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Robrecht Your friendly neighbourhood Regent from The Netherlands Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: They can't hide forever. We've got satellites.
Your friendly neighbourhood Regent
#288426: Aug 22nd 2019 at 7:58:31 AM

Find me a Trump voter who doesn't belong in at least one of those categories and I'll show you a Trump voter who's deluding themselves about not belonging in at least on of those categories.

Angry gets shit done.
Forenperser Foreign Troper from Germany Since: Mar, 2012
Foreign Troper
#288427: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:07:09 AM

Well, I can think of one more category (they are quite far and in between):

The so-called "accelerationists", who say they hate him, but voted for him anyway to give America a "shock therapy" in order to become better.

Edited by Forenperser on Aug 22nd 2019 at 5:07:28 PM

Certified: 48.0% West Asian, 6.5% South Asian, 15.8% North/West European, 15.7% English, 7.4% Balkan, 6.6% Scandinavian
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#288428: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:10:46 AM

I guess I could have added "completely idiotic assholes" to the list too.

Disgusted, but not surprised
GoldenKaos Captain of the Dead City from Cirith Ungol Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
Captain of the Dead City
#288429: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:11:46 AM

[up][up]I mean, that one depends on how far you want to stretch the term anti-intellectual.

Same goes for the struggling communities who thought that Trump actually would "drain the swamp" and make a change by sticking it to the elites.

Edited by GoldenKaos on Aug 22nd 2019 at 4:11:57 PM

"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#288430: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:13:35 AM

[up]As Charles is fond of pointing out, most of the actually struggling people voted for Clinton.

Though I suppose it depends on how you define "struggling". If you're including "people who want to hang on to coal jobs even though King Coal is more or less doomed", then yeah I guess there were struggling people who voted for Trump. Mainly because Clinton didn't really try to humor them on this.

Edited by M84 on Aug 22nd 2019 at 11:15:26 PM

Disgusted, but not surprised
GoldenKaos Captain of the Dead City from Cirith Ungol Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
Captain of the Dead City
#288431: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:18:34 AM

Also the Rust Belt, which Clinton kinda ignored IIRC.

"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#288432: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:18:47 AM

Clinton's tactics in the economically depressed areas of the Rust Belt, Appalachia, and farm territories could have been better. Economic viability is how people have justified stepping on the working class there since Reagan.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
GoldenKaos Captain of the Dead City from Cirith Ungol Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
Captain of the Dead City
#288433: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:27:42 AM

I remember Michael Moore (who hails from Flint, Michigan) mentioning in an interview somewhere before the 2016 election that when he went home to visit his folks or reconnect with his roots or something that all he saw, in these areas that had voted Obama 4 years and 8 years ago, were Trump placards. When he talked with people, everyone and everyone they knew were voting Trump. According to him, that's when he realised that Trump would win the election.

Edited by GoldenKaos on Aug 22nd 2019 at 4:28:39 PM

"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#288434: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:31:01 AM

Eh, I stopped taking Moore seriously a while ago. He makes some valid points, but he's got a bad habit of relying on propaganda techniques instead of actually using good arguments and facts.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#288435: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:34:06 AM

I was interested in Moore's views until I sat down to watch Fahrenheit 9/11 and it was nothing but 2 hours of Truther innuendo. Never outright says that the Bushes caused 9/11 but spends a lot of time talking about the Bush ties to Saudis, the military industrial complex, and other, "Isn't THAT interesting" bullshit. Bad choice for investigating the build up to the event.

He's not wrong that Trump ran a campaign that did have an appeal to certain working class voters. Not remotely all of them as the genuinely destitute knew better but many of the people who at least can live paycheck to paycheck. The thing to understand about it was that the racism element wasn't divorced from the job element but intrinsically linked. There was also the class conflict one (even if it didn't fool nearly as many people as Trump or many of his critics think).

Trump tapped into the same outrage that Bernie did to an extent of people who genuinely felt like the government was killing them. It's just many people were genuinely stupid enough to buy it from the party of the people doing the murder.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:37:59 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#288436: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:36:49 AM

I remember Michael Moore (who hails from Flint, Michigan) mentioning in an interview somewhere before the 2016 election that when he went home to visit his folks or reconnect with his roots or something that all he saw, in these areas that had voted Obama 4 years and 8 years ago, were Trump placards. When he talked with people, everyone and everyone they knew were voting Trump. According to him, that's when he realised that Trump would win the election.
I had a similar experience: On my drive down to southern Wisconsin in October 2016, yard after yard had Trump/Pence signs. Like, I would estimate 90%. My hope is that the upcoming election has a healthier mix of D vs. R.

