November 11, 2016 - A Montserrat politician friend once told me "People love a bad man." My friend was not and survived one term.
Donald Trump is no dummy. How can a dummy neutralize the much-touted Democrat ground game and their default constituency, the minority vote? He did beat the well-funded Republican machine into submission.
Submission to what? The Tea Party agenda.
I did not pay any attention to his Vice President running mate until after the election was won in Middle America - white, blue collar, rural, conservative. Clinton surrogates LeBron, Jay-Z and Beyonce do not play well there.
Check Wikipedia. Mike Pence described himself as "Christian, conservative and republican" in descending order. More importantly, he is of, for and by the Tea Party. Middle America is Tea Party country.
The Tea Party came to greater public awareness when it "forced" its champion, Sarah Palin, on the 2008 republican ticket alongside John McCain. They were soundly beaten by a fresh face - Barrack Obama. They did not take it lightly openly promising to block everything he attempted.
Obama's 2012 re-election added insult to injury but they regrouped to adopt a different strategy.
The strategy was the straight-talker who was prepared to say all manner of things about the despised liberal left, and the hated Obama and the Clintons. His message was loud, offensive, in-you-face but effective because there is a constituency - Middle America where the electoral map is coloured angry red.
They, of angry red Middle America, were told that Obama and the Clintons were responsible for jobs going overseas (poof), for gay rights, for gun control, for ISIS, for the browning of America, against coal and oil, against a strong military, against limited government, and for, wait for it, all kinds of people in the White House.
The looming black/white lash against the Democrats was not captured by the polls CNN forced most St. Kitts and Nevis people to pay attention to. So, although, there were signals of a dead heat, most believed and concluded Hillary would win. I did. Surely, women will vote for a woman and not for the female-groping specialist. Surely, the FBI's eleventh hour admission would work in Hillary's favour.
The so-called misogynous Trump got 51% of the female vote. Indeed: "All politics is local". Electioneering is always about good jobs, good security and good healthcare. Trump not only promised all, he sounded like he would deliver all, by any means necessary. “People love a bad man.”
Trump-Pence ticket won the US Electoral College fair and square using shrewdly framed message and outside-the-box tactics that played well in the Tea Party base. The protestors should "go home" and start channelling more of their energies away from consumerism to political activism.
During the transition, pay close attention to Trump’s selections for top White House jobs and Cabinet. Remember the power behind the throne - the Tea Party and their man, Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Look for him in 2020.
Republicans are usually good for business prospects in the Caribbean. For balanced analysis of the news and the issues, I recommend less CNN and more of PBS, C-Span, BBC, Al-Jazeera, Central China TV, France 24, Russia Today, Press TV (Iran), and Duetsche Welle (Germany).
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