Did people vote for Trump or against Hillary?

[Cyrano]

This came up in a different thread, but the topic wasn't pursued.

The Republican Propaganda machine (Fox, hate radio, etc.) spent more than 20 years demonizing Hillary. And that made an impact on millions of people.

In 2016, did people vote for Trump, or against Hillary, or just stay home?

I don't know the answer. I don't know if anyone did a poll on this. And I don't know if any poll can produce an accurate/honest result.

Having said this, my guess is that Trump won because some unknown number of people voted against Hillary.

Opinions?

(And no matter what your opinion, anyone who doesn't get out in 2020 and vote for ANY Dem who wins the nomination is either insane, or has a death wish.)

[kentuck]

1. People voted against Trump's definition of Hillary.

"Crooked Hillary"! etc...

[Ferryboat]

2. FOX spent 20 years demonizing the Clintons

The hatred of Hillary was off the scale. Hell they were talking impeachment over Bengazi if she won.

For a lot of people it usually comes down to a vote AGAINST the other candidate.

[walkingman]

4. I'll never understand why so many people hate Hillary? She was no doubt the most qualified

person to ever run for POTUS in my lifetime. Very Strange.

[Poiuyt]

9. Double standard

She had the traits and qualifications necessary to be president, but those same traits made her seem unlikeable because she was a woman. But she was indeed demonized since 1992, and that constant pounding into our heads by the right wing that she was mean and dishonest became accepted as true. Ironically, even though she was perceived as dishonest, fact checkers during the 2016 campaign found her to be the most truthful of all the candidates.

To answer the original question, yes I'm sure there were many people who were voting against Hillary. Since most people vote to keep the same party if the economy is doing well, it would be logical to assume that Hillary would be seen as an extension of Pres Obama's economic policies. But when Comey came out 10 days before the election and stated that the FBI was still investigating her, that just confirmed people (irrational) fears.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. The last three plus days

of that campaign was consumed by Comey's screed. As one who was Phone banking into the Midwest as well as locally,I picked up on the anti vibe starting about a hour after the Comey screed dropped and it only accelerated by Monday night.

Comey changed the direction,no doubt about it.

[guillaumeb]

5. Racists voted for Trump.

And there are still many racists in this country.

[Cyrano]

6. Not enough to swing an election

Obama won twice. And, oh, how I wish he could run again.

America has not had a president in the last three years. We've had creature who is a buffoon, a horror, and a would-be dictator.

[padfun]

7. The majority of Americans voted for Hillary.

By THREE MILLION VOTES. I'm one of those who thinks that the current resident is there by cheating, so there is no issue about why Hillary lost. We know why.

[Groundhawg]

11. Actually the majority of Americans didn't vote at all.

[PSPS]

14. And at least some of those did so because of Sanders' unending divisiveness

And, to correct your statement, 62% of eligible voters voted in 2016, about the average rate. So most voters did vote.

[Groundhawg]

20. The statement I responded to didn't say anything about eligible voters

Just said most Americans voted for Hillary which is not correct.

[PSPS]

24. Huh?

Eligible voters are all that matter. Ineligible voters like children aren't germane to the issue.

"Most Americans voted for Hillary" is, in fact, a true statement because "Most Americans" obviously implies, and only makes sense, if it is taken to mean "Most Americans who voted." Nobody knows for whom an eligible voter who didn't vote would have voted for had they voted.

Maybe you mean that those who were eligible to vote and didn't vote were, in some way, voting "against" Hillary. We don't know that, of course, but it's that divisiveness I was referring to.

[malaise]

8. The election was stolen

History will absolve me

[Cicada]

10. They voted for Trump to be saved from invading darkies

The percentage who voted Trump in an area can be predicted accurately from one measure. There is a little four question survey designed to measure “racial resentment.” True or false, blacks would do just as well as whites if they just worked harder. That four question survey accurately predicts the Trump vote. In addition no other voter attribute has yet been found which adds anything to the accuracy of the racial resentment score. The Trump vote had nothing to do with your economic circumstances. Nothing to do with anything other than racial attitude. Trump said he would protect our women from the raping darkies from the south, with a wall, and that is why he was elected. Period. Look https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/12/15/16781222/trump-racism-economic-anxiety-study

[Cyrano]

12. Doesn't explain how Obama got elected -- twice

I still believe that the hatred of Hillary, created by Republican Propaganda, defeated her. That, along with the usual voter-roll "cleansing," voter ID requirements, and every other voter suppression tactic used by the GOP in order to (criminally) stay in power.

