Now that we’ve had a bit of time to reflect, it’s worth thinking about why Trump won. At the end of the day, I think it’s pretty simple. Trump won because of the fundamentals. We are at the tail end of a failed presidency where inflation has eaten away the quality of life of Americans, the pressures put on society by the open border (crime, wage pressure, housing, social safety net, schools, etc.) are real, and echos of totalitarianism felt during and since the pandemic scare people. Americans want change. Biden and Harris were not going to offer that change.
Trump was a flawed candidate for many reasons. He may have won despite that. Maybe. Or he may have won because of that. While flawed, he is unquestionably a tough change agent who has the capacity to effect meaningful change in the way our federal government operates. He is not about incremental change this time. And that’s what people want. We’ll never know if DeSantis or Abbot or someone would have won by a larger margin. What we do know is that Trump DID win. And he won because more Americans want him in the White House than those who didn’t. The same Americans who gave Obama two terms and Biden one term are the same ones who elected Trump. They are not bigoted, stupid, crazy, sexist, or fooled. They know who Trump is. They want change from the misery of the Biden years and Trump is the most likely instrument of that change. It’s as simple as that.
> Trump won because of the fundamentals. We are at the tail end of a failed presidency where inflation has eaten away the quality of life of Americans…
Much like how Biden won. Trump was 100% blamed by the press for every aspect of the Covid shutdown even though he fought against it happening. The numbers, as expected, looked very bad for Trump and ‘job losses’ have been used by the press ever since in ‘apples to oranges’ comparisons to other Presidents.
To be honest, he is more like a third party candidate than a typical Republican or he was in his first term with no support. I will always vote for a non-career political figure over a career politician that ‘knows how it works’. That is a very simple code phrase that just means ‘You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.’
Unlike hardcore libs that will throw Harris election watch parties (I have 3 of those very disappointed friends:), I think quite a few softcore libs might have listened to RFK. As kooky as some believe his ideals are he had an estimated 7% of the voting populace backing him to the end and his exit speech was actually bang on concerning the Dem Party today, regardless of what anyone thinks of his beliefs. That is still 10 million voters. Polling estimates say about 40% said they voted ‘for someone else’, 40% voted for Harris and 20% admitted voting for Trump. Personally, I would bet that the majority of the 40% that said someone else were too embarrassed to admit they did vote for Trump. If that were so to any significant extent, Trump won the popular vote because of RFK, but I am not sure it would have flipped any/many states in Harris’ favor. If RFK had endorsed KH, she might have at least won the popular vote as JV predicted.
Bernie Sanders is right: Trump won because the (D) Party dumped the working class into the sewer. They listened, instead, to Bayside/Shorewood/Whitefish Bay (and Elm Grove) condescending intellectualoid twit-liberal know-nothings.
Trump got more blacks, more Hispanics, more men, and more women than he did in ’20 , although the size of that massive fraud is just now coming to light. He also got more youth.
Kamala? She couldn’t match Biden numbers in ANY county of the US–which happens to be another affirmation of the Fraud of ’20
There is a litany of reasons why Trump won. The D party HAS ignored the working class. While the R’s have embraced them, even without actually doing anything FOR them. This is something the D party will have to reckon with, as they haven’t addressed them. Very similar to young men. There is an issue with young men in the country not feeling appreciated (many just don’t like that they have to work and have a career), but the Rs just acknowledged them and that was enough.
KH didn’t focus on any individual subject to unify her party. As I said before. Healthcare, Gaza, economy, immigration, etc. She refused to make a stand on either side and tried to play both sides in many cases or avoid the subject. And blaming KH and Biden for the economy and inflation is about as smart as blaming Trump for Covid. Both were worldwide issues that they couldn’t prevent. And both paid the price for it happening during their presidency. You can clearly show people who inflation affected the entire world, and they will just brush it off because they are centered on their little bubble of existence. And if Trump actually does raise Tariffs and significant deportations, look out. Those inflation numbers are coming back, and it will be on him.
Trying to promote the Cheney’s? I will never understand this one. It is great they endorsed her, but it shouldn’t have been a so out front at the end of the election. Pat them on the head, say thanks, and keep moving along.
Throw in a little racism and misogyny to top it off as well from some voters. Those who called her a DEI candidate. When actually she was (and is) WAY more qualified to run the WH than Trump was for his first election. Those who talked about her relationship past. Picking out stupid things like how she laughs or looks. Very similar misogynistic stuff that was pushed against Hillary. I don’t attribute much of her loss to this stuff, but it was on the outskirts of the conversation (including here). There were probably as many people who didn’t vote for her because she was a woman, who DID vote for Trump because of RFK.
