Some of my friends were very annoyed with me for sharing this, but I thought it was interesting.
I do understand that a lot of people are doing badly after the crash, and I don’t confuse a lower unemployment rate with good jobs. About half of the people I know are still running just to stay afloat, let alone get ahead.
But some of these voters are open to voting against him. I think it’s a good idea to listen to them.
As someone who is going on 20+ years of being called an idiot/traitor/loser/dupe/the enemy/etc. that must be stopped even to the detriment of the Republic and hearing it 24/7 on major media platforms it is hard to find sympathy for people now all mad that their being responded to in kind and, after spending years poisoning the well, claiming we’re the ones who can’t have a conversation or meet in the middle ground.
Especially when we just finished 8 years of a President who constantly tried to meet them half way like they claim they want on their cited issues and they HATED him for it.
I also think it is no coincidence that with the Democratic Party on the verge of electing a new head that will set the agenda going forward we are suddenly seeing the media get flooded with “Don’t Go Too Far, You’re Scaring Conservative Voters You Scary, Rude, Violent Leftists!” stories. I don’t remember anyone ever asking, much less reporting, on what Republicans need to do stop scaring off progressive voters in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2009 or 2014. I do remember a lot of “Proof America is a fundamentally conservative nation!” “The world has rejected Liberalism” and “We won, you lost. Suck it you America-hating Libtards!”
The last thing Democrats need is to keep focusing on flipping “moderate” conservative voters and work on energizing, organizing, and mobilizing their own base voters which is larger.
Couldn’t agree with trgahan more. I ain’t interested in meeting “half-way” with these people. What would that mean? Only denying abortion 4 days a week? Ok with discriminating against gays 7 months of the year? Only cutting taxes on the rich by 10% instead of 15%?
They have made it abundantly clear we are an enemy to be defeated, not negotiated with.
No thanks.
@ Trganan & Bob: I agree absolutely with what you are saying about the stupidity of Dems attempting to negotiate with Rethug politics. But they will. It took Obama about six years to figure out that the tea party and the alt-right and consequently McConnell and Ryan meant precisely what they said about only caring about making him look bad and defeating him. Although Pelosi and Schumer have figured it out, their “centrist” and DINO majorities, especially those from red and purple states up for reelection, will force them to continue to compromise and move the window ever further rightward.
However!!! That is not really the focus of the referenced article. IMHO those interviewed are making two major points. First, Liberals, don’t call us “deplorables” or patronize us because we disagree with you, especially when you show no sign of having walked in our shoes or even attempted to understand our reality. Doing so is intolerant and hypocritical and just drives a wedge and pushes us further into the opposing camp. Second, drop the neo-lib econ and trade policies and neo-con foreign and military policies that are bankrupting the country and making it impossible to make our increasingly hopeless lives better. Trump may be ignorant and sexist, and he may have been lying, but he promised to change things by bringing back jobs and ending our international adventurism. Hillary stood for more of the same policies that brought us to where we are now.
Maybe you guys should try acting like actual, you know, Democrats.
But we know that’s not going too happen.
Oh fercrisake, thanks for spouting the same clichéd lecture I’ve now heard for the 5,000th time.
Yeah, yeah, I know, racism had nothing to do with Trumps election. Never mind all the exit polling that shows otherwise. Some guy called 100 Trump voters and was surprised “…to talk to so many….Black people….” Who you gonna believe – the exit polls showing half of his supporters were openly racist or the guy who talked to “so many” black Trump supporters.
I could go on but frankly, after every election since Reagan’s first run I’ve listened to the same patronizing lectures about the urban coastal elitists moral obligations to try and understand the white working class while not once – and I am serious – not one fucking time – have I heard a lecture about the white working class’ need to try and understand anyone else’s point of view. Why not? What makes them such special little snowflakes?
People who blame minorities, the LGBT community, Planned Parenthood, feminists, atheists, and everyone else not just like them for all that’s wrong in America aren’t going to vote for progressive policies, no matter how loudly they proclaim their open-mindedness.
Did you pay attention to any contest below the presidential level? How’d the Tea Party do this time? Gosh, all those moderate Trump voters desperate for a Democrat to vote for sure went hog wild for the most flaming asshole teatards out there. Gosh, what a stumper. It’s almost as if they aren’t being truthful when they claim to be so damn moderate.
The defection of the white working class from the Democratic Party began in earnest when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Why is that?
When you have an answer that doesn’t involve racism get back to me. In the meantime I’ve had more than enough triangulation within the Democratic Party for this lifetime.
Btw – I am acting like a Democrat. I’m acting like a Democrat with some principles beyond “whatever gets the vote of Joe Six-Pack”. That’s why the likes of you don’t recognize the likes of me.
Yes, I’ve been paying attention. Democrats lost the Senate, the House, the Presidency during the Obama/Clinton campaign/Presidency/campaign. Democrats similarly lost down ticket races nation wide for a total loss of over 1000 elected offices. Is racism, zenophobia, stupidity and narrow mindedness a factor in all that. Of course. But Democrats don’t get to change all that. They only get to change themselves.
As long as Dems continue to project blame on Bernie supporters, Assange, Putin, Comey, “deplorables,” etc., they will never understand that it is their failure as a party that results in their ongoing marginalization from political life. As long as they focus on changing their message instead of cleaning house of the neo-lib/neo-con .01% hangers on, supporting actual progressive candidates, and following through on their election promises, they will not benefit from their vaunted demographic inevitability.
Looking ahead, Obama and Holder are reportedly going to focus on redistricting/ gerrymandering. Good luck with that given that Obama as party leader for eight years did absolutely nothing to support Dems in state legislative races. Maybe the reaction to the truly deplorable, racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, misogynist, deranged scumbag in the White House will be enough to flip marginal voters and get the Dems back in power. That would be the lesser of two evils if the Dems are still the party of Hillary, Rubin, and Hillary’s good friend Henry Kissinger.