Over the next few weeks, prepare yourself for an onslaught of autopsies which will be performed on the results of the 2016 election. One that’s making the rounds at the moment is that half the country was in a “bubble” and therefore couldn’t hope to understand what was being felt and said by those in other parts of the United States. For example, those who live in cities and those who live in rural America.
Such was the topic of debate last night on CNN. One of the guests was Patrick Thornton, who writes for Roll Call and moved from the Midwest to a coastal region of the country. The bubble, Thornton maintains, is in rural communities:
“A lot of people are saying that it’s the people on the coast, they need to get out of their bubbles and they need to see more of America to understand why people voted for Donald Trump. The county I come from is 97 percent white.
“There are many people who live in a white bubble that don’t know anybody other than themselves.”
Fellow panelist Salena Zito disagreed, saying those who live on the coasts are the ones in the bubble. People in rural areas understand others, Zito noted, because they watch lots of television:
“They understand elites. It’s on their television, it’s in their advertising. They go and travel to New York, they love to go to New York and spend their tourist money, same with Washington, D.C. I think that we need to bridge the gap between both.”
CNN host Don Lemon immediately called Zito out for her total lack of comprehension, telling her:
“Salena, that’s different than living among people, going to school with them, having one over for dinner, maybe having a family member, maybe dating one, marrying one. That’s different than watching it on television. I watched the Beverly Hillbillies, or Lost In Space, or the Brady Bunch as a kid, but I didn’t really know them.”
I’ve watched documentaries on Russia and China, but I don’t pretend to understand how people there actually live. Seems some among us are under the impression that TV provides all the knowledge we need. But if, like Ms. Zito, you subscribe to that point of view, you’ll miss a lot of the real world as you sit and stare at your screen.
Featured Image Via YouTube Screengrab
