As you know, I am very active and have some pretty strong views on politics. Here we were in one of those consequential election cycles and I was very interested.

It’s all done now for the most part so I feel like sharing this.

But I asked myself as all this was being “reported,” How can I get data that isn’t opinions? How can I have a sense of the scene without having someone tell me what to think about it? How can I look and not be lead by the nose into an emotional reaction?

So, I watched nothing. Not one minute of punditry, not one video second of digested data, not one instance of news of any kind throughout the cycle. I read headlines and articles when I thought it was useful, when I thought that there was some data there. If it was an opinion about data or it was a poll, I just turned it off or stopped reading it.

I didn’t read a single poll or go to 538, none of it.

And here is what I thought would happen: I thought the Dems would retain the Senate and that the House would be very close and could go either way.

And I thought Trump would lose across the boards, which he pretty much did.

The reason I thought that was due in part to what I know about the media. I don’t think they’re “fake,” I think they like controversy and angst. They are, for the most part, about the negative side of what might happen, they have and probably always will feed that side of things. What bleeds, leads.

So, I figure, whatever they are exaggerating, the opposite is probably what will happen. Hillary, need I say more? The smugness of the media in 2016 was amazing. She was crowned before the election and only at the last minute did “they” realize how wrong they were.

And the negativity was as wrong this time—the ride wave or tide or whatever it was supposed to be—as the positivity was that time. What ever they are blowing up is probably what won’t happen.

Because WE are not negative, we are mostly positive in nature and the majority of Americans turned out for a brighter future.

Also, I noticed that the Dems were feeding into the negative predictions and the idea of a red tide, supporting those fears in order to keep interest and NEED high in their voters. Clever, and something they learned a few years ago from you know who.

I think a lot of that video punditry really gets people unnecessarily worked up and there are better things to do with your time.