So, tell me again what your mirror tells you after voting for that man

[TaraJo]

You want to know why he won? Because the democrats shot themselves in the foot. He wasn't more liked than Hillary; he was less hated than her.

Democrats changed what they're usually about. I was raised in a labor union family and that was the democratic party that was always popular before. Appeal to working class people, appeal to factory workers, things like that. Instead, the appeal was mostly to minority groups. What about the majority? Well, this was the election cycle where "white male" was turned into an insult, despite the fact that white males are the majority. As much as the insults Trump spewed were much worse, the lesson here needs to be learned: you will NEVER succeed in a democracy when you alienate the majority. That's not how a democracy works.

Truth is, as much as so many people delight in calling them privileged, it's not that simple at all. Think about things from their perspective: you're a 50 year old factory worker. You got out of high school and got a factory job. You did what you were told, worked hard, and everything. Before, everything was hunky dory for you but now..... now your jobs are being automated or sent overseas. The blue collar jobs left are harder to get, don't pay as well and (according to popular myth) are being filled by illegal immigrants. And instead of addressing those issues, democrats appealed to a bunch of trust fund college kids who are chastising those blue collar workers for being privileged.

Donald Trump also won because he was populous within the Republican party. Remember the primaries where he was the populous candidate while he was competing against several establishment candidates? Had the GOP only had one establishment candidate against him, this may have turned out differently, but it didn't so that's a discussion for another time. Hillary, on the other hand, was the establishment for the Democrats with Bernie Sanders being the populous candidate. I think he certainly appealed to people more than Hillary did and had he won the nomination, it would have been a vastly different campaign. It certainly would have been interesting to see how the label of "socialist" would have worked as a smear tactic today; in the 80's it would have been suicide, but a lot has changed since then. And if my prediction is accurate, we'll be seeing that over the next few years; the demorats love Bernie Sanders and their love for him is just going to grow. It would be nice to see him genuinely change the party from the inside.

So, want a democrat to win? Follow these three points:

1) Be populous, not establishment

2) Talk about economic issues.

3) Don't insult people you need to vote for you.

Truth is, Trump terrifies me. Yeah, people say he won't start WW3 with Russia. But as brash as he is on Twitter, do you really want that kind of hot head with his hand on the button? I mean, remember his reaction when Obama won reelection in 2012? What happens when he reacts like a petutlant child over a trade deal he doesn't like? Or when congress won't pass a bill he wants? Or when the supreme court makes a ruling that he disagrees with? I feel like we're walking on a knife's edge here; even Pence was more predictable than this.

That being said, I'm becoming increasingly disillusioned with politics altogether. Maybe it's sour grapes, maybe it's from reading 1984 recently, but it feels like democrats always did a lot of lip service for middle class and lower class voters, but when they're actually in power, they don't actually help any of those groups. Sure, they'll help minorities, but only the minorities who are already rich and powerful. Everyone else, both sides doesn't do anything to help them no matter what they say.