What is behind the Trump phenomenon?

I was watching a recent Daily Show episode and how it blamed Trump's rise entirely on the news media hungry for viewers, and I couldn't help but remember how this same show literally begged Trump to run just last July, and how hypocritical they are to point fingers now. Did they think we'd forget?
It reminds me of how DKos denounces Trump daily, while still giving him ample front page space. Is DKos looking for more clicks?

What almost everyone is guilty of is just how superficially the Trump phenomenon has been covered.
For example, a Huffington Post column declared that “Trump Won Super Tuesday Because America is Racist.”
While Trump certainly does say racist things, and there are racists within his supporters, that doesn't mean racism is the only motivating factor here. Correlation does not prove causation.
The simplistic dismissals of Trump's supporters reeks of elitism.
Does anyone even know Trump's policy stands beyond immigration? Believe it or not, he has some.

The Atlantic asked this question last December, and they found something that most news sources have failed to find - nuance.

For example, if Trump’s support is fueled simply by whites disliking minorities, how then does one explain Kevin Scott?
Scott is a self-described Reagan Democrat from Warren, Ohio who, he told me, voted for Obama twice. This time around, he’s backing Trump, because Trump is, he says, the lone candidate talking about one issue that resonates with him closely. “He’s the only guy who’s mentioned the UAW and the Ford plant going to Mexico,” Scott said. For Scott, who’s a United Auto Worker member and shop chairman at the General Motors plant in Lordstown, the plans to build facilities in Mexico hit close to home.

To be fair, Trump isn't the only candidate talking about free trade agreements. Bernie Sanders has too.
Just check out this headline: 
Bernie Sanders Wins in Michigan Thanks to Trade Policy;  A senator who is clearly identified with opposition to free-trade deals triumphs in a state that has been particularly hard hit by those pacts.

Thomas Frank more recently looked into the Trump phenomenon and also found something other than racism.

Everyone knows it: Trump’s followers’ passions are nothing more than the ignorant blurtings of the white American id, driven to madness by the presence of a black man in the White House. The Trump movement is a one-note phenomenon, a vast surge of race-hate. Its partisans are not only incomprehensible, they are not really worth comprehending.

Or so we’re told. Last week, I decided to watch several hours of Trump speeches for myself. I saw the man ramble and boast and threaten and even seem to gloat when protesters were ejected from the arenas in which he spoke. I was disgusted by these things, as I have been disgusted by Trump for 20 years. But I also noticed something surprising. In each of the speeches I watched, Trump spent a good part of his time talking about an entirely legitimate issue, one that could even be called leftwing.
Yes, Donald Trump talked about trade. In fact, to judge by how much time he spent talking about it, trade may be his single biggest concern – not white supremacy. Not even his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border, the issue that first won him political fame. He did it again during the debate on 3 March: asked about his political excommunication by Mitt Romney, he chose to pivot and talk about … trade.
It seems to obsess him: the destructive free-trade deals our leaders have made, the many companies that have moved their production facilities to other lands, the phone calls he will make to those companies’ CEOs in order to threaten them with steep tariffs unless they move back to the US.

Thomas Frank referred to an AFL-CIO survey of its members, and it found strong support for Trump. Not because of his racism. Not even because of immigration.
But because of fear for employment.

“People are much more frightened than they are bigoted,” is how the findings were described to me by Karen Nussbaum, the executive director of Working America. The survey “confirmed what we heard all the time: people are fed up, people are hurting, they are very distressed about the fact that their kids don’t have a future” and that “there still hasn’t been a recovery from the recession, that every family still suffers from it in one way or another.”
Tom Lewandowski, the president of the Northeast Indiana Central Labor Council in Fort Wayne, puts it even more bluntly when I asked him about working-class Trump fans. “These people aren’t racist, not any more than anybody else is,” he says of Trump supporters he knows. “When Trump talks about trade, we think about the Clinton administration, first with Nafta and then with [Permanent Normal Trade Relations] China, and here in Northeast Indiana, we hemorrhaged jobs.”

Other, more general surveys, show the same trend of economics concerns among Trump supporters.
Handling the economy is the overwhelming reason for Trump's lead in the polls. "Immigration issues" rank a distant third in Republican voter priority.

At least one journalist put two-and-two together when this study came out last month.

