I think we have to acknowledge that Donald Trump knows our country better than we do. I think he figured out that anger and, frankly, fear were way more powerful than appealing to people’s better angels. That anger and fear were going to work in this election, whether you’re afraid of immigrants or afraid of people who are trans — he figured that out.
I think we all thought everyone’s better angels would prevail. Turns out, the better angels went on vacation when Donald Trump came down that golden escalator at Trump Tower in 2015 and they haven’t returned.
By the way, the majority of Americans seem to believe he was persecuted not prosecuted. There’s no question that our grip on, “Hey, we got to make sure those same rules apply to everyone. We got to make sure that the rule of law apply to every American, no matter who you are or how powerful you are.” Turns out, that’s not true for many Americans.
Many Americans believed he was a victim in those prosecutions, not a perpetrator. I think that’s something that will be talked for a long time. Books will be written about it.
But keep in mind where he made up the most ground. First with Hispanic voters, knowing how he’s talked about Hispanic people in this campaign. Let that sit for a moment. The second one was in urban areas. He did much better. The last one was young voters. The Democratic Party was so sure that young people would reject this guy because they see a different America than he does. Turns out, he appealed to their grievance and their anger and their fear just as much as he was appealing to white folks in rural America that aren’t college-educated.
