Experience can be a valuable teacher, but only if one learns the right lessons. Let’s make sure we learn the right lessons from the latest presidential campaign so America can move forward. Far too many people are drawing the wrong conclusions.
One such errant interpretation came from Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank who wrote how hard is was to console his seventh-grade daughter that her world wouldn’t come apart because Donald Trump won, even though it’s a sad day for our country and he’s deeply worried for our nation. Milbank’s right to be worried about our nation, but not for the reasons he thinks.
Donald Trump did something unique among leaders today. He listened to the American people. Then, after hearing their concerns, he responded. The result was the most remarkable political upset in American political history.
Let’s be clear. Mr. Trump ran against the mainstream media, the governing elite from both parties and the most powerful and well-funded political organization in history. He was outspent $1.3 billion to $795 million. The Clinton organization had 800 paid staff to his 150. And to be fair, he also ran against himself because of his boorish behavior. Yet he won.
Fifty-three percent of white women—many who are Democrats—voted for Trump. Despite their disapproval of his occasional vile comments, many women voted for him because they saw “a good man and a good father.” Others saw a successful businessman who raised and supported his beautiful daughter, Ivanka, and let a brilliant female political strategist, Kellyanne Conway, manage his campaign. The fact that he was sporadically crude, didn’t dissuade them from believing he would do good things for America.
Which leads to the true bottom line. The factor that gained Trump victory is that the good he promised for America mattered personally to people of almost every demographic. Many people saw him as the best bet to bring jobs back, fix health care and provide security.
On the other hand, Mrs. Clinton’s defense of Obamacare came across as seeking to preserve the Obama legacy while many ordinary citizens are being gouged by outrageous cost increases and broken promises. Her cavalier dismissal of email misdeeds came across as putting herself above national security. In the end, many voters saw her as self-serving, arrogant and entitled. This view contrasted sharply to Mr. Trump, who many perceived as a battler who cared about America more than self.
The election wasn’t as much about Republicans vs. Democrats as it was about the people vs. the establishment. The biggest losers in this election were people on the left, the governing elites from both parties and the mainstream media. People who either felt trampled by the arrogant political correctness of the left and or abandoned by the economic self-interests of the right joined forces to voice profound revulsion. The election was about mainstream America regaining both its sanity and its voice and demanding that common sense replace condescending dogma.
Dana Milbank and numerous other authors of both genders who wrote letters to their daughters conveying heartbroken emotion because the female candidate lost the election, missed the point entirely. Had Mrs. Clinton won, it would have been because of gender rather than merit. Despite a lengthy resume, her career performance has been generally pathetic. If the goal of gender equality is for everyone to be judged based on merit rather than gender, then this election proved we’ve truly arrived. Her backing and bankroll, gave her a better-than-equal opportunity to obtain the job. Mrs. Clinton lost because — even though America longs for a female president—she lacks the necessary merit and character.
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Dick Lyles is a U.S. Navy veteran, author and co-author of more than 10 books, some of which have become best-sellers, a sought-after management and leadership expert, popular radio host of Catholic Business Journal’s LIVE radio program: Dick Lyles on Business, Career and Work, and CEO of Origin Entertainment in Hollywood. Read a more robust bio here: http://catholicbusinessjournal.biz/page_id/8. Dick Lyles may be reached at Dick@CatholicBusinessJournal.biz