What’s killing Donald Trump’s voters?
That’s my reaction to the highly disturbing health news that two Princeton economists have uncovered about a key slice of the billionaire presidential candidate’s support base.
Since 1999, middle-aged white Americans with a high school diploma or less education have been dying in record numbers, according to Angus Deaton (a winner this year of a Nobel Prize) and his wife, Anne Case.

The biggest group of Trump supporters also happens to be the exact same group showing signs of measurable distress. This isn't a coincidence.

It is to the left-behind crowd, whose demographic profiles closely resemble those of Donald Trump’s base, that Trump speaks most directly and effectively.
“In terms of demographics, Trump’s supporters are a bit older, less educated and earn less than the average Republican,” Real Clear Politics reported in September, citing YouGov polls....
What unites Trump’s supporters is a profound sense of discontent, betrayal and abandonment by a country and economy that promised them a better life than what they’re struggling through.
...
Most of this rising mortality, says the Deaton-Case study, is driven by an epidemic of self-destruction: Suicides and substance abuse, particularly alcohol-related liver disease and overdoses of heroin and prescription opioids.

Middle-aged whites are in obvious distress in the most clear and undeniable way science can measure - they are killing themselves.
If you look at any group, race, or even animal genus, a rising mortality rate is incontrovertible scientific evidence of real distress.
So why are so many middle-aged whites killing themselves? I found the first responses to this study enlightening. For example: Is 'white privilege' killing off middle-aged white people?

Middle-aged men and women alike fell prey to their own choices and the consequences.

That was a mild example. Less mainstreams outlets such as here and here have outright shadenfreude.

I can safely say that something is seriously wrong with you when you can't work up any empathy from poor people killing themselves by the thousands out of hopelessness and despair, just because they are the "wrong" skin color in your eyes.
The best example was Bill Maher's rant.

“Middle-aged American whites are dropping like flies,” Maher said before Jay Leno pretended to collapse next to him to audience laughter. But what is killing the old guard? Drugs, alcohol, suicide and “possibly trying to fit into skinny jeans” the report finds (excluding that last bit).
The findings also include suicide rates for whites are now four times that of black Americans and due to a rise in heroin use among whites, the death rate from it is also up. But, no fear, Maher has some advice, “You’re white! Cheer the fuck up!”

I realize that Bill Maher is just a comedian, but he's also representative of the comfortable liberal class of this country, so its no wonder so many whites are pissed off at liberals. After all, if liberals are so eager to stereotype them and dismiss obvious pain and distress based on nothing else but skin color, then "F U too" is a normal, healthy response.
It's not really a mystery why the white, working class abandoned the Clinton Democrats. And visa versa.

And as for Maher's comment about how "It's always a great time to be white" in history, perhaps Bill should look into the history of the Irish. I'm sure the the people of Ireland would be very amused at Bill Maher's interpretation.

Or white serfs during the many centuries of feudalism. Or the conditions of those factories during the Industrial Revolution.
Oliver Twist and The Jungle weren't stories about white privilege. Or how working class whites did during the Great Depression.

Come to think of it, what period in history was Bill Maher thinking of when being poor and white did not suck?
It appears that liberals can be just as guilty as conservatives when it comes to historical revisionism to fit a political agenda.

I have news for these people: People don't kill themselves because they are whimps. Or because someone else is getting ahead. Suicide is a very personal thing.
What's more, suicide is a tragedy, not a joke. It's amazing that I even have to point this out.
If you find yourself working hard to find reasons to dismiss it, then you are the one who's messed up. When the suicide rate climbs 40% in a decade in one part of society, its a health crisis in addition to being a tragedy.
When one small segments of society accounts for 70% of all the suicides, then its a sign that something is wrong with that society.

And if the reactions listed above to this study is an example of liberal society in America, then something is seriously wrong with liberal America. It isn't just conservatives that are willing to reject scientific evidence if it conflicts with their dogma.

It's outrageously hypocritical to watch liberal America work itself into righteous outrage at the obvious racism of some of Trump's supporters, while in the same breath find amusement in the equally obvious pain and distress of many of Trump's supporters simply because their skin is white.
I'm sure this irony isn't missed by Trump voters.

Let's not forget the close cousin of racism - classism: the last socially acceptable prejudice in America today. Trump supporters are often the losers in this capitalist system, and its safe to discriminate against that class even in liberal circles.

