In 1982 I was canvassing for Tom Bradley, former Los Angeles mayor and candidate for Governor of California. My precinct was in downtown San José, a few blocks from San José State and just south of San José’s Japantown. The precinct was amazingly diverse, even by California standards.
My next door neighbor was a middle-aged woman unsophisticated in politics but very enthusiastic for Bradley. She volunteered to accompany me on the canvass, and she was good at it. The day after the election, in which Bradley was defeated, she told me she thought the election was rigged. She said, “Almost everyone we talked to was for Bradley. How could he lose?” She was taking one liberal precinct in one liberal city and extrapolating to the whole election.
Trump supporters do something similar. They don’t speak to many people who oppose Trump. They don’t read newspapers. They watch only Fox News. They go to rallies where thousands of fellow Trumpists shout out their support. They don’t see many yard signs for Trump’s opponents, who also don’t fly flags from the back of pickups.
How could he ever lose? It must have been rigged.
No comments:
Post a Comment