After a brief recuperation, this blogger is ready to look at the November presidential election results. Much can be learned from a careful evaluation of the returns, with a focus on the three W.O.W. counties. For our analysis, we used official results reported by the Wisconsin Election Commission.
There were 368,910 presidential votes cast in the W.O.W. Counties. This represents 12.4% of total statewide vote. Waukesha is by far the 800-pound gorilla of the three counties, accounting for 64.4% of W.O.W. vote. Washington is 20.8% of W.O.W. vote, while Ozaukee is only 14.8%.
Trump received 224,747 votes from the W.O.W. area. This was 16.0% of his statewide vote.
Hillary gained 120,246 W.O.W. votes, constituting 8.7 % of her statewide vote.
Washington County went 67.4% for Trump. Waukesha voted 60.0% for Trump, while Ozaukee went 55.8% for Trump. Yet, none of the W.O.W. counties had the dubious achievement of being the most trumpian County in Wisconsin.
Ozaukee County can no longer be considered one of the deepest red counties in the state. Of the 72 counties, fully 39 others gave Trump a higher percentage of their vote.
Waukesha also can't be consisted a citadel of trumpism. Giving Trump 60.0% of its vote, Waukesha is only the 22nd trumpiest county in the state.
My own Washington County, I am ashamed to say, is the 3rd most Trump-loving county in Wisconsin, trailing only low-population Florence (71.5% Trump) and Taylor (69.5%). Still, Washington fell from being the top 2012 Republican vote percentage county to third place. We can now hold our heads a little higher.
The Libertarians were a larger factor this year than in the past. Gary Johnson received 3.7% of the presidential vote in the combined counties. The three gave Johnson an impressive 13,755 votes, far exceeding Johnson's 2012 W.O.W. vote share of 0.5% .
Trump greatly under-performed Romney's 2012 vote share in Waukesha County. Romney got 66.8% vs 60.0% for Trump. In Ozaukee, Romney received 64.6% of the vote vs 55.8 % for Trump. Romney slightly edged Trump in Washington County, 69.5% to 67.4%.
Romney gathered 1,407,966 votes statewide in 2012. This year, Trump got 1,405,284, a drop of 2,700 votes. Obama gathered 1,620,985 votes in 2012 votes in 2012, compared to Hillary's 1,382,536, a dramatic drop of 238,449. It looks like state Republicans held their collective noses and voted for Trump. Wisconsin Democratic voters did not turn-out in numbers similar to 2012, to the detriment of US world standing, your healthcare, your retirement, and our personal freedoms.
The W.O.W. county drop-off between 2012 and 2016 was pretty large. The 2012 turn-out was 378,415 in the three counties. But 2016 turn-out was 9505 fewer votes. And the drop-off was not spread uniformly between the two candidates. Trump got 28,893 fewer votes than Romney. Hillary got 858 fewer votes than Obama.
So, the story in W.O.W. counties is quite different from that of the rest of the state. Here, Trump actually greatly underperformed vs 2012 Romney. Hillary brought-in about as many votes as did the 2012 Obama. If the rest of Wisconsin had reflected the 3-county area with respect to Democratic turn-out and Trump underperformance, Hillary Clinton would have carried the state in a landslide.
Let's compare the presidential election with the next-highest profile one, the senatorial race between Johnson and Russ Feingold. In most years, there are many more votes cast for President than for down-ballot races. This year, there were 897 more W.O.W. votes cast for the Senate race than for President.
Ron Johnson greatly out-polled Trump in W.O.W.-land, gaining 28,021 more votes than the p*ssy-grabber. In contrast, Feingold received 10,477 fewer votes than Hillary Clinton, showing a typical drop-off for the down-ballot race.
The W.O.W. counties cannot be blamed for Donald Trump. Bucking the statewide trend, our Democrats turned-out and voted for Hillary in similar numbers as we did for Obama. Many of our Republicans rejected Trump, either opting for Gary Johnson, or simply not voting. Trump greatly under-performed in Waukesha, Washington, and Ozaukee counties compared to either Mitt Romney in 2012 or Ron Johnson this year.
If we want to find reasons for Hillary losing Wisconsin, and therefore the presidency, we need to look somewhere other than the W.O.W. counties.
