What this election tells me is that America is a much angrier, bigoted and stupid country than I ever realized. And the media contributed to my misperception. The media dismissed all the rage as the dying embers of an aging demographic. Clearly that wasn’t true.
We didn’t understand the scope of the danger, though it’s not clear to me what would be different if we did understand it. I know one thing. Polls clearly showed that Bernie was a stronger candidate against Trump than Hillary was, but that didn’t stop the machine from rolling over him. OTOH, Hillary won fair and square, with a few little nudges from the DNC.
Angrier? Yes. Bigoted and stupid? How insulting and elitist of you. It’s a wonder you didn’t include “inbred rednecks” in your thoughtful analysis.
How about the fact that Hillary is a horrible person, and a horrible candidate. Unlikable, dishonest and corrupt. That’s why Trump won.
The media missed the mark because they are almost universally liberal and urban, and couldn’t imagine that anybody would not vote for the Democrat. Hillary’s “why am I not ahead by 50 points?” pretty well sums up the urban coastal thought process of the media.
The pollsters messed up because polling is flawed for this purpose. Many people screen their calls and don’t answer, or they answer and lie (as I’ve done on several occasions). The pollsters can go to hell, because they are the fuel for covering presidential contests as horse races.
As this insightful Cracked.com article explains, “It’s Not About Red And Blue States – It’s About The Country Vs. The City.” And all of America’s media are thoroughly city-based.
Yep. The Democratic party needs to be radically shaken up – Obama’s amazing political skill, and the Republicans relatively feeble skills in '12 and '08, may have seriously masked the massive problems with the Democratic party’s ability to build a winning coalition.
Who didn’t even bother to understand why conservatives nominated Trump back in July?
The blue bloods of our society are still blind to the needs of the poor. I understand the press is saying we’ve recovered from the recession, but only the higher classes have. There’s still many folk out there who are still struggling, those whom Wall Street left behind.
This is what the Republicans have been saying, but I haven’t seen much evidence of it. Meanwhile, Donald is a horrible person, and his horribleness has been on full display.
I’m unaware that America is more inbred than any place else. And yes, I intended to be insulting and elitist. I had no idea that so many of my fellow Americans were redneck bigoted idiots.
What do we do about it, though. Any approach to Trump voters that begins with, “The fact that you voted for Donald Trump means that you are desperately in need of more education, or psychological counseling, or both.” is not likely to have a good outcome.
I was unemployed for 3+ years, ran through every penny of my retirement money and had foreclosure papers filed against me – I got a job that saved my home the very same week the foreclosure papers were filed.
This post is dead on. Obama is an engaging and skilled politician, and Clinton, McCain and Romney were duds. Obama’s success may not translate to the Dems.
On the other hand, those of us who live outside of the cities know exactly how smug, condescending, entitled and corrupt many other Americans are, particularly those in the NYC, LA and DC media and political centers. And how quick they are to play the race card.
This. This, and (IMO) the notion that people did feel the election was “rigged” in a way; maybe not blatantly manipulated per se, but giving the strong impression that the parties, media and pollsters were pushing us toward a forgone conclusion. The electorate is, in a sense, embraced randomness.
So, President Trump. I would like to believe that this is not the greatest political disaster for this country since the Watergate era, but am having a hard time doing so.
What an appropriate handle. The problem with your assessment is that by any objective measure, Mr. Trump is a horrible, dishonest and corrupt person to a greater degree than Mrs. Clinton on her worst day. I’ll spot you likeable, at least when compared to Mrs. Clinton, but in my view, liking people for being dishonest and corrupt in some entertaining way diminishes us and in no way makes them qualified to hold high office.
Hmm. Funny how quickly mindsets can change. I had the exact same thoughts about the GOP - that the Republican party is toast unless they give up on social issues and embrace Hispanics. I still think that’s true in the long run, but I think what this election - as well as 2008 and 2012 - shows is that getting new voters to the polls is key to winning a presidential constest. Obama was very popular with young voters, particularly in 2008, which pushed him over the edge. He got people who never voted before to vote for him. Trump did the same. I strongly suspect that Trump got many rural people who don’t usually vote. Call it charisma, celebrity, whatever. Obama and Trump have it, and McCain and Hillary do not.
America is always going to vote for the most charismatic candidate. Going forward, the lesson for both parties seems to be: if you want to win the White House, run a candidate with a lot of charisma. Maybe find someone who’s already a big star from the world of entertainment and pop culture. Don’t worry about competence or character or experience or anything like that.
Actually, the Democrats could have learned that lesson from the California governor recall election of several years ago, where Schwarzenegger won because he was the celebrity.
The media, political establishment, corporations, and celebrities were all demonizing Trump and endorsing Clinton. Defacing Trump’s Hollywood star, burning Republican offices, and causing a ruckus at his rallies. Americans don’t like being told what to do and tend to side with the underdog even if they don’t 100% agree with him.
Right-wingers and even ordinary people have talked about your bubble for years, yet you failed to realize it. Every time American liberals browbeat a group or person, they thought everyone who was silent was on their side. In fact, the silent ones were actually looking at you with head cocked thinking “how distorted is this person’s reality?” The silent majority has kept their head down working hard on real life, and hadn’t the time to challenge your awkwardness, so you mistook that for agreement.
The Trump supporters were among you the whole time. They weren’t confined to the trailer parks and the hollers. Maybe now when you will think before stating something you think is a given, and now people won’t look at you like someone with a psychological issue.
“May have seriously masked the massive problems with the Democratic party’s ability to build a winning coalition”? “May”? In eight years as president, the Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate for only 2 of those years. There was no mask; it was plain to see since 2010 that the Democratic party had very little support.
No one was electing Obama because of his policies; they were electing him because he was Obama. He was (and I think I posted this back in 2008) the political world’s ‘rock star’. Donald Trump is the current political world’s rock star; no one voted for his policies.
Exactly. This is the world we live in now: fame is more important than anything. Young people are brought up in this culture and they know that fame is more important than anything; just ask them.
Lady Gaga had a hit album called The Fame Monster.
Much of internet culture is devoted to fame: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.
What’s important is being famous, not what made you famous. Ask Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian or Snookie or… Donald Trump.
The world is not the same as it was even ten years ago, and the changes are about to accelerate.
Exactly. We don’t trust politicians, celebrities or media, and they almost all went overboard in a condescending, pandering, smarmy way. Many even called anyone who didn’t agree racist and uneducated.