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Sasha Stone's avatar

This is definitely the story that will be told by the left. This was the narrative before, during and after Trump's reign. But there is another story to be told and I do not have faith that the press in this country will have the courage to tell it. In the end, it took 15 billion dollars, a media 100% on board with siding with one candidate over another, and big tech's insurmountable power over our democracy to defeat Trump and even then it really took a global pandemic and mail-in balloting to bring in those votes for a candidate who barely had to show up, barely had to give a speech, was barely there at all. That has left a good many in this country frustrated and confused. The establishment won this election with very deep pockets and enormous power. Thus, the narrative had to be true. They could not afford for it not to be. For all of Trump's faults, and there were many, it was malpractice of journalists not to spend even the smallest effort to make sure every one of the things being said about him and his supporters was true. The narrative, by the end, turned out to be a dangerous machine that led to dehumanization on a large scale. That dehumanization has now led to paranoia and witch hunts, censorship and who knows what else. No, I'm afraid the insistence to tell this story only one way is yet more gaslighting to American people who lived through it and know much of it is not true. Perhaps to many that seemed like Democracy at work. I'm not sure what it was. I fear for the future if this is how elections will work from now on.

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Richard Weinberg's avatar

I agree with Mr. Dayton's comments, but I think he dodges the two most important facts surrounding Mr. Trump's loss: He surely would NOT have lost except for the pandemic, which was completely unpredictable; and despite Covid-19 he came disturbingly close to winning. Accordingly, while we can breathe a sigh of relief, I think we need to look hard at why Trump came so close to re-election.

Of course the electoral college system contributed, but that's part of the US electoral system that was baked into it from the beginning. In my opinion, part of the blame lies with the extreme faction of the progressive wing of the Democratic party, though there are many other factors, ranging from the disruptive effects of social media, to the widespread impression of bias in mainstream journalism, to the growth of social bubbles. Accordingly, I think that responsible Republicans need to look hard at what's wrong with their party, and so do responsible Democrats.

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