Each December, the staff at Radio Free W.O.W. selects the Political Winners and Losers of the past year. 2016 has been an incredibly busy year in the political arena. However, the outcomes were so terrible that it was tough coming-up with any winners at all. Here is our try:
Winner- Vladimir Putin. Succeeded where decades of Soviet-era leaders failed. Got his own personal puppet installed as the American President. It is rumored that Trump will make the last stop of his "Thank-You" tour at the Kremlin.
Losers- People who need healthcare. GOP politicians will kill the ACA, gut Medicaid, turn Medicare into a discount coupon scheme, and end support for women's clinics. These successful programs will maybe, possibly, be replaced sometime later by "Something great. Believe me."
Winner-The planet Venus. Once known as the hellishly-hot sister planet of Earth. With ascension of science-denying politicians in the US, Venus will soon become the much cooler sibling.
Loser- Sheriff David Clarke, who was responsible for four recent deaths in his jail. He called for "torches and pitchforks" if Trump lost. However, after the election, he tweeted "These temper tantrums from these radical anarchists must be quelled. There is no legitimate reason to protest the will of the people." (Other than that pesky First Amendment).
Winner- John Glenn. Marine pilot, Mercury astronaut, US Senator, Space Shuttle passenger, American hero. Inspired many American kids (including me) to go into science. A life well-lived.
Losers- The people of Wisconsin, whose State Supreme Court continues to be packed with dark-money favorites like corporatist shill and homophobe, Rebecca Bradley.
Winners-The US Olympic athletes who did us all proud in Rio. Except swimmer Ryan Lochte. He was kind of dickish, causing an unnecessary international incident.
Losers- Indiana taxpayers, who paid $7 million to Carrier to help ship 1,400 jobs to Mexico and footed the bill for the trumpian media circus in Indianapolis.
Winner- Mohammad Ali. Can legitimately be called "the Greatest". Heavyweight boxing champ and US ambassador to the world. Jeopardized his career to protest the Vietnam War, saying "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong. No Viet Cong ever called me ni****." Another life well-lived.
Loser- Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell. The elderly mutant ninja turtle refused to do his constitutionally-mandated job for almost a year. He allowed no hearings on Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. Later topped himself by hiding knowledge of Russian interference in our elections from the American people.
Winner, Quote of the Year Award- The Loser of the Presidential popular vote, who, when asked to name his policy advisers, replied, "I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things." The runner-up quote, coincidentally, by the same politician, is "I know words. I have the best words."
Losers- Uday and Qusay Bevis and Butthead Trump. The Trump boys have been selected by our staff as the most likely administration members to first end-up in prison on corruption charges.
Winners- The Social Darwinist wing of the Republican Party, headed by Paul Ryan, who succeeded in taking-over the government they hate so much. The group's credos are: "Punish and humiliate the poor.", "School lunches give kids a full stomach but an empty soul.", and "We only like people who don't get sick."
Winner- ChaChi, who went from talentless D-list obscurity to a major speaking gig at the GOP National Convention. He was sadly the most prominent celebrity to support the GOP nominee.
Loser- Perennial loser, Scott Walker, made the list this year after the leak of John Doe evidence to The Guardian. The leak illustrated Walker's pay-for-play ethics and illegal campaign coordination. One damning piece of evidence was a canceled check written by a donor to a dark money group. On the memo line was written "Because Scott Walker asked".
Winners- Writers and Directors of the 2006 film, Idiocracy. Their prescient work predicted a future of anti-intellectualism, rampant commercialism, and little social responsibility. Many have suggested that the movie's dim-witted wrestler-turned-President captures Trump perfectly. "It's got electrolytes!"
Losers- 2012 Obama voters who did not vote this year. In 2012, Romney received 2,682 more Wisconsin votes than Trump did this year. Obama received 238,449 more votes than did Clinton this year. By not voting (or voting for Jill Stein), Democratic-leaning state voters handed Wisconsin (and the Oval Office) to the least qualified candidate in history.
Winners- The Obamas, who for eight years have brought grace, class, and style to the White House. Barack Obama leaves office with a steadily-growing economy, no major scandals, low unemployment, low uninsured rates, an improving environment, and strong US leadership in the world.
