Twitter thread deftly explains the REAL reason we're stuck with TRUMP. It is NOT pretty.

[CousinIT]

Link to tweet

UNROLLED thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/989375059121901568.html (better visuals at this link - text below)

1. Donald Trump won the GOP primary and the presidency because campaigning on whiteness-first messaging still has potency in the 21st century. Plenty of people don’t want to directly engage with this fact, but this thread will be getting into it in full.
2. All too often I see the framing that “Hillary lost to the worst candidate in history.” But I think this framing has always been wrong, and it allows people to bypass a question that they don’t want to grapple with: why was Trump electorally viable to the degree that he was?
3. Do not construe this as me arguing that Hillary’s campaign didn’t make mistakes, but I want to laser focus on why people voted for Trump, and what that says about where we are as a country.
4. We've seen the excuses for Trump:

“He promised to shake up the establishment.”
“His campaign resonated with those who have been left behind.”
“It’s just so refreshing to hear a candidate speak his mind.”
“Trump voters responded to economic anxiety.”
5. But these theories do not have any explanatory power regarding why the vote broke down the way it did demographically. Only one broad demographic seemed to be receptive to the kind of campaign that Trump ran on: white people. cnn.com/election/2016/…


6. We must be cognizant of what Trump ran on: calling Mexicans rapists, banning Muslim immigration, building a wall to keep undocumented immigrants out, national stop-and-frisk. And he has a track record of questioning the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate.
7. We know that denial of racism, alongside hostile sexism, predicted a vote for Donald Trump significantly more than other factors like economic dissatisfaction. people.umass.edu/schaffne/schaf…

8. This kind of correlation between racial resentment and the probability of voting for Trump has been observed in other studies. cambridge.org/core/services/…


9. Lack of education predicted support for Trump because of its strong relationship to ethnocentrism, not so much income and occupation. Trump voters thought that a hierarchy that prioritized white people was under attack. Trump helped cement that belief. pnas.org/content/pnas/e…

10. Separate point: perceptions of the economy don’t really determine political preference. Rather, it’s the other way around; political preferences determine economic perceptions. Bearing this in mind… jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.…

11. We’ve seen something analogous under President Obama; racial resentment predicted perception of the economy (note the blue curve). The more racially resentful, the poorer the perception of the economy. washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-ca…


12. So yeah. You see the theme. Of course, it’s not enough to grapple with what the appeal of Trump’s campaign was. We must also be cognizant of the fact that that appeal was propelled to the White House while Trump has demonstrated he's thoroughly unfit.
13. We know Trump’s temperament is horrible, he lacks the qualifications to govern effectively, he doesn’t know the ins and outs of the issues, he has no real desire to learn, he is obsessed with denigrating his opponents and not being humiliated, and he’s a lecher.
14. We can’t just say “Donald Trump won by cultivating bigotry” though because that still leaves some things ambiguous. Donald Trump won because affirming the primacy of whiteness is still an issue of importance to too many white voters.
15. What white supremacy greatly fears is a genuine meritocracy, a society where anyone, regardless of race or gender, can rise according to their talents and diligence.
16. For white supremacy to guard against a trajectory toward meritocracy, this requires everything of merit must be sacrificed, which brings us to a terrifying conclusion: the various ways Trump was unfit for the Presidency were features to his voters, not flaws.
17. Trump won the GOP primary and was propelled to the White House because a swath of white voters wanted to send this message to people of color after 8 years of a Black President who successfully governed: “The worst of us should still be given deference over the best of you.”
18. Furthermore, this entitlement is so profound that many white voters have been willing to sacrifice benefits to their class in exchange for seeing institutions uphold the primacy of whiteness.
19. In W. E. B. Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction in America, he wrote about the psychological wage of whiteness; in exchange for experiencing potentially low economic wages, white people were given a psychological wage in the form of ubiquitous deference.

