General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Thomas Franks, the Clintons and "phony" Democratic populists in the New Gilded Age [View all]merrily
(45,251 posts)candidate. Most voters are trusting souls who work hard and raise kids and maybe watch some political debates, President and maybe Governor, and watch some establishment news program for at 6, unless they're feeding and bathing the kids, or 11, unless they conk out from exhaustion first.
And, because that is how they've been indoctrinated all their lives, they think the press is really a government watchdog telling them all they really need to know and politicians are George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in modern dress, only maybe not quite so huge figures because God broke those molds after Lincoln got shot.
They believe what they see and hear and don't catch the slanting and imaging. And most of them vote straight party. And still think of Democrats as the party of FDR and LBJ. So, yes, I think a lot of Americans, especially pooor Americans, were surprised when Bubba did things like torpedo welfare.