So, it’s been a month, and progressives and Democrats have been hearing a constant refrain–that we need to reach out to Trump supporters, to try to understand the forgotten working-class base in the heartland of America which voted for him.
That is a very good point. We do need to do that if we want to win the next election. There is only one problem for me: I don’t really want to know or understand the Trump voters.
This is not the wisest attitude to have, and I guess it marks me as an elitist of some sort. But I don’t care. I don’t want to know why people continue to support Trump and overlook all the things he’s already said and done when it comes to women, immigrants and Muslims. When I recently visited a website where the deplorables gather to chat, I saw plenty of caricatures of yarmulkas and hooked noses, and references to Reichsfuhrer Trump. Blaming the Jews for your own economic woes is an age-old tradition. The Trumpsters clearly feel the need to scapegoat someone for their own miserable situation. What can I possibly say to them about that? How would I change their mind? I could suggest changes to the political and economic system which would make their life better, but these are the same people who thought Obama was a Marxist and the ACA was a government assault on their liberty–and frequently voted against their own health insurance coverage. What does one do when faced with such ignorance?
Not to mention that in order to reach out to the Trump voters, I would have to find them where they live. Thing is, I love my urban bubble. I have little interest in going too far beyond its protective shield. I’ve lived in the rural world before and I’m grateful to have escaped it. I have no desire to move to a place where my neighbors give me the side-eye just because I don’t attend the same church they do and behave in ways they don’t consider “normal.”
Again, this does not bode well as a political strategy. Democrats did get the popular vote in 2016, but the Democratic electorate is clustered in a few major metropolitan areas, mainly on the two coasts, and that’s not the way the American electoral system works. Hence the idea that progressives should transplant themselves to swing states. If only I could convince myself to be enthusiastic about a midwestern or southern swing state….
The progressive movement certainly needs ambassadors right now to take its message across the country. Unfortunately, I’m not that person. And I wonder how many of my fellow liberal bubble-dwellers are willing to do the difficult work of outreach. And if that work doesn’t get done, what will 2020 look like?
eurobrat 
02/17/2017 at 5:19 pm
I live in rural Ohio; the heart of Trump country. I understand the Trump voters–they’re poor and very badly informed about the world in general. It’s not that they are stupid, as some liberals say, it’s just that they don’t know much about what goes on outside of their own day-to-day life. They are not bad people by any means, but generally it is impossible to persuade them of anything once they’ve made up their minds. (The song “Iowa Stubborn” from “The Music Man” captures the type well.)
However, the progressives-move-to-swing-states idea is not a bad one. (I’ve advocated for it myself.) Typically there are Democratic-leaning urban centers in even the rural states. Here in Ohio for example, Columbus is very liberal and diverse. So, just because a state is overall “red” and has a reputation for being rural, does not mean there are not actually significant “blue” areas.
02/17/2017 at 8:12 pm
Oh, I agree that Trump voters aren’t dumb. The few of them that I know around my area are actually very well educated. And I can be very stubborn about my points of view too, so I can understand that to some degree 🙂 Understanding my own stubbornness makes me even more pessimistic about changing anyone else….
Funny, I was just pondering that I could totally handle living in a place like Cincinnati or Cleveland. It’s not even about being surrounded by liberals for me–I like the urban lifestyle. I like walking and using public transit, having a variety of cultural events available etc. There are blue cities in red states which could provide that.
03/08/2017 at 1:52 pm
Except for the Reddest of Red States, most cities are Purple, if not Blue. Austin, Texas is a prime example.
However, I don’t like the “distilling” of people into geographic-demographic ghettos. It’s Segregation based on like-mindedness and it makes Gerrymandering easier and more worthwhile. Neither of these things are improving America and it just makes it easier to hate “the other side”. (See: any number of sports team rivalries based on geography)
And the way they’re ripping down abandoned buildings in the Rust Belt, I’m sure almost anybody could afford to snatch one up there. Gee, maybe all the wreckage caused by the Democrat’s embrace of Free Trade & globalism does have a silver lining 😉
03/11/2017 at 4:13 pm
Yeah, those rust belt areas are definitely becoming more affordable. Then again, it’s difficult for me to imagine giving up Portland and everything I can do and be involved in here to go live in an abandoned warehouse. Although I guess if I owned one of those, I could host raves…hmmmm…suddenly the idea become more attractive 🙂
02/17/2017 at 5:21 pm
I wish I could unknow the ones I do know.
02/17/2017 at 8:12 pm
Once again, I’m reminded that I’m pretty lucky to only know a few of them.
02/18/2017 at 2:01 am
I’ve ran into a few Trump supporters and discovered they were one issue voters. They even see the issue of unemployment to be caused by illegal immigrants and corporations moving out of the U.S. What bothers me about their trust in Trump is that not once during his campaign did he say how he was bringing jobs “back” to America. American owned companies cannot be forced to return to the states.
