The Forgotten Hillary Clinton Voter: A Profile Of The Not-So-Silent Majority

[Jim Lane]

19. Important distinction: "like the message" and "credit the message" are two different concepts.

You write, "What's the matter? You don't like the message?"

If you habitually assess a proposition about the world according to whether you like it or not, you will not have an accurate picture. I don't like the message that more than 60 million people voted for the odious Trump, but that message is more credible than the view I'd get if I polled all my friends.

The OP was based on a self-selected sample. By contrast, scientific pollsters, striving for random samples, aren't perfect, but they get much closer to the truth. Here's one such result:

Significant majorities of registered voters now have an equally unfavorable opinion of both major party presidential candidates, according to a new survey released Wednesday, following a difficult stretch for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Fifty-nine percent of registered voters say their opinion of Clinton is unfavorable, while 39% say it's favorable, according to the new poll from the Washington Post/ABC News.

Those numbers put Clinton on equal footing with Donald Trump, who also faces a daunting favorability deficit. Trump is viewed unfavorably by 60% of registered voters, compared to 37% who say they have a favorable opinion of the GOP nominee, according to the poll.

That poll was from late August of 2016. The numbers were probably about the same by Election Day. In assessing enthusiasm of support, we have to bear in mind that each major-party candidate received a significant number of votes from people who were primarily voting against the other one. (This is actually a small ray of hope about those millions of Trump voters. Many of them disliked "their" candidate. They voted for him only because of the effects of a quarter of a century of right-wing attacks on Clinton.)

You point to the views of a "majority of sane voters" without elaboration. If "sane" is defined as "voted enthusiastically for Hillary Clinton", then your statement is correct, but it exemplifies the "No true Scotsman" fallacy.