{"id":9597,"date":"2016-11-10T11:41:57","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T19:41:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/?p=9597"},"modified":"2016-11-10T11:41:57","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T19:41:57","slug":"surprise-surprise-the-disconnected-plutocrat-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/surprise-surprise-the-disconnected-plutocrat-lost\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise, surprise, the disconnected plutocrat lost"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"trb_ar_h\">\n<div class=\"trb_ar_hl\"><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_main\">\n<div class=\"trb_ar_la\">\n<aside class=\"trb_embed\" data-content-id=\"91872567\" data-content-size=\"leadart\" data-content-type=\"image\" data-content-slug=\"la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\" data-content-subtype=\"photo\" data-role=\"sc_item imgsize_ratiosizecontainer\" data-state=\"\">\n<div class=\"trb_embed_media\">\n<figure class=\"trb_embed_imageContainer_figure\" data-role=\"imgsize_item\"><img class=\"trb_embed_imageContainer_img\" title=\"Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton\" sizes=\"(min-width: 1260px) 750px, (min-width: 1060px) calc(100vw - 559px), (min-width: 840px) calc(100vw - 419px), (min-width: 800px) 800px, 100.1vw\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/350\/350x197 350w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/400\/400x225 400w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/450\/450x253 450w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/500\/500x281 500w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/550\/550x309 550w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/600\/600x338 600w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/650\/650x366 650w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/700\/700x394 700w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/750\/750x422 750w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/800\/800x450 800w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/850\/850x478 850w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/900\/900x506 900w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/950\/950x534 950w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/1000\/1000x563 1000w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/1050\/1050x591 1050w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/1100\/1100x619 1100w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/1150\/1150x647 1150w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/1200\/1200x675 1200w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/1400\/1400x788 1400w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/1600\/1600x900 1600w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/1800\/1800x1013 1800w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/2000\/2000x1125 2000w, http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\/2048\/2048x1152 2048w\" alt=\"Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton\" width=\"459\" height=\"258\" data-baseurl=\"http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823b46e\/turbine\/la-mfleischer-1478734976-snap-photo\" data-c-nd=\"2048x1152\" data-role=\"imgsize_srcsetdisplayitem\" \/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related\" data-role=\"lightbox_metadata\">\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related_credit_and_caption\">Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton concedes her defeat to Republican Donald Trump in New York on Nov. 9, 2016. (Andrew Harnik\/Associated Press)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_by\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_by\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_by\"><span class=\"trb_ar_by_nm_pm\"><span class=\"trb_ar_by_nm_au\" data-byline-withoutby=\"\">by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em><br \/>\n<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_dateline\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"trb_ar_main\">\n<p>Donald Trump\u2019s victory confounded elite pollsters, journalists, politicians, academic experts and captains of industry. They all wrote him off as a fading gasbag. By every conventional barometer, he should have lost big time. His own party largely abandoned him. Former Republican presidents and primary rivals refused to endorse him. Donors bailed on him. His campaign staff was ridiculed as amateurish. Trump became the worst nightmare of the establishment, both Democratic and Republican.<\/p>\n<p>But unnoticed during the last month of the campaigning was a growing realization among Americans that the supposedly sober and judicious Hillary Clinton was irreparably disconnected.<\/p>\n<p>On the eve of the election, Clinton packed her rallies with celebrities. Sometimes the result was bizarre, as, for example, when Jay Z managed to use both the N-word and F-word in the would-be president\u2019s presence. Millions were unimpressed. The so-called deplorables, irredeemables and clingers of America certainly did not think the stump performances of Lady Gaga, Beyonc\u00e9 or Miley Cyrus resonated themes of amenity or probity.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"trb_embed\" data-content-id=\"91872605\" data-content-size=\"large\" data-content-type=\"pullquote\" data-content-slug=\"la-mfleischer-1478735340-snap-quote\" data-content-subtype=\"pullquote\" data-role=\"sc_item\" data-state=\"\">\n<div class=\"trb_embed_media\">\n<p><span class=\"trb_pullquote_text\">Is it so hard to imagine that&#8230;an out of work lathe operator was not a big fan of globalization?<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"trb_embed_related\" data-role=\"lightbox_metadata\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>It used to be that Democrats abhorred the role of big money\u00a0in politics. But Clinton outspent Trump 3-1 and raised more than a billion dollars. The plutocracy \u2014 Wall Street, Silicon Valley and the great American gilded fortunes of Goldman Sachs, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, Facebook and Google \u2014 were not just Clinton supporters but often strident ones. \u00a0The old idea of a liberal populist underdog had morphed into a haughty moneybag, with a huge staff, lots of opposition researchers and internal pollsters, surfeits of questionable cash donations, and politically correct endorsements that the left\u00a0used to find plastic and inauthentic.