Doesn’t Matter Who Wins the K Race; We’re All the Same

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop

How come the phenomena Sebby is describing always helps Republicans but never Democrats?

It does work for Democrats. Just not for Hillary.

The best I can guess about why BS about Hillary did not galvanize the Democratic base is because she was an unexciting candidate. People didn't care and still don't care about untrue hit pieces directed at her. She was corporate, a cipher in many regards... a lot of Democrats didn't even like her.

Nobody cared what happened to her. She was perceived as fake, contrived, and pre-ordained. Nobody's charging the hill (npi) for that kind of operator.

But when Trump did his birther bit about Obama, who was well liked and perceived as a good guy, people were disgusted. Republicans even disavowed that nonsense.

When Schultz was accused of fixing the nomination against Hillary, all sorts of people were disgusted. (Even though it was untrue, as Bernie had fallen short fix or no fix.) Bernie resonated. People felt something about him. And they felt he was wronged.

Trump is certainly not a sympathetic character. But you cannot ignore the guy. Unlike Hillary, who was polished and hid behind perfect soundbites, Trump's horribly, gaudily "real." He demands one look at him, and in so doing, also look at his detractors. And he is so omnipresent, and the stories about his alleged criminality so continual and loaded with heated rhetoric, that this forces people to ask, "Is this guy really as awful as they claim?" When a swing voter goes down that rabbit hole, they see a lot of accusations that haven't borne fruit. This junkyard of overheated claims causes them to conclude that maybe they're being bullshitted a bit about the guy. Again, it's one thing to be Trump and bullshit all day, endlessly and openly. It's another thing to hold yourself out as truth telling media, a truth telling "resistance," and be shown to be bullshitting. I think Trump perversely and undeservedly gets the sort of sympathy Bernie and Obama received. Hillary, OTOH, never connected as human enough to elicit it.