The handwringing since November's election from Democratic elites and pundits as to how former President Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris has mostly boiled down to scapegoating.
As a journalist, I've spent the better part of the last decade monitoring right-wing spaces online and covering far-right extremist influencers. As a civilian, I have Trump supporters in my own family and could fill pages here with accounts of our various political fights across the dinner table since 2015. And so far, I have seen nothing from the Democratic establishment or the liberal media that I believe could have actually convinced Trump supporters to have flipped blue — especially for an establishment Democrat like Harris.
The first thing you have to understand is that Trump supporters may be "low information voters," in the sense that they aren't getting much from the establishment media beyond Fox News, but they aren't checked out. Yes, they're listening to podcasts like Joe Rogan's, but they're also watching videos on Facebook and Instagram, sharing memes and articles in group chats, and closely following what Trump is saying at rallies.
This is a preview of Ryan Broderick's latest article. Read the full column here.