2016 Postmortem

One friend is a working-class guy and a union member and is mad at the Clintons for NAFTA and said that he would never vote for Hillary because he thought she was untrustworthy on the TPP issue and trade in general.

I have another friend who is a typical business Republican who votes GOP based on economics even though he is fairly liberal on social issues. He was disgusted by Trump's racism and sexism and by his ties to Russia. He was also disturbed by Trump's fascist followers. But he told me that he voted for Trump because of the tax issue. He said he liked Trump's tax cut plans and was worried that Clinton would favor increasing taxes on high-income earners like himself.

I have two cousins who also likely voted for Trump based entirely on his promise to cut taxes. Again, they are affluent business Republican types who aren't racist or sexist but like Republican ideas on economics. I am not sure if they voted for Trump since I have not had a chance to speak with them since the election (they live in another state) but I assume that they probably voted for Trump since they have always been very partisan Republicans.

I suspect that many affluent Republicans held their noses and voted for Trump even though they may have been appalled by some of his statements and his more radical followers. These were the supposedly moderate Republicans who were supposed to flip the election to Clinton. I wish we concentrated more of our ire on these people than on white working-class people. Many Democrats seem to be giving these affluent moderate Republicans a pass compared to the WWC.