One reason for low turnout
by digby
Neither Trump or Clinton managed to get huge turnout. She did better than he did but it wasn’t enough in the right places.
This is one of the reasons:
This election was so relentless negative and the people who don’t like that are the kind of people who might just turn away and not vote. Trump voters aren’t sensitive about negativity. They’re fighters. They liked it. Just look at the difference between the fresh face young women cheering “deal me in” with the angry people at the Trump rallies screaming “lock her up!” and “Build that wall.”
Let’s just say it’s a fair guess that Trump’s relentless insults about Clinton being a criminal, with the help of the media and the FBI, made some of her voters just not want to deal with the election. And perversely, her campaign may have contributed to the whole atmosphere by relentlessly showing the hideous Trump footage, turning off some of her own people in the procesl. I don’t think I talked to a person anywhere in the last month who wasn’t eager to get the whole over with.
The old adage is that Republicans fall in line and Democrats fall in love. This campaign made it very hard to feel anything but nauseous. I think Trump understands that stuff better than most — it’s a bully tactic, after all. Beat up on the weaker kid and send a message to everyone else: stay off the playground.
A lot of people may have just decided to stay off the playground.
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