The Liberal Postmortem on 2016 Is not Going Well: New at Reason

What lessons can be drawn from the 2016 election?

A. Barton Hinkle writes:

It’s been two weeks and counting since the larbord side of the country lost a can’t-lose election to the worst presidential nominee in American history. Since then, in between the cry-ins and riots, liberals have paused to catch their breath and ask how it could have happened. The answers they are coming up with are not encouraging.

One school of thought insists that the left needs to understand what Trump voters think and what they want. But so far there doesn’t seem to be much chance of that happening. Even those who ascribe to this thesis approach the subject with the mindset of an anthropologist, or perhaps an exobiologist: “Who are these alien creatures? What do they want?” (Not to be viewed as a strange and repulsive species of semi-intelligent bug, would be one guess.)

To aid with the anthropological project, The New York Times recently was kind enough to provide befuddled liberals with a reading list to explain the trumpenproletariat.

The list begins with “The Unwinding,” in which the New Yorker‘s “George Packer took a wide-angled look at this country’s institutions and mores and was appalled by what he found. The book begins like a horror novel, which to some extent it is.” Yes, that’s just the thing to build empathy and rapport with the folks in flyover country: “America: The Hellhole.”

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