[Cin]

I think some of the other things that are important to a lot of people that keep them voting red are immigration, the economy and foreign policy. There is a perception that Trump will handle Iran and China better, that his stance on immigration will stop the indiscriminate flow and protect the country from the bad actors that eek through, and that he will be much better for the economy. I doubt any of that is true, with the exception of perhaps the handling of Iran, but what can you do.

People believe what they want to believe. But it isn't all that helpful on either side if we continue to think that those who vote differently than us are stupid and voting for someone because they are idiots and have not thought it through or they are simply misinformed or easily duped.

The basket of deplorables comment as true as it was/is didn't help Hillary one bit. Fortunately Harris and her team are smart and learned from other's mistakes. I think she will handle it differently.

The perception of Republicans and Trump supporters is that they are gun loving, women repressing, bigoted yahoos who can't wait to start a revolution. That is the flip side of media bias, the Fox opposite, slanted news in the other direction.

I know it's hard to imagine that progressive media would do such a thing. But I have been watching CNN and others over the past year with an ear to what they are not saying and an eye to what they are NOT showing us. I have noticed how they slant the news. How they report what they think is important and how they deliver it in careful ways and in language designed to encourage a certain thought process.

All media does that (follow the money, who owns which media will tell you what version of reality you will be getting). What is true? Who knows. What I do know is that it isn't productive to buy into the belief everyone who votes Republican is a stupid gun toting bigot. As seductive and right feeling as that is. Even as I write this I have to fight my feelings that Republicans are horrible and Trump supporters are Satan's minions. But I am trying to look at it from a different perspective. Any way this isn't going to be a slam dunk for either side. And if it is that close we have to imagine that half the country isn't made up of idiots, horrible people, and the simply misinformed. I'm sure they believe just as strongly that they are right as we do. I wonder how to move on from that. That is what keeps me up at night.