i need a new 5 x 5 lmao <| sep |> definitely need a real OC <| sep |> Facts can be biased when it comes down to what facts are included and what are not . Then , too , facts don ' t speak for themselves , so a larger claim needs to be formed based on the facts that leaves some room for bias as well . Short of the omniscient words of God himself , nothing is unbiased . You need to always be aware of the bias in every source and the degree to which it is biased . That you think there is such a thing as an unbiased source is worrying to me . <| sep |> tldr New republic is being disingenuous . Uneducated white voters did in fact make the difference here . Thanks for playing . Well , we can spin this a few different ways , but I ' d like to start with a common set of comprehensive exit polls let ' s take CNN ' spollsnationalpresident because they were the first exit poll to pop up on my search . I ' d like to compare these polls back to a common set of 2012 exit polls , so let ' s jump to ObamaRomney exit polls , also from CNN . So the two big premises made by the new Republic article are that Donald Trump over performed with college educated whites , and that his backers were more affluent than generally given credit for . If we look only to the 2016 exit polls , that ' s born out Trump won college educated whites , and kept the overall margin on college educated voters close , and won the 50 k 200 k income brackets narrowly . That ' s all fine , until you actually compare it to past results Romney actually won college educated voters overall , 5147 , so Trump under performed Romney overall by about 5 points on education as a whole Romney also ran up the score significantly more in the 50 k and up income brackets , crushing Obama by 6 and 10 points respectively . So Trump under performed significantly both of those perceived strengths of his from a losing candidate . Where exactly did he find the room to close the gap ? First , he heavily closed the gap at income levels below 50 k , tightening the margin from a 22 point blowout to a 12 point loss , and ran up the score among uneducated individuals winning by 3 points the high school or less bracket that Obama won by 3 points over Romney . He did that by blowing Clinton out among uneducated whites , running up 30 point margins among noncollege whites . So frankly , yes , it does all come back to education in the end . Credit to the New Republic though , they do a good job of muddying the water and hoping no one actually looks back at past precedent .