The Flat-Earth Set Helped Donald Trump Hijack the GOP, and Crash it Into the Ground - Stuart Stevens
His candidacy, aimed at an electorate that no longer exists, is a classic example of losing five bucks on every sale and trying to make it up in volume.
STUART STEVENS
Stuart Stevens was the chief strategist for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. He is the author of five books, and his articles on politics and sports have been published in The New York Times, Esquire, Outside, The Washington Post, and others. He has also written extensively for television including the Emmy Award–winning series Northern Exposure, Commander in Chief, and HBO’s K Street.
11.07.16 1:05 AM ET
The last time Republicans could celebrate winning the White House on election night was 1988. In 2000 it took 31 days and in 2004, Ohio wasn’t called until the day after the election.
One of the original sins that has helped create the Trump campaign is the fantasy held by some conservatives that 2008 and 2012 should have been easy races for Republicans to win. It’s not difficult to understand where this view comes from: These people can’t fathom the appeal of a Barack Obama and assume the world thinks like they do. On one level, it’s typical tribalism, like an Auburn fan who can’t imagine rooting for Alabama. But on a deeper level it reflects the willful denial of reality that has helped Donald Trump and Breitbart take over the Republican Party.
If you believe that 2008 and 2012 were actually easy races to win, it leads you to a series of conclusions now manifest in the disaster that is the Trump campaign. A race would be easy to win if only a candidate savaged an opponent, if only a candidate screamed at the media, if only a candidate really appealed to white voters and called non-white voters, well, “rapists” for example. It’s like believing the Earth is flat. Once you live in that reality, it’s only logical not to send ships over the edge.
It wasn’t really a coalition of angry working-class voters that led Trump’s flat-earth crusade. It was a coalition of angry rich media figures who know, even if they are wrong, there is a lot of money to be made denying reality. It’s Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Steve Bannon, Rush Limbaugh, and the usual carnival barkers, most of whom are too smart to believe their own nonsense. But they have made fortunes peddling bile and prejudice and the market continues to be good.
Donald Trump is the perfect candidate for those who have argued it should be easy for a Republican to win the White House. He’s spent over a year screaming at the president and Hillary Clinton, calling our largest neighbors “rapists” and stirring up religious bigotry. In a country founded on religious freedom, he’s called for a religious test to enter the United States.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/07/the-flat-earth-set-helped-donald-trump-hijack-the-gop-and-crash-it-into-the-ground.html
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