It's Simple

The Surprising, Mundane What-Happened-In-'16, Explained

Along with just about every other political observer, I thought Hillary Clinton was heading for victory.  And as soon as that eventuality was upended, the theories to explain it were many and usually involved charts.

If you ask me, the explanation is simple:

1.  There were 10-15% undecided voters as late as a week before the election.

2.  The momentum at that point was moving in Trump's favor.  There were the Russian hacks dribbling out of Wikileaks involving past minor embarrassments, as well as other irritants.  But the big blow came from the FBI, which announced that new e-mails had been found that could possibly implicate Clinton after all--though of course they didn't.

3.  The undecided voters were looking for a reason to vote one way or another.

Who are these undecided voters?  Probably "low-information" voters who don't have terribly strong opinions one way or another.  They likely don't live in urban areas where residents are forced to interact with people unlike themselves, and where views rarely go unchallenged.  They're also likely to have an average, or less-than-average educational background, so that unrealistic campaign promises are more easily believed in.

Now add in the finding that Americans wanted 'change' in '16.  Sure, there are many unemployed and under-employed, mainly blue-collar workers, who voted for Trump.  Except, the fact that Republicans have thwarted reasonable fixes to the nation's problems over the past eight years means they are the cause of the problem, not the solution.  But, to many out in the rural areas of the country who don't care all that much about reading the newspaper, let alone seeking out different opinions, all that matters is that a change is needed.