Um, professor--you might want to get your nose out of your socialist academic journals and observe the real world for a while. Try to put your own biases in the background while you do so.
Trump was not calling the system rigged as if he is some guru who claims to have insight into some secret world that he is now revealing to us, the unwashed masses. Rather, he was stating a truth that millions of people see for themselves every day, and people love him for the fact that he says what we all know and the elites refuse to acknowledge.
When a politician can compromise national security in such a way that would land any ordinary citizen in prison for decades, but skates completely scot-free, how are ordinary citizens supposed to perceive that?
When the media, who are supposed to inform us, instead pick, reject, or alter stories to make them fit a pre-existing narrative in support of an unpopular agenda, what are ordinary citizens supposed to think?
When the citizens vote for candidates who promise to fix the many and growing problems of bloated and corrupt government, but all that happens is continued progress towards a kind of government they reject, what conclusions do you expect them to draw?
The system *is* rigged, Ms. Professor. And if you didn't live in an echo chamber but were in touch with regular citizens, you would know that. And you would understand Trump's appeal. He is campaigning on a platform to rid the government and country of progressivism, and we support that.
Well stated eDM.
The attention paying public is no longer in thrall
to the academic cadres of liberal thought.
Just imagine if instead of John McCain we had had a
Trump/Palin ticket, but I suppose the time just was
not ripe for it.