It's finally over - the election, but not the Monday morning quarterbacking. Everything that could have gone wrong did: meddling by the FBI, Russian intervention, WikiLeaks, Republican-engineered voter suppression, false equivalence media babbling, the devastating well-oiled Republican trash machine, and Hillary's own mistakes - all candidates make them.
The pollsters lost some credibility. But they correctly caught the late Republican surge at both the national and state levels, including Wisconsin and Michigan. When a candidate receives a 1-percent edge within a 5-percent margin of error, it should be considered just what it is - a toss-up.
The broadcast media treated the nation with endless, mindless babble, with panels including paid surrogates masquerading as "analysts." Blurring the lines between legitimate journalism and hucksterism for the sake of drama and ratings should definitely be ended.
The real failure of the media is long run and structural. This failure is the near exclusive coverage by the networks and cable channels of the powerful and connected, loosely labeled as "the establishment." This to the neglect of the vast rural and urban working classes, ordinary Americans who have seen no significant wage and income increases in four decades. The mainstream media have been ignorant of, and totally out of touch, with Main Street and Rural America, with consequent failure to identify, discuss, and seriously address citizens' legitimate grievances and loss of trust in American institutions.
It should not have taken the rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders to make growing inequality of income and wealth a legitimate issue rather than passed off as "class warfare," and mere "jealously of success," as dismissed by Mitt Romney in 2012.
It should not have taken billionaire Donald Trump to bring media attention to human costs of lost manufacturing jobs. The outrage of disaffected rural and urban blue collar working people left behind was a dominant factor in the rise of Trump, and for the broadcast media to finally pay some attention. Trump has posed few credible "solutions," most of which are ludicrous, if not counterproductive. But to his supporters, at last, somebody was paying attention and speaking, however crudely, to their frustrations and discontent.
I include National Public Radio (NPR) in the long-term ignorance of the media. Full disclosure: I annually contribute a few bucks to Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR), and to Northern Illinois Public Radio as they have some programs that WPR does not carry, such as the Diane Rehm Show, the gold standard of discussion programs.
Heck, I even contribute a few bucks to High Plains Public Radio, based in Garden City, Kansas. During my frequent trips across the Great Plains on my way to my adobe in New Mexico that I acquired during my tenure at New Mexico State University, I enjoy the break from the commercial stations. NPR does some good things and provides a useful service to the nation. However, coverage of political affairs is not among them.
My wife can attest to my occasional screaming at the radio when NPR's "experts" go into their frequent false equivalence "analyses," or neglect points that should be obvious to any political junkie with a positive IQ, such as importance of the Supreme Court.
During NPR's frequent discussions on "How can Hillary get Sanders supporters to vote for her?" never did I hear any of those "brilliant" commentators mention the Supreme Court in that context. Nor did the Democrats themselves push that issue in a serious way. Even the normally alert Sanders mentioned it only in passing when urging young voters to vote for Hillary. The Democrats' message to disgruntled millennials should have been simple, "Think Supreme Court, it's your future."
Meanwhile, the always-more-alert Republicans hammered that issue home. We heard many undecided voters explicitly state "I don't like either candidate, but the Supreme Court is the deciding factor; I'm voting for Trump." Republicans fall in line and Democrats find ways to lose.
Earlier media recognition and coverage of the millions of rural and urban disaffected people may not have changed the end result, but would have prevented shock of the media celebrities. But it's easier for media celebrities to focus on what "he said, she said," and reinforce standard cliches, than to spend time in rural America and devastated manufacturing towns with vacant plants.
Of course, the politicians should have been on top of this. Some have - obviously including Sanders and Trump. But the ignorance of the media regarding much of America, and their shock at voter reaction, demonstrates how out-of-touch the media really are.
Much media attention was on racial issues. Fair enough, especially since Trump played that card. But the obvious racial overtones in the election were just part of the story. Some got it right, including Michael Moore and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Both have strongly emphasized that the majority of Trump supporters are not racists and did not vote on that basis. In our own state of Wisconsin, a large number of former Democratic union members and white rural voters who voted for Trump this time had voted for Obama in 2012. Can't call them racists - they voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.
And if African-Americans of Milwaukee would have showed up in numbers as in 2012, Hillary would have won Wisconsin.
Could Sanders have done better? I doubt it but we'll never know. I am among those who favored Hillary as an intelligent, tough, superbly qualified candidate. I saw Sanders as making her a stronger candidate. She surely would have reached out and addressed the issues faced by the forgotten working class.
But it was not to be. Hillary's message was too little, too late, and didn't resonate. Trump, with no credible solutions, recognized the forgotten working classes, and they saw him as speaking for them. That was enough to make the sale.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media remained in total ignorance all along.
