The media learned nothing from 2016

The 2016 election was an embarrassment for the mainstream media. By and large, pundits, reporters and editors believed it to be a foregone conclusion that Hillary Clinton would win and become the first woman president.

I personally thought Clinton would win. Back in 2012, I was convinced that Mitt Romney would win because of the Tea Party uprising that gave Republicans back the House of Representatives, as well as the notion that the economy was not doing great under President Barack Obama and unemployment was still high. I thought there were enough people hurt and angry by the flailing Obama recovery that Romney would be the first person in two decades to defeat a sitting president.

Obviously, I was wrong. So when I heard or saw the complaints of Americans who supported Donald Trump in 2016, I thought there was no way there would be enough people in enough states that were angry enough to turn the election for Trump. I heard their concerns—the loss of jobs and stability and the feeling that coastal elites wrote them off—but I’ve seen the Left win time and time again despite such outrage. I didn’t believe the “silent majority” was a majority that would use their vote for change.