Political pundits will undoubtedly develop various explanations about why Trump was elected president. However, since their predictions about the final outcome were so flawed, many people have lost confidence in their assessment. The final popular vote was so close that the motivations of various groups will be difficult to evaluate.
The rational decision making process is to weigh the pros and cons of a situation. It seems impossible that anyone determining the suitability of Donald Trump to serve as president would conclude that this is a good idea. He has openly expressed bias against Latinos, Muslims and blacks. He has ridiculed the physically handicapped. He has insulted war heroes. He holds misogynous attitudes toward woman. He has been harshly critical of a sitting U.S. president while he expressed approval of a Russian dictator.
And that’s not all. He lied when he promised to disclose his tax returns, a normal practice of presidential candidates requiring that they reveal their business connections. His conduct during the campaign lacked the dignity expected of a president. Even Trump’s own staff at times expressed concern about his lack of presidential temperament.
Nonetheless, the majority of white Americans are willing to entrust such a man with the keys to the nation’s atomic arsenal that can destroy the world. The pain over their circumstance must be extraordinary for whites to accept such risk.
Indeed, the rate of life expectancy for whites has been declining in recent years. Analysts attribute this to the growth of drug and alcohol addiction as well as suicide. Surprisingly, the rate of life expectancy among blacks has actually been rising during this same period.
Blacks have always lived in the shadow of success. African Americans have said about the economy, “When whites sneeze blacks come down with pneumonia.” The Great Recession has eroded the middle class and induced whites without a college education and with little future to vote for Trump, 67-28 percent. They wanted to “Make America Great Again,” as Trump implored with his slogan. That alone was enough to tilt the final result.
Even though they were the primary victims of government inaction, blacks could not support someone like Trump, who got only 8 percent of the vote compared with 88 percent for Hillary Clinton. Now the whole nation faces a problem created by white fecklessness.
