j.r. leonard

My view is fewer folks are willing to be persuaded than in the past. Making the utility of that strategy rather slim.

Worked for Obama. Worked for Trump. The best way to make it not work for the next person is to have them say "yeah, I only have to fire up my base and depress the other guy's. And nothing else."

My perception of trump is that’s exactly what he did: excite only his base and depress turnout for the other guy. It was remarkably successful.

Is it your perception that he tried to build a diverse base? One that looked like America?

He won by flipping midwestern white voters without college degrees. HRC flipped some white voters with degrees, but not enough of them in the right places.

Yes and that’s not a diverse base. That’s a narrow base. I don’t believe he tried to build a broad coalition. I think he succeeded by building a narrow but energized pillar of support among the most populous class: over the hill white suburbia.

Thus my point earlier today that a strategy, which I think Trump pursued, is to energize your base rather and discourage the opposition base. Trump lost the PV that way, but he's President and Hillary Clinton isn't.

The problem with that idea is that isn't how Trump won. Trump won by getting people who voted for Obama to vote for himself instead of for Clinton.