TRUMP

WHAT
CAUSED IT?
In the days after the election, as Democrats tried to figure
out what the hell had just happened to them, weeks of vigorous finger-pointing
ensued. Everybody had their own answer to the question
of why Clinton lost. Had there been an anti-Establishment revolt in
the white working class? Had a bunch of racist deplorables been energized
by Trump’s appeals to bigotry? Had Clinton simply been a bad
candidate? Had she been the victim of sexism and unfair smears? Had
the Russians meddled? Had the FBI? Had Trump been unstoppable?
Would Bernie have won?
Part of the problem in analyzing the election after the fact was that
everyone could easily tell their own preferred stories, carefully selecting
the facts that served their own chosen narrative. You could make
the case that Clinton had lost by alienating core Democratic constituencies,
or that she had lost by being unfairly targeted by forces she
could not control. Consider three possible reads of the election:
• Donald Trump’s victory was a resounding repudiation of
the Democratic Party. He won over 300 electoral votes,