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Veterans Day events planned at University of Scranton

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Psychologist: Feeling fear, anxiety over Clinton’s loss makes ‘perfect sense’

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, they attended rallies by the thousands and, on Tuesday, they stood in lines for hours to vote &#8212; &#8220;they&#8221; are the American people who supported Republican Donald Trump for president and &#8220;they&#8221; have spoken &#8212; loudly.</p><p>All along, it was clear &#8212; people were tired of the same old-same old in Washington, D.C., and they wanted &#8220;change.&#8221; So, they overwhelmingly elected the billionaire Trump as their president.</p><p>Couple that burning desire with an emphatic dislike for scandal-ridden Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and the formula was in place to elect a man with baggage of his own to be the 45th president of the United States.</p><p>So what do people have to say now that the dust has begun to settle after a long, brutal, sometimes contentious campaign? We asked local people for their reactions to Trump&#8217;s victory and here is what they had to say.</p><p>Having lunch with a friend at the Bake House Bakery &amp; Cafe in Kingston Wednesday, Violet Loyack echoed what many people said when they learned of Tuesday&#8217;s results.</p><p>&#8220;I was stunned,&#8221; Loyack said. &#8220;All those (television) commercials that ran over and over gave a pretty clear picture. But in the end, it was the voice of the American people that spoke.&#8221;</p><p>Loyack said Trump&#8217;s sound defeat of Clinton was not expected, but understandable.</p><p>&#8220;People just don&#8217;t like what&#8217;s going on in the country and they wanted a change from the way it&#8217;s been,&#8221; she said. &#8220;They didn&#8217;t care what Trump was saying.&#8221;</p><p>Loyack, who worked at a polling place all day Tuesday, said she was unsure who she would vote for until she got in the booth to cast her ballot.</p><p>&#8220;You could see something was happening,&#8221; she said of her observations at the polls. &#8220;It was in the air. Everybody was somber; they weren&#8217;t talking much. They were quiet and patient and the lines were long all day.&#8221;</p><p>Loyack said she thought Clinton would win, but feels the email scandal, Obamacare and the constant &#8220;lies&#8221; proved too much for her to overcome and for voters to accept.</p><p>&#8220;I really think she brought herself down,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Looking forward, Loyack has hope the country really will be great again as Trump said throughout the campaign.</p><p>&#8220;He offers something different,&#8221; she said. &#8220;He&#8217;s not a politician. But he&#8217;s got a lot to do ahead of him, like securing our borders and reducing that $20 trillion debt. He&#8217;s an organizer, but I think we all should pray for our country and our new president.&#8221;</p><p>Sylvester Salio, a retired teacher from Forty Fort, said he, too, thought Clinton would win.</p><p>&#8220;But Trump is an outsider,&#8221; he said. &#8220;He&#8217;s not been a senator or a congressman. People want to see what he will do.&#8221;</p><p>Salio said Trump has been a successful businessman and will use those skills to &#8220;put the country back on track,&#8221; by effecting new trade deals and getting the economy moving again.</p><p>&#8220;Maybe that&#8217;s what the country needs,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And Trump talks tough. People like that about him.&#8221;</p><p>Mike Blum, of Wilkes-Barre, supported Clinton, but feels Trump &#8212; with the right people in his administration &#8212; will produce good change for the country.</p><p>Blum is a big supporter of gun rights, but has concerns.</p><p>&#8220;I hope that Trump will make sure there are extensive background checks done on people seeking gun permits,&#8221; Blum said. &#8220;You can&#8217;t just hand out guns to anybody.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Experts offer reactions</strong></p><p>Jeff Brauer, political science professor at Keystone College, said the election result and margin of victory was surprising.</p><p>&#8220;We political analysts were mostly all wrong,&#8221; Brauer said. &#8220;The data we were using was not good. Trump motivated very large numbers of low propensity voters &#8212; unlikely voters, people who don&#8217;t usually vote &#8212; to come out and vote for him and, consequently, Republicans up and down the ballot.