Trump’s historic win was a long time coming

When election night started, the exit polls spelled trouble for Republican Donald Trump. Rival Hillary Clinton had vision of fireworks over the Hudson. The Javits Center, where she was supposed to address the nation as the first woman president, was supposed to be the hot spot.

But there was trouble on Hillary’s road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Ohio fell, North Carolina fell and Florida, thought to be the place where Trump would be denied his victory by angry early voting Latinos, fell. Once Trump had his trifecta, he told America, in the words of Ronald Reagan, to tear down that great Blue Wall. America responded and handed him the White House.

{mosads}Hillary phoned in her concession to Trump, but dispatched campaign chair John Podesta to send her faithful home. She could not face the nation that rejected her. American knew this and it is why she was denied the White House. But in reality, Hillary was acting true to form, as Hillary had a campaign based on hypocrisy. But this election was never one Hillary could win. She was on the wrong side of history and all the pundits that enabled her delusions merely refused to accept the new reality of American politics.   

How did Trump win what many thought was unwinnable? He gave Americans a real choice, he is right on the issues, and he utilized a political script unshackled from the chains of identity politics.

In my book, Odd Man Out, which was published in January 2015, I wrote, “Just as the Whigs withered on the vine and T.R. shook the nation with his Bull Moose, the time has come for a political realignment that will not only advance constitutional freedoms but unite a country that is united in name only.” 

Nobody saw it coming or, quite frankly, wanted to see it coming. The political system so many in the Beltway bubble have grown attached to had worked for them for so long. What they failed to realized is that it was not working for the American people. It was a system wedded to a status quo in which an electoral win meant a transfer of power between parties, not policy.

Think about it. The American people have not had a real choice in their national elections for a long time. Can anyone honestly say the world would have been different if Bob Dole had beat Bill Clinton? If John McCain beat Barack Obama or if Mitt Romney had not dropped the winning touchdown pass?

Dole, McCain, and Romney held essentially the same values as their Democratic rival on issues of foreign policy, trade, immigration, and, yes, even abortion. The differences between the two parties is measured in inches.

The American people have had enough. They are tired of both parties selling out their jobs; their nation. While the Chinese treats American trade like a sailor treats a gal on shore leave, both parties capitulate to China. Why, both parties exclaim in unison — “we can’t start a trade war.”  

Both parties refused to enforce immigration laws. Why? Democrats wanted more voters dependent on them and Republicans wanted the scraps.

If we had a candidate who would expose our current system as a two party illusion and have the audacity to tell the American people to put their nation before their pre-determined political identities, we could have a political revolution like no other.

Donald Trump did just that — he gave the American people a choice on trade, immigration, and foreign policy. He spoke to the people — all the people — whether they wanted to hear him or not. Even if they resisted, he wanted them to know he will not forget them..

Trump’s words were put into action when he made an unprecedented outreach to minority voters. Rather than grovel to such voters, as the GOP autopsy of 2012 would have him do, he had some tough love for them. LGBT voters, black voters, Hispanic voters, and women voters were told what they needed to hear, not necessarily what they wanted to hear.

He told the African American communities he would rebuild the inner cities Democrats have ran into the ground. He told the Hispanic community who would bring them real jobs that paid real money, but there had to be law and order at the border. And he told the LGBT community that instead of accepting millions from regimes that like to toss them from rooftops, he would have their back.

“The era of what you believe defining who you are has given way to who you are defining what you believe,” I wrote. “This is an extremely dangerous development that occurred effortlessly and without sufficient commentary or alarm.”

What does all this mean? It means the nation has changed. The GOP, as we know it, is not more. The concept of Red v. Blue is no more. Trump took down the New World Order and won. He not only defeated Hillary, he defeated the party of George W. Bush and Paul Ryan. The rulebook as we know it is forever changed; there is no going back.

Joseph R. Murray II, is administrator for LGBTrump, former campaign official for Pat Buchanan, and author of “Odd Man Out”. He can be reached at jrm@joemurrayenterprises.com.

The views of Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill