Hillary v Trump

Now that it’s down to Hillary v Trump, will it be a landslide win for Clinton as many predict? Or will Trump surprise everyone the way he did in the primaries?

Despite starting off with those questions, this blog doesn’t try to answer them! Instead, I’ll quote from this article by David Roberts on some very practical aspects that will kick in and change the current narrative:

“There are entire classes of professionals whose jobs are premised on the model of two roughly equal sides, clashing endlessly. The Dance of Two Parties sustains the consultants and activists.”

So who exactly are these professionals?

“Media, consultants, power brokers, think tanks, foundations, officeholders, the whole thick network of institutions and individuals involved in national politics.”

Then there’s the perception problem for the media: repeatedly stating that Trump is unfit for office “will become a partisan observation, something Democrats say”!

Also, there’s the possibility that Hillary’s camp will try to use traditional techniques against a man who has broken all the rules. For example, Scott Adams points out that when the Clinton camp calls Trump “too risky”, they don’t seem to understand that maybe that’s exactly what people want:

“The entire reason that Trump is so popular is that the public sees the system as broken and also sees no standard/normal way to fix it. When things are broken, and trending in the wrong direction, that’s exactly the time you want to introduce risk.”

Professionals who need an election to be close; media outlets who need to appear to be unbiased; and a candidate who has to figure a way to deal with an opponent like Trump… will that mean a closer election than many think? Who knows? And who thought Trump would get this far? Let the games continue…