MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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Trump Voters Are Not the Enemy
By Michael Wolraich on Fri, 02/24/2017 - 8:08am |I understand the vehemence. Trump is a demagogue who vilifies and scapegoats refugees, Muslims, undocumented immigrants, racial minorities, who strikes me as a danger to our national security. By all means stand up to him, and point out his lies and incompetence. But let’s be careful about blanket judgments.
My hometown, Yamhill, Ore., a farming community, is Trump country, and I have many friends who voted for Trump. I think they’re profoundly wrong, but please don’t dismiss them as hateful bigots.
URL:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/opinion/even-if-trump-is-the-enemy-his-voters-arent.html
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Comments
History repeats itself. We have been here before. Democratic candidates were the major party in the South until they started talking about racial equality. Once the Civil Rights laws passed, white voters shifted to the GOP. The GOP has used race-based politics since that time. Obama never won the majority of white voters. Whites suffered economically and turned to Trump. Blacks and Latinos suffered economically but did not turn on each other to fight a crabs in the barrel battle to improve their economic status.
Kristof asks if those members of minority groups who supported Trump are racists. The best way to view Trump supporters like Ben Carson, Omarosa, etc. is to realize that one of the requirements to serve Trump is to agree with his view that all blacks live in hell. Note that no black Trump supporters called out Trump's lie that John Lewis' district was poverty-stricken. There were still "proud" black Republicans who supported Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan who made state's right a part of their platforms.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 02/24/2017 - 11:05am
Trump voters are the enemy. Not because of their motives, anxieties, and frustrations. The question of how bigoted they are or not is an interesting psychological topic but whatever is concluded doesn't address the element that requires opposition.
That element is how little ownership these voters have taken of the driver they have chosen to steer their bus. Their choice is for their interests but not who they are. Any crime committed for their benefit has nothing to do with them because their hands are clean.
So, Kristof is right in saying that calling them all bigots won't win them over. But they do need to be defeated. Maybe they should just be ignored entirely. The quality they most certainly share with their Real Estate Dealer is the fear of becoming just like everybody else.
by moat on Fri, 02/24/2017 - 11:35am
Trump and the Republicans need to be defeated, not the voters. In order to achieve a governing majority large enough to accomplish progressive goals, some portion of the people who voted for Trump and the Republicans must be converted. If you ignore them, you lose, as was amply demonstrated in 2016.
by Michael Wolraich on Fri, 02/24/2017 - 2:25pm
I agree that some portion of them need to be persuaded to vote differently. I don't think that it is a matter of conversion. By ignoring who they are I do not not mean ignore why they got on the bus they did.
That is why I think there should be more of an emphasis on the old school practice of building a party platform from planks that different interests can agree upon. For those Trump voters who are not invested in the movement as the basis of self-identity, it does not make sense to make a special pitch to them on the basis of identity.
by moat on Fri, 02/24/2017 - 3:08pm
"building a party platform from planks that different interests can agree upon"
This is the intuitive way to grow a party, but it doesn't actually work in the long run. Consider the Republicans' abortion position. In the 70s, they tried to have to have it both ways so as not to alienate anyone. From the 1976 Republican Platform:
But the right wing didn't go along with such mealiness. They pushed hard on abortion despite warnings that the issue would alienate moderate Republicans. And lo and behold, the party grew. The moderates acquiesced, and abortion became a potent recruiting tool for Catholics and evangelicals. It wasn't just abortion of course. Conservatives elevated a number of controversial cultural issues--prayer in school, "reverse discrimination," gun rights, etc.--that alienated moderates but attracted new recruits.
So I suggest that Democrats don't need a platform that everyone in the party can agree on. They need radical and exciting ideas to attract and galvanize voters from both sides of the aisle.
by Michael Wolraich on Fri, 02/24/2017 - 3:58pm
All the issues you point to would only appeal to the right. You admit that they achieved success by alienating moderates.
Let's be clear. If black voters abandoned Democrats for a charismatic Louis Farrakhan politician, there would not be many conversations about ow we could soothe alienated blacks. There would be no focus on economic plight. The discussion would be about black pathology. We should not have a double-standard for white Trump supporters.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 02/24/2017 - 5:31pm
Trump made a direct assault on the media at CPAC today. He is blocking White House reporters. The Trump supporters will not speak out about Trump's action.
by rmrd0000 on Fri, 02/24/2017 - 7:42pm
They achieved success in spite of alienating moderates, not because of it, which is why Democrats shouldn't be so worried about creating a radical platform that may alienate moderates.
The issues I mentioned appealed to many people who we now call "the right" but who once thought of themselves as pro-labor progressives and voted Democrat. Of course, we need to emphasize different issues that are in line with progressivism and tolerance. White, black, rich, poor, it doesn't matter, but we need to win over people who voted for Trump and who voted for Republican representatives if we hope to rebuild a strong Democratic majority.
by Michael Wolraich on Sat, 02/25/2017 - 12:33pm
Hey... Mike... I know you realize . . .
