You are right about Trump's adoring voters. I would take it further: there is more racism alive in Americans than anyone imagines. Some are quite aware of their "prejudice." Many others assume that they are not racist, but I can discern many ways it shows up. For example, people take our sports teams excellence for granted, but often do not acknowledge that without the Black (and Brown) athletes, the excitement would be much "paler." Another example: assuming that Black girls and boys would not be competitive with whites in the academic world.
As an aside, Asian students have been pushed toward the STEM courses; in China, excellence in math and science is the determining factor for reward. Most are not educated in the Western literary classics, and Asian literature was not considered the mark of intellectual and cultural creative brilliance. Another aside: young Chinese students at Harvard tend to stick by themselves and speak in Chinese [A friend's son was invited to see if he'd like Harvard--he felt it was "unfriendly."] These scholars are not likely to truly love America, are they?
So, there's much to learn about Trump's voters and our racial groups in this amazing country. "Proud Boys" and "Oath Keepers" don't want to confront their lack of popularity and lovability in any group. Many are Incels and many are into child porn. They all get the feeling that Trump cares about them...why would they know any better? Thank you for addressing such a key issue.
I'm fighting a mighty battle with my Star Trek nerd-dom right now and not commenting further re: The Borg, but DO agree that Trump voters are not persuadable. Like... what has he done that isn't just more of the same for why they went for him in the first place? There are people still miffed the Confederacy didn't win the Civil War, ffs.
to be clear, I’m skeptical of the characterization that there are a substantial number of Trump supporters who meet any reasonable standard of ‘decent people’...
//...we have a group of people claiming that a) they’re not bigoted, and b) their immediate concerns take precedence over the horrendous effects a Trump presidency will have because of his bigotry and that of his supporters, while telling us not to hold them morally responsible for their vote and all that happens as a consequence, because of a) and b).
That’s some pretty tortured moral reasoning, and I ain’t buying it. Frankly, I’m not buying the ‘I’m not a bigot’ pleading.//
The grotesque bigotry exposed by this election represents the singular social, economic, cultural and political issue to be addressed. Why? Because there are no political and economic issues that don’t include elements of discrimination— systemic, institutional, pervasive discrimination— that impacts all matters of equal justice, equal protection under the law, equal opportunity for education and economic advancement, protection of the environment, constraining corporate abuses...
We now have had an election that makes the worst of humanity the reference standard for the country...
//There are lessons to be learned from this election... lessons that we need to re-learn, no matter how many times we are taught them.
The one that keeps spinning in my head— this has never been a unified country. The splits were present at the writing of the Constitution, and we have never been able to get even 60% of the nation to agree about who we are, and what we should be.
We’ve heard for a long time about the people of the heartland, those folks in Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan who voted for Trump— but also, of course, all the states of the old Confederacy— feel looked down on by us liberal elites. Indeed, Mencken was not trying to contain his sneering contempt. But he was right in his estimate of these people, wasn’t he? This group did not sign on to ‘The Great Society’ willingly.
The Reconstruction Amendments— the 13th, 14th and 15th— were imposed by force, and opposed by force and fraud and pure disregard of federal authority, up to the present day. The conservative wing of SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act just this year.
There is no shared understanding that we are a pluralistic society, one in which the instruments of justice, political institutions, and the benefits and opportunities of civil society are available to all on an equal basis. The people of the heartland and the old Confederacy do not believe that all have equal claim to call themselves ‘American’.
I have no patience for all the wise and righteous progressives lecturing us about ‘trying to understand where the anger of Trump voters comes from, and what their real concerns are’. Their anger and perceived grievances against ‘the Washington establishment and liberal elites’ can never be an excuse for voting for a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, religious bigot. Let’s dispense with any notion that this election was about anything else than white Christian identity politics and privilege:
What appears to have made the biggest difference on the night was the turnout for Trump of white voters across the board – of both sexes, almost all ages and education levels, and from mid- and higher income levels.
Among college-educated whites, 45% voted for Clinton – 39% of men and 51% of women (the only white demographic represented in the poll where the former secretary of state came out on top). But 54% of male college graduates voted for Trump, as did 45% of female college graduates.
