Sue Lani Madsen: The political pub crawl is over, time to shake off hangovers and move on
The long political pub crawl is over. As weepy, happy and angry voters wake up to a new morning in America, we’re dealing with the hangover. Feeling normal again will take time. We’ll get there.
We’ve come to rely on polls as reality, and are shocked by an upset victory. Pollsters haven’t updated their methodologies since the 1980s when they blew the call on Ronald Reagan, according to Mike Fitzsimmons, radio broadcaster and lecturer at Gonzaga University in the integrated media department.
Like Reagan, Trump is a populist. He attracted voters who aren’t among the most-likely voters that polls rely on. His blunt communication style stood out in a sea of polished politicians and his outsider status matched the mood of the country. “The silent majority is no longer silent,” Fitzsimmons said.
Primarily, this was the Republicans’ race to lose, and they certainly tried. The pattern since 1952 has been for American voters to flip control of the White House after eight years of one party’s leadership. In 2008, it was inevitable that an engaging young Democrat would beat an old Republican. In the 2016 race between equally unpopular and disliked candidates from the two major parties, the pattern held again.
He wasn’t my first choice. President-elect Trump wasn’t even on my list of possibilities until he was the last candidate standing in the Republican primary version of “The Apprentice.” This was a race where more people voted against rather than for a candidate. And yet he did tick at least one of my boxes. From the start, I preferred someone with executive experience in the private sector, someone ready to question the size and scope of government.
The divisions in our country aren’t much different from the last two presidential elections, based on Pew Research exit polling. Trump actually attracted higher percentages of African-American, Hispanic-American and Asian-American voters than mild-mannered Mitt Romney did in 2012. The major factors behind Trump’s surge were class and culture, not race. Forbes called it the revolt of middle America, where “those that produce real, tangible things – food, fiber, energy and manufactured goods – went overwhelmingly for Trump.”
The violent protests in progressive urban strongholds and on college campuses are wallowing in the trash-talking from both sides in one of the nastiest campaigns in a century. The campaign is over. Reading the president-elect’s plan for his first 100 days is an eye-opener. Trump’s priorities are the least focused on divisive social issues of any recent president of either party. Topping his agenda is cleaning up “corruption and special interest collusion in Washington, D.C.,” including bans on revolving-door lobbying at the federal level, similar to those in the campaign finance reform package proposed by Initiative 1464 at the state level. Common ground is possible.
My personal favorite is this one: “A requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.” Trump has questioned why we still have a Rural Electrification Agency when 99.9 percent of rural areas have electricity. It’s a good question. In Washington, D.C., no agency ever dies. Some of them should and it takes an outsider to say it.
No one knows what kind of president he’ll be, including Trump. The right is worried over whether a populist can really be a conservative. The left is still in grief recovery. The far left is having a tantrum. Pundits are bemoaning a divided country. And now the party is over, and it’s time to clean up the damage, starting with putting away the divided-country rhetoric.
We are blessedly diverse. Thousands of combinations of racial, ethnic, linguistic, philosophical, cultural, theological, vocational, economic, historical, educational, biological, psychological and geographical differences affect our points of view. Red vs. blue maps misrepresent reality. A healthy voter map would show a variety of shades of purple, and that’s tough for a hard-core-crimson Cougar to admit.
President Obama, Secretary Clinton and President-elect Trump have graciously upheld our long history of a peaceful transition of power. So should the voters. Take down the campaign signs. Mend relationships among friends who’ve argued under the influence of toxic campaign rhetoric. Start planning the next party. Time to move on.
Columnist Sue Lani Madsen can be reached at rulingpen@gmail.com or on Twitter @SueLaniMadsen.