Xing
xingkerui
Atlas Superstar
Posts: 30,318
Political Matrix E: -6.52, S: -3.91
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« on: February 23, 2018, 05:45:40 PM » |
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Plenty of factors could have been enough by themselves to tip the election to Trump:
-Hillary being a bad candidate -Hillary's campaign being tone deaf -Democrats struggling to connect with voters -Russian interference -Actual fake news -Xenophobia/sexism -Media incompetence
But I think what caused her loss most of all was a combination of anti-intellectualism and stubbornness. Trump, who disdains reading, learning new things, and acknowledging that he doesn't know everything, is wrong sometimes, and that sometimes other people who are experts on a subject know better than he does, is the embodiment of anti-intellectualism, and many people wanted a way to "stick it to" the scientists, teachers, and everyone else they considered "elitist". Add in a bit of stubbornness, and the willingness many people have to bite their noses off to spite their face ("I'd rather vote for Donald Trump than a (D)emocrat!" or "I'll vote for Trump if it shows the establishment/those liberals what's what!")
A lot of politics these days is much more about pissing off "the other side" and seeing more red/blue on the map than actually accomplishing anything. While Democrats are guilty of this to an extent as well, I think this election showed just how stubborn most Republicans are in their partisanship. If Republicans were poised with the choice of peace and prosperity for the entire world and seeing Wisconsin colored red on a map, we all know what 95%+ would choose.
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