We could all welcome a respite from certain things in 2018, among them those ubiquitous media jaunts into "the Heartland" to discover what those people who voted for neo- fascist numbnut Donald "Rump" Trump are (oxymoron alert) thinkin'.
Ashley Feinberg has an extensive list of those "Cletus safaris:"
These stories were a sort of pornography. They existed less as a way of explaining the country to their audience than as a way for media outlets to gratify themselves, or perhaps to atone for the perceived sin of overlooking Trump supporters the year before. Some profiles offered insight; many more did not. But together, in their sheer bulk, they illuminated a larger story: the longstanding media habit of indexing the American political narrative to the sanctified yearnings of a narrow slice of white voter. Reagan Democrats, independent voters, the “undecided,” soft Republicans — no matter how small their number, no matter how wide the electoral margin, these groups always become the axis on which the story of every election turns.Feinberg demonstrates how various media have pursued and promoted this trope, and what the sum learning from all those diner interviews and focus groups has been (spoiler alert: Stormtrumpers still support Trump).
Media: We know all we want to know about these people whose
BONUS: A suggestion likely to be ignored (via Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog, who says the media can do this and still talk exclusively to white people) --
Reporters should fan out to shopping malls in upscale suburbs of purple states and try to figure out why Trump's approval rating is only 35% there despite booming local economies.— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) January 1, 2018
