Voting and History

A friend of mine, a realtor, posted a picture of herself wearing a Trump hat on Facebook.  She positioned her post like it was a 'freeing of her soul' moment.  Just because most of the people on your timeline are Clinton supporters, and you finally decided to follow their lead by posting your political preference, doesn't mean you're inspiring, just late to the party.  She's entitled to support whomever she wants to, regardless of how baffling it is for most of us.

One thing I guarantee; she'll have removed her picture by Wednesday of next week, after Clinton wins the White House.  I'm a lefty radio broadcaster and blogger, so I don't hide my opinions.  For her, she'll want to make sure she doesn't screw up any future real estate listings, so she'll bleach her social media clean of all her Trump love for business reasons, but my guess is for her, and many other people in this country, something subconscious will also cause them to hide their Trump support.  They'll realize history will not judge Trump or his supporters kindly.

Hillary Clinton will become the next President of the United States.  As the first woman to hold the office, and someone who's impeccably qualified for the White House, the amount of good this moment will represent will live long past any of us.  She'll probably be constantly investigated by the Republicans, she'll have to fight for every initiative she wants to install, and the impeachment process will be started even before she's sworn into office, but she'll make progress for the country, and especially for women's rights.

Meanwhile, Trump's next year will likely be a rough one.  The truths he's been frantically trying to keep quiet will all come out, and as for the ones we know about, like the sexual assault claims, they aren't going away anytime soon.  As much as he wants to win, he knows any contested election result, especially a wide margined one, will destabilize the country and cost him more money.  We'll know about his Russian connections, his tax returns, and his other seedy secrets.  Trust me, Republicans will be frantically running away from Trump in 2018 and 2020.

So will his voters.  I know Trump fans promise to eternally wear their Trump badge of honor, but that's in the pre-11/8 world.  After 11/8, the only place you'll find Trump portraits are in Trump properties and KKK rallies.  To prove my point, let's look at some past Presidential elections and realize the heroes of yore were, in some cases, not sure things prior to their elections.

Lincoln had two interesting elections.  In 1860, it was a four man race, the last chance for the Union to continue on without war, but only if Lincoln didn't win.  The Democrats had a northern and southern candidate, Douglas and Breckinridge respectfully, both were pro-slavery, although at varying degrees.  John Bell and the Constitutional Union Party tried to ignore slavery for the election, but he eventually joined the Confederates in 1861.  Lincoln was the only candidate who ran on the platform of ending slavery.  In a humdinger of a nail biter, where there was concern they'd have to wait weeks to hear how California and Oregon voted, Lincoln won with only 40% of the vote, not exactly resounding.

I personally find 1864's election even more interesting.  George McClellan is probably the most incompetent military leader this country ever had.  Early in the Civil War, his Peninsula campaign went so poorly, the north could no longer take Virginia from the east, and instead had to defeat the south by starting in Texas.  As the Democratic candidate in 1864, McClellan ran on the platform of ending the war as a tossup, pseudo-surrendering, an act which would've likely lead to 2 separate countries.  Things were looking bleak for Lincoln, until Sherman took Atlanta and the main core of the Confederacy buckled.  Even so, McClellan did win three states that election, and the vote total was 55% for Lincoln to 45% for General Incompetence.

After the Civil War, northerners insisted they ALL supported Lincoln, and no one else, in 1860 and 1864.  The south?  Not so much.

Another Rushmore resident, Teddy Roosevelt, in 1904, had an opponent, Alton Parker, who took five million votes to Teddy's seven and a half million.  The entire Southeastern US, including Maryland, went against Roosevelt, but the Western states delivered big for Theodore.  In 1912, most people don't remember Roosevelt was on the losing side, as a rift between him and Taft opened the door for Woodrow Wilson.  Taft and Roosevelt got more votes than Woody, but because of the split ticket, Wilson cruised in the electoral college.

Hindsight makes us think Franklin Delano Rooselvelt's third and fourth elections were landslide, but they were closer than people remember.  Wendell Willkie carried 10 states and 22.3 million votes (45%) into second place in 1940, and Thomas Dewey took 12 states and 46% of the vote in 1944.

1960's election was damn close!  Kennedy's opponent won more states, 26, and was only 112,000 votes (49.72% to 49.55%) behind JFK.  The loser that year was Richard Nixon.  We don't remember how close that election was, just how bad Nixon looked on camera, which might've been the deciding factor.  He spent the next eight years practicing.

Before anyone points out the obvious, I'm not saying the mere election of Hillary Clinton will put her in the pantheon of greatest Presidents ever, but you're missing my point.  We don't remember the losers, even when the races were of great historical magnitude, even when the losers were former or future Presidents, even when the race was shockingly close.  Apply this to almost every election we've had.  Who lost in each of those races?  We don't remember!  In true American spirit, we only remember the winners.

President Obama is getting ready to leave office.  Republican attacks on him have been pretty scarce in the election of 2016.  Sure they've gone after rising premiums on Obamacare, but no one wants to discuss what they would replace Obamacare with, as they know most people still support the idea of 'government health care' for the public.  Without the conservative money trying to convince us how horrible he is, Obama's approval rating is in the high 50 percentile.  After the election, it will likely go up into the 60's.  For the next 100 years, no candidate will be able to win the African American vote in this country without embracing President Obama.  He'll be remembered for history, while many 'proud' McCain and Romney voters will insist "I can't really remember who I voted for in 08 and 12, but I think it was Obama!  We didn't agree on everything, but I wanted to be on the right side of history!"

Trump is the worst presidential candidate since McClellan.  Even before the election humiliates him, he's so covered in stink, stench and filth that Republicans are closing their nostrils and eyes tightly as they scream "well no candidate is perfect!"  Trust me, in a few years, it'll be far easier to find someone bragging about buying a Milli Vanilli album as opposed to finding a proud Trump supporter, unless you look on militia compounds and at klan rallies.

Vote.  PLEASE VOTE!  Elections matter, and even if that is a vote for Trump, it's your right as an American citizen.  Remember: most governmental decision which impact you don't come from the White House, but your city council, county commissioners, school board and other local races.  Pay attention to what's going in your community and don't blindly hand your vote to anyone, especially a person who's only interested in elected office as a stepping stone to a future lobbying gig.

Early voting is going on right now in Minnesota.  There's no excuse...