Neil Resnik

Success and Failure

Grab them by the pussy. President-elect Donald Trump exclaimed that on a video released a
few days prior to the election. From that line to the fact he just settled in a lawsuit against Trump
University for $25 million (Lobosco), it seems a new controversy surrounds him every week. This storm
of controversy has left many Americans wondering how we reached this point, where he is the
President-elect, despite his ridiculous statements and lack of experience in politics. The answer is he
benefitted from a lack of cohesion among opposing candidates during the Republican primary, and
tapped into a base ignored by almost all of the other candidates in the race. Despite running on antiestablishment sentiment however, he has not appeared to be anything else but establishment. His
election stems from failures among both parties, a better campaign then expected, and is a sign that the
Democrats have lost touch with the people they claim to represent.
Over a year ago, at the start of the republican primaries, when Mr. Trump announced his
campaign it was met with extreme skepticism. At that time, he was known for his role as a businessman,
and his central role in the birther movement against President Obama. Very few people believed he had
a real chance, running against experienced politicians like Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, and John Ellis JEB
Bush. However, he found new ways to get his name out in the world, while spending less money. While
he made many inflammatory comments during the primary, those same comments resulted in an
unprecedented amount of news coverage, which some have estimated to be essentially $2 billion worth
of free advertising (Confessore). This coverage wasnt just because it increased rating though, thanks to
emails released by WikiLeaks we learned Hillary Clinton and her campaign had extensive ties with the
media, and often influenced their coverage. In an internal memo the Clinton campaign outlined a PiedPiper strategy to help legitimize the extreme republican candidates, including Donald Trump. (Clinton)
The media helped her implement this during the primaries by extensively covering Trump above all

other candidates. This allowed him to spend much less money on his campaign then his competition,
and made him a well-known name at the beginning of his run. Though much of it was negative, it was
still free press. This combined with the debates, which though he could hardly have been said to have
won, still got him a lot of press and allowed him to do what he does best: bully. During the debates he
would bully other candidates, and overpower them with his personality. This translated into the rest of
his campaign, he has found many different catchy phrases which people associate with him, from Make
America Great Again to Low Energy Jeb, Lying Ted, and Crooked Hillary. These phrases are all
good propaganda as defined in Mein Kampf: they appeal to the common and uneducated people, and
all the phrases are short, and so are easily remembered (Hitler). That alone is not negative, Obamas
2008 campaign slogan, Vote for Change, and all the others focused on change reflects this idea. They
are short, and promise a change, which their voters expect to be a good change. Good propaganda is
essential to winning an election, and despite the many criticisms of him, Trump still got an
unprecedented amount of free coverage with which to spread his propaganda.
The other major reason why Trump was able to get the nomination was the fact he found the
right base to appeal to at the right time. The rural poor have been ignored by both the Dems and other
Republicans, with most of their rhetoric either focusing on the urban poor by the Dems or the upper
class for the republicans. Trump speaks at a very low level, with some studies finding his speeches are
written at a 5th grade level. However, this is an advantage, as it allows him to speak directly to the core
of his base, the poor and uneducated rural poor. In addition, he has been saying extremely offensive
things, and targeted various racial groups within the country. While this does alienate these groups, they
tend not be Republican, and so do not have an effect on the primary. These again got him media
coverage, and they did appeal to the poor, by giving them scapegoats to hate and project their problems
on. Those in opposition to his ideas could not agree on a good candidate to oppose him among the huge
field. This meant that no one candidate had as motivated a base to rely on during the primary, nor did

