These real Americans, who don’t watch hours of Fox News, figured out long ago that Trump is a pathological liar. They recoil at his overt racism, know dictators always go after the free press, understand basic science, know Russia and Saudi Arabia are run by despots, don’t see Canada as our enemy, recognize that crime is at historically low levels and know actual immigrants personally. What’s more, they vote, and they outnumber the Trump-faithful.
For over two years, Trump and his Fox News helpmates have perpetrated the fraud that only they are the voice of “the people.” That’s what authoritarian regimes and their followers always say. Trump spent two years talking almost exclusively to and for his core group. Sure enough, he can get them out to vote in Missouri, Indiana and North Carolina. But they aren’t a majority of voters nationwide; not even close. His demagoguery, lies, cruelty and incompetence — what his supporters ignore or even relish (he’s our liar!) — the majority, a large majority, of equally real Americans despises.
The 2018 midterm elections are a reminder that presidents and parties have to talk to the whole country. The midterms are also a lesson that victimology only goes so far.