<!--more--><\/p>\n<aside class=\"trb_ar_sponsoredmod trb_barker_mediaconductor\" data-adloader-networktype=\"mediaconductor\" data-role=\"delayload_item\" data-screen-size=\"desktop\" data-withinviewport-options=\"bottomOffset=100\" data-load-method=\"trb.vendor.mediaconductor.init\" data-load-type=\"method\" data-vendor-mc=\"\" data-mediaconductor-processed=\"true\"><\/aside>\n<p>The Trump campaign, meanwhile \u00a0did everything contrary to the establishment playbook: no big-name endorsers, no ground game, no celebrity entertainers \u2014 unless you count Don King \u2014 no sophisticated bundlers, no legions of hired-gun political activists and spinners.<\/p>\n<p>Trump was accessible. He talked loudly and perhaps too often to the news media; Clinton was secretive and studied, opening up only to pre-screened media toadies. He tweeted promiscuously; she had an entire team to adjudicate each of the permissible 140 characters. Trump waded into crowds. She was surrounded by a phalanx of handlers. A man from Mars would have assumed that the right-wing candidate was the grass-roots populist and his left-wing opponent was a Big Money, Big Media automaton, created by central casting.<\/p>\n<p>From the WikiLeaks <a id=\"PEPLT000007533\" title=\"John Podesta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/topic\/politics-government\/government\/john-podesta-PEPLT000007533-topic.html\">John Podesta<\/a> trove, we learned that the proverbial mainstream media was not just biased, but had openly colluded with a campaign in a fashion that even the supposed conspiracists on talk radio or at the Drudge Report could not dream up.<\/p>\n<p>Dana Milbank of the Washington Post wrote the Podesta team asking for free research help to denigrate Trump. The widely praised Democratic Party Chairman Donna Brazile leaked debate questions to the Clinton campaign during the primaries \u2014 and offered no apologies for her duplicity. Politico\u2019s Glen Thrush at least had the honesty to describe himself as a hack when he sent his reporting to the Podesta group for proofreading. Again, in the old days, all that would have been written off as Nixonian dirty tricks.<\/p>\n<p>For weeks, smug pollsters assured voters of a substantial Clinton lead and likely victory at odds of 70% and greater. A few reliable polls with proven records \u2014 the Los Angeles Times and Investor\u2019s Business Daily especially \u2014 showed a tight race. So naturally they were written off by the establishment as \u201coutliers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When some wrote that a sizable minority of Latinos and African Americans in theory might vote for Trump at levels that met or exceeded support for Mitt Romney in 2012, they were derided as unhinged.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"trb_embed\" data-content-size=\"small\" data-content-type=\"blurb\"><\/aside>\n<p>But was it so hard to imagine that a third-generation Mexican American might fear \u2014 more so than the gated residents of Malibu and Santa Monica \u2014 the impact of illegal immigration on his neighborhood school or community? Or that an out of work lathe operator was not a big fan of globalization? Or that a sizable minority of African Americans thought the blunt and straight-talking Trump was more genuine than a female Romney?<\/p>\n<p>Every hyphenated group now triumphs in their tribal affiliations while deriding \u201cwhite privilege.\u201d Is it surprising that the white working classes without privilege should follow suit and embrace ethnic solidarity?<\/p>\n<p>Clinton in the last weeks talked of the electorate as if it was a faceless hyphenated Borg \u2014 Latinos this, African Americans that, the gay vote, women voters \u2014 without any realization that she was referring to millions of Americans by their appearance rather than their essence as unique individuals. In normal times, all that pandering would have been seen as illiberal.<\/p>\n<p>The Clinton message itself was seen as radical and reckless to those who were not so invested in it. Even President Obama\u2019s cheerleading could not mask the bleak reality of doubling the debt in eight years to $20 trillion, chronic near-zero interest rates, record labor nonparticipation rates and anemic GDP growth. It was extreme, not moderate, to junk the nation\u2019s healthcare system and to ram through Obamacare, whose premises were based on partisanship, untruth and pipe dreams.<\/p>\n<p>Yet Clinton\u2019s campaign acted as if all that was the new normal when it was in truth radical fringe politics \u00a0\u2014 as millions reminded us on election day.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"trb_sc\" data-item-id=\"~~V1~~-3950263804719275855~~JKmjEhV9DZKvOUElnIGLLk-YrLokGB-I_GAhnKkcK6W70r0s6faVxLGOnQfWiLwWYC-xaxBZai7-UAh1OQRxbQ\" data-item-title=\"We install a solar system at no\u00a0 extra charge in California\" data-item-thumb=\"http:\/\/cdn.taboolasyndication.com\/libtrc\/static\/thumbnails\/cc33c7d3c02994af7fe4ed63b5f54441.jpg\" data-item-syndicated=\"true\" data-role=\"sc_information sc_container\" data-sc-c=\"page\" data-sc-url=\"\/opinion\/op-ed\/la-oe-hanson-why-hillary-lost-20161110-story.html\" data-sc-ti=\"Surprise, surprise, the disconnected plutocrat lost\" data-sc-th=\"http:\/\/www.trbimg.com\/img-5823ca1b\/turbine\/la-oe-hanson-why-hillary-lost-20161110\" data-sc-desc=\"Donald Trump\u2019s victory confounded elite pollsters, journalists, politicians, academic experts and captains of industry. They all wrote him off as a fading gasbag. By every conventional barometer, he should have lost big time. His own party largely abandoned him. Former Republican presidents and...