How on earth did Donald John Trump win the 2016 US election? Many people believe it is because of white racist/sexist voters supporting him, or that American voters are just plain dumb and stupid. Others think it is because Hillary Rodham Clinton was a deeply flawed candidate. Perhaps there is some truth in all these reasons.
 
I however suspect that the unlikely victory of DJT over HRC was primarily due to a rejection of wholesale corruption in the American government system, of which Clinton was the poster girl as the consummate insider. Much as she had a lot going for her in terms of “experience”, she was also tainted with decades of strong links to the “establishment” who have come to represent (in the eyes of many Americans) everything that is broken in America.
 
Trump on the other hand presented himself as an outsider, having never held elected office before. He railed against the Washington corruption machinery and went as far as saying that he shall push legislation to ban former officials of the Executive from becoming lobbyists for at least 5 years after a president leaves office. He released a 100 day plan summarizing his ideas with “draining the swamp” of corruption being a key promise. It seems many people believed him but it still remains to be seen if he shall follow through on his promises.
 
Polls over many decades have consistently shown an increase in the percentage of Americans who believe that their government is corrupt. 75% to be exact, according to a Gallup poll in 2014. This is up from 67% in 2007. Compare with UK (46%), Canada (44%), Germany (38%), Australia (41%), Mauritius (75%) and Sweden (14%). Even the approval rating for the US Congress (13%) is at a very historic low (it was as low as 9% in 2013).
 
Americans have seen the proverbial 1% getting richer due to special privileges bought by the big corporations with campaign financing and lobbying while life becomes more expensive and difficult for the average Joe. They saw the sub-prime meltdown in 2007 with very few executives prosecuted or fined as the “too-big-to-fail” banks who made bad sub-prime mortgage investment decisions got bailed out to the tune of $700 billion and more billions of secret credit by the Federal Reserve to many banks (including foreign ones). It may be more than a coincidence that the big banks donate to presidential campaigns on both sides.
 
Americans have seen many senior former government officials taking up lobbying positions after leaving office. They have seen laws sponsored by the big corporations passed to kill competition from smaller companies (SMEs create most of the new jobs). The more complex the laws are, the better for the bigger companies since they can afford to hire huge teams of expensive lawyers to ensure compliance which their smaller competitors cannot. DJT wants to reduce regulations for business.
 
The US Corporation tax rate is at 35%, among the highest in the world and yet some big companies pay very little taxes because they are exempted with the excuse that they contribute a lot to the US economy (all this after they donate to election campaigns). Their smaller competitors do not have the financial muscle to sponsor election campaigns and therefore cannot lobby for tax exemptions as easily. According to many, it is the proverbial corrupt revolving door with the Executive, Congress and Wall Street all in bed together.
 
Some reports suggest that Senators and Representatives are making money from insider trading which is illegal for the rest of the population. “60 Minutes”, the popular CBS show implicated House Speakers Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner, among many others.
 
Perhaps many Americans see the corruption and lobbying in Washington as one of the main causes of the economic problems they are facing. Perhaps they remain unconvinced by many claims of the dishonest left wing liberal media with their endless Trump bashing that is full of innuendos and unproven conjectures. I was most unimpressed by allegations that DJT is racist and sexist. The so-called “evidence” from many dishonest writers from the likes of the Huffington Post consisted of taking events out of context, quoting other people and conveniently ignoring all evidence to the contrary.
 
Perhaps many Americans are not as dumb as many people believe. Perhaps they see in DJT someone who can “Make America Great Again” and not someone who can “Make America White again”, as the dishonest left wing media keeps spinning the story.
 
MJC
 
P/S – Notice the focus in the liberal left wing media on the fact that HRC won the popular vote by 1.25%. They hardly discuss the fact that DJT won 57% of the electoral college and won 30 out of 50 states (60%), that some solidly Democratic States voted for him after rejecting previous Republican Candidates for decades, that HRC barely won in some of her supposed strongholds or that DJT won more black and Latino voters (as a percentage) than both Mitt Romney and John McCain (thanks to Chanda Chisala for mentioning this to me). And there is the inconvenient fact that DJT is the first Republican President to control Congress in his first election since Herbert Hoover did it in 1928 (George W Bush did it in his second term). Republicans now control the White House, both houses of Congress and they won half of the Governor races in defiance of the doomsday predictions of the dishonest left wing liberal media.
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REFERENCES:
 
75% in U.S. See Widespread Government Corruption
 
Report: Fed lent $1.2 trillion to banks during financial crisis
 
These 26 Companies Pay No Federal Income Tax
 
Forget Pelosi, Here’s The Most Stunning Detail From The Congressional Insider Trading Report
 
So, just how rich is Congress? Richer than you.
 
United States presidential election, 2016
 
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