</p><p>Brauer said those types of voters are very difficult to capture in polls; therefore, he said most polling was off &#8212; and off consistently.</p><p>&#8220;So much so, that even much of the Trump campaign staff were quite surprised at his eventual success, let alone the extent of his success,&#8221; Brauer said.</p><p>Brauer said Trump&#8217;s simple messages of anti-immigration, anti-foreign wars and anti-trade deals resonated far and wide, especially with non-college, white rural males &#8212; many of whom don&#8217;t usually vote.</p><p>&#8220;It was a clear rebuke of the establishment elites in government, corporations and other societal institutions,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Brauer said Clinton&#8217;s tough campaign with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders inevitably did her in, painting her as the ultimate insider, which she was never able to shake.</p><p>&#8220;Sanders killed enthusiasm for her, even within the Democratic Party,&#8221; Brauer said. &#8220;This proved to be the death knell in an election that was all about the outsider. All Trump had to do was go with Sander&#8217;s characterization of Clinton.&#8221;</p><p>Add to that the continued email scandal, encouraged by both the Russians and the FBI, seemed to only confirm Clinton&#8217;s ultimate insider status, Brauer said.</p><p>Brauer said, once final tallies are in, Clinton will most likely win the popular vote, which will stir the debate about the electoral college system as being fair and accurate in transferring votes into power.</p><p>Thomas Baldino, political science professor at Wilkes University, said Trump&#8217;s success over the next four years will depend on whether he leads Congress or follows Congress because Republican congressional leadership&#8217;s positions on many of his campaign promises are at odds.</p><p>&#8220;Therefore, if Trump succeeds, traditional Republicans will be unhappy, but if Congress succeeds, Trump&#8217;s supporters will be unhappy,&#8221; Baldino said. &#8220;There are a number of issues on which both sides agree &#8212; eliminating Obamacare, tax cuts and deregulating the banks &#8212; so there will be some early victories for both sides. When the two sides differ, gridlock may ensue.&#8221;</p><p>Significant in Trump&#8217;s victory was his ability to win several traditional &#8220;blue&#8221; states, including Pennsylvania.</p><p>&#8220;Voter anger and fear and hatred of Clinton were the reasons for that,&#8221; Baldino said. &#8220;Clinton, unlike Bernie Sanders in the primaries, did not win over working class white Democratic voters.&#8221;</p><p>Baldino was also surprised at Trump&#8217;s showing in Luzerne County &#8212; 58.6 percent of the vote for Trump to 38.5 percent for Clinton. In Lackawanna County, Clinton won by a narrow margin &#8212; 50.2 percent to 47 percent for Trump.</p><p>&#8220;I thought if Trump won here, it would be by 1 or 2 percent,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Ed Mitchell, longtime political analyst, said all the pre-election polls &#8220;were just wrong,&#8221; as were most professional political pundits.</p><p>&#8220;A lot of anti-Washington, pro-change votes were cast,&#8221; Mitchell said. &#8220;This is a total shocker. I guess those big crowds Trump attracted did matter and they voted.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Sylvester Salio, of Forty Fort ,discusses his thoughts on the results of the presidential election at the Bakehouse Bakery &amp; Cafe in Kingston Wednesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_TTL1101016ElectionReax1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Sylvester Salio, of Forty Fort ,discusses his thoughts on the results of the presidential election at the Bakehouse Bakery &amp; Cafe in Kingston Wednesday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_TTL1101016ElectionReax2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Mike Blum, of Wilkes-Barre, talks about the outcome of the presidential election at the Bakehouse Bakery &amp; Cafe in Kingston Wednesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/web1_TTL1101016ElectionReax2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Mike Blum, of Wilkes-Barre, talks about the outcome of the presidential election at the Bakehouse Bakery &amp; Cafe in Kingston Wednesday. </caption1><photoCredit1>Sean McKeag | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Voters endured long lines to vote for their presidential choice — Donald Trump