{"id":223,"date":"2016-11-18T00:57:40","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T00:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.electionanalysis2016.us\/?page_id=223"},"modified":"2016-11-21T10:24:11","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T10:24:11","slug":"with-a-mainstream-politics-seemingly-devoid-of-answers-many-vote-for-the-previously-unthinkable","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/with-a-mainstream-politics-seemingly-devoid-of-answers-many-vote-for-the-previously-unthinkable\/","title":{"rendered":"With a mainstream politics seemingly devoid of answers, many vote for the previously unthinkable"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"row \"><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"col-lg-3 col-md-3 col-xs-12 col-sm-3\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"ProfileText8\"><strong><span class=\"CharOverride-35\">Peter Bloom<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"BIO\"><em>Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of People and Organisations at the Open University<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"BIO\"><span class=\"EMAIL\">Email:\u00a0<\/span><span data-sheets-value=\"{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;peter.bloom@open.ac.uk&quot;}\" data-sheets-userformat=\"{&quot;2&quot;:12801,&quot;3&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:0},&quot;12&quot;:0,&quot;15&quot;:&quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;16&quot;:10}\">peter.bloom@open.ac.uk<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-254\" src=\"http:\/\/www.electionanalysis2016.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8-300x300.png\" alt=\"US2016 - Section 8\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8-768x771.png 768w, https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8-60x60.png 60w, https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/US2016-Section-8.png 1018w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<h5 class=\"CampaignQuote8\">Section 8: Result and Beyond<\/h5>\n<div class=\"page-list\"><ul class=\"list-group-item\"><li class=\"page_item page-item-217\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/trump-and-the-populist-earthquake-in-american-politics\/\">Trump and the populist earthquake in American politics<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-219\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/democracy-trumped\/\">Democracy Trumped<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-221\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/the-narcissistic-capture-of-american-nationalism\/\">The narcissistic capture of American nationalism<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-225\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/irrational-beliefs-matter\/\">Irrational beliefs matter<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-227\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/the-politics-of-de-legitimacy\/\">The politics of de-legitimacy<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-229\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/there-are-six-types-of-ugly-american-and-donald-trump-is-all-of-them\/\">There are six types of ugly American and Donald Trump is all of them<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-231\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/reflections-on-the-2016-us-election\/\">Reflections on the 2016 US Election<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"page_item page-item-233\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/the-word-stupid-power\/\">The W\u00f8rd: stupid power<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p><\/div><\/p>\n<p><div class=\"col-lg-9 col-md-9 col-xs-12 col-sm-9\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"FIRST-PARA\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">In a country divided by race, class and the growing chasm of ideology, 2016 seemed to offer very little common ground between Clinton and Trump supporters. They appeared to represent not just competing political desires or interests but two fundamentally opposed worldviews. On one side stood a tried and true vision of tolerance and incremental progress. On the other misdirected hate and an impassioned cry for the complete sweeping away of the status quo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">First appearances, though, can be deceiving. Amidst these profound differences was a shared sense of alarmism tinged with optimism. Democrats were terrorised by Trump and his supporters\u2019 fascist overtones and excited that this would most likely spell the end of the Conservative extremism that had taken hold of the Republican Party since Obama\u2019s inauguration. For those on the Right, they feared a Clinton monarchy and the continuation of an economy and society that seemed content to leave them behind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">Even more fundamentally, both camps passionately embraced candidates who offered them little more than false solutions in a country that had seemed to run out of answers to its most pressing economic, social and political problems. Trump is the most obvious target for such a critique. The now president elect showed himself throughout the campaign to be a emotionally resonant con ma extraordinaire &#8211; promising to make American Great Again even while insulting a growing portion of its population. Clinton, however, was by no means free of such political sins. She offered high minded platitudes and piece meal reforms in place of a genuine record or vision of bold progressive change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">Emerging was a more chronic and serious disease afflicting American democracy. If the 21st century had thus far shown the American public anything \u2013 it was not just that government was ineffectual but that it was completely unimaginative. Amidst its sound bites and carefully staged debates, it spoke little to the real concerns and experiences of those they ostensibly represented. This was especially deplorable in a time when inequality was on the rise while economic and political power firmly rested in the hands of elites. Internationally, America seemed stuck in a vicious and costly cycle of militarism and terrorism. The country was further torn apart over issues of police brutality, mass incarceration and the looming threat of climate change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">The insurgent progressive candidacy of Bernie Sanders was to a new generation a potential antidote to this cultural paralysis. His rejection of corporate money and call for a \u201cpolitical revolution\u201d showed glimmers of jumpstarting the sputtering nation from its ideological malaise and entrenched partisan battles. It was a call to take back the government for the people. Yet it also held out the hope that it was still possible for everyday citizens to mobilize and shape history rather than simply being shaped by it.<br \/>\nThe elite Liberal dismissal of such efforts reflected just how deeply the cynicism from the Centre ran and how scared it was of radical change, regardless of which political direction it came from. Conversely, Trump tapped into a populist outrage with the \u201cestablishment\u201d, dragging it down to the lowest common denominator of racism, sexism and discrimination. Without any alternative, most Americans chose to stay home discontent with having to choose between (to quote one popular meme) \u201cAn incredibly shitty status quo\u201d and a \u201cdystopian nightmare future\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Basic-Paragraph-US\"><span class=\"REGULAR\">The cultural theorist Fredric Jameson famously declared\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/newleftreview.org\/II\/21\/fredric-jameson-future-city\"><span class=\"Hyperlink\">\u201cSomeone once said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism\u201d<\/span><\/a><span class=\"REGULAR\">. On November 8th many Americans voted for the unthinkable after years of being told that their longing for a truly better future was little more than a na\u00efve dream. The rest of the country now must wake up and confront our worst political nightmare.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":39,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-223","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>With a mainstream politics seemingly devoid of answers, many vote for the previously unthinkable - US Election Analysis 2016<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.electionanalysis.ws\/us\/president2016\/us-election-analysis-2016\/section-8-result-and-beyond\/with-a-mainstream-politics-seemingly-devoid-of-answers-many-vote-for-the-previously-unthinkable\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"With a mainstream politics seemingly devoid of answers, many vote for the previously unthinkable - 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