Less than a month after gloatingly predicting a major loss for Donald Trump, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne reacted on Wednesday to the election result in a highly bitter manner. Poor guy. His Beltway Bubble safe space is about to be punctured by those he spent over a year sneering at and his latest column reflects his rage.
You would think someone with such a poor prediction track record would absorb just a bit of humility and keep his anger in check. However, Dionne never seems to learn from experience. His legacy for laughably wrong predictions about Trump which led to his extreme bitterness began last April with his primary season column titled, This time it really is the end of Trump. Really.
It’s time to go back to where we began: not only that Donald Trump will lose the Republican presidential nomination, but also that he could be so weakened by the end of the primaries that his party will not even have to worry about choosing someone else.
He could now lose in other big states that vote next, including Pennsylvania, California, New Jersey and possibly even his home state of New York. If this happens, it will be far easier for the Republican Party bosses (such as they are these days) to deny him the nomination. Trump will come to look less like the rank-and-file Republican favorite and more like a flash in the pan.
So wrote Mr. Prognosticator shortly before Trump won those same states mentioned in primary landslides. After eating crow, Dionne unfortunately neglected following up by eating some humble pie as well and refrain from making more bold predictions. Alas, he set himself up for another humiliation on steroids with this October 19 prediction, Trump is headed toward a major loss.
Trump is in danger of being one of his party’s biggest losers — and, as President Obama pointed out on Tuesday, a whiny one at that.
...Republicans may be hoping privately that Clinton’s effort to expand the Democrats’ map actually succeeds. It may take a true partywide catastrophe for the GOP rank and file to come to terms with the United States that exists, not the one they wish they could call back into being.
Um, speaking of whiny, Dionne, your latest column is chock full of that trait while being completely absent of any sense of self-reflection and at least a tiny bit of humility. Instead you lash out in rage at multiple targets as reflected in your pugnacious column title, Trump won. Here’s how to fight back.
All Americans who are alarmed, angry and disheartened that a large minority of our fellow citizens made Donald Trump the president-elect must quickly learn to distinguish between blame and responsibility.
I freely admit that my own list of those who deserve to be held accountable is long. It includes Russian President Vladimir Putin, who intervened shamelessly in our internal affairs, and FBI Director James B. Comey , who, apparently under pressure from politicized bureau agents, changed the trajectory of the campaign and helped accomplish what the former KGB operative could not have achieved on his own.
I blame Republican leaders who knew better but nonetheless aligned themselves with Trump. I blame a media that created an outlandishly false equivalence between Hillary Clinton’s sins and the corruption of her opponent. And then there is our foolish and antiquated electoral college system: For the second time in 16 years, the candidate for whom a plurality of Americans voted will not become president.
Finally, I blame people of my gender, race and class — college-educated white men — for giving Trump his margin. Yes, a class rebellion among less-educated whites was key to his victory. But we cannot forget that a large majority of well-to-do white men chose to vote for a dangerous misogynist who demonized immigrants and people of color.
Blame. Blame. Blame. Hey, E.J., have you considered looking in the mirror?
I truly do fear for our country’s future. I find it hard to accept that my fellow citizens in such large numbers embraced a man so threatening to our standing in the world and so cavalier about our basic rights. But we cannot allow fear or anger to drive us from the field. If ever our nation needed a determined, thoughtful and creative opposition, it is now.
Thoughtful and creative aren't exactly character traits you seem to possess, E.J..
Exit question: Should the Washington Post force E.J. Dionne to run his predictions by Dilbert cartoon creator Scott Adams, who has been completely accurate on Trump analysis for over a year, before publication in order to prevent him from making more of a fool of himself in the future?
