Election 2016 Revisited One Year Later

Welp, folks, exactly 1 year ago today was Election 2016 — the day Americans went to the polls and decided that Donald Trump was the best person to sit in the Oval Office as Commander-In-Chief.  So, how’s that decision fairing today?

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“I will be president for all Americans,” Trump promised the night he seized Election 2016 while calling on the country to “come together as one united people.” Too bad so many people were unable to recognize that his words that night were a boatload of bullshit.

Since his surprise win on the night of Election 2016, the presidency of Donald J. Trump has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster.  Here’s a summary of his foibles: The resignation of National Security Director Michael Flynn a week after the inauguration; the resignations of his Press Secretary Sean Spicer, Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci (less than a week on the job), Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, senior advisor Steve Bannon, and countless others; the firing of FBI Director James Comey (after attempting to make a secret deal with Comey to turn a blind eye to the illegal activities of Michael Flynn); the code-speak and support of white supremacists in Charlottesville; the unpresidential late-night tweets; the picking of a fight with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un; the insult to the widow of a fallen US soldier; the Russia scandal; the arrest of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort and senior adviser George Papadopolous; the failed repeal of Obamacare; not to mention the failure to pass even one single piece of major legislation after 10 months on the job.  This is just a short list of examples of the hot mess Trump has created since arriving in Washington — and this is from a man whose strength was supposed to be his ability to manage.

For nearly a year, Trump has played almost exclusively to his own base, mocked or engaged in an all-out war of words with perceived enemies, proven himself to be clumsy and out of his league on foreign policy, and even tried to force the FCC to stop the media from reporting the truth about his frequent fumbles, but to instead hype his own perfect version of his own pretend truth (a la Fox News).

So, what does America think about their fateful decision from Election 2016 now?

“Every president makes mistakes,” said 70-year-old retired banker John Wilson of McConnelsville, Ohio, who voted from Trump last November. “But if you add one on top of one, on top of another one, on top of another, there’s just a limit.”

“I expected competence,” said 74-year-old retired petroleum engineer Fred Wedel who now regrets his choice. “The only thing I’ve seen is gross incompetence. It started his first week in office when he put out the immigration edict. I’m not a lawyer, but I read it and I knew it’s unconstitutional. I realized, he may know how to run his Trump business but he has no clue how to run a government.”

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Yes, there’s trouble in Trumpsville. According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll, “The Donald’s” popularity is evaporating in the very small towns and rural communities that helped elect him. The poll of more than 15,000 adults in “non-metro” areas shows that many are now as likely to disapprove of Trump as they are to approve of him.

Those numbers couldn’t be more telling than in Tuesday’s election, where Republican candidates for governor in New Jersey and in Virginia — candidates Trump personally backed — were each defeated by a Democrat. Those results already have top GOP officials shaking in their boots, since their public backing of Trump may soon come back to haunt them and create the possibility of a huge congressional defeat of epic proportions in 2018.

“I’m off that boat,” said Hildegarde Evans, a registered Democrat who supported Barack Obama in 2012.  Evans says she voted for Trump because she hoped his business experience would give him a different perspective but is now adamant that she’d never support him for re-election. “There’s nothing he can say or do that will impress me or cause me to vote for him again, no, absolutely not. That’s out.”

However, it’s the trickle of life-long rural Republicans gradually coming forward to admit that a vote for Trump was a grave mistake that is perhaps the best prediction of his future fate.

Said Tom Dawe of Kent, Ohio: “If I knew what I know now, I wouldn’t have voted for him, because I think he’s a quack!”

OK WASSUP! discusses politics:
Election 2016 one year later.