I'm a British immigrant, and grew up in a northern English working-class town. Taking my regional accent to Oxford University and then the British civil service, I learned a certain amount about my own class consciousness and other people's snobbery. But in London or Oxford from the 1970s onwards I never witnessed the naked disdain for the working class that much of America's metropolitan elite finds permissible in 2016....
These Washington friends, in case you were wondering, are good people. They'd be offended by crass, cruel jokes about any other group. They deplore prejudice and keep an eye out for unconscious bias. More than a few object to the term, "illegal immigrant." Yet somehow they feel the white working class has it coming.

“They like, 'We don’t do it like that anymore, that’s racist. We classist now.'”
— Kayne West

There is one thing blatantly obvious that both Trump supporters and critics can agree on: Trump didn't build any political movement. He merely tapped into something that was already there. So defeating Trump without addressing the concerns of his voters will do nothing but kick the can down the road for a single election cycle.
You can chose to try to defeat Trump by demonizing his supporters, and then deal with it again in four years. That seems to be the more popular choice right now.
Or you can cut the legs out from under Trump's political support and acknowledge the harm that these free trade agreements are doing to poor, working class people. Maybe even do something about it. Unfortunately, that seems to be outside the Overton Window. Both the Democratic and Republican establishment are prepared to go down with the ship before questioning the merits of FTA's.

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Borkrom's picture

anti-establishment mentality which you may have slightly referred to, but to me is a huge underlying concern by voters. They feel their voice is not heard so why not vote for the anti-establishment candidate, i.e. Trump or Sanders.

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Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every once in a while. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said that Trump's success is a sign that the Tea-GOP base knows that "it never trickles down."

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough complained on Tuesday that the Republican Party was fracturing because it had advocated economic policies benefiting the richest Americans for the last 30 years with the promise that the wealth would "trickle down" to others -- but it never did.

"The problem with the Republican Party over the past 30 years is they haven't -- and I'll say, we haven't -- developed a message that appeals to the working class Americans economically in a way that Donald Trump's does," the former Republican lawmaker explained. "We talk about cutting capital gains taxes that the 10,000 people that in the crowd cheering for Donald Trump, they are never going to get a capital gains cut because it doesn't apply."

"We talk about getting rid of the death tax," he continued. "The death tax is not going to impact the 10,000 people in the crowd for Donald Trump. We talk about how great free trade deals are. Those free trade deals never trickle down to those 10,000 people in Donald Trump's rallies."

"You sound like Bernie Sanders," NBC's Chuck Todd pointed out.

"But herein lies the problem with the Republican Party," Scarborough complained. "It never trickles down! Those people in Trump's crowds, those are all the ones that lost the jobs when they get moved to Mexico and elsewhere. The Republican donor class are the ones that got rich off of it because their capital moved overseas and they made higher profits."

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"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

mjsmeme's picture

Why are Trump's supporters so drawn to the authoritarian camp and dismiss Bernie,whose message is strongly anti-unregulated trade deals with a proven record of voting against them. Media bias/establishment blackout/an educational system that is a failure (unless you have shares in a for-profit school)? Trump supporters do tend to confuse Democratic Socialists with Communists, but that's not why they see the Donald as their saviour.

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Look, this may come off sounding like criticism, so let me begin my saying the following. I have Bernie bumper stickers on my car and have made several contributions over the past few months. He has the best ideas to move the country forward out of the mess Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush created, and he would be the best leader to get the job done.

But, the Trump supporters are the same folks who resonated with Nixon's repeated invocations of the Silent Majority, and who had no use for the 60's upheavals. Bernie began his political life as a part of that, as we, and they. know, Trump's white lower middle class supporters sincerely believe, and are encouraged in that belief by their religious leaders and news sources, to think that the decay of America is cultural first, not merely economic. They can't get past the 60's radical. It doesn't bother us, because many of us are either 60's/70's radicals, or have been helped by the policies liberalism put in place. I didn't start college until the end of the 70's, but, because of the diligent efforts of feminists in the 100 years prior, I, as a woman, could go to college, earn graduate degrees in the hard sciences (Geophysics) and work as a professional researcher all of my adult life. So, I see people like Bernie as opening doors for the rest of us (and with his free college and health care he's certainly trying to do that). It should come as no surprise that the generation that is most strongly attracted to Bernie's message is the generation for which Socialism carries no negative connotation, either politically or personally. From the point of view of the Trump supporters, however, people like Bernie CLOSED doors to them, even though he never did, and opposed it when he could. So, they can't hear him . They can only hear when people who get the cultural issues right, from their perspective, speak. Trump is the only one of the GOP discussing the economic issues that are important to them: job loss and the decline of opportunity for the white middle class.

