|
From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann
Elites and elite opinion are united against Trump. But guess what: Trump is still in the ball game. So what’s going on? Well, one explanation is that while almost all elites are AGAINST Trump, they’re all not necessarily FOR Clinton right now (see today’s USA Today editorial). Maybe more importantly is the public’s lack of confidence in our elite institutions. In our April 2014 NBC/WSJ poll, just 19% of Americans said they had confidence in the news media; only 16% said they had confidence in the federal government; just 13% had confidence in large corporations; and only 13% had confidence in the financial industry. Indeed, this is the subject of our colleague Chris Hayes’ book, “Twilight of the Elites.” So perhaps it’s not a bad thing for elites to oppose a presidential candidate; it could actually be helpful — allowing Trump to run his populist campaign. And while he’s not winning the presidential campaign, you could argue Trump is winning the message. |