Trump may have won the popular vote because of RFK, hard to prove a negative. I don’t personally think so. But it certainly didn’t hurt his numbers. Generally the closer to the election the more 3rd party candidates fade off as people decide. And that probably would have been true if RFK has continued to run. He polled at 7% at one point but at best he probably gave a 1-2% boost in the numbers when it comes down to it. Although the look of unity with Trump, Gabbard, & RFK was more significant and swung more voters than the actual supporters of a 3rd party candidate.
And Dad29, still trying to find the fraud. So funny. Want to explain the lower vote count. Think about this. A huge number of people were not working in Nov 2020 due to Covid. They had nothing to do. They were VERY scared about what was happening with COVID and Trump wasn’t providing them any good direction. Remember how pissy people were that they announced the vaccine right AFTER the election (Nov 9th, 2020). Add that to how easy they made it to vote with mail in ballots. You have a recipe for a HUGE turnout. And up until this election, it was common thought that the MORE people who voted the more likely a D was gonna win. Not fraud. Not fake votes. Not some big bad scary “machine”. Just convenience. KH didn’t get people excited, and lost voters to Trump. But sure. keep looking for that fraud, have you checked between the couch cushions?
By the way, if you think that either party is capable of pulling off a scheme that involves 15M votes in a dozen+ states without anyone finding out, anyone leaking information, and NOT getting caught… you are the crazy one. But if either party could actually pull that off, I would want to side with them because they would be the most organized team in history and would never lose. You give the Ds too much credit. If they were that good, they would have found a way to get just 500K needed to flip PA, MI, & WI this year.
>There were probably as many people who didn’t vote for her because she was a woman, who DID vote for Trump because of RFK.
Personally, I very much doubt that, unless you are talking specifically about black men. Or unless you finally agree that there are as many racists and misogynists in both party’s voters. According to the LSM, all the racists and misogynists already vote Republican. If there were large racist/misogynist liberal groups who normally vote Democrat, but not for KH because she was a minority female it sounds like Dems have the very problems they continually accuse all non-libs (deplorables and other garbage) of having. Or just maybe that has been a bunch of bullshit the whole time and everyone has their prejudices.
> Remember how pissy people were that they announced the vaccine right AFTER the election (Nov 9th, 2020).
I do remember that, except that it was announced by Trump on may 15th 2020 in the White House garden. LSM just didn’t report it to you until after the election. Shocker there, but you still believe the press will report anything for a payoff. The truth is they will not report on things for a payoff too and that one there is excellent proof of it. Tell you what, just enter “when was operation warp speed announced” instead of ‘when did CNN report operation warp speed’ into your search engine.
>Add that to how easy they made it to vote with mail in ballots.
Now this is just an opinion, but Dems brought mail in voting during Covid at the last minute in many states and at the time there were a lot of irregularities, because they made it too easy. 4 years later, better regulations are in place to make that type of balloting a bit more secure. I think 500k was not an unrealistic number of fraudulent votes in 2020 countrywide. I doubt there were much more than 50k fraudulent votes in 2024. I totally believe that 15 million fraudulent votes is unrealistic, who gave that number?
You say KH did not excite the populace, I would put it differently. She was so bad and off-putting, it did not take misogyny or racism to turn millions of voters towards Trump. They just voted for the less odious candidate and it showed in almost every demographic. Face it, she provably lied or misled just about every time she brought up her plans or said anything Trump related.
>The D party HAS ignored the working class. While the R’s have embraced them, even without actually doing anything FOR them.
You keep saying things like this even though the last Republican admin gave the middle class a significant tax cut. Or has LSM made you believe we never actually received a tax cut? It must have done that as you continually say things like the above. What do you call the middle class tax cuts handed out by Trump if it is ‘not doing anything for them’? The cognitive dissonance that libs continually spout is annoying and makes them lose any respect they might have outside their lib circles.
>But if either party could actually pull that off, I would want to side with them because they would be the most organized team in history and would never lose.
You have this opinion so you are obviously okay if the Dems did pull off any significant fraud. You keep trying to deny it, but you are actually in favor of Dems (only Dems, I am sure) trying or succeeding at fraud and suppression. If Trump was proven to have cheated in the swing steps by a million votes or two, you are otherwise saying that you are now in favor of Trump winning? I doubt that.
>swing steps by a million votes or two
swing states:).
Matter of interest……….the first Obama election, featuring the Most Excellent Candidate Since Forever, drew a TOTAL electorate of 131.3 million. That fell off by a bit to 129MM in ’12.
First Trump was 136.6MM
The ’20? 158.4MM.