I realize that's a bit rambling, but, there it is. Bernie's policies are the answer to their problems, but, they can't get past certain aspects of the messenger, which is too bad for all of us.

Littlevoice

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Both are focusing on trade. Corporations have no interest in employees or countries, only short term profit. Millions of lost jobs. Ever tried looking for a job in your late fifties or know anyone who did? Going from a six figure income to nothing or a minimum wage job is not an easy transition.

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I think the question up above, "why can't they hear Bernie?" is important. It has to be more than an anti-trade, class issue. I think everything gjohnsit wrote is a part of the story, but I think "why can't they hear Bernie?" needs to be answered too. Perhaps he will do it next. Afterall, universal health care and free college for their kids would be a big help to that group, too. There was a great diary at dkos about the correlation and overlap between Sanders and Trump voters. I don't know who wrote or its title, or I would attempt to do a search and leave a link.

To get to "liberals", I share gjohnsits lack of regard. Nothing is worse than the professional left. Whether they are opportunists or cowards matters not. They and the Democratic Party are our worst enemy. If Bernie can't win the nomination, I think he should be drafted to run Third Party. I think there are people voting for Trump that might hear Bernie if it wasn't tied to "Democratic Party". He considered it before he decided to run as a Democrat. It was before he had raised any money. He thought it would require a bigger "miracle" than winning as a Democrat. By the time June comes, that bigger miracle is half its size, and he knows he can count on money. Yes, a draft to run third party.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

gonzo1979's picture

...that hits some very important points. I am very glad I made the jump to this site and that so many writers I enjoy, did as well.

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Myths and legends die hard in America--Hunter Thompson

kharma's picture

Trump gets his political views from Fox news and the internet. The demographics of Fox news mean when he reads about everyday problems, he is hearing the most bitching from middle-aged whites who finally realize that they are being screwed. Unfortunately, they are being led to believe that inner-city blacks are being treated wonderfully with cadillacs and caviar and illegal immigrants are taking the best jobs--which inflames the racism. When Trump blames the 'Muslims' and Mexicans for all ills in the world, he is setting the stage for the next Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines.

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There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties.. This...is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.--John Adams

triv33's picture

in a room and forced to read all the writings of Joe Bageant, to learn about the people they've abandoned.

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I shave my legs with Occam's Razor~

jobu's picture

For the past 25 years, the Dem Establishment, aka Third Way, DLC, New Dem Coalition, have known full well what they've been doing.

Sadly, its taken us they better part of 25 years to start seriously fighting back.

With Occupy and now Bernie, we have begun. As we've seen, its not going to be easy.

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This is why many independents here in Colorado will vote for Trump over Hillary. I didn't vote for Bill Clinton and found his economic policies abhorrent. I do not forgive him for NAFTA, Gatt, etc. and will never trust Hillary on this matter. This does not mean Trump can be trusted either but, I know many who will give him a shot just for this position.

I despise being called "liberal" or even "progressive". They are labels which generally used to refer to the classical Eastern Establishment Liberal or West coast liberal. Those folk tended to look down their noses at blue-collar workers independent of race - we are and have been nothing more than widgets in a spreadsheet stereotyped beyond recognition. Good for cannon fodder.

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J.M.F.

Big Al's picture

A lot of discontent in this country. Most people know this
country is going downhill and where it stops no one knows, maybe all the way to the bottom. There is no doubt in my mind that Trump's racist stances on illegal immigration and the fraudulent War OF Terror (which proves he's lying and on board with the ruling class) spurred a lot of his popularity. And so has his stances on trade, the economy and the bullshit line "Make America Great Again". But when we talk popularity we're really talking about maybe 20% of the country as seen by the low turnout in the primaries. Perhaps up to 25% of the voting public would vote for him in the genera, but that's relative to their choices.

I'm not being elite here imo when I chalk his partial popularity up to ignorance. Not just because of the racism but because these are largely people who have fallen for the propaganda and the social conditioning we're all put through by the media and the school system. The Presidential race has become nothing more than a reality TV show where each week there are surprises and plot changes to keep the viewers coming back for more. This week Cruz wins one, then it's Kasich, just enough to keep the game interesting. Then it's a protester getting beaten up. Same thing on the Democratic side, Clinton wins some states, but then Sanders wins a couple so the game can go on. It can't go on if Clinton and Trump won every state, there has to be competition, that's what a reality TV show depends on.