I live in a red area of a blue state. With predominate Republican control, there is high unemployment and other problems. It seemed rather illogical that people would think that Trump can do what our local and state Republicans have not done for this area in decades.
02/18/2017 at 11:26 am
I can sympathize with the outsourcing issue, but manufacturing jobs will, for the most part, not be coming back anyway due to increasing use of robots and automation. We really should be rethinking our entire paradigm of how we “make a living.” But unfortunately, change is scary, and people would rather believe the myth that Trump will take us back to the “good old days.” Not surprising about the voters where you live–lots of poor Republicans who vote against their own best interests.
02/18/2017 at 1:15 pm
Eurobrat, I totally agree — manufacturing jobs are not coming back.
It’s a weird thing living in a small city. Many of the poor Republicans don’t think they are poor because of the color of their skin. The moment they see a person of color live comfortably, they blame it on “democratic” programs.
02/19/2017 at 10:26 am
It’s the old divide and conquer tactic–the brown-skinned people are taking your jobs and money away! We do have a lot of work to do…
02/19/2017 at 3:18 pm
Eurobrat, I agree.
03/08/2017 at 2:27 pm
I can sympathize with the outsourcing issue, but manufacturing jobs will, for the most part, not be coming back anyway due to increasing use of robots and automation.
More smug elitism -eh? “Ah, those other people’s jobs are leaving for good. So, why bother fighting? They should just accept it and move on to…er…Nigerian scamming and hacking banks?” 🙂
“First they came for the Jews, but I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the manufacturing jobs, but I wasn’t an assembly line worker. Then they came for the retail jobs, but I didn’t work in retail. Then they came for transportation jobs, but I wasn’t in transportation. Then they came for my job, and there wasn’t anybody left to help me fight for it.”
Kidding aside, it’s 25 years of this defeatist/elitist attitude that has created a self-fulfilling prophecy. The truth is that, despite the Capitalists best attempts over the last 25 years (aided & abetted by both sides of the political aisle) there are STILL manufacturing jobs in America. That alone says something about their potential survival…if only somebody ever does something about it.
Unless protecting decent paying jobs becomes a priority, ALL jobs will meet the same fate sooner, or later. Unless we start fighting back, larger & larger numbers of people will be fighting over smaller & smaller table scraps.
It’s amazing to me how successful the right-wing/corporate brainwashing has been over the last 30 years. We all just accept certain things (ie you can’t bring back jobs) without questioning, or challenging, them. Sure, it may require a few “suicide missions”, but Berlin didn’t fall without suffering a few casualties.
03/11/2017 at 4:11 pm
Notice that I didn’t say we should just leave the people who used to work in manufacturing to fend for themselves (although I’m sure that would be the Republican solution to the dilemma). I do think we may have to rethink the idea of what “work” means, which may lead us away from capitalism and more to something like a universal income. On the other hand, while there are still some manufacturing jobs present, AI and automation are going to continue to progress, and what’s the point in denying that? Are we going to try to suppress that technology? I just don’t see that happening.
05/05/2017 at 12:24 pm
Note: I had a long, information packed, eye glazing, tirade (What else is new?) all ready to post. In it, I drew out a Clausewitz-style battle plan to resist automation and delay our impending robot overlords’ takeover and their inevitable extermination of our utterly worthless species. Unfortunately, my “infallible” technological wonder was taken out of commission. Not by some Electromagnetic Pulse, or virus. My dog took a nibble on my mouse wire. It took me over a month to get a new mouse. By then, the brilliance that was my rant was cyber-spaced and the subject had long since gone cold. (Although, this really is a timely subject all on its own, hint hint.) So here’s an alternative comment that doesn’t matter if it’s read, or not. (What else is new? redux)
Spoken like a true Red Diaper Baby! Boy, did you ever pad your NSA profile with that comment. Destroying Capitalism and replacing it with a “universal income”? Were you singing Das Internationale as you typed that? (Some of the lyrics are now suddenly timely/ironic.)
And you voted for Hillary over Bernie? For shame!
But seriously, the push for Guaranteed Annual Income (as it’s know here in Canuckistan) has been around so long, it’s been forgotten. It’s most famous advocate has been pushing it for 40-ish years ….and he’s a Conservative!
There was an experiment with it in Dauphin, Manitoba in the 70’s. And just like disco, GAI making a comeback! Ontario’s openly lesbian Premier just announced a Guaranteed Annual Income pilot will be coming to 3 cities.
And Hugh Segal is running it.
http://www.basicincomecanada.org/thunder_bay_mayor_very_excited_about_basic_income_pilot
But for America…even thinking about the possibility of a guaranteed income is a pipe-dream. Remember, Canada is a nation that has had Free Universal Medicare for some 50+ years. You guys probably aren’t even going to hold onto your laughably “socialist” Obamacare for much longer. It may take 2-3 more centuries for America to get Medicare For All, never mind a Guaranteed Annual Income…assuming humans will even exist by then.