Broken down by income bracket, 52% of voters earning less than $50,000 a year – who make up 36% of the electorate – voted for Clinton, and 41% for Trump.
But among the 64% of American voters who earn more than $50,000 a year, 49% chose Trump, and 47% Clinton. (emphasis added)
Let’s be clear— the concerns of any working class whites who voted for Trump are no different than the less well-off anywhere, and they face none of the hardships of those who weren’t lucky enough to be white, heterosexual and Christian. (But apparently, when you are white, heterosexual and Christian, your grievances are a national crisis.)
Every generation, progressives congratulate ourselves about progressive social, cultural and political achievements. These achievements have been hard won, and are absolute moral imperatives.
But the election has reminded us that a large proportion of the country has never agreed to joining a modern, pluralistic society. They’ve been resisting in more or less open fashion since the Civil War. We just stopped realizing this was true, even when they hang President Obama in effigy at college football games, and spray swastikas on shop windows on the anniversary of Krystallnacht, the night of Trump’s election.
I believe we have coddled the sensibilities and sensitivities of this group too much, for too long, with offers of mutual understanding and shared benefits, and we have been rewarded with absolutely nothing in return. We are no longer even arguing about what to do, we are arguing about factual reality."//
Great post, and indeed hate is the GOP brand. They own it, embrace it and openly try to advance it every way possible.
Reminds me of an interview I heard on NPR during Trump's govt shutdown. The reporter was talking to a Trump voter who was out of work because of it. The Trump supporters was up set, saying, "he's not hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting!"
Brilliant and truthful, as always Oliver. I’m not sure a team of shrinks- a boatload of shrinks- could have any effect on the great unwashed kkkult. I have said many times –
rascism and misogyny are destroying the United States of America!
After all this time, I still cannot understand/deal with it/accept the situation --not sure how to describe it. I knew a lot of Republicans before I moved states. They varied a lot. A lot of them were nearly apolitical, not highly educated, more simple in their world view. Black and white thinking about complicated things, horrible understanding of politics (to the extent they ever thought about anything abstract or big-picture) and the way the world worked, but otherwise fairly OK people. (Not all were white. A number were not, and had weird reasons for being Republican that made sense to them but didn’t truly make sense. E.g., that the Republicans were ‘against the government’ and the government had harmed them and their family.)
The toxic and scary white people who love Trump, I have met them also. Their preference makes sense. I don’t get the other people.
One thing I observed was that the not obviously toxic people get a lot of their ideas from the people around them, because they don’t read much or pay attention to events. They especially are brainwashed by their churches. It’s not an excuse for them, just an explanation. I can’t fully accept the idea that huge groups of people are evil or horrible, and that’s that. Maybe it is living during the war on terror where everyone was trying to get us to believe all Muslims are horrible but I balk at embracing sweeping views about large groups. About Republican behavior as a group, certainly. But as individuals, I try to leave it on a case-by-case basis, and consider the very likely possibility that they have no idea what’s actually happening because they barely watch the news, and when they do, it is Fox News.
In the end, maybe it doesn’t matter. You can get ‘normal’ people to go along with or even embrace horrible and evil things. We already knew that. Even though I cannot fully embrace the idea that they’re all permanently hopeless, I always thought it could happen here simply because of the level of racism I saw growing up. I knew the extremists were all around us. After Obama was elected, I knew they were recruiting and planning. When it happened though, and they started to make a move and orchestrate public events and the media was so clueless or sanguine about the role they are playing, I was still shocked and I have never wrapped my head around it.
If we really look at how much time it takes for them to get as far as they have, we should understand that we can never relax. No matter what happens. Since the Civil War, this has been a permanent fixture of American life and a constant danger.
As LBJ once pointed out. Give a poor ignorant white man somebody they can look down on and they will give you their last nickle
You are right about Trump's adoring voters. I would take it further: there is more racism alive in Americans than anyone imagines. Some are quite aware of their "prejudice." Many others assume that they are not racist, but I can discern many ways it shows up. For example, people take our sports teams excellence for granted, but often do not acknowledge that without the Black (and Brown) athletes, the excitement would be much "paler." Another example: assuming that Black girls and boys would not be competitive with whites in the academic world.
