Trump’s Win in New Hampshire

Not that I really want to waste any more of my life typing about Donald Trump, but the fact that he won the New Hampshire primary is beyond depressing to me, and I can’t seem to stop thinking about it. And since my blog is about whatever I’m thinking about on any given day, this is what we’re stuck with.

For months, people have been saying Trump was nothing more than a joke. A temporary anomaly that would soon be corrected. I wanted to think that. I treated his candidacy that way. But the awful truth at the moment is he’s the Republican frontrunner. He’s king of the hill until someone else can actually knock him off his perch.

The even sadder truth? That his success seems to be typically American.

Take New Hampshire’s win. He got 35% of the vote there. Barely more than a third. That means, thankfully, 65% of the voters in the primary voted for someone else. (Which is the one thing giving me hope at the moment.) (It also, sadly, means that 35% of the voters actually buy into the filth he’s spouting, which is just terrifying.)

Why is it he was able to win with just 35% of the vote? My first hope was that it was just because there were so many other people in the race. That the others split the vote so much that it made it possible for Trump to win. And while that may be true, it’s not like the same hasn’t happened there in the past. At this point in the political season. there are typically 6 or 7 people left in the race. This year, there were 8. Not enough to justify Trump.

I’ve heard others say it’s because people didn’t have to stand up publicly and say they were voting for Trump, like in a caucus. That they could vote for him in the privacy of a voting booth. And some of that might be at play here. Certainly judging by how much vitriol I see aimed at Trump in my Facebook feed, he’s not nearly as popular as the polls say. But sadly, I think more of that has to do with who I have as friends than with how popular Trump really is. (Way to go, friends!)

The sad truth of the matter is that he’s been able to tap into the fear and distrust of politicians from the last decade or so, turning it into votes. America’s gone through some rough patches, and his campaign is all about “Making America Great Again.” Does he have specifics? Nope. It pretty much boils down to him dismantling any program most people think is bad. That’s as specific as he gets. (Not that he has actual plans for how to bring about those changes. He just assures everyone he’s a great negotiator, and that he’ll make sure it gets done.) Beyond that, he just promises to bring America back.

And people want to believe. They want to think he knows what he’s talking about. For years, you’ve had talk radio hosts bemoaning the blunders that are ruining America. The Trump campaign is the epitome of that.

People wonder how Hitler could rise to power. They assume it could never happen here in America. Take a look at Trump, and you’ve got your answer. I still believe it’s an outside chance he actually wins, but the fact is that it’s a real chance now.

And if that isn’t depressing, I don’t know what is.

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