If these people think Trump is going to do anything for them, that's where the ignorance comes in. I can say the same thing about the Democratic party supporters, those that aren't benefiting from this economic and political system, the 50% that lives at or below the poverty line. It's ignorance to continue to think that voting for President is going to change a damn thing for the serfs. I would have thought that Obama had settled that issue once and for all. But here we are again going through a painful to watch 18 month process to elect one. Over half the country tunes out or watches from the sidelines with varying degrees of amusement to complete disgust.

Sure, there are varying reasons Trump appeals to his supporters, that 20%, just like there are varying reasons Sanders appeals to some and Clinton appeals to other. But in the end, I'm going to have to chalk it up largely to ignorance for thinking any of this matters at all to the Serfs. That's not saying someone is stupid. Many are still playing the lesser evil game because they think at least that way they have some say in the matter. That's still ignorance to me because it doesn't. It doesn't matter. Ignorance is not knowing something. I'm ignorant about rocket science and crocheting, among other things. Everybody's ignorant about something. Too many are still ignorant about our political system and how it really works, and that we have other choices.

The Free Trade Agreements are excellent business agreements made by the ruling class for it's corporations and businesses, not for the Serfs. They can make more money which Trump is all about. To think he's not going to continue that trend is ignorant, he's a fucking narcissistic billionaire. We've had enough of those to know them when we see them. But on a reality TV show, reality is manufactured and that's what we're seeing, again. There should be a zero trust factor with Trump and most people have it. Those that don't are simply being ignorant.

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I agree with most of your statements. I will say one thing: Bernie has been talking about a 'Revolution' in which the people take back their government and force it to work for them. That is the difference I see.

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Democrats, we tried to warn you. How is that guilt and shame working out?

TrueBlueinWDC's picture

I agree with most of what you're saying, too. However, on the issue of trade and jobs... I think Trump might surprise us. He isn't a Wall Street shill, per se. His money is in real estate and wrapped up in things that he can't necessarily move to another country (tho, he has exported some jobs). I read something recently about this, but cannot find it... this older article may have to do.

In any case, I'll stick with Bernie.

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"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." Stephen Hawking

NEW: http://www.twitter.com/trueblueinwdc

Big Al's picture

At the very least, if we're going to give Sanders credit for bringing into the discussion wealth inequality and big banks, etc., we should give Trump a little credit for that. But I'm erring on the side of caution with him. I think he's a snake deep down that fancies himself as a great negotiator (has no trouble firing people), and when he gets to the negotiating table he's going to find the players are far different than those on his reality show.

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gulfgal98's picture

of today go hand in hand. The Clinton Democrats decided to remake the Democratic party into the party of the elites at the expense of the working classes. That is why Bill Clinton had absolutely no qualms about pushing for and signing NAFTA. And his wife is a free trader/globalist too with a lot of war hawk thrown in.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

thrownstone's picture

feel disrespected, talked down to, left out. They feel betrayed. Betrayed by the forty years of bait and switch perpetrated upon them by their political "leadership", betrayed by an economy that is moving past their abilities and skills, betrayed by the business "leaders" that deliberately left them out of their plans for the next American economy. Their compact with America was to give their sweat to build it, their blood to defend it, and their loyalty to preserve it in exchange for a decent home place, fair wages, and an honest job from which they derive the largest part of their personal identity. These are the things that they want, nay demand, returned to them. They've been losing those things for so long that they are desperate. Many have lost their homes, none can afford to provide a better life for their children, and they are forgetting who they are. At this point they value attitude over truth, inclusion over justice, and winning most of all. They are more like us than we know and much more like us than the 1% that they serve. Anyone who appears to value their compact and respect their opinions will gain their loyalty. They are the Democrats of old.

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“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire

A lot of them have to know that he's a carnival barker/snake oil salesman.

So that would mean that if they are still voting for Trump that is a statement of just how desperate people are for even a hint of hope.
And that is scary when you think about it.

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lotlizard's picture

The left-ish spectrum in Germany (SPD, Greens, Linke) is coming to be viewed as not listening to anyone’s voices and not representing anyone’s interests well anymore except those of immigrants and minorities — shorthand for which the Right has popularized the derisive term “multikulti” (from multicultural).