This year is 139.3MM. You can draw a straight, upward line, from the (D) voters of ”12 to the (D) voters of ’24–except for the enormous pop in ”20.
No doubt that the extra 19 million or so were people sitting at home, bored. This year they’re hard at work, unable to get mail-in absentee, nor early-vote time available.
No doubt./sarc
Dad29. Ease of voting and driven. Both of which went down this year. KH didn’t drive voters. And you are using numbers that are not complete yet as well, and your 139M number isn’t including 3rd party votes this year. When it is all said and done, we might actually get close to the 158 number, we are currently at 143M. Cali has 17M total votes cast in 2020. This year they are not done counting and at just around 10M with 55% reporting. Oregon is at like 1.9M and only 77% counted. They should get right about what they did in 2020.
But YES, we may be lower than 2020. When you have people with nothing else to do and are driven to vote because they are scared. The absentee ballot system made it easier to vote. Simple. You can totally disagree with the system, and the fairness of that. But those are the facts. People voted then, and probably voted less now.
OR. The D party is just filling more west coast votes to make it appear like the 2020 election wasn’t a fraud! Now I see your conspiracy. Totally brilliant. The D party leaders are just SO smart. **eyeroll**
T. I don’t support ANY cheating. But if either party were so coordinated to pull a miracle of 15M votes of fraud off across the country, they would probably be the most successful party in history just based on their sheer coordination and secret keeping. Neither party is that party. And as I have said before. There are things that Trump will do better than Harris. I think foreign relations is that. But, I am truly fearful he is going to break this great economy is being handed. Only time will tell with both.
And as far as the tax cuts. Short sided. That is like me giving you $50 knowing that in the future I am going to have to take it back. All the tax cuts did were eat into the federal deficit. And if he makes them permanent, the estimated cost is 4 TRILLION over the next decade. Pay now, pay later, kick the can down the road. Tax cuts when we are in this much debt are not good, its just that most people are too short sided to see that.
>But if either party could actually pull that off, I would want to side with them because they would be the most organized team in history and would never lose.
>T. I don’t support ANY cheating.
They are not both true. Just because you call it ‘organized’ instead of cheating doesn’t make it not cheating. You already actively supported cheating in the form of suppression, why would I believe the former over the latter statement above?
>And as far as the tax cuts. Short sided.
Does that mean they did not help the middle class? All things from Government that help the citizens need to be forever? Tax cuts can only come if politicians reduce their spending to match? What dreamworld are you from? What you are really saying is the Government knows they will eventually get most of a middle class family’s income so don’t delay it with a tax cut, why not just give it all now?
Dems have failed their lower class supporters shamefully and disgustingly over the last 60 years then. KH and Biden gave their supporters and hopefully future supporters billions in student loan forgiveness and were prepared to give more in the form of free money for new house purchases and minority business development. That is what they were calling ‘tax cuts’ and to pay for it there would have been a 16.9 increase in payroll taxes to most middle class households. The Trump tax cuts did not balloon inflation like all the Biden plans either.
And a question for the truly myopic, which side is short sided:)?
Harris just didn’t move the dead vote like Biden did. Who dropped the ball on the dead Democrat constituency? Surely that billion dollars plus she spent was enough to at least equal Biden’s operation.
Did anyone else notice that spiffy, bright red jacket Dr. Jill had on when she went to vote? That woman might be one to hold a grudge, eh?
It’s interesting to see the Dems partly implode from this. “We are not the party of common sense”…”When we put pronouns after names and say she/her, as opposed to saying ‘You know what, if I call you by the wrong pronoun, call me our. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.’ But stop with the virtue signaling and just speak to people like they’re not allowed”, Roginsky said.
If only the Dems would come here and listen to us. However they have courted the Left Nutjobs with their DEI and LGBTQ+@° so deeply in the last decade, any approach like Roginksy suggests could split the party. That would be enjoyable to watch.
And as far as the tax cuts. Short sided.
Short-SIGHTED. Your AI spell-check is……….as good as your logic.
You assume that you know the revenue implications of the tariffs. You don’t.
Trump’s tariffs are effectively a consumption tax, and because The EEEEEEEEEEVIL RRRRRRRRRRCH spend a lot more than Lunchbox Joe, the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVIL RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRICH will be paying most of those tariff price-increases–if there are any.
Meantime, you have no friggin’ idea of what they will bring. Given that taxes on SS and tips (and overtime) are negligible, it’s probable that the tariff revenues will surpass those losses.
