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Dear Democrats, Read This If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won

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Re: Dear Democrats, Read This If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won

#21

Post by travmatt »

dev360 wrote: post #17
qznc wrote: post #4

> This is the problem with America today, the technology that was supposed to bring us together actually isolated us into echo chambers and drove us further apart. Everybody knows where the other echo chamber is. As a democrat, you are free to watch Fox or read Breitbart. The hard thing is to read it open minded. The average democrat HN visitor probably looks there and stops after two sentences. Then leaves ranting a…

I recently switched to Wall Street journal and I have been impressed by their reporting on politics. I felt like they reported objectively on this election, at least to the point where a bias was not distinguishable. Their tech news are also really good - you end up reading lots of stories that will be on the front page of HN throughout the day.

Business journalism typically comes with less partisanship when it comes to reporting politics. But my partisan, naive assumption would be that they cover subjects like TPP, the DAPL, and social security privatization from a very biased point of view.

Re: Dear Democrats, Read This If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won

#22

Post by donw »

qznc wrote: post #4

> This is the problem with America today, the technology that was supposed to bring us together actually isolated us into echo chambers and drove us further apart. Everybody knows where the other echo chamber is. As a democrat, you are free to watch Fox or read Breitbart. The hard thing is to read it open minded. The average democrat HN visitor probably looks there and stops after two sentences. Then leaves ranting a…

This is why I read both, although it gets painful at times, and that goes for both sides.

If you can not understand somebody, if you can not speak and understand their language, if you can not use words they way they do, then you have no chance of communicating with them.

Re: Dear Democrats, Read This If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won

#23

Post by fixxer »

qznc wrote: post #4

> This is the problem with America today, the technology that was supposed to bring us together actually isolated us into echo chambers and drove us further apart. Everybody knows where the other echo chamber is. As a democrat, you are free to watch Fox or read Breitbart. The hard thing is to read it open minded. The average democrat HN visitor probably looks there and stops after two sentences. Then leaves ranting a…

I voted for Trump. The majority of my media is CNN, NPR, and occasionally progressive radio (when I'm trying to figure out what narratives are important to the left).

I do not listen/watch/read Breitbart, Alex Jones, Fox News, Drudge. I don't consider Fox to be a "conservative news outlet" either; I put them in the establishment propaganda bucket.

Re: Dear Democrats, Read This If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won

#24

Post by baldfat »

smoyer wrote: post #13
baldfat wrote: post #3

A) People thought it was in the bag. I live in PA and it was a 6 to 8 point lead. B) Seriously heard and had emails saying that there would be Trump supporters watching our polls (I live int he third largest city in PA) C) Very little enthusiasm for Hillary compared to the Super Star Status of Trump. D) People don't understand that the Democrats had little national power besides the White House and didn't take the el…

I live in the third largest city in PA (when there's a home Penn State football game) and I agree whole-heartedly with your points. Since State College is surrounded by rural areas, it was clear that the excited voters (as a potential measure of which people will head to the polls) were for Trump. I find it a bit ironic that there are protests against Trump in the cities as for years, the cities in PA have determined…

YOUR THE 4th size city still :) The Penn State community boasts that during home games at State College the stadium is the 4th largest city by "population" in the state. It follows Philadelphia (1,517,550), Pittsburgh (334,563), Allentown (118,032), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Stadium

I worked the polls for 5 hours. I asked everyone going in to the gym to play basketball if they voted. I got two responses from the players. A) "Of course I voted" B) F* that B

The majority of the white voters were for Trump and would vocalize there displeasure with Hillary.

Re: Dear Democrats, Read This If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won

#25

Post by rahoulb »

acranox wrote: post #12

Uh, does this guy not care about the candidates policies? People who went from sanders to trump don't make sense to me when you consider their positions on many major policies.

I'm not in America, but I am English and have watched similar events happen with Brexit and the impression I get is this is about rejecting the status quo, not about what comes in its place.

Sanders said "Take power from the 1%". Trump said "Make America great again". Hillary said "America is already great".

