Why Trump won...

[Septua]

https://newrepublic.com/post/188197/trump-media-information-landscape-fox

I like this guy's reasoning...it's a lengthy read but worth the effort. I pulled a few paragraphs to provide some incentive to look further.

Why Does No One Understand the Real Reason Trump Won?

I’ve had a lot of conversations since Tuesday revolving around the question of why Donald Trump won. The economy and inflation. Kamala Harris didn’t do this or that. Sexism and racism. The border. That trans-inmate ad that ran a jillion times. And so on.

These conversations have usually proceeded along lines where people ask incredulously how a majority of voters could have believed this or that. Weren’t they bothered that Trump is a convicted felon? An adjudicated rapist? Didn’t his invocation of violence against Liz Cheney, or 50 other examples of his disgusting imprecations, obviously disqualify him? And couldn’t they see that Harris, whatever her shortcomings, was a fundamentally smart, honest, well-meaning person who would show basic respect for the Constitution and wouldn’t do anything weird as president?

But this line of analysis requires that we ask one more question. And it’s the crucial one: Why didn’t a majority of voters see these things? And understanding the answer to that question is how we start to dig out of this tragic mess.

The answer is the right-wing media. Today, the right-wing media—Fox News (and the entire News Corp.), Newsmax, One America News Network, the Sinclair network of radio and TV stations and newspapers, iHeart Media (formerly Clear Channel), the Bott Radio Network (Christian radio), Elon Musk’s X, the huge podcasts like Joe Rogan’s, and much more—sets the news agenda in this country. And they fed their audiences a diet of slanted and distorted information that made it possible for Trump to win.

Let me say that again, in case it got lost: Today, the right-wing media sets the news agenda in this country. Not The New York Times. Not The Washington Post (which bent over backwards to exert no influence when Jeff Bezos pulled the paper’s Harris endorsement). Not CBS, NBC, and ABC. The agenda is set by all the outlets I listed in the above paragraph. Even the mighty New York Times follows in its wake, aping the tone they set disturbingly often.

But billionaires on the right have invested far more heavily in media in the last two decades than their counterparts on the left—whose ad-supported, VC-funded operations started to fizzle out once social media and Google starting eating up the revenue pie.

..that in red or even some purple parts of the country, when you walk into a hotel lobby or a hospital waiting room or even a bar, where the TVs ought to be offering us some peace and just showing ESPN, at least one television is tuned to Fox.

[Initech]

1. I've been saying this for fucking YEARS!

The right wing media is the problem, they've always been the problem. But what do we do about it? We can't police speech, and I'm not touching that argument with a 10,000 foot pole.

[Dem4life1970]

9. We need to do what they did...

They had a long game and stuck to the plan. Eviscerate the opposition from INSIDE. They bought big Media Outlets and issued edicts from the Top down. It's why we see CBS folding, ABC, and CNN both-sidesing and leaning to the right.

Bezos is the Prime (pun intended) example of this by not allowing Harris to be endorsed by the Washington Post. Even their so-called organic podcasters and influencers (many of them on the Russian payroll-Google is free) are financially propped up and supported to amplify the Fox Megaphone.

However, you are seeing an explosion right now of independent media and it is the wave of the future. As Network Executives in many MSM outlets release popular hosts who have spoken out against Dear Leader, many of those folks are moving into the independent media sphere.

I for one, am heartened by BTC, The Meidas Touch, The Lincoln Project, and too many others to mention. Unless they shut the internet off, this fascist, unAmerican, movement is eventually going to meet the same fate as Libya and Muammar Gaddafi (and other authoritarian movements that have tried unsuccessfully to suppress people's voices).

[Initech]

14. When the Washington Post didn't endorse Kamala...

That was my first sign that something was incredibly fucked up and wrong with the election. I'll never forgive Jeff Bezos or Patrick Soon-Shiongh for the hell they unleashed with these actions.

[WOLFMAN87]

15. We tried!

Remember Air America? The radio network that ran 2004 - 2010. It failed & progressives threw up their hand & said, Oh well we tried.
The thugs on the right worked at it for 30 years since 1996. They had the long game in mind until they got the formula. You know it. Hook em with outrage & turn their viewers fears into hate.
Liberals shouldn't & won't do it that way but maybe they could invest in more liberal media & not fucking give up so easily

[0rganism]

24. I remember it well, there was no "long game" expectation from the beginning

The goals were sound, the initial lineup was solid if thin, but the will to succeed in a long game just wasn't there. Owners and investors should have gone in knowing they were going to get little-to-no return for the first decade. Instead, they folded after a few years. IIRC, Fox News was still losing money back then, too.

[Mr.Bee]

30. I can stop posting now...

Me Too. I've been saying this for decades. People get addicted then they can't change the channel!
When y'all get tired and fed up with the media in this country,
maybe you'll look to news outside this country to get the rest of the world's take.
Try DWnews from Gemany, if you can't find it on PBS, you can get their segments on YouTube.
I shy away from BBCnews, they have a tendency to glorify this administrone.
NHK World from Japan.
and of course PBS NEWSHOUR, you will see clearly why trump wants it shut down.
Oh! and real unvarnished truth; DemocracyNOW!

