“I think the media is still ‘misunderestimating’ parts of the electorate, but I do think that the weak-kneed feel-good naive suburbanites were caught off guard in 2016 and aren’t going to make that mistake in 2018. I’m not predicting a blue wave, but I am suggesting that the pollsters and the media ON BOTH SIDES do not have their finger on the pulse of various demographics as well as they would present it.”
Excellent points. In the suburbs of the Twin Cities, I am seeing exactly what you’re talking about.
My suspicion (fear) is that the electorate gurus working for Trump (bannon is gone, no?) as well as fox news but all thier stock on catering to the rural vote that got him over the top in 2016, and forgot to win back the suburbanites. It would have been tough to do, but there were angles they could have worked, and example would be what’s going on right now with the calls for violence. Suburbanites have no tastes for radical fanatic mobs, and as long as they think those things are going to stay in isolated pockets, they cling to their naive ideals about appeasing the socialist city dwellers. It was the middle to upper middle class suburbanites who thought that by electing a black president that wounds and divisions would get healed, and even though they saw evidence after the fact that these so-called ‘divisions’ are just a tool to use against them, they are still allowing the MSM to preach to them to feel guilty about it all. Opportunity missed
When Barney Rubble Mathews mentions the “suburbs”, he is referring to the Washington DC suburbs. According to liberals, the DC suburbs are the entire country.
In 2016, the primary demographic that did not show up in big numbers were Black and Hispanic men. Black males were “no ways tired” going to vote for an old hag white woman. That is the demographic that we need to keep an eye on. If the black males show up on election day, then the GOP is in trouble, UNLESS a huge number of blue collar folks come out to vote Republican. That is the key.