It's really the nonpartisan independents to "attract and galvanize" coupled with hard work to get out the vote on the Dem side.
And what's your list of radical and exciting ideas to attract voters?
As Marshall Ganz said over here...
Can you expand on your thoughts on these four basic political positions?
Economic, Social, Legal, and Foreign policy issues
~OGD~
by oldenGoldenDecoy on Sat, 02/25/2017 - 4:26am
OGD, focusing on independents can win individual elections, but it's not a good long term strategy. You need to nurture consistent, reliable voters who vote Democrat up and down the ticket (and reduce the number of people who vote Republican up and down the ticket).
That's not to say that Democrats shouldn't go after independents. They should, but they need to focus on creating a broad realignment that will move party lines across the board. That's what Republicans achieved, and that's why they have become the majority party.
I absolutely agree with Ganz's opinion that you need a story about the future, though I don't necessarily agree with him that Bernie has it. Bernie has a story, but I think it's more about the past than the future. Sadly, I don't have a story myself.
by Michael Wolraich on Sat, 02/25/2017 - 12:20pm
Mike... Moving on . . .
I don't even want to broach the subject of Bernie... I'm way down the road from that.
Just make sure and take a look at my latest post.
Redistricting: The Fight for the States
It's gonna be a long hard slog, but it's gotta be done.
~OGD~
by oldenGoldenDecoy on Sat, 02/25/2017 - 12:45pm
Yamhill county's election results:
R D. Trump 50.1% 22,589
D H. Clinton 41.3% 18,635
L G. Johnson 6.5% 2,940
P J. Stein 2.1% 952
Trump votes: 22,589
Non-Trump votes: 22,527
Difference, 62 votes.
?...."Trump Country".....???....not quite Mr. Kristof.
by NCD on Fri, 02/24/2017 - 1:46pm
I agree. And I think the "deaths of despair" thing is quite real.
Radical and rapid change from technology is a major part of the problem. And all of us should admit we have related syndromes in reaction at the same time. Even if you are doing okay or well economically from it, it is just too much sometimes. When nothing is certain, when your basic tools of daily existence are always changing (and often failing), stress is the only constant. Even if you profit off that change, it's stressful. Humans haven't evolved yet into 24/7 hunting mode, we are still built to hunt on occasion and rest and gather most of the time.
by artappraiser on Fri, 02/24/2017 - 2:19pm
I share DNA with several, and I am sufficiently ashamed thereby that I won't divulge exactly how much of the genomes in question devolve from how near a shared ancestor...
by jollyroger on Sat, 02/25/2017 - 12:06am
by harsh reality (not verified) on Sat, 02/25/2017 - 3:20am
It's a myth that only the far right or only republicans have guns and that liberals don't. I hear it all the time. I saw a video of one of the gun nuts at the Bundy encampment in Oregon who said, paraphrasing, that we're going to have a civil war but we, i.e. the far right, doesn't have to worry about the liberals because they don't have any guns.
I think some of that myth comes from the NRA and republicans convincing people that democrats want to ban guns and take away the guns people have. Therefore the gun nuts think democrats don't have guns. Democrats don't want to ban guns. We just want what we see as sensible gun control. Some of the regulations we want are supported by NRA members. The most far right gun nuts don't speak for all gun owners or for all NRA members.
There are large numbers of hunters that are democrats. Sure many have been convinced by the lies and have moved to the republicans but there are still many who vote democrat. I'm a far left liberal and I hunt and own guns. I know many liberals as far left as me that own guns. My father and many of his friends are moderate democrats and they own guns.
by ocean-kat on Sat, 02/25/2017 - 4:48am
I think some of that myth comes from the NRA and republicans convincing people that democrats want to ban guns and take away the guns people have. Therefore the gun nuts think democrats don't have guns.
Excellent point.
I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for gun afficianados who are rational enough to be anti-NRA. And to actually have to interact with these nut cases all the time while pursuing their hobby at shows and the like.
by artappraiser on Sat, 02/25/2017 - 9:33am
P,.S. They don't even have to be Democrats or liberals, just sane about guns. Like the majority of police officers or ex-military who are rational human beings.Those attracted to the N.R.A. bullshit are the types that the latter would try to lock up should the apocalypse come in order to restore law and order.The N.R.A. is actually anti-government libertarian, anti law and order, the second amendment is the only law they care about.Their goddamn argument every time some gun related disaster happens that if everyone else had been packing it would have been fine must drive rational gun owners nuts.
by artappraiser on Sat, 02/25/2017 - 9:43am