Here’s an op-ed from that newspaper that is owned and published by a co-op of which I’m a member.
http://www.taz.de/Debatte-Israelkritik/%215036516/

In it, Turkish-German Deniz Yücel writes that if you are of German stock, then shut your trap; you and your descendants will never have a moral right to criticize Israel, not in a thousand years.

If the German left-alternative cultural gatekeepers want to drive ordinary people to the extreme Right, screeds like this are the way to go about it.

(Gollum voice) Baggins! Germans! We hates it, hates it, hates it forever!

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detroitmechworks's picture

to anybody who supports Sanders.
Of course, I'm preaching to the choir here, but when the MSM deigned to cover Sanders, it's always been about how AWFUL his supporters are, and how they're (insert appropriate -ist) word here, and just need to grow up and accept inevitability.

Madame freaking guillotine doesn't stay quiet forever, elites. Just FYI.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

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detroitmechworks's picture

God it feels good to type those self evident words.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Zeitgeistus's picture

That dude/dudette 'deepderp' takes a dump in nearly every Bernie topic of substance. When confronted with any sort of rational argument they sort devolve into all caps and obscenities. About that time, I decide to head for calmer climes for a bit Wink

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Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice. -H. L. Mencken
A country without a memory is a country of madmen.-George Santayana
An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailments of all republics. --Plutarch

lotlizard's picture

and would rather hang out with, than with characters like that.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

They are toxic. I go to make my BNR comment and might check in a couple times in the day, but the comment threads devolve rather quickly with crap from Deep Texan, Trix, Methusala (I know that's not it's name, but that's what I call it), gogoboot (I know that's not it's name, but that's what I call it), the creepy-lurker-dude (another nickname I gave it); all of them seem to have lost their humanity.

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

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"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." --Jiddu Krishnamurti

Madame Guillotine took care of their King, by when she was done, they were left with an Emperor, who marched their best and brightest to die in the snows outside Moscow. Political change, if it isn't handled carefully, can lead to some pretty miserable outcomes...

Littlevoice

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jobu's picture

...tempting voters to kick the football.

That was the problem with Barack Obama. We (most of us) all willingly kicked that football. We found out before inauguration that we'd been seriously duped.

Same is going to happen to HillPeople who believe she is an actual progressive. Some won't care. They will continue to eat the whatever oatmeal Hillary serves as long as she says its progressive.

If Trump wins, we will get a boosted trickle (not) down, and little if any trade reform. The racists won't get mass deportation, either (thankfully). They'll get a beautiful yet meaningless wall. The sad thing is they may never realize how badly they'd been duped. So they'll line up for another kick at the football in 2020.

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See his rant on Oprah back then about it. He's been very consistent about that. Sorry, I can't link the video on Zerohedge a few days back, from my phone (don't know how).

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movie buff's picture

His own line of clothing? Manufactured in China, Mexico, Bangladesh:

http://truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/donald-trump-promises-to-bring...

He's just another hypocrite who likes to demagogue against something while simultaneously making a buck off of it.

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

that Trump is better than Hillary. Because Trump IS a lose canon, he is at least likely to misfire and bring down a billionaire or two. Hillary? No way, nothing will get through her greedy clutch.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

jobu's picture

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Zeitgeistus's picture

This thing at GOS/TOP kinda proves your point. Not that I want to give them any clicks, but I just find it ironic that both in tone and substance (not to mention the comments) they are proving your point:

Trump supporters are tired of the victimization of white America

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Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice. -H. L. Mencken
A country without a memory is a country of madmen.-George Santayana
An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailments of all republics. --Plutarch

Deep Texan made the first comment attacking progressives. Shocked I am!

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movie buff's picture

While it's always easier to be white than black, here you have people losing their jobs, losing their homes, drowning in debt, so mired in despair as to be suicidal--and then being told that they're too "privileged" and they need to give up some of what they supposedly have.

Intellectually, this makes no sense. Until you look at it as part of the Elite Left's ongoing war against the white working class--simply for being the white working class. We all know the demographics of the media in general and places like Daily Kos in particular. So what we're witnessing here is the nauseating spectacle of upper middle class, highly educated, Whole Foods-shopping "progressives" telling people living in trailers that they're too well off and will have to make do with less. (When they're not just calling them names outright.)

My job, for example, is generally considered "working class." I have a co-worker who supports Trump and is pretty damned racist overall. Yet for a big part of last year he was living in his car. Does he have too much? Has he "atoned" for his sins yet?

That NPR tote bag won't get you into heaven any more than the flag decal will.

