Actually, I think a much better microcosm of why Trump won is how we learned last week that Trump is caging and torturing children, and the media's top focus one week later is whether liberals protesting it are being too rude.
The issue is not that liberals are "galvanizing" Trump voters, @jwpetersNYT. Be realistic. There is a billion-dollar industry, from Fox News on down, that takes ANYTHING liberals do and spins it to enrage conservatives. They'd be "galvanized" by Nancy Pelosi sneezing in public.
The right-wing noise machine ensures conservatives are ALWAYS galvanized against liberals, whether or not they actually did anything wrong.
Fox made a scandal of John Kerry being a decorated war hero. They made a scandal of Hillary Clinton running a charity that treated AIDS.
Fox made a scandal of John Kerry being a decorated war hero. They made a scandal of Hillary Clinton running a charity that treated AIDS.
Trump supporters, and Fox News viewers, were already angry at liberals, and will always be. Nothing we did caused or could conceivably change that.
People like @jwpetersNYT who blame liberals for conservative anger, or voter engagement, are making a lazy and specious argument.
People like @jwpetersNYT who blame liberals for conservative anger, or voter engagement, are making a lazy and specious argument.
The reason Trump won, and the reason Republicans even still have a shot at fending off Democrats in the midterms, is not because some random liberal misdeed angered a bunch of conservative voters.
The reason is that the media's incessant false balance confuses undecided voters.
The reason is that the media's incessant false balance confuses undecided voters.
Trump's electoral success has nothing to do with the small group of people who always vote GOP.
It has to do with the large group of people who rarely vote or follow politics, but are being told by the @nytimes that child torture and protesting child torture rudely are both bad.
It has to do with the large group of people who rarely vote or follow politics, but are being told by the @nytimes that child torture and protesting child torture rudely are both bad.
Just like how, in 2016, voters went to the polls thinking "her emails" would have been as big a scandal as everything that has happened in the last two goddamned years.
Mind the plank in your own eye, @jwpetersNYT, before you tell us it's our fault Trump won.
Mind the plank in your own eye, @jwpetersNYT, before you tell us it's our fault Trump won.
