On the night of the presidential inauguration in 2009, Republican leadership met in a hotel room to plan out a strategy of obstructionism designed to block any and all progressive efforts introduced by the newly elected president. This calculated and well orchestrated obstructionism took shape early on and became ingrained into the republican agenda for the next eight years.
Faced with an economic strain brought about by years of reckless policies, the country was brought to near fiscal collapse. The new president was faced with having to bring about a level of recovery not seen since the days of the Great Depression of the thirties. However, rather than work along with him for the good of the country, the GOP blocked every attempt at recovery. The republican strategy, replete with refusals to even bring measures to a vote, government shutdowns and a total lack of cooperation across the aisle brought about a log jam of government function unheard of in modern times. Now, a new force began to rise and in the face of wholesale institutional failures, an even more extreme agenda took hold and neither the democrats or the republicans could stem the tide of disdain for established institutions. Anything inside the beltway was anathema and a new extreme far right scheme was taking over. Enter Donald J Trump.
From the very first night when he announced his candidacy for the presidency, his message was full of venom, bigotry beyond comprehension, complete disrespect for women and an abiding disdain for a federal government. His verbal assaults on virtually any and everyone who did not fall in to his mold of doing business and his xenophobic posturing was considered anti American. He was playing on fear and, indeed, ignorance among the masses. A businessman of questionable ethics and a genuinely successful entertainer in his own right, the prime candidate proved to be a master of manipulating the message as well as the messengers. No one took him seriously and that turned out to be a mistake of historic proportions. He surrounded himself with loyalists – again of highly questionable credentials – and launched what was in no uncertain terms, a race to the gutter.
It is not necessary to recount all the insanity of the campaign season but what is important are few questions which will be a long time in being answered. Questions such as how did he get away with not releasing his tax returns – which no doubt would show his indebtedness and to whom, or whether or not he actually did make large charitable donations, none of which could be either quantified or verified even by the alleged recipients. Why did the media allow him to take a pass on all the half truths and outright lies being spouted throughout the campaign ? The overwhelming thing was how so many who supposedly know these things, did not see what was the eventual outcome long before it came to be and how did someone like Donald Trump find himself as President -elect.

One approach to an asnwer could he found here. In a 2012 town hall with retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter, the topic of civic education was brought up. In answering a question put forth from the audience, Justice Souter quoted Benjamin Franklin, who said that democracy cannot survive too much ignorance. Justice Souter continued.. I don’t worry about losing our republican government in the United States because I am afraid of foreign invasion…….. what I worry about is that when problems are not addressed people will not know who is responsible and when the problems get bad enough as they might do for example with another serious terrorist attack, as they might do with another financial meltdown. Some one person will come forward and say “..give me total power and I will solve this problem”. That is how the Roman empire fell. Later he added, if something is not done to improve the level of civic knowledge, that is what you should worry about at night.
The GOP agenda was calculated to not solve problems, to not capitalize on solutions, and to not move the country forward. No, it was and remains calculated to bring about a complete blocking of any progressive agenda and the erasing of any policy or power in a centralized federal government. In short, a dispanding of the republic and a return to a confederation of states.

Another approach to an answer also stemming from Justice Souter’s comments is the pervasive and complete lack of interest in facts.
One has to accept that each of both the print and the broadcast news media outlets has a particular slant. However, one likewise must accept that many are more than guilty of outright fabrications. While outlets like the Washington Post and the New York Times do have a left slant, they are still reliable sources for factual information as they have been for many years. This is also true of a number of other print news outlets. In the broadcast world, MSNBC is indeed a left slant site but we all know that and accept that. One has to admit that their on air talent does do seriously in depth research on their stories and they do evoke discussion.
On the other hand, the far right side of matters really does fall in to the category of the ridiculous when it comes to news. Brietbart, Limbaugh, Alex Jones,Newsmax – really ! It is almost laughable if so many did not take their kool ade as their gospel. But FOX news is a major real culprit here. Not much that comes out of this – at least from their pundits – has much in the way of any basis in fact. One such pundit even admitted publicly on the air that he was not a journalist but rather an entertainer. But should a so called news source be listed as entertainment ?

The sad thing is, getting back to Justice Souter’s comment, that for over fifty per cent of those between thirty and sixty-five, Fox is their sole news source. Is it any wonder that we find ourselves in the mess we are in. So many who bothered to vote this election cycle noted that they were sick and tired of the failures of Washington and the seeming inability to get anything done on behalf of the people. What they invariably failed to ask is not the what but the why and this is where so many news outlets fail. The GOP strategy is calculated to make certain nothing of progress happens and these news source for so many simply go along with that strategy mostly for the sake of ratings. They and as a result, the public are still not raising the question why and , while it might be argued, a la Chris Wallace, that fact checking is not the purview of a newscaster, it is an absolute necessity for the viewing public.

And finally, there is one more element in this tragedy that gave us Trump as president. Aside from the smear campaigning and all the rhetoric and the playing to the fears and phobias across the board,there is this question. Approximately 62.5 million voters voted for Hillary ; approximately 61.2 million voted for Trump; these figures may be revised to reflect that Hillary received near 1.5 million votes more than Trump. What is frightening is the last of three statistics – nearly 100 million eligible voters simply did not show up to vote at all. Restrictive voter laws enacted by GOP controlled state legislatures was a factor, though probably not as critical as one would think. Simple alienation from the process is also a part. However, straight out voter apathy remains a major, if not the major factor in our electoral process. For example – in 1968, the turn out of eligible voters was 60 % ; in 1972, 55 % ; in 1980, 52 % ; in 1992, 55 % ; in 2012, 54 %. In 2016, though figures are still being calculated, it appears that 57 % will be the figure. This is nothing short of a sad commentary on the level of civic engagement on the part of the “ voting public”. By contrast, France shows 71 %, Belgium, 87 %, Sweden, 82 %. It must be said, in fairness, Canada shows 62 %,better but not by much.

All in all, the 2016 election was not only what one could call a referendum on our entire process and the elements which factor in to an election, it is indeed an indication of what this nation has become and what sort of country the voters want it to be, at least for the next four years. One dares to say – we will pay the price for flowing kool ade, fear and ignorance ! Hopefully, mistakes made will be lessons learned.