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"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." --Noam Chomsky

lotlizard's picture

in that German state’s election on Sunday, March 13.

After atoning, atoning, atoning for a century of having been in the wrong place at the wrong time in history . . . that’s a case of average people who don’t have a lot, telling their country’s political and cultural elites where they can stick their preaching and condescension.

On the same day, over 30% of voters in Baden-Württemberg voted Green, for the first time beating out even the Christian Democrats who ran the state for 60 postwar years. Progressives can take over, if they can overcome the dogma that minorities and intellectuals are their natural clientele while the average people who make up the majority are their natural enemy.

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This story is an example of why poor whites are pissed off. Don't get me wrong - hurray for the kids in Detroit, but what about everyone else?
Duggan {Detroit} announces Detroit Promise: two years of free college
http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/111854683-story

If you pay for college for poor people and poor cities, then it is OK to have free college - but only 2 yrs and only at a community college. You know the Hillary plan - more Pell. This way all the left/white entitled can feel good about "helping the poor and minorities" while guarding their flank on the right so they don't actually do anything of value for the middle class. Bernie's plan of free university for all is ponyville. Imagine taxing WS and spending ALL of that money on the middle class. These are the same ones (Obam and Hillary) that will be happy to means test Medicare and privatize SS for their billionaire pals.

I don't know who disgusts me more. The party politicians or the professional liberals that suck off them. If you notice, the March 15 date at TOP coincides with the Shaheen and McCasgill statements and party talking points that it is OK for Bernie to continue his campaign as long as he doesn't say anything bad about Hillary.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Always loved your diaries at DK!

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Hillary's left flank is wide open. Trump will step in. This will be devastating as defending against an attack from the Left calls into play her veracity as being a Progressive.

I have also been watching a lot of Right wing media about Trump, and listening carefully to Trump's speeches. Underneath the bigoted bravado he makes a whole lot of sense, especially to working class Americans. (I left the "white" out of that sentence on purpose.)

On foreign affairs he will kick some Clinton butt. His policy basically is a strong military that we rarely use. He's a modified isolationist. He will cooperate with Putin, especially re ISIS. I think that Kerry and Obama have finally figured out that Russia can be a really strong ally against terrorism. Clinton's policy is total confrontation. "Show Putin how strong we are and Russia will back down." She has significant history here predicting that Russia will not interfere with regime change in Syria because they did not back their allies in Serbia. She was wrong there and is completely wrong about Russia and Putin.

Here's my point. She can't defend herself against an attack from the Left. Trump knows that and can use it especially with stressed out American workers. If she gets the nomination then I am expecting a major Trump victory. I hope that we on the real Left will understand the good and the bad in this and act rationally.

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Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.

I know, that's a very low bar, but the possibility of a nuclear World War makes any improvement in survival probabilities pretty important. Trump wants to negotiate. Hillary has no sense there at all. Her only gear is Forward-Attack.

Trump is definitely rude and crude, but maybe he wouldn't kill us all off.

Bernie can beat him, though, begin to rebuild the country, and still maintain some class, if we can just get past Hillary.

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Miep's picture

Working class people are scared and feel powerless. What do we plan on doing about that?

As it is, the increasing extent of extreme climate events is maxxing out those responsible for response. This is pretty much guaranteed to get worse. Are we going to blame poor white people for that, too?

This is going to be a bad century. I keep thinking; the biggest ethical dilemma people are going to face for the next several decades is how to respond to climate refugees. So here the USA is, busy outsourcing all its work and buying everything from other countries, and waging endless war, as if we haven't a vulnerability in the world. As if there is some kind of magical cornucopia planted in the middle of the corn belt. As if we are immune, when we are just a little late invited to the party.

The feelings Trump is responding to are based on reality. I don't trust him as far as I can throw him, but his strategy isn't stupid. The USA has elected buffoons in the past, and could well do so again, as long as the buffoon in question is someone who resonates with them in some manner, and the liberal elite are not known for understanding exactly how that works. "How can the great unwashed masses vote for someone so clearly dishonest, and so tacky?" they ask. Maybe because they are only too aware that this is how the liberal elite see them, as well.

Unfortunately, Trump's background precludes his being capable of having any real empathy for what the less privileged are going through. I expect his response to any catastrophe to be less than ideal. I would expect a Trump presidency to be yet another reality TV show, bread and circuses, sans bread.

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Stay on track. Stay in lane. Don't throw rocks.