What Just Happened?

As I begin writing this, it is the morning of November 9, 2016--the morning after the Election Day on which Donald Trump was elected President of the United States.  24 hours ago, many people—myself included—fully expected that the winner of the election would be Hillary Clinton. 

What just happened?

For one thing, I fully believe that Mr. Trump won because he received a significant number of votes from people who simply did not want Secretary Clinton to be elected.  Conversely, many of the people who voted for Secretary Clinton simply did not want Mr. Trump to be elected.  In the end, there were likely more of the former than of the latter.

But that’s only part of it.  The more I’ve looked at it and seen the breakdown of some of the exit polling, I believe that this was in large part a revolt of the “common” people against (to use a term I’ve heard to describe it) the “elite” in America.  I’m not sure that “elite” is the best word to use, but it seems to be the word of the day.  What is the word “elite” being used to describe?  Let me take a shot at explaining it.

In general, they are in many cases viewed (especially by the so-called "common folks") in certain ways:  they have attained formal higher-education degrees; they are philosophical; they are altruistic; they believe they know what is best—even for other people; they give off the impression that they think they are better than those people who are less educated; they tend to view things through the lens that the world is stacked against the poor and disenfranchised, and believe it is their duty to stand up for these people and give these people a hand up (often by giving them special status in society to make sure that they are not discriminated against). And those are just some of the ways the so-called "common folks" tend to view the so-called "elite."

The bottom line is that in the view of many, these “elites” are viewed as the self-proclaimed “experts” regarding the ways things “should” be.   Oftentimes, the people whom many consider to be the “elite” act in condescending ways towards “the common people.”  To me, one of the greatest examples of this type of condescension was illustrated in a television ad a few years ago for LED lighting.  The deep-voiced spokesman on the ad talked about incandescent light bulbs having been great in their time, but that they’d now outlived their usefulness.  The key phrase in the commercial was, “Nostalgia is dumb.”*

That commercial is very emblematic of the attitude many “common folks” tend to think the “elites” have towards them.  Herman Cain wrote a book with a title that sums up this attitude—They Think We’re Stupid.

In my opinion, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States has been due in large part to many, many people in essence saying to the “elites,” “Don’t tell us what to do.”

* = see this URL: http://www.mnn.com/your-home/at-home/blogs/nostalgia-is-dumb-cree-launches-led-promoting-tv-spots