Four hundred eighty

Eugene Burdick, co-author of "The Ugly American" wrote another book called "The 480." In it a political campaign identified 480 distinguishable points of view among the electorate. In organizing campaign materials they managed to to speak to each of the 480 without alienating any of them. Their candidate won unanimously. Donald Trump has now done that in reverse. Is there anybody left in America who shouldn't be offended by at least one thing he has said or done?
What's sad is this is a man who is running for the office of president of the United States, arguably the most important job in the world, and he doesn't even understand what's wrong with statements he's made. Take the recent charges of sexual assault. His defense in one case is the woman wasn't attractive enough to tempt him into doing such a thing. He thinks that's a defense. If that's an indication of his process for approaching problems, he has even bigger issues.
Seems if he alienated 240 of the people in the book (half women?) with the assaults, he probably got all but a few of the remaining 240 by misunderstanding the gravity of his actions in terms of the relative beauty of the victim. And that's just one of the groups and individuals he has insulted, threatened or shamed over the course of the campaign. 
Unfortunately Burdick could not have predicted the kind of zealots who will vote against their own interests out of imaginary fears brought up by the same people who prey on those mostly poor and under-educated people. Otherwise, Trump might have proved Burdick's hypothesis in reverse. Would that be called an antihypothesis? Antithesis?
Imagine a slap down by a foreign government and his reaction to that.

An example from actor Marleee Matlin (There goes the deaf vote)

"The 480" on amazon
















AN UPDATE: Only 200 to go.


Facebook comments:
Jan Williams Simone So interesting, and written in 1965. Comparing this book and the Republican Party today is genius