The meltdowns that we have continued to see in the media since Election Night continue to illustrate the disconnect between the people and the pundits.

The media and their elites – those who sit around the discussion table on TV, discoursing on life, politics, the universe, and everything – can still not wrap their minds around Trump winning. This lesson has been percolating for decades at this point, echoing back to Pauline Kael noting that she apparently knew only one person voting for Richard Nixon (the man who won 49 states in 1972). Now the media, and their elite little friends who come to their gossip tables, are downright furious after being bitchslapped across the face by the American electorate. HOW DARE THEY, these elites howl. They have become “The Simpsons” meme of Principal Skinner on steroids. THEY are not out of touch, it is the VOTERS who are wrong – and probably racist.

The most hysterical example of this comes from – where else? – MSNBC, where elite Princeton professor Eddie Glaude melts down in front of Stephanie Ruhle. Ruhle, who proved herself to be more than a happy shill for Kamala Harris, gamely tries to explain to Glaude that people are upset about the high cost of groceries. He refuses to believe it. He INSISTS on believing that people are racist, and this has nothing to do with the price of eggs or other economic factors.

This clip is astonishing. Democrats and their elitist academic allies are so out of touch with regular people that they can’t even comprehend the concept of a person struggling to put food on the table. pic.twitter.com/bwt8hpP9xe

— Nick Ballas (@NicholasBallas) November 9, 2024

The moment when Glaude tells Ruhle that he loves her, BUT it’s clear that she’s not willing to acknowledge the internalized racism of the American voter, just aptly summarizes the whole attitude of the elite. We’ve seen it from Joy Reid, we’ve seen it on CNN. The media simply and willfully chooses to not “get” what just happened. It must be due to bigotry from the voters!

Which leads us to “60 Minutes,” who tried their damnedest to cover for Kamala Harris, to the point of editing her replies in her one big interview with them. With the election over, and Donald Trump taking all seven of the swing states, Scott Pelley went in search of an answer that I’m not sure he really wants. Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to Pennsylvania he goes!

With Arizona called last night, Donald Trump swept all seven swing states. Six of them flipped from Joe Biden’s column in 2020. So far, the president-elect has won just over 50% of the popular vote and he made gains in key demographics, including the young, Latinos and women. Republicans took the Senate and are on track to control the House. Tuesday, more than 80% of all the nation’s countries moved toward the right. The shift is decisive and leaves Democrats arguing over how they misread the people. To understand what just happened, we went to Pennsylvania, one of the places that made all the difference.

Chris Borick: We’re in Bethlehem which is the heart of Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania, a county along the Delaware River. Midsize, couple hundred thousand people, mix of urban, suburban, rural areas all in a pretty centered location here in eastern Pennsylvania.

And pretty perfect for picking presidents. For 25 years, Chris Borick has been conducting one of the leading polls of Pennsylvania voters. He’s a professor of political science at Muhlenberg College, next to Northampton County.

Chris Borick: It was an Obama county. Then it was a Trump county. And then it was a Biden county, and in 2024 it once again is a Trump county.

Scott Pelley: How did Trump win?

Chris Borick: It’s a great question. You know first of all I think he had the winds on his side here, from talking to voters. They’re, they’re not in a great mood. They’re not in the good place. There’s lots of good things happening in Northampton County. The economy’s good. But they’re feeling things in their lives that really troubled them. Housing prices here. Grocery prices. I can’t tell you how many times when I talk to people about elections this year, they referenced eggs and the price of eggs.

This was the big miss, and one that Democrats famously used to understand. The Democrats and the media have gone from “it’s the economy, stupid,” to “DEI über alles,” and thought that haranguing the American voting public about diversity, equity, and pronouns would win votes when people couldn’t make their dollar stretch at the grocery store. Scott Pelley is downright stumped when confronted with that information.

"Inflation is down"

Does 60 Minutes not know how inflation works? Inflation doesn't go down. It can only increase at a lower rate. https://t.co/Uqiucyaq1Z

— TI (@lizardseason) November 11, 2024

Ask anyone who does their own grocery shopping if they “feel” that inflation is “down.” Very few things have become LESS expensive, and certainly not staples like eggs, bread, and milk. Kamala Harris would acknowledge that grocery prices were too high, and then serve up platitudes with no plan to address prices. Her one and only “plan” involved stopping price gouging on groceries during emergency situations. Her lack of substance did nothing to reassure voters that she could “fix” what the administration she was currently serving in as vice president had broken.

And that argument about bigotry in voters that Professor Glaude was desperate to make? Yeah, that falls apart on the ground as well, considering Trump’s huge gains in the Latino community.

Latinos are 20% of the U.S. population now and the fastest growing community in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Ronald Corales opened a barbershop 12 years ago. Then a second, now a third. Some of his 20 employees changed their minds about Republicans for the first time.

Scott Pelley: Democrats would’ve expected to do really well with Latino voters.

Ronald Corales: Yes.

Scott Pelley: Donald Trump made a lot of inroads —

Ronald Corales: Yes.

Scott Pelley: — in this election, and I wonder why you think that is.

Ronald Corales: The economy. The economy. I’ve been talking over the past couple of years to, like, people at one point, they were, like, so against him because of the comments or whatever the media was saying. But– you know, a lotta– lot– a lotta the Latinos are working-class people. They have families. You know, they help their families, even outside the country as well.

Corales’ late father immigrated from Peru in 1985 and was so thrilled to be in America he named his son for the president. Today, Ronald finds some common ground with Trump, even on immigration.

Ronald Corales: We still need immigration, but if we could do it– the legal way, and hopefully President Trump will bring some kind of legalization to those– to those immigrants, because there’s still a lotta good people out there. That they’re willing to work and continue dreaming with the American dream.

What really sticks in the minds of voters, though, is the absolute snobbery and assumptions by the media. They really do believe that because they are the people on TV, they are so much smarter than all the voters out there who chose the wrong candidate. Bernard Goldberg summed it up this way:

Yes, the election was a rejection of the Biden administration. It was a rejection of inflation and illegal immigration and urban crime. It was a rejection of Vice President Kamala Harris, who had trouble answering a question without taking a trip to “word salad” city.

But it was more than that. It was a rejection of elite liberal and progressive condescension. Or to put it another way: Just because you wear a red MAGA hat doesn’t mean you’re a bigot — no matter how many left-wing pundits go on CNN and MSNBC and say you are, while some elite “journalist” sits there like a potted plant nodding in agreement.

And it doesn’t seem like those media elites are willing to learn the lesson that they were just handed anytime soon.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click