2016 Presidential Election: A reversal of fortune.

In what many believe should have been an easy presidential victory for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump; has turned into a contest that will go down to the wire. The disbelief has even had Hillary asking herself why ‘she is not 50 points ahead‘. Some have come to believe that a major factor for Hillary’s struggles with the white working class has been a direct result of the displacement of workers caused by free trade.  Some of the swing states were affected by the economic slowdown following the George W. Bush administration. However, many workers believe that it was NAFTA that cause their displacement. According to several economic studies by think tanks and economists, they may be correct in their assumption. The Democratic party is vulnerable because for too long they touted the success of NAFTA and fully ignored the cries of those that had lost their jobs. They believed that the increased trade and resulting economic activity would make up for the job losses. Instead many found lower paying service jobs that carried no pensions or union benefits. This may explain the reason why this demographic, blue collar white workers, has abandoned the Democratic party, their traditional ally. It would also explain the extreme animosity this group carries for free trade in general. In many of the battleground states, it has been the reversal of this group’s traditional support for democrats that has turned this election into a nail biter.