20. If you find it hard to conceive of people forgoing fiscal wages for the sake of a psychological wage, consider that similar behavior has been observed in non-racial contexts.
21. A Harvard study asked people if they’d rather make $50,000 when everyone else around them makes $25,000 OR if they’d rather make $100,000 when everyone else around them makes $200,000. Fifty percent of respondents opted for the former. albany.edu/~gs149266/Soln…


22. Wild, right? People will opt for a job that pays absolutely less so long as they know they make more relative to everyone else over a job where they make absolutely more but relatively less than everyone else. Because people want to know they’re on top.
23. But if that’s how people behave in non-racial contexts, then it’s actually not a wild leap to conceive of white people forgoing economic benefits so long as they get institutions and politicians upholding white supremacy. They want to know they’re on top.
24. This is actually why many fiscally left-leaning policy positions that we support run into brutal opposition; the real undercurrent is too many white people do not want to share the safety net with anyone else. Then they wouldn't be on top. scholar.harvard.edu/files/glaeser/…

25. Here’s a specific example: we could have had something akin to single-payer during the Truman years. But white southerners opposed it because they feared a national health insurance program would force hospitals to integrate. Seriously.
One Nation, Uninsured
Paul Krugman Op-Ed column says patchwork system that has evolved in absence of national health insurance is unraveling, and time is ripe for another try at universal coverage; says special interests …
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/opinion/one-nation-uninsured.html

26. The 60s marked a period of significant success for the Democratic Party and civil rights. It also led to a flight of white southerners from the party and the end of bipartisanship on redistributionist policies. nber.org/papers/w21703.…

27. Reality: This country was founded upon building an economy on top of exploiting Black labor, concentrating wealth produced from that labor in the hands of white people, and deploying all kinds of terrible tactics to ensure that rigid social stratification was upheld.
28. And when that status quo has been challenged, our country has experienced its most significant upheavals. The U.S. fought its bloodiest and most destructive war over whether the enslavement of Black people should continue.
29. Eras of relative stability for the United States, on the other hand, usually relied on people with power tacitly (or explicitly) upholding racial exclusion from democracy.
How Democracies Die
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Cool and persuasive... How Democracies Die comes at exactly the right moment. We're already awash in public indignation--what we desperately need is a sober, dispassionate…
https://books.google.com/books?id=TwtFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA143&lpg=PA143&dq=%22The+norms+sustaining+our+political+system+rested,+to+a+considerable+degree,+on+racial+exclusion.%22&source=bl&ots=BzWIgurS9V&sig=2JXWwYtKVMuHul0hGaKOCdgv_sw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjAhuitmMDaAhXo3YMKHf05AqoQ6AEIMzAC#v=onepage&q&f=false

30. As minorities increasingly got to participate in democracy—both in terms of voting and participating in government—we saw a decline in bipartisanship, a trend which effectively exploded when Barack Obama was elected President. This isn't a coincidence.
How democracies die, explained
The problems in American democracy run far deeper than Trump.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/2/16929764/how-democracies-die-trump-book-levitsky-ziblatt

31. The unfortunate truth is Trump is the culmination of a force that has always been here, namely the tendency to undermine and destroy institutions that do not show extraordinary deference to whiteness, and instead, propping up new and regressive systems in their place.
32. The White House did not show extraordinary deference to whiteness for the past eight years because the President was Black, so the institution was undermined by a majority of white people who voted for a man thoroughly unfit to run the institution but promised bigotry.
33. I made this thread because I am sick of the bullshit excuses for voting for Trump as well as the attempts to obfuscate what happened in 2016. Regardless of your opinion of Hillary Clinton, this was my attempt to explain what happened in 2016. Thanks for reading.
34. Now that this thread is getting a lot of attention, I think it's only fair for me to add that many of the observations in this thread conform to what people of color have been saying for years and years. That shouldn't go unacknowledged.

[quartz007]

1. So how to explain tRump received more black votes than

Romney who was much more polished politician than tRump would ever be?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/11/11/trump-got-more-votes-from-people-of-color-than-romney-did-heres-the-data/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.eaf317139b41

[D_Master81]

4. Obama

Romney was running against the 1st African American President.

[quartz007]

6. Bingo! nt

[ehrnst]

73. Yep.(nt)

[Doodley]

5. It was a campaign of grievances. Trump spoke to people who felt a lot of grievances and he spoke in

a way similar to how they speak. So, a small minority of blacks came out to vote that hadn't voted for Romney - he appealed to grievances about Mexicans, illegal immigrants, Muslims. Polls show, including one this week, that a majority of Republicans and a sizable minority of Democrats do not want to see a female President in their lifetimes - there is another grievance right there that isn't exclusive to whites.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

29. I don't know anybody now or ever that speaks the way Trump does.

But then again, I have astutely avoided having megalomaniacal sociopaths in my life.

