Blinders

"We were all wrong!" "The greatest political upset in our lifetime." "None of us saw this coming." These were just a few of the confessions pundits, experts, and anchors expressed once the 2016 presidential election was called for Donald J. Trump. The truth is that many of us, not a lot, but many, actually saw the Trump candidacy and phenomenon for what it was back in March and April of 2016-and we steadily maintained, even during every seeming Trump-created "meltdown" or "mistake," that Donald Trump not only could win but would win. What did we see that others didn't? More importantly, how could so many "experts" and "smart people" get this election so wrong? And why are they still considered experts?

Blinders is an analysis and indictment of the mainstream media, liberal commentariat, and conservative establishment who implicitly undermined if not insulted some 60,526,852 fellow-Americans when they treated Donald Trump's candidacy as a side-show. With too little sense of humility or self-reflection-or apology!-how can these so-called "experts" continue reporting on and analyzing a country and polity they have essentially admitted they do not understand? After all, what they got wrong in 2016 was not just an election. What they got wrong was America.