[kairos12]

2. Legacy of Shitstain Limbaugh.

[Martin Eden]

25. Honored by Shitler with the Presidential Medal of Freedom

From one vile lying propagandist to another.

[newdeal2]

3. And they have infiltrated several communities too - wellness, fitness, gaming, sports, etc.

The fact that so many young men (who claim to be Christians) find Trump (an old, crazy, cheating lump) to be someone to admire is truly bizarre and shows how successful they've been in brainwashing people.

[The Wizard]

4. Russian propaganda

on American media outlets. Pox news is Putin's voice in the United States

[Silent Type]

5. For most part, wingers tune in just to listen to white wing hate. They weren't made vile by media, they

were already that way. Don’t think media is our problem, just a convenient excuse used by both sides.

[BWdem4life]

6. A good point, but

It was that way in 2020 when Biden won. So, what was the difference?

Sexism and racism.

[Hornedfrog2000]

8. Wrong.

It was a small piece of the puzzle. Go watch how musolini, and hitler controlled the masses. It was with propaganda. After WW2 americans got that. Apparently we forgot what the purpose of air america was. I mean, really understand how important it was.

[Hornedfrog2000]

7. He won because they are brainwashed.

This doesnt end until the propaganda is cut off.

Newspapers were used for propaganda
Radio was used for propaganda
TV has been used.

And now the internet, and social media is being used by a new dictator to brainwash people. Until people boycott, or decide we dont need billionaires deciding our reality, this will not end.

[BootinUp]

10. Does it bother anyone else that you literally have to ignore polling

and create a theory from ones perspective to arrive here?

[unblock]

18. So many things wrong with this post for so few words.

I'll just leave it at, um, I'm pretty sure the author has rather deep familiarity with polling.and has in fact taking a lot of things about polling well into consideration.

[BootinUp]

19. If you eat politics for breakfast lunch and dinner

And you prefer right wing flavor.

Or you could be in the significant number who pretty much ignore it.

The article is written by someone who thinks the answer is more money in politics. Bullshit.

[unblock]

21. A lot of people ignore it or don't even see it in the first place any yet

They'll spend endless hours defending Hillary setting up a private server instead of attacking republicans for abusing congressional investigating powers to smear a private citizen just because she's a political contender, or questioning why the media is telling us this is a major issue when the previous entire administration ran on a private server too?

The problem is, they were allowed to determine what topics we discuss, and with what frames and phrases. Their agenda permeated the entire political discourse. They dominated discussion even if you never heard of rush limbaugh or fox news or any of it.

[BootinUp]

22. I don't think re-hashing a closer election from

9 years ago is going to make any strong points for you or I. Rather we need to put real world context in place.

[unblock]

23. If you're in a mood to blithely gainsay anything without contributing anything of substance, fine

Hopefully someone else will join for you to casually dismiss. I'm going to sleep. G'nite!

[Martin Eden]

26. The answers people give to polling questions

Are highly influenced by their media sources, currently dominated by the rightwing propaganda cited in the OP.

[dupagelib]

11. Real true reason

They ran a black woman.

[SheilaAnn]

12. What was Musk's role in this "victory?"

[LuvLoogie]

13. He won because this is a racist country.

And it's going to stay that way.

[Septua]

16. Just summing up the post opinions...

..it's complicated. The hard right media dispensed a lot of propaganda that a lot of people (voters) wanted to hear and didn't want to listen to truth and reason. Needless to say, the split not go away and elections will be close.

[hay rick]

17. Deliberate professionally produced lies are replacing honest and truthful content for many voters.

Fans of the power of the First Amendment believe that deliberate lies will be exposed and rendered harmless when they encounter truth in a debate. In the current internet/social media/podcast/cable news age, a huge number of people never leave their comfortable media spaces and are not exposed to meaningful debate. In that situation, lies prevail and our democracy is infected. Last summer I posted about malign TikTok content designed to misinform low-engagement voters: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219019254

Since Trump's election the same tactics are being used to sell his agenda. Lying has been professionalized and is being used to mold public opinion, and ultimately, the acceptance of authoritarianism. One example here: https://www.tiktok.com/@alltheworldlythings/video/7526748418228653343

The video starts with a shot of a man sitting on a couch complaining that "Trump has cut my food stamps from 2800 dollars down to 300 and fifty dollars." The man says he just got a letter informing him of the cut. He says he has 5 kids and complains that he doesn't want to work 50 or 60 hours to support his kids. He wants to stay home and be a father to them. He also says he voted for Trump and will leave the country if he gets elected again.

This is clearly fictional and designed to provoke anger and reinforce support for Trump and SNAP cuts. In fact, the maximum benefit for the family size the man describes is half or less of the amount he claims, depending on the state. The use of fake numbers is particularly chilling as it gives people outrageous numbers to throw around in discussions in which others don't have immediate access to valid numbers.

This kind of thing is being done on scale and is undermining the public's ability to tell truth from fiction.