Edited by speedyboris on Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:37:34 AM

CharlesPhipps Since: Jan, 2001
#288437: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:38:37 AM

I've mentioned my mother voted for Obama and then voted for Trump. She was also a huge Bill Clinton fangirl but detested Hillary like she was Hitler. She's an educated former teacher.

Her reasoning is incoherent to me but passionate.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:39:32 AM

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
fruitpork Since: Oct, 2010
#288438: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:54:30 AM

I wonder if trump going full batshit will cause more people to consider primarying him. Not because he’s doing things they wouldn’t do, mind, but because they want to get it done more quickly and efficiently (and are willing to side with big companies on any position of the environment while trump is pro-pollution regardless of the money)

Fourthspartan56 from Georgia, US Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
#288439: Aug 22nd 2019 at 8:58:25 AM

You'd have to see the base turn against him, and considering that such a thing has yet to happen I doubt it will.

"Sandwiches are probably easier to fix than the actual problems" -Hylarn
ShadowWingLG Since: Dec, 2013
#288440: Aug 22nd 2019 at 9:09:55 AM

Is it too much to hope for that some Republicans will Primary against Trump and rather than treating him like a ratings grabbing joke they did the first time they go all in and claws out and start tearing him to bits in the Primary? Doubt they will get the nomination but a good bloodying before the general might be good for the Dems.

CrimsonZephyr Would that it were so simple. from Massachusetts Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
Would that it were so simple.
#288441: Aug 22nd 2019 at 9:12:52 AM

"The so-called "accelerationists", who say they hate him, but voted for him anyway to give America a "shock therapy" in order to become better."

Considering the gains the Democrats made in 2018 against the backdrop of unthinkable levels of gerrymandering, the accelerationist view — while in its totality it's stupid — is very much a case of Dumbass Has a Point. I honestly can't fathom how badly the Democratic Party would be ailing under a Clinton presidency. Would there be any Dem governors left? How many seats in the House would we have lost? How many Senate seats? How many state legislatures would we have left? How many unfilled vacancies would there be on the Supreme Court? Would progressives even have a direction, or would we be treading water defending Hillary's centrism while the GOP marches us down in election after election? I would never endorse voting for him, but I do have a general sense that the potent, predatory force that his faction represents has forced Democrats, liberals, and leftists to all adapt, and it's given us direction like never before, and the sheer tribulation of his presidency has created opportunities that simply didn't exist without him upending the table and showing the GOP's truest colors.

"For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#288442: Aug 22nd 2019 at 9:35:36 AM

I feel like a Clinton presidency would have taken more action to keep me and other Hispanics from getting massacred at Wal Mart by white supremacists. I'll take that over some accelerationists who probably doesn't have to live with the consequences of this current president any day.

ShinyCottonCandy Best Ogre from Kitakami (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Best Ogre
#288443: Aug 22nd 2019 at 9:42:47 AM

I suppose the questions can be asked that, supposing we do end up better than we were in the Obama administration, would we have gotten there after a Clinton presidency anyway, even if it takes much longer, and would as much harm been incurred along that longer path?

I don’t have the knowledge in the political field to respond with full confidence, but I believe the first answer is “yes”, and the second answer is “no”.

SoundCloud
bitemytail Since: Dec, 2011
#288445: Aug 22nd 2019 at 9:56:08 AM

[up]

  • Reads criminal justice section - I don't see any real problems here...

  • Reads everything else - Nevermind, he's a jackass.

ciyinwanderer Since: Dec, 2018
#288446: Aug 22nd 2019 at 9:59:54 AM

[up]I had the same experience.

What a terrible human being.

“Once you’ve been to Cambodia, you’ll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands." ~Anthony Bourdain
Parable Since: Aug, 2009
#288447: Aug 22nd 2019 at 10:04:07 AM

That article seems to indicate Smith is popular. What are this jerk's chances?

Rationalinsanity from Halifax, Canada Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: It's complicated
#288448: Aug 22nd 2019 at 10:38:45 AM

He's going all in on Trump support, so probably not as good as they could be, given Trump's unpopularity in swing states.

Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
speedyboris Since: Feb, 2010
#288449: Aug 22nd 2019 at 10:44:14 AM

[up]x2 Unfortunately he has a decent chance, and he already won it in 2016 before being defeated in 2018.

Edited by speedyboris on Aug 22nd 2019 at 10:48:33 AM

KarkatTheDalek Not as angry as the name would suggest. from Somwhere in Time/Space Since: Mar, 2012 Relationship Status: You're a beautiful woman, probably
Not as angry as the name would suggest.
#288450: Aug 22nd 2019 at 10:44:57 AM

He’s not running for the district, though, he’s running for the Senate.

Edited by KarkatTheDalek on Aug 22nd 2019 at 1:45:09 PM

Oh God! Natural light!

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