Why The World’s Going Crazy

We go back to a night of an insanity

“On the first anniversary of Trump’s election, the Guardian looks back on the evening through the eyes of Clinton supporters across the country. Some supporters shared the text message exchanges they had that evening.”

“On election morning, Americans took to the polls in what, at the time, seemed to be an election that could only go one way. The New York Times’s Upshot blog gave Hillary Clinton a 91% chance of winning, The Huffington Post had her at 98% and the Princeton Election Consortium had the results as an almost inevitability at 99%.(Guardian) “Fresh from a midnight rally with Bon Jovi and Lady Gaga in North Carolina, Clinton flew home early in the morning and voted at an elementary school in Chappaqua, New York. “So many people are counting on the outcome of this election, what it means for our country and I’ll do the very best I can if I’m fortunate enough to win today,” she told a reporter.”

They won’t be able to walk down the street…

Hillary being booed and called a criminal over and over again outside Queens University. pic.twitter.com/kAF6PHJOY1

— suzy (@Suzy1776_) September 24, 2021

Oh how far The Mighty can fall!

“…A few blocks south in Manhattan, Jessie Chaffee was voting in Greenwich Village, the neighborhood she’d grown up in and voted in for years. Chaffee, author of the novel Florence in Ecstasy, had tickets for Clinton’s election party in the Javits Center that night. The moment she saw a woman’s name on the ballot was incredibly moving, she said. “It was not unlike the feeling eight years earlier, when voting for Obama. Being able to vote for a black man for president,” she recalled. “That morning there was hope and excitement.” She took a moment to sit down in a park after voting and soak it all in. (Guardian) “In Rochester, New York state, many chose to mark the milestone by placing their “I voted” stickers on the grave of suffragette leader Susan B Anthony. “Across the country, Maurice Cheeks, a city councilman in Madison, Wisconsin, put a shirt that said Future Feminist on his 10-month-old daughter. “I was excited because … she was going to have the opportunity to grow up in a world where she was going to get to see,” a female president, he told the Guardian. “As the polls closed, Americans left work and gathered with their friends and family to watch the results pour in. Panelists from all the major networks gathered for the night they’d been preparing for the past 18 months. They all began by explaining how incredibly difficult it would be for Trump to win the election.

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“As pollsters reminded people throughout the night, in order for Trump to win he would have to first win Florida, which he was predicted to lose, and then destroy the “blue firewall” of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, three states a Republican had not won in a generation, and Trump was also predicted to lose. (Guardian) “Clinton supporters were hopeful of a landslide victory and the beginning of a liberal zenith brought about by shifting demographics in the country. “The pundits for each network were all providing their analysis, with CNN’s John King jumping around the interactive map, zooming in and out of counties to explain their significance. “Penny Dailey came home from work in Sacramento, California, full of joy and anticipation to see the first woman being elected US president. “It was close to what I felt to my son being born. It was that joyful.” “The first few states were called in the direction that most people expected. Trump winning West Virginia, Tennessee and other solidly Republican states, and Clinton winning reliably Democratic states such as Connecticut and Illinois. “In CNN’s situation room, John King was becoming more and more breathless as he explained that Florida was a lot tighter than people had expected. Just hours before, analysts said the early signs looked good for Clinton but now she was neck-and-neck with Trump.

“A huge surge in the Latino vote was not enough to give Clinton the state of Florida. Trump won and defied all expectations, which sent pundits, analysts, and pollsters into a headspin to try to calculate what Clinton’s remaining path to victory might be.(Guardian) “The New York Times’s Upshot had created an interactive that showed the candidate most likely to win as a meter that changed in real time. It started the day at 91% chance of Clinton winning but now had Trump as the most likely victor. "The Hilton Marriott in Manhattan, where Trump supporters were holding their party, erupted in joy when the news came through. The Javits Center, across town, was silent. A performance by Katy Perry, which was intended to be jubilant, fell flat – nobody was in the mood. “Everybody’s attention turned to the rust belt: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. A combination of these states was Clinton’s only path. “Images of people breaking down in tears at the Javits Center and other Clinton supporters parties began flashing across all the major networks as the reality of a Trump presidency began to sink in. “As soon as Pennsylvania happened, we were like, ‘This is done,’” Forrest, in the Wisconsin organizing center, recalled. Trump became the first Republican candidate to win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan since 1988. His “rust belt strategy” had paid off . “John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, came out at the Javits Center and told everyone to go home as there would be no speech from the Democratic nominee that night. “They’re still counting votes and every vote should count,” he told the remaining diehards at the Javits Center.

…”News pundits struggled to hide their shock, and horror. The CNN commentator Van Jones said Trump’s victory was fueled by a “whitelash” against a changing country. “How do I explain this to my children?” he wondered. (Guardian) “Cheeks, the Madison city councilman, was also scared. His wife was not a political junkie like he was, and he assured her that it was absolutely impossible for Trump to win. “I thought you said this wouldn’t happen,” she told him after Trump’s victory was announced. “I didn’t have an answer for her,” he recalled. “For the first time, [Cheeks’s wife] thought to herself, ‘What does this mean? We just had a child that we’re bringing up in this world where Donald Trump is the president.’”

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