The Republican Party's nominee was Donald Trump. He was, beyond any question, the most unqualified candidate nominated for President by a major party. He had never held public office, either elective or appointive. He was a pathological liar, a known bigot, and a damn fool.
Even the main argument in his favor, that he was a successful businessman, should have worked against him. For one thing, running a government -- national, state or local -- and running a business are two very different things. Businessmen don't know a damn thing about governing. In other words, even if Trump were a good person with good intentions, he would still have been a lousy President, because he wouldn't have known what the hell he was doing.
For another thing, he wasn't a successful businessman. He was a real estate mogul, and lost money on just about every building he built. He built and operated casinos, and lost money running them. How the hell do you lose money running a casino? And he bought a professional football team, and ended up destroying its entire league.
As they used to say on the TV show Match Game, Dumb Donald is so dumb!
But not completely dumb. He tapped into the anger that some people had at Hillary. And he let the nation's bigots -- whether they hated people because of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, whatever other category -- know that he hated the same people, and would hurt those people at the benefit of those who hated them. It would be government by spite.
And there were enough people who ate that up that, when combined with those people who, whether they liked Trump personally or not, or whether they thought he was intelligent enough or mentally stable enough to be President or not, were going to vote for the Republican nominee no matter what, that he had a chance.
In the election, Clinton won 65.8 million votes, to Trump's 62.9 million. She won 48.2 percent of the popular vote to Trump's 46.1 percent.
But, fairly or not, it's the Electoral Vote that matters. Clinton won 20 States, plus the District of Columbia, for 232 Electoral Votes. Trump won 30 States, plus 1 Electoral Vote in Maine, for 306. (In the end, there were "faithless electors" who voted for candidates other than those for whom he popular votes in their States said they should, so the final count was Trump 304, Clinton 227.
Trump won 6 States that the outgoing President, Democrat Barack Obama, won in 2012: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Florida. And some of those votes were close enough to be suspicious: Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes, Wisconsin by 22,748, Pennsylvania by 44,292.
Those 3 States were won by a total of 77,744 votes -- less than the seating capacity of MetLife Stadium. Had Hillary gotten another 11,000 votes in Michigan, 23,000 in Wisconsin, and 45,000 in Pennsylvania, it would have swung the Electoral Vote in her favor, 278-260 (not counting faithless electors).
And as the votes climbed high into the night to light the sacrificial rite, I developed a headache. That's right: Donald Trump literally makes me sick.
Why did Hillary "lose"?
Say what you want about Trump, and I have. But, however despicable, his racist/populist campaign was very effective. He also had outside help: Vladimir Putin and the Russian government, and Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks (or "RusskiLeaks"), fabricated statements that spoke to the "Crooked Hillary" lie, and a bunch of gullible people believed it. Furthermore, Russians hacked America's voting machines. This is not, as Trump called it, a hoax. The Senate even confirmed this. The Republican-controlled Senate, mind you.
Then there was James Comey. The Director of the FBI, in effect, turned the election with 2 weeks to go by revealing... nothing at all, but raising suspicions about Hillary. Comey went on to get fired by Trump anyway, for apparent disloyalty. He is the one guy who has gone through this hated by both sides.
Then there was the media. They were absolutely terrified of being called "liberal" and the charge that the election was "rigged." So they weren't willing to call Trump out on his crimes and lies, as they had been against John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.
Then there were those media outlets that actually promoted Trump, because they either had a financial interest in a close election, or actually wanted a conservative to be President, or wanted the "entertainment" of a Trump Presidency. You know, like when the entertainer Ronald Reagan was in office. In each of these cases, you people know who you are. And we will not forget.
As usual, conservatives said CNN was against Trump. That's insane: They wanted Trump. But if Ted Turner -- who, I've heard, is not well -- were still running CNN, Trump would have been arrested by the FBI when he got to the bottom of the escalator.
But the biggest culprits of all were the progressive purists. The people who wanted Bernie Sanders, but didn't go along with him when he endorsed Hillary. The people who voted for Jill Stein instead. The people who voted for Gary Johnson instead. The people who actually considered Trump to be more progressive. And the people who stayed home, and didn't vote at all. Stein's vote totals in what turned out to be the 3 key States -- Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin -- were greater than Trump's margin of victory.
"The left" -- a term conservatives throw around, as if they know what it means -- does this at least once every generation. In 1948, they refused to vote for Harry Truman, and instead voted for Henry Wallace. That time, the Democrat won anyway. In 1968, they didn't get Robert Kennedy or Gene McCarthy, so they refused to vote for Hubert Humphrey, and mostly stayed home. And we got Richard Nixon.
In 1980, they didn't get Ted Kennedy, so they refused to vote for Jimmy Carter, and mostly stayed home. And we got Ronald Reagan. In 2000, they didn't get Ralph Nader, so they refused to vote for Al Gore, and either stayed home, or voted for Nader anyway. And we got George W. Bush. In 2016, they didn't get Bernie Sanders, so they refused to vote for Hillary Clinton, and either stayed home, or voted for Jill Stein. And we got Donald Trump.
In 1968, 1980, 2000 and 2016, each time, the left caused the election of the President who was the least like the one they wanted. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me four times, and I'm a progressive purist.
Hillary got more votes than any Presidential candidate, ever, except for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. So don't tell me she was "unpopular." That is a lie. And don't tell me she was "a flawed candidate." They all are.
And no candidate has ever been more flawed than Trump. And Hillary proved to be more popular than he was. But the Constitution says Electoral Votes matter more, and those went for Trump -- suspiciously.
If you had told me that night that Trump's tenure in office would lead to, at last count, the deaths of 754,000 Americans, I would have believed it. But I would have guessed it was due to some stupid war he got us into, not an epidemic that his supporters would have been too goddamned stupid to protect themselves from. I would have guessed they wouldn't have cared about protecting others, but not even themselves? Dumb Donald is so dumb, but his fans are still dumber.
Now, Joe Biden is the President, and things are so much better, in every way. Some of the problems of the Trump Administration are still there. But at least now, we've got a government that's working on them.
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November 8, 2016, like all modern U.S. Election Days, was a Tuesday. The baseball season was over. Football was in midweek. These 6 games were played in the NBA that night:
* The Brooklyn Nets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 119-110 at the Barclays Center. Andrew Wiggins scored 36 points for the T-Wolves, but Brook Lopez scored 26 to let the Nets to victory.
* The Atlanta Hawks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 110-106 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. (It's now named Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.)
* The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Denver Nuggets, 108-107 at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.
* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 109-97 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
* The Sacramento Kings beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 102-94 at the new Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. Anthony Davis scored 34 in defeat for the Pels.
* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Phoenix Suns, 124-121 at the Moda Center in Portland. Damian Lillard scored 38 to lead all NBA players on the night.
And there were 10 games played in the NHL:
* The New Jersey Devils beat the Carolina Panthers, 3-2 at the Prudential Center in Newark. The Devils won a game in a shootout. And yet, Trump's win made this only the 2nd-most-shocking event of the night. Certainly, I approved of this one a lot more.
* The New York Rangers lost to the Vancouver Canucks, 5-3 at Madison Square Garden.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2 in a shootout at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
* The San Jose Sharks beat the Washington Capitals, 3-0 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.
* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 7-0 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. (It's now named the Scotiabank Arena.)
* The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-3 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
* The Nashville Predators beat the Ottawa Senators, 3-1 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Dallas Stars, 8-2 at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg. (It's now named the Canada Life Centre.)
* And the Arizona Coyotes beat the Colorado Rockies, 4-2 at the Pepsi Center in Denver. (It's now named the Ball Arena.)