Illinois votes for a loser

James Thorpe

As Americans awoke today to the knowledge that Donald J. Trump is the president-elect after winning 276 electoral votes. The state of Illinois electoral votes went to the loser Hilary Clinton with her earning 55% of the vote. The vote was split with the urban counties going blue and the rural areas going red. It's very interesting to see that political divisions show the growing disconnect between those who live and work in urban areas (young educated professionals, working class traditional blue-collar laborers and various ethnic and social minority groups) and those who work in rural areas (older white laborers and factory workers who have lost their jobs). The divide which has been increasing over the past ten years as the money and government programs targeting urban areas and the people who work and live in these areas. This led to a growing anger among rural voters who felt that the America that they knew and were promised seemed to begin to disappear as more and more influence was being centered around urban areas and those in rural areas wanted to create a change not only for themselves but also for their children who they believed would have a life that would be worse than theirs. Donald Trump was able to tap into this anger as he rallied the discontent and humiliated to his cause. These were the citizens who were left out of the many programs that President Obama created. They lost their manufacturing jobs to outsourcing and were being constantly ridiculed by the media on the coasts. The people of the "fly-over" states had had enough of being the butt of jokes about living "in the middle of the nowhere" and being "backwards rednecks". They found their rebuttal to 8 years of President Obama and his name was Donald Trump. He promised to change things and to "Make America Great Again". This was good enough for disgruntled voters who were crying out for somebody to pay attention to them and to take them seriously and Trump did just that. He played off of the fear and anger many voters felt and he promised a new America that would see a return to glory and international prestige. They didn't want the United States of America to become just another superpower they wanted it to be the only superpower. Whether Trump can deliver this vision of America is yet to be seen but he has 4 years, a republican-controlled congress and supreme court. Whatever the future holds we can only hope that Trump defies expectation and can move the United States forward in a positive direction.