[Martin Eden]

28. Disinformation that is not actively sought, but fed to unsuspecting consumers

Insidious, pervasive, and hugely impactful.

Thanks for your post.

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. As much as some people want to implicate a single boogeyman

there's never just one reason a candidate won or lost an election.

[ForgedCrank]

27. One of

these days, if we ever hope to win anything again, we are going to have to get honest with ourselves.
The economy, yes. That is one point.
Covid and the reaction to it cost us dearly. Casualties aside, it trashed our economy, our job market, and our trade. The nearly dead supply chain drove massive inflation. We still haven't fully recovered from it. But we also had serious policy issues, no attractive platform, an undesirable candidate, and a party who overruled their own primary voters. The immigration issue was also front and center, but we chose to wave it off and spend all of our energy talking about how Trump is a nazi. Voters rejected all of this.
Others can attack me for typing it, but these aren't my ideals or words, these are the words of the actual voters. We can choose to reject what they say and continue to lose, or we can get real and and fix those issues so we can get proper representation back in government. These were all either MAGA voters, or people who decided to not vote at all. We may not like their choices, but those are the numbers we need no matter how much we dislike it. All or nothing simply won't work.

[Martin Eden]

29. On Covid and the crashed economy

That happened under Trump. Prior to Covid he dismantled our international presence for disease control, then when it hit he predicted it would magically go away. When it didn't he promoted crackpot ideas like bleach, bright lights, and horse dewormer.

The economy was in shambles when Biden took office, then he turned it around with major legislation which led to a recovery which The Economist (not a liberal publication) called "the envy of the world." The economic effects of Covid and subsequent inflation were a global phenomenon, and US leadership under Biden proved most effective.

That voters would choose Trump over Biden or his VP on those issues cannot be explained by well informed self interest. The pervasive influence of rightwing propaganda cited in the OP cannot be dismissed.

Trump is an utterly amoral pathological liar and a con man. A wealthy New York businessman with multiple bankruptcies whose biggest policy achievement in his first term was huge tax breaks for rich people and corporations could not have swayed so many voters (including religious folk in the heartland) as a "populist" savior if not for the groundwork laid by decades of rightwing propaganda.

While it is true that a large segment of the population has legitimate grievances living paycheck to paycheck through both Republican and Democratic administrations, it is also true that what advances have been made (like the Affordable Care Act) were by Democrats, and that Republicans have opposed and blocked additional measures like raising the minimum wage.

Sure, Democrats and the Biden administration have made mistakes. Joe did not grasp how important the immigration issue would be in the 2024 election, but his biggest mistake IMO was running for a 2nd term at the end of which he would be 86 years old.

We all remember his devastating "debate" with Trump. His age and possible cognitive decline were the major story -- not the barrage of bold faced lies and false assertions spewed by his opponent.

How was it possible that a candidate for president of the United States could, in a nationally televised debate, spout so many easily disprovable lies without that being the biggest story? How could he win the popular vote? We're talking about a convicted felon responsible for the worst assault on our nation's Capitol since the British burned down the White House in the war of 1812.

This is not just a matter of Democrats in need of better policies, messaging, and candidates, though that can't be dismissed either.

But the biggest challenge IMO is overcoming the pervasive influence of decades of rightwing propaganda which has conditioned a disinformed American electorate to embrace, or at least to normalize, a criminal demented sociopath as President of the United States.

For emphasis:
A criminal demented sociopath has TWICE been elected President of the United States, re-elected after a disastrous first term at the end of which the economy was a mess and he incited a violent insurrection that endangered the lives of our elected representatives and his own vice president, and put more than a hundred police officers in the hospital.

This is not normal. This is insane. This was not caused by Democrats. The mainstream (formerly liberal) corporate media is complicit, failing in its responsibility as the Fourth Estate to adequately inform the citizenry in matters concerning the survival of our Constitutional republic (if we can keep it). Bothsiderism is propaganda -- not fair, balanced, or truthful.

However, YES -- it is up to the Democratic Party to exert essential energetic motivational leadership to rally enough voters to save our country from the current fascist takeover. It is reasonable to be concerned whether or not they are up to the task.

It is also up to each and every one of us to do everything we can in this effort because, in a functional representative democracy, The People have the power.

[ForgedCrank]

31. I can't

disagree with much of what you said there. My points were simplified, but are the main points I believe.
Who caused these issues is no longer relevant at this point. Who is going to fix it and how they are going to do it is on the auction block now. But all I see is continual fixation on Trump and his deficiencies. We are already campaigning against a guy who won't even be running in the next election. We HAVE to stop that now and get on with the policy and a viable candidate who will deliver it.

[Martin Eden]

32. We can, and need, to do both

Presenting to voters our far better policy solutions with stronger leaders includes a sharp contrast to what this Trump administration is doing with the acquiescence and often enthusiastic cooperation of Republicans running for election in 2026.

It would be political malpractice IMO not to tie a faltering economy, inflation, and the increasing dictatorial abusess to Donald Trump -- and by extension, Republicans in Congress who enable it.