Synopsis
How could this be happening? That was the question asked by stunned Hillary supporters all over the country on election night. A reality TV star was beating a woman whose place in history was supposedly foreordained. The coronation was on hold; the triumphant return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, now in doubt.
What went wrong? Given all that was known about Trump, how could anyone vote for him? How did "expert" political analysts, commentators and pundits completely miss the rise of Trump and why, during the election, despite his string of victories, did they continue to argue, that like a comet, he would eventually burn out?
In “Election 2016: How Donald Trump and the Deplorables Won and Made Political History," Kinsellagh addresses these questions from a unique perspective. The book's analysis is based on the self-evident proposition, that because each of the candidates was seriously flawed, in the end, the question for many voters became: who was the least distasteful?
The author avoids responding to the specious argument that, since Hillary was by leaps and bounds, eminently more qualified for the Oval Office than Trump, the election result was a fluke. Attempting to refute this view, is a fool's errand, as it simply begs the question and does nothing to enhance our understanding of why, in the end, it was Trump and not Clinton who prevailed.
Additional topics of significance are examined: What impact did identity politics have on the ability of Democratic party officials to assess honestly the viability of Hillary's candidacy? Given all that was known about Trump, how could he possibly have been elected? How could a political novice so easily dispatch the establishment favorite of the Republican Party with an unlimited war chest? Why did GOP primary voters continue to vote for Trump knowing his foibles and deviant behavior?
Election 2016, approaches these issues from the perspectives of the political environment at the time of the election, as well as the deep undercurrents of disenchantment with elites, that created the conditions favorable for the election of a political neophyte.