I haven’t yet read Hillary Clinton’s “What Happened,” but it seems pretty clear to me what did, in fact, happen in 2016.
These days, America starts from a baseline of extreme tribalism: 47 or 48 percent of the electorate will vote for any Republican, no matter how terrible, and against any Democrat, no matter how good. This means, in turn, that small things — journalists acting like mean kids in high school, ganging up on candidates they consider uncool, events that suggest fresh scandal even when there’s nothing there — can tip the balance in favor of even the worst candidate imaginable.
And, crucially, last year far too many people were complacent; they assumed that Trump couldn’t possibly become president, so they felt free to engage in trivial pursuits. Then they woke up to find that the inconceivable had happened.
Is something similar about to go […]
That they took a vow to serve under the Constitution no longer means anything to these men. They serve greed! McConnell had something like $2M of personal wealth when he entered Congress. He’s now worth $20M plus thanks to lobbyists, big corporations, etc. Last town hall health meetings, he refused to address a coal miner’s wife and coal miner’s daughter on coal mining. He had his security remove her! I watched the encounter. She was not yelling, or any way indicating physical aggressiveness. She was politely demanding answers to questions she had.