Archibald: Hey Democrats, this isn’t just a Trump problem

This is an opinion column.

There is a wailing and gnashing of progressive teeth today. How could it happen?

How could a majority of voters – not just by electoral college but also by popular vote – elect a man with the kind of baggage that Trump carries?

I’m writing this at 10 a.m. the day after the election and I’ve already seen so many tired shots from elite writers at the country’s fanciest publications that I need a garbage can to puke in.

There is so much outrage, so much disbelief, that a majority of voters would overlook the accusations and the jokes, the dictatorial tendencies, the sexism, the racism and the bullying and – stop. Just stop.

The outraged act as if the world is a normal place, where it is 1972 and all it takes to change minds, hearts and presidencies is pointing out problems. News alert: it’s not 1972.

Old rules don’t apply. The game has changed more radically than college football did in the NIL era.

It doesn’t really matter what the New York Times says. It doesn’t matter what the Washington Post finds out, whether or not they have an endorsement from Kamala Harris. It doesn’t matter what intellectuals write in the New Yorker or the Atlantic. It doesn’t matter – I hate to say it – what I write here.

The rules have been rewritten. Skillfully and deliberately.

Progressives—those who are supposed to be forward-thinking—cling to old ideas about politics and information, truth and tradition. And bless them for that. But the ideas and ideals alone will only disappoint them.

Think about it.

Every week I turn on YouTube TV and a Fox News channel is suggested to me. Every week I click “Don’t show me this again” because I don’t want to hear my news from America’s second most dangerous immigrant. Inevitably it’s always back again the next week.

Every time I log into Facebook I seem to be greeted with a recommended meme that contains misinformation. Every time I post a column about politics, it is suppressed by algorithms.

Twitter – I can’t call it X, as the most dangerous immigrant #1 wants – has become messier than the LSU student section.

I got stuck in an LSU student section in 2003 when Alabama was pummeled 27-3. Progressives, frankly, suffered an even worse blow than that. Not just at the ballot box. Not in door knocking, fundraising or passion.

They took a hit because they continue to think that facts are enough, that the truth is enough, that old rules apply and that old distribution systems still work.

They have been outwitted and outwitted. It has taken years, decades, but the systematic effort to discredit once-respected institutions has faded into the background. Thought leaders who served to balance power – academics, scientists, lawyers, journalists, historians, writers, teachers – still cannot fathom a world without gatekeepers.

The legitimate press – people who will find out things, report only what they can substantiate, and correct their mistakes when they are wrong – have been demonized as enemies of the state. Partisan or unethical pretenders are praised and real news is called fake.

The truth is devalued.

If you think this is about former and future President Donald J. Trump, you are sorely mistaken. He did not set these events in motion, although he has the ability to use them to his advantage.

But this is much bigger than him.

America is staring at real dystopian things, long after this election. Political strongmen and technology billionaires have changed the game.

So no matter how many elite writers whine about it, no matter how many Democrats grumble about knocking on more doors or doing archaic things better — like actually putting candidates on the ballot in places like Alabama — nothing will change. Not before the information war has been waged.

That war is no longer fought in newspapers or magazines. It is fought in algorithms and codes, for profit, by billionaires who suffer no consequences from the mistakes, from the lies and slander they host on their sites.

No punishment for allowing anyone who wants to shout fire into our crowded political theater.

Of course that has to change.

But if you want to change this, you need smart government regulation. Or – more likely – help from a billionaire.

John Archibald is a two-time Pulitzer winner.