Discontented voters were duped

Donald Trump won the presidency in our electoral system. It’s also true that Hillary Clinton overwhelmingly won the popular vote.

Thus we ponder our system, which gives more weight to the votes of non-urban people compared to urban people. This is true in the Senate, and on the state and county level, too, since redistricting surgically slices out portions of cities that align with the county votes around it to “beef up” the clout of rural districts. Some Founding Fathers were rural and designed our system to protect their concerns.

Based on voter turnout in non-urban America this year, the dissatisfaction there with the status quo was huge. The economic recovery since the great recession powerfully favored urban coastal areas over all others.

Sad as I am that objective truth became completely irrelevant in this election, and that scapegoating on the base of race, religion and other factors exposed our nation’s most grotesque side, at least we’ve now all heard the pain of those Americans left behind.

However, since I can’t see how offering huge tax breaks to the wealthiest, the very first post-election promise of Trump, benefits those discontented voters, I’m sad that they were duped.

Greg Presley

Spokane