Obama won because of voter turnout (especially minority voter turnout).

The Republicans will steal every election held in America as long as each and every Dem doesn't show up at the polls, and wait there to vote through everything short of a hurricane or tornado.

Republicans are in the business of fucking America. The only way to stop them is to vote.

[Cicada]

17. Good point. Turnout made the difference.

[lapucelle]

13. 2016 was the first presidential election after the gutting of the Voting Rights Act.

I did outreach and voter registration in marginalized communities in in PA in the fall of 2016. I think its possible that the removal of protections had an impact in that swing state.

[handmade34]

15. this was a discussion yesterday...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=12817152


it appears against Hillary... ignorance is a damaging and sometimes deadly thing

[Butterflylady]

16. The male voters that I talked to after the election

That voted for Obama told me they voted for orange face because they didn't like Hillary. However, in my part of PA that is very red, the male democratic voters I feel would not vote for a female nominee anyway.

[delisen]

18. Meaningless question. Putin won. Democrats lost.

Clinton, like Gore won the popular vote.

Just as in 2000 we, as a party were unprepared for the dirty tricks.

By 2016 we had 8 years in office at the highest level and in those 8 years approximately, we lost 1000 Democratic seats around the country. We got gerrymandered following our 2010 losses. Facebook was not out our friend in 2016 (and inexplicably many Democrats still rely on that business for "news."

The Democratic Party was relatively robust going into 2008, we were extremely weakened going into 2016 and had not been able to get much legislation passed, or judges appointed.

In 2009 ACA was passed ( a great leap forward) and then the Republican counter attack, tea party and such, began. Scott Walker was elected governor of Wisconsin in 2010-he even survived a recall election and then got elected governor for a second term.

If Democrats are willing to support congressional and state candidates in presidential off-years we become strong-that is the lesson of 2018 also. Otherwise we are weak.

Image if we had Gore as president, or even if we had insisted on keeping him and his signature cause in the spotlight? What if we fought hard against the Clinton "demonization of 20 years."

Instead we let the Republican rabble take their potshots and them were try to focus on "new' candidates. It is now way to run a party or build the movement that is going to be needed to survive as a democracy with the mess we are in.

The present and the future are not about one office, one candidate and never were. It is about strength in numbers and staying focused, and not giving in to prejudice.





In 2016 did not even have a clue about Russian interference except for what Clinton told us, along with some former CIA types who did their best to sound the alarm.

The party has taken some measures now to improve things but there is still an unwillingness among many to squarely face how the Republican party managed to snatch victory from the jaws of their defeat.

Our country is not going to be safe for democracy for awhile-just electing a democrat to the presidency is not going to get us out of danger.

[Groundhawg]

21. Yes Putin won for sure.

[Blue_true]

19. Interesting query.

I think it was a mixed bag. Hillary and her husband had been incessantly attacked for 30 years and even a lot of people that call themselves progressive believed the nonsense.

Sexists will choose castration over voting for a woman. There were a lot of that type in the mix on the left and the right.

Racists hate democrats because democrats have since 1948 been fighting for a racially equitable society. It is estimated that 10-15% of Americans are died in the wool racists and another 10-15% harbor race based anxieties.

Trump had the air of success due to playing a successful person on a tv show, some people looked no deeper than that.

As I have pointed out before, I think Hillary ran a big population region centric campaign and didn't go into the sticks like President Obama did in 2008 and 2012. I believe that hurt her some.

[ArtTownsend]

22. Both/and. And a lot of people didn't vote for either, and a lot of people (as usual) didn't vote.

[Hekate]

23. The majority of voters voted for Hillary over Trump, by 3 million.