Donald Trump and the Revenge of the 'Low-Information' Voters
This video slipped by me until I linked to it from a September 4 CNN report on Trump's latest surge in the national Monmouth University poll, where he leads at 30%. In a post-debate discussion, Townhall editor and Fox New contributor Katie Pavlich ripped into Donald Trump and his supporters. The lady one blogger calls a "committed conservative" said, "[Trump] is the definition of a RINO[.] ... [T]here's such a thing as low-information voters on the right ... and that's what we're seeing." The 27-year-old Fox regular then compared the 69-year-old businessman's "blunt" style to a "5-year-old."
From YouTube:
Pavlich is not alone. The "low information" label is standard fare with other high-profile, so-called conservatives in the press. George Will's scathing description of Trump's followers as "vulgar, unwashed masses ... incapable of cognitive thought or rational action" sounds more like an early 20th-century eugenicist than a 21st-century newspaper columnist .
New York Times writer David Brooks also agrees with Pavlich and Will that anybody supporting Trump is politically uninformed. Republican consultant and cable news pundit Cheri Jacobus tweeted, "[Trump] does have low information voters supporting him just like Obama did."
Breitbart News is so concerned with the "Trump supporter equals stupid" slur that it asked veteran Republican strategist Jim Innocenzi to counter the data in a CNN/ORC poll showing Trump leading among voters who did not attend college.
Innocenzi concluded that "you can't say that Trump is only attracting low information voters … because it's not true[.] ... He's 2 to 1 over Bush on those that attended college."
So who are "low-information" voters according to conservative analysts, pundits, and pollsters? The non-college-educated? The college-educated? Doctors, lawyers, farmers, coal miners, mothers, fathers? Those with poor judgment? The lower classes, which include the unwashed masses? Who?
The CNN poll suggests having some college – an undergraduate or graduate degree – makes one more informed, yet Barack Obama won in all three categories in 2008 and in two of them in 2012. In the last presidential contest, voters with graduate degrees overwhelmingly voted for Obama.
Let's see how the smart ones did:
Ninety-four million Americans are out of work. Obama's hiked up the debt from $10 to 18 trillion. He's dismantling our health care, legal, and educational systems; hired radical activists to head up agencies; purged high-ranking officers in the military; targeted Tea Party members, Christians, and law enforcement officers; and spent tens of millions on family vacations. He has given tax refunds and welfare benefits to illegals while veterans lack basic necessities; ratcheted up regulations on small business; pinched the middle class black and blue; and ignored militant Black Panthers calling for the murder of "white cracker babies" while calling out a whole police department for "acting stupidly." He has held no one accountable for those in his administration who cracked a few eggs (the murders of Brian Terry, Jaime Zapata, and hundreds of Mexican nationals) to "make an omelet" in the Fast and Furious gun-walking operation, played nice with dictators, and generally made the United States a laughingstock around the world.
No wonder George Will told Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday he thinks Trump supporters are engaging in a kind of "primal scream" therapy. Who wouldn't?
Will Trump's fans keep screaming? The billionaire's candidacy has certainly brought the bought and paid for so-called conservative shills insulting tens of millions of fed up Americans out into the open. Trump is proving that the political class and their paid media hounds don't mind sacrificing "we the people" for 30 pieces of silver.
The media-savvy real estate mogul is shining a light on out-of-touch commentators employed by big outfits like Salem Media Group, which owns Townhall, Twitchy, Hotair, and Redstate among others. SMG has teamed up with CNN to broadcast three Republican presidential primary debates beginning on September 16. One of their employees, Hugh Hewitt, will be a moderator. Hewitt recently made headlines when he stumped Trump on foreign policy. Anti-Trump pundits quickly pounced on the businessman's response. Trump followed up calling Hewitt a "third-rate radio announcer."
Fox News Corp also cuts a check for many esteemed and brilliant minds trying to convince voters they can serve two masters – the American people and the GOP establishment. It's no secret that Fox owner Rupert Murdoch favors Jeb Bush. Beholden to their bosses, many in the news biz must be ticked off that Trump's money supply, unlike their own, cannot be cut off if he doesn't toe the party line.
But media mouthpieces should be careful. Americans don't like big guys picking on little guys. Moreover, this is not 2008. We have a bedraggled, frustrated citizenry swept up in Obama's fundamental transformation of their country, and they are not happy. Having pollsters, pundits, and perky blondes call them names will only make Trump more appealing and his supporters more determined.