2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumAha!! My sudden flash about why we should be worried.
Of course Brexit analogies with the campaign abound. Chief among them is the ignorance factor. The Google search for "what is the EU" from England the next day... Here's another thought. The people on the Trump side are driven by anger and entertainment. It's an adrenalin rush to support Trump. People may go to the polls the way they go to a sporting event. Unfortunately, Hillary supporters tend to pay attention to the issues. This isn't as exciting. It will be harder to get them to turn out. I'm not sure what we do about this.
The world may be getting too complex for democracy to work.... sigh... But turning decision making over to the elites sure doesn't work, as we saw in England.
What should we do?
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)You only go to the sporting event BECAUSE you already have a ticket, or you hope to spot the team ... In the case of voting, they'll get neither, so what's the point of going out?
Kablooie
(18,625 posts)All the polls will report that Clinton will win by a mile so Clinton voters could stay home confident they win while Trump voters could turn out enmasse from desperation.
beachbumbob
(9,263 posts)He can't help himself...
C_U_L8R
(44,998 posts)and, subsequently, our decimated retirement accounts
'ought' to shock anyone from voting for stupid.
I mean Trump.
But that may be putting too much faith in
Republicans to vote in their own self interest.
MaggieD
(7,393 posts).... should ensure a good turnout to vote for Hillary and/or against him.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)movements arising in our nation and around the planet in these uncertain times. You must be right about the "entertainment" aspect for many of those who show up to the rallies, but of course it's the anger that will drive many of these people to the polls.
I've been reading about populism a bit lately for obvious reasons. Every populist movement starts with people prone to blame all their problems on an evil "elite." Sound familiar?
People who think this way are always a part of us, but of course when times are troubled, or it's actually at least somewhat true (such as the growth of extreme wealth inequality in the U.S.), their resentment gains power.
Interestingly, that anti-elite resentment transcends almost all cultural differences and can combine with virtually any "host" ideology to become a political movement focused on taking down the "elites," which always means government. The word is "reform," but much of the energy is unfocused acting out which can endanger not just bad governments but essentially good ones too.
And we should be worried about the need to protect our democracy. Populism is seething on both the right and left in the U.S. Right now truly malignant plutocrats are looking for ways to combine the left and right to create a critical mass that will give them power to reinterpret our constitution. And foreseeing populist failures to win in 2016 also has many populists agitating right now for the left and right to come together to create a voting majority.
It could happen here.