Ann Althouse writes in horror that the Bloomberg poll, a poll that polling guru Nate Silver marks as one of the best, has Donald Trump making up most of what was a 9 point lead just a week ago. “How is it possible?” she asks?

Here is how it’s possible. Americans deeply, deeply resent the tactics and unethical methods of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, as well as, and even especially, the biased news media that has, it was just reported, been 91% negative regarding Donald Trump. Althouse anticipated this backlash back in September, when she quoted journalist/author Robert Wright, who said he was concerned that the media would be so “ham-handed” in its pro-Clinton/anti-Trump bias that “it wouldn’t work.”

In the competition of who is more unfit to lead, Trump wins in a landslide. However, Clinton’s supporters, staff, minions and party have earned the “Most Unethical, Undemocratic, Totalitarian” prize, by at least as large a margin:

1. On CNN’s “State of the Union” last week,  Jake Tapper grilled Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign manager, about Robert Creamer and Scott Foval, the  Democratic operatives who were caught in a Project Veritas video sting talking about instigating violence at a Trump rally.

TAPPER: Have you looked into whether or not Democratic operatives paid by the Democratic National Committee were actually instigating these horrific actions, these violent actions we saw at Trump rallies? That’s — I’m sure you would agree, if that’s true, that’s really offensive.

MOOK: Well, violence is unacceptable. These individuals no longer have a relationship with the DNC. They have never had a relationship with the Clinton campaign. And my understanding is that the events that are referenced happened, I think, in February of last year. They didn’t have a contract with the DNC until June.  But, putting that all aside, this was, again, a video that was leaked out for the purpose of damaging the campaign. It’s edited, so we don’t know what the full context is. And there is — there’s no evidence whatsoever that we have been able to find that anyone ever did anything like this when they were working for the DNC.

Wait, what? Mook just admitted that the DNC hired these Nixonian thugs after they disrupted the Trump events. Before that, they were doing this stuff for free? They were only fired after the video was released.  How does the fact that they aren’t under contract any more serve as a defense of their activities? White House logs show Creamer visiting the White House hundreds of times.  Why?

Mook’s “They have never had a relationship with the Clinton campaign” is such a weaselly line. How about an unequivocal denial that the campaign knew about or coordinated with these cheats? Where is that? Then he defaults to attacking the methods by which these operatives were exposed, just as Clinton’s mouthpeices, like Donna Brazile, have tried to blame Wikileaks for what the Wikileaks leaks show.

Do Democrats just shrug off this kind of anti-Democratic activity as standard “by any means necessary” tactics? What kind of leader obtains power this way? I guarantee that independents, conservatives and uncommitted voters are frightened and disgusted by it. If voting for Trump is the only way to register that disgust, then he’ll be the beneficiary of the backlash.

2. Yesterday “Dilbert” cartoonist Scott Adams, who is a Trump supporters, posted this:

I’ve been trying to figure out what common trait binds Clinton supporters together. As far as I can tell, the most unifying characteristic is a willingness to bully in all its forms.

If you have a Trump sign in your lawn, they will steal it.

If you have a Trump bumper sticker, they will deface your car.

if you speak of Trump at work you could get fired.

On social media, almost every message I get from a Clinton supporter is a bullying type of message. They insult. They try to shame. They label. And obviously they threaten my livelihood.

We know from Project Veritas that Clinton supporters tried to incite violence at Trump rallies. The media downplays it.

We also know Clinton’s side hired paid trolls to bully online. You don’t hear much about that.

Yesterday, by no coincidence, Huffington Post, Salon, and Daily Kos all published similar-sounding hit pieces on me, presumably to lower my influence. (That reason, plus jealousy, are the only reasons writers write about other writers.)

Joe Biden said he wanted to take Trump behind the bleachers and beat him up. No one on Clinton’s side disavowed that call to violence because, I assume, they consider it justified hyperbole. 

Team Clinton has succeeded in perpetuating one of the greatest evils I have seen in my lifetime. Her side has branded Trump supporters (40%+ of voters) as Nazis, sexists, homophobes, racists, and a few other fighting words. Their argument is built on confirmation bias and persuasion. But facts don’t matter because facts never matter in politics. What matters is that Clinton’s framing of Trump provides moral cover for any bullying behavior online or in person. No one can be a bad person for opposing Hitler, right?

