, and most of their money was delivered via a handful of big donors who focused on ads ripping Dems instead of encouraging voting.  The Democrats had a less toxic candidate, a more effective level of national voter coordination and a succinct get out the vote campaign.  What we learned in 2016 is the entirety of the GOP will always vote for whomever is on top of the ticket, even a massive pile of orange crap, as long as there is an 'R' next to their name.  Every freaking Republican showed up and cast a vote for Trump; everyone of them.   The Democrats for Clinton?  Not so much.

Russia/Wikileaks

The Psy Ops campaign run by Russia and Wikileaks succeeded in its goal.  When Comedian Samantha Bee went to Russia and actually talked to Russians who had set up numerous fake social media accounts, pretending to be Americans to convince voters that Trump was a viable option, it terrified me.  It worked like a charm, and it will likely work for elections to come.  Any argument Wikileaks is anything more than an offshoot of Russian propaganda is moot.  The goal was to get an extremely friendly pro-Putin President in power, and it worked.  The US has officially been taken over by the Russians.  Can you imagine if this level of coordination existed between the Clinton camp and, say, the Chinese?

Third Party Candidates

Jill Stein and Gary Johnson individually didn't cost Hillary the election, but combined they sure didn't help the Democrats.  A lot of Bernie supporters and millennials felt as if they were being avant garde with their third party vote, like it was a decorative scarf or hot new phone app.  The reality is those votes, whether you consider them a sign of America's greatness or a stupid waste of an individual's voice, helped ensure President Trump.

The News Media

I hashed this out in the post 'Media Fail' (http://progressivecitizenx.blogspot.com/2016/11/media-fail.html).  Already, the news media is insisting they were very honest about Trump's faults from the beginning.  I don't think I'll ever trust traditional mainstream media ever again.

Clinton Supporters

I want to be delicate here.  I don't want to rub salt in the copious wounds, but we need to face a fact: Clinton supporters were too intense at stopping anyone from getting in Hillary's way.  The DWS anti-Bernie hijinks aside, Clinton-ians were over the top at times.  When rumors began that Vice President Joe Biden might enter the race (by the way, the only Democrat who could've won in 2016), Clinton supporters started an all out assault on his age and mental health, a vicious attack which focused on Biden losing his son.  The only reason they did this was to discourage his running, and to convince Democrats he wasn't a viable candidate.  I understand 2008 hurt Clinton fans, but the feeling Hillary should've been coronated without a contest was misguided, and hurt the party in the long run.

Bernie Supporters

This morning I was greeted by Bernie supporters spraying smugness across social media like they were the real victors last night.  This glee at Hillary losing, and it's a jubilant glee, embodies their secret desire to see Hillary fail first and foremost.  Now they are all applauding the house fire their country has become.  1) You might have been right about Hillary's electability, but Bernie wasn't a slam dunk either, and you're being jackasses, 2) I can guarantee your candidate next election will be a hard sell for me after you've shown me how loyal you really are to the Democrats.  3) You're not a bystander.  You're on fire too.  Let's see how you feel after the rights you've grown up with are taken away, likely never to return in your lifetime.  My guess is your smugness will decrease just a smidge.  Bernie supporters wanted Bernie to win, but needed the Democrats to pull it off.  There are quite a few Bernie-crats who never cared at all about the Democratic ticket, outside of a handful of candidates.  If you were more excited about the social media zingers you were going bandy about the day after the election, verses being angry about a fascist getting elected, you were part of the problem in 2016.

Democrats

One undeniable reality, Democrats SUCK at voting.  Even though Hillary will likely win the overall vote total, the voter turnout for Democrats in swing states was horrific.  I'm convinced this wasn't just Democrats who hated Hillary not showing up.  You're telling me the MN-02 Democrats hated Hillary so much they opted for Jason Lewis AND Trump?  Please.  This Democrat malaise goes well beyond anti-Hillary sentiment.  108,600,000 eligible voters DIDN'T vote in 2016.  With research showing the non-voters are overwhelmingly Democrats, it's not a big jump to say if only 10 million more people voted, Hillary would've won in an electoral college landslide, and Republicans would be lucky to have 25% of the US House and 30% of the US Senate.  I'm not sure what it'll take for Democrats to take voting in elections seriously, but we're about to test those limits.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF TRUMP FOLLOWS THROUGH ON ALL THE CAMPAIGN PROMISES HE'S MADE, CAMPAIGN PROMISES HIS SUPPORTERS ALL ENDORSED WITH THEIR VOTES LAST NIGHT:

Hillary Clinton will be arrested, without a trial, and locked top.  We're going to build a wall across the Mexican border which will cost us trillions, and no, Mexico will not pay for it, nor will it stop undocumented workers from entering the country.  We're going to start rounding up Muslims, throwing them out of our country for no other reason other than their religion.  We are going to start encouraging more nuclear weapons in more countries.  We're going to start torturing our enemy, and the enemy's families.  We're going to witness the end of NATO, and our world alliances, and our foreign relations will be tested at World War II levels.  We're going to have a government who'll consider Vldamir Putin's concerns prior to the well being of our own.  We'll see the end of US industry as Trump will encourage the shipping of the remainder of our industrial base to foreign countries, as they can do it cheaper.  We'll have millions of people without any health care options at all, as the ACA will be repealed.  Social Security and Medicare are also likely gone.  Roe v. Wade will be overruled by a constitutional amendment, which will allow wealthy people legal access to US abortions while the non-wealthy will be prosecuted for trying to attain one, even in cases of rape, incest and the life of the mother.  The Supreme Court will have unqualified, extreme pro corporate interest judges appointed, which will erode American citizen's rights for decades to come.  We'll have the national parks chopped up and sold to the highest bidder for industrial use and private vacation homes.  College will become A LOT more expensive, and only available for a select few.  Transportation projects designed for the public good will be scrapped.  Toll roads are about to become FAR more common.  Climate change will not only be ignored, CO2 fuels will be used at higher and higher levels as we opt out of our emission reduction promises.  The wealthy will not only pay zero taxes, they'll actually get refunds for no other reason other than they're wealthy.  Workers rights will be annihilated.  Unions will be outlawed.  The average American worker will make 10-25% less per year.  The US's economy will likely face a 2nd Great Depression, dragging the world's economy down with it for decades to come.  Gay marriage will be made illegal again, and my guess is there will be tremendous pressure to make the LGBT community itself illegal, forcing big government into people bedrooms.  Guns are going to be EVERYWHERE! And we'll likely have multiple wars, costing us thousands of American lives, and being waged at an astronomical cost to the taxpayers,

In 2018 and in 2020, it'll begin all over again, with every single one of these elements working against the Democrats, again.  Do we give up?  Hell no!!!  We have to accept the reality of the 2016 vote.  That's our punishment.  But I'll not just roll over and take it.  I'll quietly soak in this massive embarrassment, and prepare to fight the next fight.  Right now, hope is all the Democrats have got...