THEY. GOT. CONNED.

[Liberal In Texas]

41. Their propaganda was super charged with nearly unlimited billionaire resources.

This is magnified by the right wing media structure that they've been putting together since the 80s. The lies are repeated over and over and pretty soon voters start believing we are in a recession and the price of eggs is the fault of Joe Biden. Traditional corporate media has been cowed into both-siderism afraid of being accused of the dreaded "Liberal Media" insult. This is exacerbated by media owners pulling the reins back on news departments so as not to jeopardize political favor or tax cuts.

Voters were told that the economy was the best in the world after the recovery from covid shut-downs and other good news and positive things were campaigned on. It's just that the RW noise drowned it out. It isn't a matter of listening to fly-over country, it's a matter of being able to get a message out that they will actually hear. And have it repeated over and over.