538 article on Senate’s Rural Skew

[Battista Minola 1616]

You love to see it. The Senate is the bulwark of American values.

A system where most people prefer one party and yet the other party holds power is bad. Since Senate results are becoming increasingly detached from popular opinion, the Senate is moving from a dumb anachronism to an actively malicious force in American politics.

What gives

[Battista Minola 1616]

The Republicans have done an excellent job of distorting what "normal" looks like and painting anyone even slightly to the left of them as a crazy extremist. Polls in 2016 showed that Trump was perceived as more "moderate" than Clinton, which anyone who actually pays close attention to politics realizes is absurd.

I think part of that was many voters wrongly perceived Trump as more moderate on social issues than he actually was, eg thinking that he was pro-choice.

Wrong. He was (wrongly) perceived as moderate/non-ideological on mushy "economic" stuff, like infrastructure, - gulp - health care, ah and also his rants against free trade helped.
I don't think anyone in 2016 thought Trump would be a pro-choice president.

[Battista Minola 1616]

The Republicans have done an excellent job of distorting what "normal" looks like and painting anyone even slightly to the left of them as a crazy extremist. Polls in 2016 showed that Trump was perceived as more "moderate" than Clinton, which anyone who actually pays close attention to politics realizes is absurd.

I think part of that was many voters wrongly perceived Trump as more moderate on social issues than he actually was, eg thinking that he was pro-choice.

Wrong. He was (wrongly) perceived as moderate/non-ideological on mushy "economic" stuff, like infrastructure, - gulp - health care, ah and also his rants against free trade helped.
I don't think anyone in 2016 thought Trump would be a pro-choice president.

He's a big government conservative. He's clearly non-ideological when it comes to socially conservative matters. He pays lip service but that's all it is. His stance on health care is because it's an Obama thing and he personally hates Obama for how he was treated at the White House Correspondents Dinner (might be the only reason he ran for president, good job Barack).

Yes he is, but the judges he appoints and the kind of figures he surrounds himself with (say, Jerry Falwell Jr.) are all that matters for both supporters and detractors.

[Battista Minola 1616]

The Democratic position on abortion (legal up until the moment of birth, publicly funded), gets 10-15% support. How is that moderate? 

Whataboutery towards abortion is always a sign of a losing argument.

(whether one is pro-life, pro-choice, or whatever)