I admit to having no respect for Trump supporters (as opposed to Never Hillary Trump voters), just as I have no respect for the tactics Adams describes. He exaggerates in the last section, but otherwise, he is accurate. Never before has a political party and its followers, aided by the news media, tried to “otherize” a major party candidate, and to make it dangerous in schools and workplaces to express support of a candidate. That’s not democracy.

3. In the Washington Post, Democrat Betta Stothart self-righteously described how she “lost it” and stole 40 Donald Trump campaign signs. She concludes,

“As I prepare for a mid-December appearance before a judge in the Cumberland County Courthouse, I am realizing that I’m not the only one going to extremes this fall. There have been Trump sign thefts in Maine and Massachusetts. Trump supporters’ cars were actually vandalized recently in Bangor. Violence at campaign events is now commonplace, and worse, a bomb went off in a North Carolina Republican Party office. The level of agitation — and fear — is rising daily, on both sides. As someone who stooped to the level of stealing from a local businessman, I have a lot of explaining and apologizing to do. I also have advice for anyone who might be on the verge of doing something stupid. It’s not worth it. Find a healthy way to express your outrage.”

Comments:

1. She says that anger is rising “on both sides,” but the only thefts, vandalizing and firebombing she mentions were directed at the Republican candidate. This is a rationalization. Both sides aren’t behaving like this.

2. “It’s not worth it,” apparently, because she was caught.

3. Though she speaks of apologies, her article never apologizes. In fact, it attempts to justify her conduct by explaining that her rage was sparked by her past experiences with sexual assault:

“But these are the kinds of compromises women are put into by men who abuse power. This is the source of my rage against Donald Trump. It’s why I committed a crime. Yes, I was acting out, and I will face, with some humility, my day in court. But at the time, my act felt strangely liberating. I wanted to punish Trump and anyone who could support him. Especially now, knowing what we know about his treatment of women.”

Of course, Hillary Clinton can rise to power by enabling and defending a sexual predator, and that’s just hunky-dory. Got it. I have no respect for people like Betta, either. But, you know, I don’t want to punish her. Nonetheless, she’s a thug, and a perfect ally for the Clinton/Progressive/Democratic anti-speech, anti-democratic Left that we are about to present with the keys to the country.

4.

 

And Trump is Hitler? This is Brownshirt stuff. Who wants to put people with followers like these in power?

5. Back to the news media…ham-handed doesn’t begin to describe how blatant media bias has been, and how obvious and shameful their slant is.

A. As you know, data released this week by the Obama administration confirmed that most states will see health care premiums under the Affordable Care Act increase by an average of 25 percent. Believe it or not,  CNN commentator Angela Rye blamed this–wait for it—on the failure of Republicans to repeal and replace Obamacare. “It’s not just Hillary Clinton that needs to tackle this but also Congress,” Rye said on CNN’s New Day. “The reason we are in the position that we are in right now frankly, Alisyn, is because Republicans fell short of their promise to repeal, which is what they said they wanted to do, and replace.”

Obama and the Democrats, you see, aren’t accountable for anything. Do you resent being treated like this by our journalists? How do you express that resentment? By voting for the candidate and party they have been lying, spinning and distorting for? Really? We have been treated as complacent, gullible fools, and we punish those who have done this by doing what they want?

B. This just in, from  The Harvard Crimson: Female soccer recruits at Harvard were rated for their attractiveness by their male counterparts – and a sleazy document speculated on their favorite sexual positions. A ‘scouting report’ from 2012, has emerged, containing sexually explicit comments about women, alongside photographs of them. One soccer recruit was described as looking “like the kind of girl who likes to dominate, and likes to be dominated.” The nine-page document assigned each woman a hypothetical sexual position. This document was shared between members of the Harvard 2012 men’s soccer team, and scouting report appears to be a yearly tradition.

Waitt…how can this be? When Donald Trump tried to explain away his vulgar conversation with Billy Bush as “locker room talk,” the news media sprinted to prove this was just another lie. Why, athletes in all-male settings never denigrate women or objectify them among team mates! Absolutely not!

Why is Trump’s support increasing? Trump’s claims that the election is being rigged is irresponsible, but if it is being rigged, it is undeniable which party and candidate is doing the rigging. Better yet, call it cheating. Better yet, let’s call it undermining democracy.

All along, the conventional wisdom was that if the election became about Hillary Clinton, Trump would win. If it was about Trump, Hillary would win.

Trump’s support is bouncing back, I believe, because a lot of people are starting to think that the election is about democracy.

They have a point.

_____________________________

Pointer: Other Bill (on the Harvard story)