Tariffs are taxes. Pretty easy. And if he actually implements them AS HE SAID HE WOULD, you will see prices go up. We are already hearing about companies that are pre-buying, or just planning shutdowns if they get implemented. They WONT drive jobs here. They will just pass that cost on to consumers. But, I don’t think he actually implement the tariffs to the extent that he proclaimed.
I don’t personally think that he will actually do shit with those taxes either. He doesn’t control that, congress does. And they are NOT going to give that up. It was just something to say to get people to vote for him. Campaign talk.
PS. Thanks for correcting me. I primarily use swipe keyboard or speech to text on my phone, and it isn’t always reliable. What sucks about posting on the phone is that I usually copy my comments because sometimes the site just loses posts. And much harder to do that on my phone.
Sidenote. I am stepping back from commenting on this site. It has honestly really gone downhill over the last 2 years, and I have been coming here since Owen was on the Belling TV show. It used to be much more locally focused and active and I actually enjoyed reading Owen’s takes. Now it is mostly Owen just reposting articles I read elsewhere without any actual insights or commentary. Maybe life got busier for you Owen? No prob. And there are basically 3 people who comment here other than me. And there is almost NO conversation unless I chime in, then conversations happen. Otherwise it is crickets. I will check in occasionally if interesting local things happen, and Owen has a take on them. There are way better and more active right-wing political sites out there, especially for local issues which is what I use this site mostly for as part of my media diet. And I only post this so that people don’t think I was driven away by anyone particular, this place just got… boring. It’s too bad, cause the next 4 years are gonna be interesting.
Dad29, I will continue to watch your blog and NEVER comment. Cause nothing makes me laugh harder than some of your looney conspiracy takes. Keep up the hard work.
Tariffs are taxes.
Exactly what I stated. You’re a good student–so far.
you will see prices go up
Last time he put on tariffs, inflation (RISING PRICES) averaged 1.4%. I’ll take more of that, thanks!
I am stepping back from commenting on this site.
I can’t speak for Owen, but your terms are acceptable to me.
5) Tampon Tim
4) MSM, lefty pundits, and swamp things’ lunacy, demorat collusion, and lies fully exposed
3) importation of 11+ million illegal criminals
2) it’s the economy, stupid
And the #1 reason Trump won: Simply, Kacklin’ Kamala Harris.
MJM, you missed one… some where between 1 and 2 I think…
The GOP enlisted and trained thousands of poll watchers – some are estimated more than 10,000 this election. As of 5:45 PM this evening, there’s still a approximately 10 million votes missing from the 2020 election. There’s no way this election was less contested or less apt to drive turnout than 2020. Regardless of what the Left says, by November the shutdowns and “Essential Businesses and Workers Only” was a thing of the past – so the bullshit about “People weren’t working and could vote” is just that – shit from a bull.
Yah, well, the bullshitter has left the building.
Ever notice that when he is corrected with facts and receipts he NEVER acknowledges that? He just comes up with more Bee Ess.
Dad, cause your reading comprehension is shit. Didn’t leave, just stepping back.
When I said, “wasn’t working” I meant in person. The majority were still Work From Home because no vax was released. People were at home with nothing to do but watch TV for months. It motivated people. Now, not so much.
By the final count we will see about 8-10M less voters this election. Not shocking, voter turnout was higher in most swing states and lower in many others. He was a loser in 2020 and a winner in 2024. If they cheated in 2020, why didn’t they try again if they got away with it? None of your logic makes any sense.
you missed one…
Good point, Jason.
The RNC election back in Feb to install Mike Whatley and Lara Trump as chair and co-chair, finally ousting useless flower&wine girl Ronna McDaniel, was possibly the best move by GOPers in decades. LT has been working her arse off, not giving an inch and jumping on reported problems instantly (see: Michigan).
Speaking of which… Michigan’s population in 2022 was 10,033,757, and it has lost some in the last two years. Back in Feb it had 8,262,914 registered voters. Yet the voting age population was only 7,923,998. That’s 338,916 more registered voters than the entire adult population in the state.
>Speaking of which… Michigan’s population in 2022 was 10,033,757, and it has lost some in the last two years. Back in Feb it had 8,262,914 registered voters. Yet the voting age population was only 7,923,998. That’s 338,916 more registered voters than the entire adult population in the state.
Probably all registering same day voters…of friends…that sometimes live in Michigan, I think.
That’s not fraud, silly. Liberals don’t understand numbers over 1,000 so this type of stat is just assumed to be false from the beginning. More votes than registered voters? Cons( heh, cons) are just muddling the numbers! Fraud doesn’t exist because nobody is holding forth the evidence scroll on a muslin cloth, duh.
>Tariffs are taxes. Pretty easy.
I don’t think you understand what tariffs do or what they are at all…