Why Trump Won
This list is incomplete, and but here's a summarized version of the main points that affected this election based on all of my analysis. So back to an intelligent conversation on what how and why I made this prediction on 30SEP16:
First and foremost: No America is not made up of a close majority of racists, pro-lifer, climate change denying, creationists. That is not the reason Trump won this election. Trump may have won the election by electoral college but what has had the larger influence over this election had less to do with him winning and more how Clinton lost. To understand that, we need to go back to 2008...
#1 The American People have been primed since 2008:
So what happened in 2008? The greatest economic meltdown of our era. Banks gave bad loans, and when the bottom gave out, so did the economy. However, instead of punishing those responsible, the US government bailed them out. While this may not seem like a huge deal since it happened 8 years ago; there was a sudden shift for those paying attention that the US government did not have the interests of its people in mind. It was a festering wound that once opened in 2008, was reopened, infected and picked at with every scandal, bailout and inaction our leadership had (and no I'm not just talking about Obama, I'm talking about Congress and every little branch on the way down). After 8 years, and an election coming up, people started to pay attention to this elections cycle more than they had before, carrying a huge distrust of the status quo of American politics.
#2 The war for nominations:
By early 2016, there were 12 Republican Candidates and 2 Democratic Candidates running in the Primaries. Of those 14, only 2 were running on a platform of changing the status quo a majority of Americans on both sides of the fence were disenfranchised with: Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Donald Trump arguably being thee only candidate which representing this change on the Republican side of the house, while capitalizing on American's insecurities it was easy to predict that he would be the stand-out candidate amongst Republicans on an outdated platform. However, on the democratic side, things were a bit more complicated...
#3 The Democratic problem
Remember that part I said about Americans distrusting government and politics? This is important. Bernie Sanders has been Independent since 1979 (which is longer than most of you have been alive), it wasn't until his 2016 Presidental Bid that he became a democrat. Clinton on the other hand, has been playing for the democrats since 1968. It doesn't take a wizard to sort out why the DNC would back her versus Bernie Sanders on paper. However, instead of seeing what the people wanted, the DNC worked against their own party to sabotage (successfully I might add) the Bernie Sanders campaign - If you don't believe this, go read some of the thousands of emails that have been leaked from the DNC. This insider betrayal left thousands if not millions of voters disenfranchised by the DNC. Which leads us to #4.
#4 The Clinton problem
Having now eliminated the only candidate who would have been able to directly compete with Trump's platform, the DNC now has Hillary Clinton: a candidate who's public trust and personal integrity and ethics have been questioned throughout her career. Regardless of the truth of any of these allegations, this is not something that plays well for a public who already has a disdain and distrust of US government and politics. However considering Donald Trump this was a safer alternative for many.
#5 Campaign philosophies
Trump's campaign was very quick to address issues publicly. Although arguably I would evaluate them as hasty and most of the time not fully backed by fact. However, to acknowledge and give attention to even negative things was a smart move, even if not well executed. The Clinton campaign spent more time deflecting issues rather than addressing them during her campaign. Also the Trump campaign itself never conducted attack ads (although his PACs did), Clinton's campaign directly attacked Trump and went a step further to attack his supporters (which she subsequently apologized for) however, in a nation that was already divided, the "if you're not with us, you're against us" mentality turned off a lot of voters who would have otherwise voted for her.
#6 The media
Between incorrect polling that was based on historical data that was inapplicable, to giving Donald Trump free airtime across all networks (in hopes that people would see him as they saw him) to the very inherent bias which infected almost every news network; the amount of misinformation in this campaign from various sources this election was massive. On average, it would take me anywhere from 8-20 hours to arrive at a balanced and factual conclusion about any major event; however recent stats from multiple sources demonstrate that as much as 48% of Americans receive their news from FaceBook and other social media.
# 7 Putting it all together
TL;DR - Trump didn't win because Americans are racist, gun-toting, anti-LGBT, bible thumping, creationist, pro-lifers; he won because the DNC backed the wrong candidate, with the wrong strategy, and because the American people were fed up with the status quo, SO MUCH SO that they elected Donald Trump. That says more about the public's relationship with our country's leadership than anything else.
So what do we do now? Well, if you're Democrat, I highly suggest rebuilding your party; you cannot win an election by sabotaging each other into submission. If you're Republican, this may be a win for you, and one that might better align with your beliefs; however we're a large and diverse country, keep that in mind moving forward. If you're somewhere in the middle or nowhere to be found like me, the best thing we can do moving forward for all of us is make sure that the information we're putting out to each other is factual, and not complete and fabricated bullshit.