\" data-sc-sl=\"la-oe-hanson-why-hillary-lost-20161110\" data-sc-cont=\"story\" data-sc-nn=\"Los Angeles Times\" data-sc-contid=\"91871414\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"trb_ar_rail\">\n<div id=\"trb_ad_articleCube_2_3_\/opinion\/op-ed\/la-oe-hanson-why-hillary-lost-20161110-story.html\" class=\"trb_gptAd trb_ar_rail_ad\" data-role=\"adloader adloader_ad\" data-adloader-size=\"300x250\" data-withinviewport-options=\"bottomOffset=100&amp;topOffset=1000000\" data-adloader-position=\"articleCube\" data-adloader-adtype=\"articlecube\" data-adloader-label=\"\" data-google-query-id=\"CITC35H4ntACFQQHPwodIHMOiw\" data-state=\"adloader_loaded\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"trb_gptAd trb_ar_rail_ad trb_sntAd\" data-role=\"delayload_item\" data-withinviewport-options=\"bottomOffset=100&amp;topOffset=1000000\" data-load-method=\"trb.vendor.snt.init\" data-adloader-position=\"sntbanner\" data-adloader-adtype=\"sntbanner\" data-load-type=\"method\" data-adloader-label=\"\" data-adloader-size=\"300x600\" data-v-snt=\"\/\/content.synapsys.us\/embeds\/double_decker\/partner.js\" data-screen-size=\"desktop\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton concedes her defeat to Republican Donald Trump in New York on Nov. 9, 2016. (Andrew Harnik\/Associated Press) by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ Los Angeles Times Donald Trump\u2019s victory confounded elite pollsters, journalists, politicians, academic experts and captains of industry. They all wrote him off as a fading gasbag. By every conventional [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1094,1091,1090,185],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2uN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9572,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/no-reason-to-assume-hillarys-troubles-are-behind-her\/","url_meta":{"origin":9597,"position":0},"title":"No reason to assume Hillary&#8217;s troubles are behind her","author":"Megan Ring","date":"November 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ The Sumter Item Hillary Clinton was resting, running out the clock, sitting on a supposed large lead and hoping that the election was sooner than later. Now after the latest Weiner disclosures, she is crisscrossing the country, terrified of collapsing polls, and wishing that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Clintons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Clintons","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-clintons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9588,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-election-fables-of-2016\/","url_meta":{"origin":9597,"position":1},"title":"The Election Fables of 2016","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Clear choices on the issues in 2016 have been far more distinct than in 1960, 1968, or 1992. Most of what we read about the election of 2016 was untrue. Here are the most glaring of the election fables. Hillary would have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Clintons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Clintons","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-clintons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9595,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-blow-to-the-non-elite-elite\/","url_meta":{"origin":9597,"position":2},"title":"A Blow to the Non-Elite Elite","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review Biased and incompetent elites polluted the 2016 election, and they are getting what they deserved. There were a lot of losers in this election, well beyond Hillary Clinton and the smug, incompetent pollsters and know-it-all, groupthink pundits who embarrassed themselves. From hacked e-mail troves\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Clintons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Clintons","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-clintons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9574,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/never-trump-republicans-spoilers-or-saviors\/","url_meta":{"origin":9597,"position":3},"title":"Never Trump Republicans: Spoilers or Saviors?","author":"Megan Ring","date":"November 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review If enough of them decide that Hillary\u2019s corruption is too much to take, she could be finished, at last. Will there be an eleventh-hour Never\/Against\/No Trump Reconsideration? The question gains new relevance as a Hillary Clinton landslide, widely predicted until recently, now seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Clintons&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Clintons","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-clintons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9576,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/has-clinton-topped-nixon\/","url_meta":{"origin":9597,"position":4},"title":"Has Clinton topped Nixon?","author":"Megan Ring","date":"November 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ Town Hall | Another day, another Hillary Clinton bombshell disclosure. This time the scandal comes from disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner's laptop computer, bringing more suggestions of Clinton's sloppy attitude about U.S. intelligence law. Meanwhile, seemingly every day WikiLeaks produces more evidence of the Clinton Foundation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Nixon&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Nixon","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/nixon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10399,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/putins-playthings\/","url_meta":{"origin":9597,"position":5},"title":"Putin\u2019s Playthings","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson\/\/ National Review \u00a0 Putin will do anything to advance Russia\u2019s interests because his country is in terrible shape. \u00a0 About a year ago, Donald Trump Jr. met with a mysterious Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. Trump Jr. was purportedly eager to receive information that could damage Hillary\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comey&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comey","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/comey\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9598,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9597\/revisions\/9598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}