Which of those statements will resonate with the people who have been struggling for years and can't see much hope for their children? Which of those statements gives the impression that the candidate doesn't understand that so many people are actually struggling?

Re: Dear Democrats, Read This If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won

#26

Post by dev360 »

acranox wrote: post #12

Uh, does this guy not care about the candidates policies? People who went from sanders to trump don't make sense to me when you consider their positions on many major policies.

I think the top portion here is key (in Bernies own words):

“Donald Trump tapped into the anger of a declining middle class that is sick and tired of establishment economics, establishment politics and the establishment media. People are tired of working longer hours for lower wages, of seeing decent paying jobs go to China and other low-wage countries, of billionaires not paying any federal income taxes and of not being able to afford a college education for their kids - all while the very rich become much richer."

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sander...

Re: Dear Democrats, Read This If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won

#27

Post by notacoward »

Dear Sanders supporters (like the author and BTW like me as well). He also lost. You also need to get off your high horse, talk with people who are unlike you instead of talking down to them, and learn something from what happened. That's what Sanders himself is doing. "I told you so" looks no better on you than it does on the Trump supporters. In fact, it looks the same.

Re: Dear Democrats, Read This If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won

#28

Post by dev360 »

rahoulb wrote: post #25
acranox wrote: post #12

Uh, does this guy not care about the candidates policies? People who went from sanders to trump don't make sense to me when you consider their positions on many major policies.

I'm not in America, but I am English and have watched similar events happen with Brexit and the impression I get is this is about rejecting the status quo, not about what comes in its place. Sanders said "Take power from the 1%". Trump said "Make America great again". Hillary said "America is already great". Which of those statements will resonate with the people who have been struggling for years and can't see much…

bingo

Re: Dear Democrats, Read This If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won

#29

Post by drusepth »

moyta wrote: post #2

I was in Michigan just after caucusing for Bernie at home, and the sheer amount of people for Bernie or bust among the White, Asian & Black communities was palpable. 10 million less people turned out to vote compared to 2008, and those were nearly exclusively 10 million Obama voters. Voters like this African American gal I met in eastern Michigan who did not vote after Bernie lost, or that of this great group of youn…

>10 million less people turned out to vote compared to 2008, and those were nearly exclusively 10 million Obama voters.

This is crazy. Neither Hillary nor Trump even received as many votes as John McCain did back in 2008 (60M) [1], who still lost to Obama by another 10 million votes. It's crazy to actually see how many fewer people voted this election compared to the past two, for whatever reasons.

[1] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/npA9xOL8_g_akHquHjzBBFn1RS...

Re: Dear Democrats, Read This If You Do Not Understand Why Trump Won

#30

Post by donw »

drusepth wrote: post #20
qznc wrote: post #4

> This is the problem with America today, the technology that was supposed to bring us together actually isolated us into echo chambers and drove us further apart. Everybody knows where the other echo chamber is. As a democrat, you are free to watch Fox or read Breitbart. The hard thing is to read it open minded. The average democrat HN visitor probably looks there and stops after two sentences. Then leaves ranting a…

>I have no idea how to fix this. I don't either, but I'd love to get some brainstorming started. Some naive solutions (and, please, feel free to point out why each of them won't work -- any maybe what you'd change to get closer to a solution!): 1. News "aggregator" sites that pull from both sides of the spectrum -- though people would probably just pick and choose which articles they read and which they raged over (a…

> 1. News "aggregator" sites that pull from both sides of the spectrum -- though people would probably just pick and choose which articles they read and which they raged over (assuming they didn't just revert back to CNN/Fox immediately)

The million-dollar questions are: How do you combat the addictive effects of anger (it is a very addictive emotion), and the human predisposition towards tribal conflict (e.g., the us vs them dynamic)?

If we had a good answer to those questions, then we could craft a media environment that, while still biased, presented a good sampling of viewpoints[1].

After which, we would need to figure out how can that be made economically sustainable?

I would be very interested to tackle those problems, but fear the economics.

[1] Right now, most media outlets present "the other side" solely as a strawman/weakman argument to be knocked down.

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