What’s missing from the scary reporting that warns Trump may get even more popular votes than last time (due to population expansion in blue states) but win the electoral college? The same thing that’s missing from all the stories about 2016.....(1)
Namely, the huge role of the multi-faceted vitriol—not only via Russian plotting, but homegrown assaults from Sanders and the mainstream media—that was directly SPECIFICALLY at Hillary Clinton, and that turned many Obama voters AWAY from her rather than FOR Trump. (2)
I wonder how many stay-at-home and third-party voters in Michigan, Wisconsin, and PA were inclined toward Clinton BEFORE Sanders, the “email scandal,” the media’s biased coverage, and Russian enhancement of homegrown hostility toward her “changed” their minds? (3)
The ms media doesn’t ask this question. Instead, pundits persist in the notion that the slim margins that gave Trump those states will remain—even grow—unless the Democrats can somehow win the affections of those (largely white males) inclined toward Trump in 2016. (4)
This also allows them to ignore the young Black voters, millennials & white women who BECAME suspicious—& in many cases, actively hostile toward—HRC. Were there no such voters in Michigan, Wisconsin,and PA? Are those states ONLY populated by white, male “working class” voters?(5)
It’s nuts that the pundits can (1) acknowledge that 2016 was skewed by the Russians (who clearly followed the lead of homegrown caricatures and msm created “scandals”) while (2) barely mentioning that the “skewing” had a specific target, and (3) blaming that target herself.6)
Why is this important? For one thing, it means the Dems are barking up the wrong tree in trying to court some mythically homogeneous “rust-belt.” Winning the states we lost doesn’t mean nabbing disgruntled white males. The “natural” Trump voter is a lost cause. (7)
For another, it should make us more alert, not just to foreign interference but domestic sources of division and caricature. The media needs more self-scrutiny and self-criticism. Instead it’s already promoting some candidates, ignoring others, and creating “divisions.” (8)
I’ve said many times that we can’t approach 2020 effectively unless we diagnose 2016 correctly. And we haven’t begun to do that—not by a long shot. (End)
@threadreaderapp Please unroll thread. Thanks!
I meant “even less popular votes” not more!