05/06/2017 at 2:09 pm
Woot…Sedate Me’s Internetz are on again! Welcome back! Dogs are so lovable (see my avatar) that I would probably forgive mine even if he chewed through a cable. But yes, the idea of a guaranteed income is making a comeback….and yes, we’re on the verge of having the ACA repealed here in the States, so we’ll be lucky just to be able to hold on to our private insurance coverage, much less get anything more “socialist” than that.
Thanks for returning to the online world and reading my blatherings 😊
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05/08/2017 at 11:46 am
Hey, this place is literally one of the last places on the planet I feel even marginally welcome.
05/10/2017 at 5:16 pm
Food for thought–thanks!
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05/05/2017 at 12:25 pm
Oops, missed a link.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guaranteed_Annual_Income
03/08/2017 at 1:22 pm
If there’s one thing I know, it’s that things will be considerably worse in 2020 than they are now. Not only that, even with a Democratic victory in 2020 (50% at best), things will continue to get worse, if only at a slower pace. Inertia is a real bitch and the point of no-return has probably been passed already. “Dead man walking”, as they say.
” (We’ve) been hearing a constant refrain–that we need to reach out to Trump supporters, to try to understand the forgotten working-class base in the heartland of America which voted for him…There is only one problem for me: I don’t really want to know or understand the Trump voters. This is not the wisest attitude to have, and I guess it marks me as an elitist of some sort. /
Yes, it is very unwise and very elitist. While we do have an unbearably stupid gen-pop, it’s actually our elites who’ve been failing us in every walk of life. The elites have given up on society and are really only worried about themselves and their like-minded elitist kinfolk. They disgust me almost as much as the stupid gen-pop does. They don’t have an excuse.
Elitist apathy is the fundamental problem with the modern Democrat Party. Because Democratic elites haven’t given a flying fuck about the working class (aka their base) since the early 90’s, Democrats (and Democratic values) have had their asses handed to them for the last 25-ish years. It’s also why America itself has all but lost it’s battle with terminal batshit insanity.
Starting around Clinton (Him), upper-tier Democrats have been selling out their base in favour of the Wall Street greed mongers whose primary objective is to un-employ every single person in America. The imbecile “geniuses” running/ruining the Democratic party have been drinking the Republican Light Cool Aid for decades. They take money from Wall Street and tech-billionaires because money matters more to them than voters. Unsurprisingly, working class issues are almost invisible. They now preach the New Economy Gospel where good paying jobs lost by suicidal trade policies are magically replaced with iPads delivered by Free Trade Fairies. “There’s just nothing we can do about anything anymore. So just submit to the inevitable and maybe you’ll get a door prize.”
Most Democratic politicians these days are essentially just Republicans with more “modern” social values. Left-leaning elites love it because they can feel better about themselves than if they voted for actual Republicans. Cheaper shit, but without the guilt. However, the negative economic results are almost indistinguishable. But as a wise old philanderer once said, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
The Democrat’s elitist attitude has cost them “bigly” in election after election. Until the latest debacle, they’ve just been too smug & stupid to realize it. Sure, Democrats have won the Presidency as often as not during this time. But they’ve been the 2nd banana in Congress for decades. And THAT’S where it matters. The gen-pop is stupid, but it’s obvious to even the most comatose that Democratic elites don’t give a fuck about them. So why should they give a fuck about the Democrats? Half the people have completely given up on voting and half of those who still vote strapped on a suicide vest and walked into the polling booth in 2016. That’s how desperate they are.
To everyone not a member of the Democratic Elite, their political strategy is somewhere between eye-rolling & off-putting. Embracing Hispanics, The Blacks, The Gays (and the entire LGBTQLMNOPRSTUVXYZ community) may, or may not, be fine. However, relying on demographics and group hugs to win the day comes across as a VERY cynical & lazy method of seeking power. Collecting “identity groups” like trading cards is so cynical, even a majority of (voting) white women voted Republican this time. Now, combine the reaction to the cynicism with the decades of apathy toward the working class…and it’s NO surprise that 75% of the adult population refuses to vote Democrat, even though nearly all of that 75% should be. Democrats should have had control of Congress and the Presidency for most of the last 25 years! Republican policies just have NO business winning the votes of more than 20% of Americans. The difference is that Republicans have catered to their base while the Democrats have been shooting themselves in the balls for 2-3 decades.
Had anybody been listening to Sedate Me over the last 25 years, they’d have seen it all coming and put a stop to it. The only surprise is that it took so long. So long, in fact, it’s probably too late to save the patient.
03/11/2017 at 4:06 pm
I do agree with a large portion of what you’re saying there. The Democrats have been too beholden to corporations, as American politicians on both sides of the aisle are. And identity politics alone will not be an effective way to win elections. The problem is that I still find it easier to relate to the Democratic elite than to the average Trump voter. I’ve watched them communicate with each other about who they think the “real Americans” are, and how they feel about women and gays etc, and I don’t want to relate to them.