any agree to drop out so that he would have a single opponent, allowing him to take the early lead. Due
to the Republican primary system, the party leadership had no way to stop him, unlike the Dems which
have super delegates which can help prevent grassroots candidates from threatening the party
nomination. This meant they had to use tactics which many voters perceived as underhanded, and so
allowed his base to swell with those who did not want a contested convention, allowing him to turn his
early lead into a victory. This is the same base which helped him win the election; on election night the
rust belt went red because he had at least spoke to the poor blue collar workers who lived there. Hillary
Clinton believed that they would go blue because they had in the past, like for Obama. Her campaign
ignored them despite Bill Clintons repeated warnings that they needed to appeal to those voters to win
the election.
His victory came because Clinton did a very poor job campaigning, and Trump kept the spotlight
on him. Clinton spent a lot of the election focusing on the fear of Trump, which though succeeds among
the Republican base as shown by Trumps hate filled rhetoric, failed to inspire voters among the
Democratic base. She called everyone who voted for Trump Deplorable (Chozick), and made no
outreach to undecided voters. She ignored the blue collar workers who Trump was appealing to by
promising to bring their jobs back, despite that being impossible. She also refused to admit her flaws.
Despite controversy surrounding her use of a private email server while secretary of state, Clinton never
directly addressed the issue, except to say that she wasnt found criminally responsible for it. Trump
focused heavily on this point, and since she was unable to refute many of the points she looked very
untrustworthy. This untrustworthiness was magnified because she was one of the political elite on the
Democratic side, and Trump ran on a message that he would Drain the Swamp, despite the fact that
he shows no signs of following through. She admitted she did not know how the average American felt,
and gave a vibe that she was disconnected. This was amplified because the media refused to cover her
flaws due to being in bed with her campaign. This combined with the fact that due to the internet,

people tend to only look at news which supports their biases. The Democrats fell into a bubble where
they were unable to see how bad she appeared. She failed to inspire voters, which is shown in the
election turnout, which was a 20-year low (Wallace). Both candidates were unappealing to much of the
country, however the Republican base was far more motivated to go out and vote.
Clintons failure of a campaign has left America in a grave spot. The Republicans captured both
the senate and the house, in addition to Trump winning the presidency. He will soon be able to
nominate a supreme court justice, which would turn the court red again, allowing them control of all
three branches. This is combined with the extremism Trump has surrounded with. His vice-president,
Mike Pence, has espoused the view that gay conversion therapy works, and looks to undo the progress
in LGBT rights. There is a chance Roe vs. Wade could be overturned, which would result in more
legislation against abortion from the right. Despite claiming that he would drain the swamp, Trump has
surrounded himself with the more extreme elements of the Republican party, and lobbyists. His
potential cabinet looks very extreme. The Democrats failure this election has left the country with a
leader who is surrounded by people who look to move the country socially back to the 1950s. Trump has
advocated for a registry of Muslims, which does parallel the actions of Hitler in the 1930s. However, this
should not be taken as a fear mongering piece, not all is lost. The Democrats need to focus on why they
lost. It wasnt racism, despite many claims it was, as the Rust Belt voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012. It
was due to poor campaigning by Clinton, and failure to excite her base. The Republicans only have a 51
majority in the senate, so the most extreme pieces of legislature can be blocked. Though the country is
likely to suffer under Trump, as long as people dont allow them to encroach upon their freedoms, and
make their opinions known, the extremist elements of the Republican party should be unable to
institute their policies.
Trump took the election against all odds due to good use of propaganda combined with free
media coverage. He appealed to a normally ignored group of people, and the Republican party failed to

unite against him until it was too late to stop him. The Democrats campaigned poorly, and despite
Clintons enormous influence failed to win the election. Now the people must stand strong and exercise
their rights to prevent the country from moving towards chaos. Though the Republicans control all the
branches of government, the checks and balances still exist, and Trump has broken from the Republican
party many times before. Though the country has elected a woefully unprepared candidate, it will
survive, as it has with terrible presidents before.

Citations
Chozick, Amy. Hillary Clinton Calls Many Trump Backers Deplorables, and G.O.P. Pounces. The New
York Times, The New York Times, Nov. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/us/politics/hillary-clintonbasket-of-deplorables.html.
Clinton, Hillary. Memo to Campaign Staff, Clinton Campaign, April 7, 2015.
Confessore, Nicholas, and Karen Yourish. $2 Billion Worth of Free Media for Donald Trump. The New
York Times, The New York Times, 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/upshot/measuring-donaldtrumps-mammoth-advantage-in-free-media.html.
Hitler, Adolf, and Ralph Manheim. Mein Kampf. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1943.
Lobosco, Katie, and Drew Griffin. Donald Trump Settles Trump University Lawsuits. CNNMoney, Cable
News Network, 19 Nov. 2016, money.cnn.com/2016/11/18/news/trump-universitysettlement/index.html.
Wallace, Gregory, and Robert Yoon. Voter Turnout at 20-Year Low in 2016. CNN, Cable News Network,
12 Nov. 2016, www.cnn.com/2016/11/11/politics/popular-vote-turnout-2016/index.html.