As an aside, Asian students have been pushed toward the STEM courses; in China, excellence in math and science is the determining factor for reward. Most are not educated in the Western literary classics, and Asian literature was not considered the mark of intellectual and cultural creative brilliance. Another aside: young Chinese students at Harvard tend to stick by themselves and speak in Chinese [A friend's son was invited to see if he'd like Harvard--he felt it was "unfriendly."] These scholars are not likely to truly love America, are they?
So, there's much to learn about Trump's voters and our racial groups in this amazing country. "Proud Boys" and "Oath Keepers" don't want to confront their lack of popularity and lovability in any group. Many are Incels and many are into child porn. They all get the feeling that Trump cares about them...why would they know any better? Thank you for addressing such a key issue.
I'm fighting a mighty battle with my Star Trek nerd-dom right now and not commenting further re: The Borg, but DO agree that Trump voters are not persuadable. Like... what has he done that isn't just more of the same for why they went for him in the first place? There are people still miffed the Confederacy didn't win the Civil War, ffs.
Just tell them what they want to hear.
And give them someone to hate and they will be as faithful as puppy dogs
"He is their everything, the purest expression of the things that Republican voters value most in the world."
Been sayin' this for a a while now...
'This election was about 'issues'. The issues are racism, misogyny, religious bigotry and homophobia.' (Nov. 12, 2016)
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/11/12/1597496/-This-election-was-about-issues-The-issues-are-racism-misogyny-religious-bigotry-and-homophobia
to be clear, I’m skeptical of the characterization that there are a substantial number of Trump supporters who meet any reasonable standard of ‘decent people’...
//...we have a group of people claiming that a) they’re not bigoted, and b) their immediate concerns take precedence over the horrendous effects a Trump presidency will have because of his bigotry and that of his supporters, while telling us not to hold them morally responsible for their vote and all that happens as a consequence, because of a) and b).
That’s some pretty tortured moral reasoning, and I ain’t buying it. Frankly, I’m not buying the ‘I’m not a bigot’ pleading.//
The grotesque bigotry exposed by this election represents the singular social, economic, cultural and political issue to be addressed. Why? Because there are no political and economic issues that don’t include elements of discrimination— systemic, institutional, pervasive discrimination— that impacts all matters of equal justice, equal protection under the law, equal opportunity for education and economic advancement, protection of the environment, constraining corporate abuses...
We now have had an election that makes the worst of humanity the reference standard for the country...
//There are lessons to be learned from this election... lessons that we need to re-learn, no matter how many times we are taught them.
The one that keeps spinning in my head— this has never been a unified country. The splits were present at the writing of the Constitution, and we have never been able to get even 60% of the nation to agree about who we are, and what we should be.
We’ve heard for a long time about the people of the heartland, those folks in Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan who voted for Trump— but also, of course, all the states of the old Confederacy— feel looked down on by us liberal elites. Indeed, Mencken was not trying to contain his sneering contempt. But he was right in his estimate of these people, wasn’t he? This group did not sign on to ‘The Great Society’ willingly.
The Reconstruction Amendments— the 13th, 14th and 15th— were imposed by force, and opposed by force and fraud and pure disregard of federal authority, up to the present day. The conservative wing of SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act just this year.
There is no shared understanding that we are a pluralistic society, one in which the instruments of justice, political institutions, and the benefits and opportunities of civil society are available to all on an equal basis. The people of the heartland and the old Confederacy do not believe that all have equal claim to call themselves ‘American’.
I have no patience for all the wise and righteous progressives lecturing us about ‘trying to understand where the anger of Trump voters comes from, and what their real concerns are’. Their anger and perceived grievances against ‘the Washington establishment and liberal elites’ can never be an excuse for voting for a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, religious bigot. Let’s dispense with any notion that this election was about anything else than white Christian identity politics and privilege:
What appears to have made the biggest difference on the night was the turnout for Trump of white voters across the board – of both sexes, almost all ages and education levels, and from mid- and higher income levels.
