re: #43 451_Montag

I still subscribe to the idea that Trump was simply a mistake for a decent proportion of voters. The polls were so in Clinton’s favour it allowed 3 groups to vote/not vote thinking he wasn’t going to win.

The Bernie-curious could sit it out or register a protest vote for him, telling themselves they were voting their conscience. Not the hardcore BOBs.

The soft right who really didn’t want Trump but we’re torn about voting dem.

The Hillary haters who were never going to vote for a Clinton.

The predicted result, which in fact was the real result in terms of popular vote, meant a lot of his support weren’t keen on him but felt there vote didn’t count. The EC simply amplified it. For me, this is why his support has dropped of so rapidly to low 30s. They didn’t want him in the first place.

It’s also why I think the GOP did so well overall. A lot of their votes were meant as checks on any dem president. Explains why governing has been so hard for them. They never expected to be in this position

Actually, I agree with most of what you say: except for that last sentence. I think once it became clear that - even if she won - Hillary Clinton wasn’t, after all, going to create a “blue wave”, the Republicans realized they were still going to retain control of Congress, and found they had something of a win-win situation. Clinton wins: they just revert to their position of Pavlovian obstructionism (with extra Benghazi Boogaloo) and nothing gets done (which they leverage for gains in 2018). Trump wins: Jackpot! They thought they’d have a pliant President who would spend his time tweeting inanities from Mar-a-Lago, playing golf, and a few odd minutes happily signing off on the whole GOP agenda. Little did they realize…..