2016 Postmortem

But here is one microcosm illustration which is part of why she "lost".

During the 2008 election between John McCain and Barack Obama, one elderly "Fox News" listener got up and asked John McCain "Isn't Obama a Muslim?" and John McCain, no matter what else we might think of him, gently told her that "No Ma'am, Obama is a good man, a Christian".

In 2016, we had a candidate on the right who would encourage such talk and get his crowds to chant "Lock her up" as if she had committed all of the criminal acts that Breitbart and the far right (alt-right) conspiracy nuts propagandized constantly. Nobody stood up to the conspiracy theory insanity.

My mother (an elderly Fox viewer) was convinced that Obama was turning over the National Parks to the UN and that Americans would have to seek permission to visit them. I am certain that she voted for Trump. Nothing I could say would change her mind on this because she "heard it on the news".