Next week: No easy solutions, even for Trump.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
The pollsters lost some credibility. But they correctly caught the late Republican surge at both the national and state levels, including Wisconsin and Michigan. When a candidate receives a 1-percent edge within a 5-percent margin of error, it should be considered just what it is - a toss-up.
The broadcast media treated the nation with endless, mindless babble, with panels including paid surrogates masquerading as "analysts." Blurring the lines between legitimate journalism and hucksterism for the sake of drama and ratings should definitely be ended.
The real failure of the media is long run and structural. This failure is the near exclusive coverage by the networks and cable channels of the powerful and connected, loosely labeled as "the establishment." This to the neglect of the vast rural and urban working classes, ordinary Americans who have seen no significant wage and income increases in four decades. The mainstream media have been ignorant of, and totally out of touch, with Main Street and Rural America, with consequent failure to identify, discuss, and seriously address citizens' legitimate grievances and loss of trust in American institutions.
It should not have taken the rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders to make growing inequality of income and wealth a legitimate issue rather than passed off as "class warfare," and mere "jealously of success," as dismissed by Mitt Romney in 2012.
It should not have taken billionaire Donald Trump to bring media attention to human costs of lost manufacturing jobs. The outrage of disaffected rural and urban blue collar working people left behind was a dominant factor in the rise of Trump, and for the broadcast media to finally pay some attention. Trump has posed few credible "solutions," most of which are ludicrous, if not counterproductive. But to his supporters, at last, somebody was paying attention and speaking, however crudely, to their frustrations and discontent.
I include National Public Radio (NPR) in the long-term ignorance of the media. Full disclosure: I annually contribute a few bucks to Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR), and to Northern Illinois Public Radio as they have some programs that WPR does not carry, such as the Diane Rehm Show, the gold standard of discussion programs.
Heck, I even contribute a few bucks to High Plains Public Radio, based in Garden City, Kansas. During my frequent trips across the Great Plains on my way to my adobe in New Mexico that I acquired during my tenure at New Mexico State University, I enjoy the break from the commercial stations. NPR does some good things and provides a useful service to the nation. However, coverage of political affairs is not among them.
My wife can attest to my occasional screaming at the radio when NPR's "experts" go into their frequent false equivalence "analyses," or neglect points that should be obvious to any political junkie with a positive IQ, such as importance of the Supreme Court.
During NPR's frequent discussions on "How can Hillary get Sanders supporters to vote for her?" never did I hear any of those "brilliant" commentators mention the Supreme Court in that context. Nor did the Democrats themselves push that issue in a serious way. Even the normally alert Sanders mentioned it only in passing when urging young voters to vote for Hillary. The Democrats' message to disgruntled millennials should have been simple, "Think Supreme Court, it's your future."
Meanwhile, the always-more-alert Republicans hammered that issue home. We heard many undecided voters explicitly state "I don't like either candidate, but the Supreme Court is the deciding factor; I'm voting for Trump." Republicans fall in line and Democrats find ways to lose.
Earlier media recognition and coverage of the millions of rural and urban disaffected people may not have changed the end result, but would have prevented shock of the media celebrities. But it's easier for media celebrities to focus on what "he said, she said," and reinforce standard cliches, than to spend time in rural America and devastated manufacturing towns with vacant plants.
Of course, the politicians should have been on top of this. Some have - obviously including Sanders and Trump. But the ignorance of the media regarding much of America, and their shock at voter reaction, demonstrates how out-of-touch the media really are.
Much media attention was on racial issues. Fair enough, especially since Trump played that card. But the obvious racial overtones in the election were just part of the story. Some got it right, including Michael Moore and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Both have strongly emphasized that the majority of Trump supporters are not racists and did not vote on that basis. In our own state of Wisconsin, a large number of former Democratic union members and white rural voters who voted for Trump this time had voted for Obama in 2012. Can't call them racists - they voted for Obama in 2008 and 2012.
And if African-Americans of Milwaukee would have showed up in numbers as in 2012, Hillary would have won Wisconsin.
Could Sanders have done better? I doubt it but we'll never know. I am among those who favored Hillary as an intelligent, tough, superbly qualified candidate. I saw Sanders as making her a stronger candidate. She surely would have reached out and addressed the issues faced by the forgotten working class.
But it was not to be. Hillary's message was too little, too late, and didn't resonate. Trump, with no credible solutions, recognized the forgotten working classes, and they saw him as speaking for them. That was enough to make the sale.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media remained in total ignorance all along.
Next week: No easy solutions, even for Trump.
- John Waelti of Monroe, a retired professor of economics, can be reached at jjwaelti1@tds.net. His column appears Fridays in The Monroe Times.
