Why is the Media Ignoring Affluent Trump supporters
As the year winds to an end, there’s still plenty of cool stuff out there online that the mainstream media and the rest of us are missing.
Over at The Week one of my favorite pundits, Ryan Cooper, makes a couple of interesting observations about the media’s coverage of Donald J. Trump that are well worth considering. Cooper wonders why the media is so obsessed with white, rural, working-class Trump supporters.
Why is the Media Ignoring Affluent Trump supporters?
There is a seemingly endless stream of profiles of uneducated and lower class rural Trump voters, but almost no coverage of educated or upper-class supporters of the Donald, Cooper noted. Ryan makes a good point here, where are the articles about the elitist Trump backers like casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel?
Why aren’t we seeing any profiles of the Trump backers in the country clubs, boardrooms, and newsrooms? They’re certainly out there, I’ve run into my share of them. Trump won a slight plurality of people that make more than $50,000 a year yet the media pretend that did not happen.
My guess is that the journalists and pundits simply have a hard time dealing with the concept that a literate, educated, or sophisticated person might vote for Trump. The idea that there might be racists or nationalists lurking on Wall Street, in corporate boardrooms, law offices, K Street, faculty lounges, coffee shops, Silicon Valley, or newsrooms is simply too disturbing for the media elite to contemplate.
Instead, the media invented the stereotype of the ignorant, poor, rural white Trump supporter and rammed it down our throats. This is unfair and offensive to both the educated people who voted for the Donald and for working-class whites; many of whom have Bernie bumper stickers plastered on their pickup trucks.
Is the Media Ignoring the Reality of Donald J. Trump?
Cooper also makes an important point that is well worth considering here: “the actual bulk of Trump support is the same old professional, petty bourgeois, and ultra-wealthy capitalists who have been voting Republican for generations,” Cooper pointed out.
He also makes another troubling point: “And where are the lavish profiles of people (broke, white, or otherwise) who have soured on Trump? After all, his approval rating has fallen dramatically since taking office.”
My guess is that Trump’s unpopularity is ignored because it does not sell newspapers or attract hits to websites. The reality of Donald J. Trump, as a weak, unpopular president beholden to special interests is not sensational or scary, it is just pathetic. To sell advertising, “journalists” need to invent an alternative such as the Svengali who somehow controls the minds of ignorant rural whites.
Another Explanation for Russia Gate
Cooper also provides an interesting explanation for the popularity of “Russia Gate” and “impeach Trump.” Liberal elitists simply do not want to do the hard work needed to win elections.
The only way to destroy Trump and undo his works is for Democrats to win elections, first Congress, then the Presidency, Cooper notes. That of course would take a very different Democratic party, and a lot of old-fashioned politics.
Yet the liberal establishment and the chattering class seem to want nothing to do with either of those things. Instead they concentrate on Russia Gate and Robert Mueller’s investigation hoping that those sideshows can somehow get rid of Trump.
It seems as if the elite wants to dispatch Trump without doing any work or getting its hands dirty. Many observers have noted that there is a leftwing groundswell developing in the heartland that might soon sweep both party establishments away. Yet the elite will have none of that.
My guess is that the elite and the media from the current status quo want to preserve it all costs. Their naïve belief is that simply getting rid of Trump will somehow return America to the good old days the 1990s, when average people mindlessly supported their pet politicians.
The American government is dramatically more corrupt than it was in the 1970s
There’s one vital point that Cooper makes “The American government is dramatically more corrupt than it was in the 1970s, and the Republican Party is rotten to the bone. If some smoking gun on Russia-Trump appears, there will be no Barry Goldwater-style intervention to usher Trump quietly from the White House.”
Cooper is mentioning the Watergate scandal of the 1970s; when a coalition of responsible Republicans and Democrats stepped in to quietly but firmly force Richard M. Nixon out of the presidency. He is right such an adult solution would be close to impossible in today’s political environment.
No leader on either side of the aisle will attempt an intervention because it would be political suicide. To protect themselves Congress will let Trump destroy himself and embarrass the country in the process.
Instead, there will be an ugly showdown between Trump and Congress that will probably destroy everybody involved. Cooper leaves something else out here, it is not just the Republicans who are rotten to the bone; the Democratic Party is equally rotten.
Simply getting rid of Trump will not fix a corrupt system. All a successful removal of the Donald would so is subject America to complete chaos, which would give rise to a new political order few of us will like. Yet we will have to endure it, because only a political upheaval and new leadership in parties will lead to real reform.
Why is Trump Afraid of California?
President Donald J. Trump (R-New York) has not made a single trip to California since his inauguration, The Los Angeles Times noted. Nor has he visited the West Coast since coming into office.
This seems odd for such a blustering leader, and for a guy who seems bent on reelection. He is steering clear of the nation’s richest and most populous state. That cannot be good for either Republicans or the Donald’s reelection chances. Especially with the president ignoring disasters like the California fires.
Can the GOP be considered a national party if its standard-bearer keeps pretending a large portion of the country does not exist? Republicans might find out in November 2018. Up to 13 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives from the Golden State might be up for grabs, The LA Times estimated. That might be enough to flip control of the house to Democrats, because the GOP has only a 24 seat majority in that body.
Perhaps it is time for Republicans to buy President Trump a map and show him how to read it. It might also be a good idea to show him census data.
