Bernie Sanders Says Trump Won Because Democrats Are Out Of Touch

[Whiskeytide]

11. People here are in denial...

..., I'm sorry, but it's true ... and Sanders is dead on balls right about this. There are multiple reasons people voted for Trump instead of Clinton - and the nasty, racist, bigoted, misogynist views of the "deplorables" - while certainly a large part of his base - was only the "was never going to vote for anyone else anyway" portion of it.

Many Obama voters switched or stayed home. That is simply a fact. They did that because they believe the American political system has not spoken to them in decades - and they are frustrated. And because the media in this country has done a piss poor job of identifying WHY the political system has left them high and dry. To truly understand why middle America has deteriorated over the last several decades, you have to follow politics closely, and learn to ignore most of the media bullshit out there. We - Americans - don't do that very well.

I'm in a deep red state - and the Trump voters here that I know personally (I don't often hang with your typical "deplorable", so while they are certainly around, they're not who I'm speaking of) voted for him because he represented something "anti" business as usual in DC. They are not policy wonks the way most of us here are - they didn't consider policy issues in casting their vote (I know that for most of us that is sacrilegious, but that is the reality for the average voter in the US). Instead they voted for someone who would shake things up - or possibly even tear things down in DC - because they're pissed off at DC, and they WANT to hit back at it. And it's a non-partisan hatred ... Trump fucked with establishment republicans as much as he did the Dems. They LOVED him for that! New voter registration was up highest in conservative counties in Alabama in the weeks before the GE - meaning that people who had been so disconnected to politics because they hated everything about it decided in 2016 to register and vote for the "anti-politician". And I know - I KNOW - he's not really what they think he is... but most of them don't know that. He staked out the anti-establishment ground in their averagely informed minds, and they flocked to it.

To us, Trump seemed to be courting the deplorables - and he was, no doubt - and that should not be minimized. But he was also courting this seething frustration and anger that crossed over deeply into the independent vote. We didn't see that , or didn't think it would work, or thought his negatives would overshadow it. Clinton grossly underestimated this frustration ... and the fact that, at the end of the day, the condition of the average voter's bank account generally plays the dominant role in their ballot choice.

Clinton is probably not the 1% shill they make her out to be - but she didn't do enough to distance herself from that image for the average voter. In fact, she did things that played directly into that narrative - or at least were used by her opponents to link her to it. And that is Sander' point. The average, run of the mill Navin R. Johnsons of the world saw her as established DC politics as usual, and more of the same crap they have endured for 30 years. They voted - in large numbers - against that.