How To Deflate A Demagogue

Less hot air, more sunlight.

- Monika Bauerlein And Clara Jeffery

Putting together an investigative magazine is a weird process. We read a lot. We pace. We talk. We go down Google rabbit holes. We stare at piles of documents way too late into the night. We order bad pizza. Eventually, we send a pile of pixels off to the printer, where in a few hours, stadium-size machines turn out copies that get shipped to 50 states and 83 countries. At which point it’s up to you to judge: Does it make sense? Does it fit together? Does it add to your understanding of the world, your ability to do your part at a time when democracy seems both more fragile and more vibrant?

Here’s how we hoped this particular issue would be of use to you: As we close out the first year of the Age of Trump, we wanted to explore how we got here and what the future might hold.

We were curious, first, whether there were factors at work in the 2016 election beyond what the apostles of conventional wisdom tell you, so we sent reporter Ari Berman to Wisconsin to figure out how big a role voter suppression really played. Turns out the answer is: way bigger than anyone acknowledges. Thanks to new laws targeting people of color and students, the drop in those who voted was far greater than Trump’s margin of victory there. As Ari notes, researchers estimate that nationwide, “there were more than 1 million lost votes because [of] things like ID laws, long lines at the polls, and difficulty registering.” Trump won the election by 78,000 combined votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.