In Reply to: What is fundamentally wrong with the press? posted by russsmith on October 03, 2026 at 07:42:37
Democrats still seem to believe there is going to be some Trump “gotcha moment” that will finally shake Americans awake.
Americans already know who Trump is. None of this is news.
Roughly 85% of white evangelical voters supported Trump in 2024. That helps explain why he won the presidency. At the same time, roughly 60% of everyone else did not vote for him.
What we are really witnessing is a demographic, cultural, and economic shift away from traditional evangelical dominance. Trump offered the most blatant vehicle for people who felt they were losing cultural and political power to try to reclaim it.
The fact that Trump can be craven, disregard scientific expertise, or demonstrate questionable character isn't necessarily a bug in that equation—it can be a feature. For many of his supporters, the priority was not finding someone who embodied traditional virtues. It was finding someone willing to fight aggressively to reverse what they saw as a loss of power and influence.
The more important question isn't whether Trump is sleeping, making a bizarre statement, or doing something outrageous. His supporters already know what he is.
What matters is whether the things affecting their daily lives are getting better or worse: oil prices, inflation, wages, housing, and the economic security of the working- and middle-class voters who helped propel Trump to victory in both elections.
And this is where the more consequential erosion of Trump's support appears to be occurring: among non-college-educated white voters.
That is a much more important story than whether Trump is sleeping during a meeting.
The “Trump is sleeping” story is largely meaningless to the people who remain committed to him. And if Democrats are counting on another scandal or embarrassing moment to suddenly transform public opinion, they may be looking in the wrong place.
The real political vulnerability is much more mundane: the economy and whether Trump's policies are improving or undermining the economic conditions of the voters who put him back in office.
At some point, Democrats have to stop making the election about Trump and start putting forward an actionable plan for how they would restore the country—one that can actually be implemented during the first two years of a presidency.
Democrats are still deeply unpopular with a large portion of the electorate. The problem isn't that people suddenly love Democrats; for many voters, they simply dislike Trump even more.
The bigger problem with the media from my stand point is that they aren't asking Dems for their forward vision in more than vague terms.