To most low-info voters, Hillary was merely a Secretary of State. To us, she was a piss poor Secretary of State.
To Trump, she was something more.
“Hillary Clinton was the single worst secretary of state in the history of this country, the world collapsed around us,”
Low-info voters don’t research stuff. They listen to what they hear, average out the differences, and that is their opinion.
When Trump says something so extreme, there are three effects that apply on the low-info voter. First, because Trump says extreme things, they get flagged more heavily by the amygdalae of listeners, and thus focused on more. The amygdala is always looking for the most pressing stimuli, and “Worst ever in history” will trigger a flag more than “fairly bad.” This makes people listen more intently. Nobody remembers a thing John Kasich said in the last three weeks. Most of us can call up three Donald Trump statements from the last day.
Second, because extreme views like those of Trump focus people more, the media pays more attention and airs them to their audience (to focus their own viewers on their channel and build their audiences). So speaking an extreme view will result in broadcasting that extreme view to a wider audience.
Finally, as these types of views hit that wider audience, their increased flagging of the audience’s amygdala, combined with the extreme position they stake out will combine to push the opinions of low-info voters farther towards Trump’s position.
I can’t reiterate enough how blown away I am that Trump seems to have figured out that talking to crowds of inattentive imbeciles, and moving that public opinion needle, is a totally different animal from talking to one rational person, and convincing them of a specific concept. Judging by his lead in the polls, it works.
As I look at the really brilliant things Trump does, there are only three possibilities. An impossible level of luck (most unlikely), an innate subconscious genius that just does the right thing without thinking (most likely), or an analytical mind that has figured out ideas which I doubt anybody else in the field of public relations would have figured out in the next fifty years (I’d say unlikely as I am not sure anyone is that brilliant).
Trump has impediments in the race. The media hate him. The GOPe is terrified of him. Arch fiscal, social, and libertarian conservatives are all worried he is just playing them to get elected, and might go squishy once elected.
Yet this level of skill and mechanistic view of the process is making me think he is still in the best position.
I disagree. Modern PR science seems amazingly able to play the mass-minded like a virtuoso pianist brings forth melody and harmony from a Steinway Grand.
The most likely condition to me is that Trump is brilliantly attuned to stroking the keys and has hired a team of proven coaches, pollsters and analysts to fine-tune his performances.
Given that I believe everything we’re told in the news is a lie, I am reluctant to take anything Trump says or does at face value. It’s all part of a game of which we never glimpse more than a very tiny slice. Great power and billions of dollars depend from these games. Shadowy factions of the Deep State battle like Gods in a different dimension, and all we mortals see are rain storms, lightning and occasional sunshine.