Why American voters ask the wrong question on election day
After every political event, network and cable news stations train cameras on the faces of pundits whose job is to spin political reality.
These experts tell viewers what to see behind polls and crowds. Their message to idealists is simple: pick an electoral winner, not a champion for justice.
The Columbia Journalism Review reported many of these professional talkers come from the ranks of the political class. Over the last six years, mainstream media opinionators’ objective was to discount the viability of populists: first with President Donald Trump’s campaign, then Sen. Bernie Sanders.
After Trump’s 2016 upset victory, faces on every major news network were stunned in disbelief.
Despite supporters’ enthusiasm and the broad appeal of the populist message, newscasters tell audiences to disbelieve the hype.
Though uniformly disproved, political gurus including Nate Silver, Neera Tanden, Chuck Todd, Wolf Blitzer and Chris Matthews, all leaders of mainstream media, still push strategic voting, discounting the interests of the majority of Americans.
Though moderation has a veneer of practicality, it is and was a political loser — both for Trump’s rival Republicans, and for the Democratic Party, which lost control of nearly every level of government in 2016.
Conventional wisdom has not changed. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said nobody likes Sanders this election cycle, after her humiliating loss to Trump. “Time” magazine published a cover story last June reporting Sanders’ gruff style would not win contemporary voters. Center-right pundits and politicians argue about populist rhetoric, not policy.
Cable news hosts encourage guests to talk about their feelings about candidates, not numbers. When comedian Liza Treyger said about Sanders, “I think you’re disheveled, you’re unlikeable and you’re pushy,” a panel on MSNBC laughed.
Polls show Sanders beating Trump by the largest margins of any candidate in 2020, as they did in 2016.
Commentators’ recent attraction to the presidential candidacy of Michael Bloomberg proves it. The Republican New York mayor’s record was stained by all the same racist attacks on women, poor, and working class as the president’s record.
The only political difference is that Bloomberg has a polished exterior. To professionals, Bloomberg seems like someone who should win. He is professional.
Media professionals also said the American right wing is the most dangerous it has ever been during Trump’s presidency. Now they say the American left should exercise restraint by selecting a conservative candidate. Nonsense. It did not work in 2016; it will fail again.
By propping up centrist campaigns, the media essentially tell viewers and readers to ignore the realities of economic disparity, vanished social services, and an omnipresent military.
While every word of Sanders is scrutinized, former Vice President Joe Biden’s 1996 Crime Bill or Mayor Pete Buttegeig’s work as a MacKinsey & Company consultant is barely mentioned.
In the most blatant headline in recent memory, the Washington Post published an opinion titled, “It’s time to give elites a bigger say in choosing the president,” as if elites didn’t have an outsized hand already.
Journalists stand to benefit by their association with political friends, who become valuable sources for reporters after a victory. Winners can share exclusives and grant guest appearances.
Outsiders on these networks are set upon by teams of pundits. Dissent is shouted down, ridiculed or ignored.
During Sanders’ recent victories in New Hampshire and Nevada, several CNN and MSNBC commentators told viewers if moderates combined their votes, they would have defeated the front-runner. The New York Times ran an opinion on Feb.12, repeating the farce.
Polls dispel this myth. When pitting individual moderates in head-to-head contests, they consistently lose to Sanders and Trump.
Pundits on CNN and MSNBC including Joy Ann Reid and Chris Matthews publicly questioned their own position only after Democrats’ embarrassing defeats in Nevada to the Sanders campaign.
Matthews apologized on Feb. 24 comparing Sanders’ win to Nazi victories in Europe in the previous week.
The only appropriate response to sophistry is to tune out and choose one’s own interest at the ballot box. If everyone took this approach, candidates with the broadest appeal would win.
The point of media spin is to inspire doubt in the masses of middle-class voters. Don’t be fooled. When filling out a ballot over the next week, follow the candidate who serves your interests, not who checks the boxes of a hair-brained strategy.
Democratic voters repeatedly tell pollsters they want a candidate who will defeat Trump in November. To know who that is, simply look within.
