“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” —George Santayana,
The Life of Reason
Despite a nearly unanimous chorus of opinion polls predicting a massive victory for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, President Donald Trump mounted a spirited fightback, highlighting a deep divide between a rural America and an urban America, a deeply religious America and a worldly America, an angry America and a kinder America — a Trump America and a Never-Trump America.
For four years the Democrats refused to believe that Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 was real. He could not be their president. If the young had just voted. If the Russians had not interfered. If people just had not hated Hillary Clinton so much. If everyone had only realised who Trump was, the belief went, they would have resoundingly rejected him and his style. They counted the hours until the day Trump would know that this would be the day he was kicked out.
The Democrats looked at the opinion polls and thought of a Biden landslide. There would be control of the senate and an expanded majority in the house of representatives. The Democratic strategy was to get maximum people to vote under the theory that the more the people voted, the more they would repudiate Trump and Trumpism. They took Hispanics and African Americans for granted. Surprisingly, the Democrats also had the money advantage. Trump had blown a billion dollars in early (and questionable) campaign expenditures, so he was short of cash. Biden held a $100 million-plus advantage.
This story is from the November 15, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
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This story is from the November 15, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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