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.
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.
The extremes in both parties are actually coming to light as quite unreasonable and dangerous factions. Does anyone here imagine it might be possible for a new center party, a third party, to arise out of the Republican and the Democratic parties? There is no majority traction for defunding the police or for following the QAnon Shaman.
It's unclear to me how articles like this further Persuasion's stated mission. Frankly, the comments are far more interesting and productive. And while that's great, just think how the breadth and depth of the comments/community could be expanded if we had more nuanced writing.
Mr. Dayton’s analysis reaffirms, for me at least, and underlying truth about the US. Simply, that our governmental institutions are far more solid and trustworthy than the citizens they protect. I truly appreciate his listing the America People first as one of the things that saved us. They did, but we also bear serious responsibility for getting us in such trouble in the first place. I’m a retired engineer with experience in accident analysis and looking at happenings, the election of Trump in 2016 for example, thru that lens is the way I think. I cannot help but ask “what happened here?” Like accidents in general, was it due to a list of factors that by chance came into play together at a specific point in time? What were these factors, how long had they been lurking undetected before tragedy struck, and which pulled the trigger? True, this listing will be long but we desperately need to delineate it. Consider for a start how long we largely ignored the loss of good paying factory jobs to global outsourcing. This wasn’t just a rust belt story. The loss of manufacturing plants in rural America was just as bad as in Pittsburgh, and are those folks not a significant part of a group that feels abandoned? Were they sacrificed for the DOW and the “bottom line?” We need to ask questions like this and, more importantly, we need to take the answers seriously for a change.
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.
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.
The extremes in both parties are actually coming to light as quite unreasonable and dangerous factions. Does anyone here imagine it might be possible for a new center party, a third party, to arise out of the Republican and the Democratic parties? There is no majority traction for defunding the police or for following the QAnon Shaman.
It's unclear to me how articles like this further Persuasion's stated mission. Frankly, the comments are far more interesting and productive. And while that's great, just think how the breadth and depth of the comments/community could be expanded if we had more nuanced writing.
Mr. Dayton’s analysis reaffirms, for me at least, and underlying truth about the US. Simply, that our governmental institutions are far more solid and trustworthy than the citizens they protect. I truly appreciate his listing the America People first as one of the things that saved us. They did, but we also bear serious responsibility for getting us in such trouble in the first place. I’m a retired engineer with experience in accident analysis and looking at happenings, the election of Trump in 2016 for example, thru that lens is the way I think. I cannot help but ask “what happened here?” Like accidents in general, was it due to a list of factors that by chance came into play together at a specific point in time? What were these factors, how long had they been lurking undetected before tragedy struck, and which pulled the trigger? True, this listing will be long but we desperately need to delineate it. Consider for a start how long we largely ignored the loss of good paying factory jobs to global outsourcing. This wasn’t just a rust belt story. The loss of manufacturing plants in rural America was just as bad as in Pittsburgh, and are those folks not a significant part of a group that feels abandoned? Were they sacrificed for the DOW and the “bottom line?” We need to ask questions like this and, more importantly, we need to take the answers seriously for a change.