Among college-educated whites, 45% voted for Clinton – 39% of men and 51% of women (the only white demographic represented in the poll where the former secretary of state came out on top). But 54% of male college graduates voted for Trump, as did 45% of female college graduates.
Broken down by income bracket, 52% of voters earning less than $50,000 a year – who make up 36% of the electorate – voted for Clinton, and 41% for Trump.
But among the 64% of American voters who earn more than $50,000 a year, 49% chose Trump, and 47% Clinton. (emphasis added)
Let’s be clear— the concerns of any working class whites who voted for Trump are no different than the less well-off anywhere, and they face none of the hardships of those who weren’t lucky enough to be white, heterosexual and Christian. (But apparently, when you are white, heterosexual and Christian, your grievances are a national crisis.)
Every generation, progressives congratulate ourselves about progressive social, cultural and political achievements. These achievements have been hard won, and are absolute moral imperatives.
But the election has reminded us that a large proportion of the country has never agreed to joining a modern, pluralistic society. They’ve been resisting in more or less open fashion since the Civil War. We just stopped realizing this was true, even when they hang President Obama in effigy at college football games, and spray swastikas on shop windows on the anniversary of Krystallnacht, the night of Trump’s election.
I believe we have coddled the sensibilities and sensitivities of this group too much, for too long, with offers of mutual understanding and shared benefits, and we have been rewarded with absolutely nothing in return. We are no longer even arguing about what to do, we are arguing about factual reality."//
Great post, and indeed hate is the GOP brand. They own it, embrace it and openly try to advance it every way possible.
Reminds me of an interview I heard on NPR during Trump's govt shutdown. The reporter was talking to a Trump voter who was out of work because of it. The Trump supporters was up set, saying, "he's not hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting!"
That pretty much sums up the GOP and their base.
Brilliant and truthful, as always Oliver. I’m not sure a team of shrinks- a boatload of shrinks- could have any effect on the great unwashed kkkult. I have said many times –
rascism and misogyny are destroying the United States of America!
After all this time, I still cannot understand/deal with it/accept the situation --not sure how to describe it. I knew a lot of Republicans before I moved states. They varied a lot. A lot of them were nearly apolitical, not highly educated, more simple in their world view. Black and white thinking about complicated things, horrible understanding of politics (to the extent they ever thought about anything abstract or big-picture) and the way the world worked, but otherwise fairly OK people. (Not all were white. A number were not, and had weird reasons for being Republican that made sense to them but didn’t truly make sense. E.g., that the Republicans were ‘against the government’ and the government had harmed them and their family.)
The toxic and scary white people who love Trump, I have met them also. Their preference makes sense. I don’t get the other people.
One thing I observed was that the not obviously toxic people get a lot of their ideas from the people around them, because they don’t read much or pay attention to events. They especially are brainwashed by their churches. It’s not an excuse for them, just an explanation. I can’t fully accept the idea that huge groups of people are evil or horrible, and that’s that. Maybe it is living during the war on terror where everyone was trying to get us to believe all Muslims are horrible but I balk at embracing sweeping views about large groups. About Republican behavior as a group, certainly. But as individuals, I try to leave it on a case-by-case basis, and consider the very likely possibility that they have no idea what’s actually happening because they barely watch the news, and when they do, it is Fox News.
In the end, maybe it doesn’t matter. You can get ‘normal’ people to go along with or even embrace horrible and evil things. We already knew that. Even though I cannot fully embrace the idea that they’re all permanently hopeless, I always thought it could happen here simply because of the level of racism I saw growing up. I knew the extremists were all around us. After Obama was elected, I knew they were recruiting and planning. When it happened though, and they started to make a move and orchestrate public events and the media was so clueless or sanguine about the role they are playing, I was still shocked and I have never wrapped my head around it.
If we really look at how much time it takes for them to get as far as they have, we should understand that we can never relax. No matter what happens. Since the Civil War, this has been a permanent fixture of American life and a constant danger.