I hope that people pay attention to what David Dayen has to say at The New Republic:
You can believe that half the country is racist if you want, and there’s no question that there’s an undercurrent of anger in Trump’s stunning rise. But that anger isn’t directed at any individual ethnic group. It’s more inchoate than that. It’s rage at institutions that people believe have failed them forever. It’s rage at an economy that doesn’t work for ordinary folks. It’s rage at a cultural milieu that perceives too many non-coastal Americans as buffoons. It’s rage at the aftermath of a financial crisis and Great Recession, in which the gap between winners and losers just grew larger, and the two-tiered system of justice paraded on full display. It’s rage at an elite class that people feel is lined up against them.
That rage has no doubt been whipped up—by Trump and his campaign, among others. It may not always be based in reality, but it’s real.
In the final analysis, 2016 wasn’t a fear election. It wasn’t like 2004, when George Bush and Dick Cheney repeatedly raised the threat of terror. (And if we’re honest, Hillary Clinton and the Democrats this year often appealed to fear—of a Trump presidency.) No, this was a rage election: a rage built up over many years, among people who’d decided they were disrespected, abandoned, and voiceless.
His advice?
Political parties go into a presidential election knowing the landscape. They know the challenges. Their goal is to win. And my feeling is, the lesson for Democrats is ultimately clear enough: You cannot write off half the country, much less spend an election cycle deriding it, and expect success.
which might sound familiar to you. Look at the detailed voting results. The Democrats don’t even have a “whole state” strategy let alone a 50 state one.
Believing that the results of the election can be attributed to sexism and racism might be comforting to you. I don’t see how but it might be. It isn’t borne out by the exit polls.
It’s certainly exculpatory. It makes it their fault rather than yours and their moral turpitude makes it imperative that they change rather than you.
If you can’t persuade them and you won’t compromise with them, you might try to outlive them. A quick glance at the demographic tables will tell you that’s a very long game. I doubt that I’ll live to see your victory.
What utter tripe, Dave. All over this country Hispanic and black and Muslim children are afraid. And they have reason to be. Gays and trans people are afraid. And they have reason to be. Jews are afraid, and we have reason to be.
You have been deaf, dumb and blind on this election. You don’t understand what has happened, and you don’t understand the consequences for real people.
So, michael votes for non-persuasion and self-admiration. Shocking.
Anybody who thinks that religion, ethnicity, or nationality are a race is really too ignorant to think for themselves. Besides, race is an artificial construct that has no scientific basis. Anybody who cannot remember what they were preaching before it became politically beneficial is stupid.
The clowns who promoted this nonsense are the ones to explain to these imbeciles that it was all bullshit.
Tasty:
Right. Why don’t you start by ‘explaining’ that race is all bullshit to the KKK, the American Nazi Party and the rest of the racist alt-right.
Idiot.
“Jews are afraid, and we have reason to be.”
Does that include Ivanka Trump? Should she go into hiding to escape the gas chambers?
@michael reynolds
Blah, blah, blah …
Boo-hooo. Here is an idea. You and your progressive buddies can move to a place with no cul-de-sacs or gated communities. You and your buddies can run your line of bullshit to yourselves and everybody else in whitopia, but I know better.
Pack your bags, and do not let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Regarding the KKK, I have met real f*cking racists. I have had them try to “bond” with me in the city (bad move), and I have met them in the rural parts of LA, MS, and AL. Real racists are f*cking scary, and I do not scare easily. Real racists hate white race traitors more than blacks, Jews, or anybody on their list, and while race sympathisers are not at the top, they are above the local black people who know to keep their mouths shut.
When you come from a “chocolate city”, the landlords act like it is the Second Coming when a white male shows up to look at a rental property. When I quit, I found out that being the dish pig was a black position, or as the owner informed me, “that [dish washer position] is for blacks, but I was in a bind .”
Black Americans have to deal with everyday racial bullshit that you and your asswipe cohorts have no inkling of because you all never leave your segregated whitopian paradise. The KKK picture you all sit around expounding upon is a cartoonish fantasy dreamed up for you all to be the heros. It ain’t like that. Find a poor or low income black person and ask them what the reality is.
A lot of them are inured to what you believe are the most heinous horrors. For the horrors you believe that they are experiencing every second, they need to be pulled up to a level where they can feel. For most Americans, they are trash and garbage, and their white counterparts are no better. None of you all give a rat’s ass about them – black, brown, white, or any poor or low income color. The only color you all care about is green.
What is worse than being mistreated and abused is being ignored or treated like idiots. If you spent any amount among the poor and low income black (brown and white) people, you might learn they do not like or trust you all either. Now, they are not stupid, and they are not going to start talking bad about people that can affect their lives. You might need somebody to vouch for you.
I have heard more than one progressive distinguish between the young black males in hoodies freely walking in front of their shotgun double and those in other cities, and the young black males in hoodies freely walking in front of their shotgun double are not African-Americans.
Rather move out of the country, you could move to a foreign country right here in your own country run by your own political party – Chicago, Cleveland, Ferguson, New Orleans (on second thought …), etc.
Until then, you can take any of your holier than thou bullshit and cram it up your ass.
Think the lesson here is for campaigns to go for all the votes not just 50%+1 you see in the bubble.
If the exit polling data is correct, should not the question be if blacks and Hispanics are so afraid, why was their turnout in 2016 so much less than 2012.
As I’ve mentioned before in my very diverse neighborhood I have black, Hispanic, South Asian, and East Asian neighbors as well as neighbors of primarily European descent. I’m fond of all of them and treat them all with respect and consideration.
I could have chosen a lily white Chicago suburb but elected not to. I wanted the kind of diversity my neighborhood provides.
Aw. Mickey is having a bad week.
Well, I chose a lily- white suburb. Funny thing is, nary a Nazi, Clan rally, white supremacist meeting, or homosexual killing to be found or seen. You even see Neee-grows on the street (egad!!) or (gulp) in restaraunts. Dear god what next. I even saw one on my street. Difficult to tell since I crossed to the other side. Might have been an Indian. Those brown skinned types all look alike you know. That’s why I’m really moving.
But I’ll tell you, I saw construction of a separate water fountain downtown. Started Wednesday morning. So all may be well….