No, it wasn't about the economy

I see post-election ecstasy of some, mostly via social media, and in that shared online glee, there are no statements about protecting nor creating jobs, reducing drug prices, improving financial ethics, improving health care coverage for all Americans, promoting economic prosperity for ALL Americans, or preventing another global financial meltdown. There’s no mention of these things at all. Instead, I see constant cheers for vicious myths about Muslims and Mexicans, for insults regarding confident, intelligent political women, for comments and memes that make fun of the looks and ethnicity of our current President and First Lady and for bombing foreign lands.

So, yeah, pardon me if I don’t join in the belief that this was a vote by marginalized, forgotten people - because their own words say otherwise.

November 22 update: someone just sent me the link to this opinion piece and it is RIGHT ON:

As the aftermath of the election of Donald Trump is being sorted out, a common theme keeps cropping up from all sides: "Democrats failed to understand white, working-class, fly-over America." Trump supporters are saying this. Progressive pundits are saying this. Talking heads across all forms of the media are saying this. Even some Democratic leaders are saying this. It doesn’t matter how many people say it, it is complete bullshit.

And in addition:

Hillary Clinton has received more votes for President of the USA than any white man in history:

1992 Bill Clinton 44,909,806
1996 Bill Clinton 47,401,185
2000 Al Gore 50,999,897
2004 George Bush 62,040,610
2016 Hillary Clinton 63,715,574 (and counting)

January 7, 2017 update:

The data keeps showing, again and again, that Trump voters were NOT voting for the economy - they were voting for racism and sexism." A new paper by political scientists Brian Schaffner, Matthew MacWilliams, and Tatishe Nteta puts the blame back on the same factors people pointed to before the election: racism and sexism. And the research has a very telling chart to prove it, showing that voters’ measures of sexism and racism correlated much more closely with support for Trump than economic dissatisfaction... a bulk of support for Trump — perhaps what made him a contender to begin with — came from beliefs rooted in racism and sexism. Specifically, the researchers conclude that racism and sexism explain most of Trump’s enormous electoral advantage with non-college-educated white Americans, the group that arguably gave Trump the election." The paper is here. Shoutout to this Vox web site and this web site for bringing it to my attention.