[ehrnst]

74. I grew up hearing that in my family and friend's families

from men, and the women who drew their identities from the men they aligned with.

White male entitlement sounds like that, and one doesn't need to be a sociopath to feel comfortable in that privilege.

I grew up in the rural midwest, and still hear it when I visit.

[Doodley]

87. I mean he tells it as he sees it in his bigoted way. This is how his base talk!

[Cha]

32. Trump Voters Driven by Fear of Losing Status, Not Economic Anxiety, Study Finds

snip//

Ever since Donald J. Trump began his improbable political rise, many pundits have credited his appeal among white, Christian and male voters to “economic anxiety.” Hobbled by unemployment and locked out of the recovery, those voters turned out in force to send Mr. Trump, and a message, to Washington.

Or so that narrative goes.

A study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences questions that explanation, the latest to suggest that Trump voters weren’t driven by anger over the past, but rather fear of what may come.

White, Christian and male voters, the study suggests, turned to Mr. Trump because they felt their status was at risk.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/us/politics/trump-economic-anxiety.html

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210532271

[quartz007]

39. Quite believable, however my question was about

black voters, not white voters. Why more of black voters pulled the lever for Donnie than they did for Mittens? Mitt never called anyone rapist or criminal or said nothing against Muslims. Actually Mitt warned us about Russia! I can't recall any racist tirade from Romney.Trump reminds me more of fascist Mussolini. I was thinking blacks would vote against Trump unanimously.

[m-lekktor]

43. I would say because Trump talked like a populist (though he obviously isn't one) and

Romney was seen as a man of the establishment/status quo. Trump talked about bringing jobs back, against shitty trade deals etc and apparently people believed him. That talk could appeal to black folks as well I would assume. Hillary Clinton was also seen as an establishment /status quo type by the people who supported Trump. People wanted to believe in Trumps populism and were fooled by his speeches. That is what i figure based on reading lots of analysis'.

[quartz007]

83. That is more logical than other explanations

I have seen. But talk is cheap, action is tough. We shall see in 2020 if voters think the results do not match promises.

[Nay]

44. Trump was running against a woman, and we can't discount the possibility that

black men don't want a woman president any more than many white men want it. IOW, it had to do with who the OTHER candidate was.

[quartz007]

81. WOW..if true, that is pretty sad!

Other democracies like Great Britain, Israel, India, Sweden, etc already had a woman head of state decades ago. We are behind the world, that is for sure.

[fleabiscuit]

56. What was the sampling error? nt

[quartz007]

82. You might find that data here..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/11/11/trump-got-more-votes-from-people-of-color-than-romney-did-heres-the-data/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.eaf317139b41

Sorry, I do not have sampling data handy.

[fleabiscuit]

84. Nope. But a 2 percent difference of 6/8 is insignificant IMHO.

Unless the author thought he/she had to make something out of a nothing burger?

[quartz007]

85. Authors ALWAYS make mountains out of molehills

and I agree 2% is a nothing burger usually.
In this case, I thought Hillary would get 98% of black vote due to all those racist rants by tRump throughout his campaign.

[True Blue American]

47. Trump used fear

Of everything and everyone.

He also played the blame game so many do. Everyone is to blame what happened to me,except me.

[Cha]

75. Yeah, and the suckers gobbled it

up.

[whathehell]

54. Or the fact that 8 Million Obama voterr voted for Trump in 2012

I've never seen one attempt to explain that from the 'It was all about race" theorists

The misogynistic inference contained in recent stats telling us nearly HALF of Republicand say they would NEVER vote for a woman, will not, I suspect, get much play...It's gotta be race, and race ONLY all the time.

[nolabels]

91. The only ingredient needed to bake a cake is flour

Mostly if you are missing an ingredient you might be able to get around it with some kind of substitute. The idea you could go through and get over on this great big world by riding on just one trick pony has never worked. Moreover, it may work for cheering section but it is also a favorite refuge for bigots

The eight million wanted change but me thinks they got more than they bargained for. I would also agree with you if you were saying that one special fix for everything was really not going to fix that much

[marylandblue]

2. What can we do about this?

[Garrett78]

21. Many things:

1) GOTV
2) raise hell about race-based voter suppression and gerrymandering
3) get involved (until I recently moved to another state, I was part of an organization called the Racial Justice Organizing Committee)
4a) the Democratic Party needs to focus more - not less - on issues of oppression (and incorporate into the platform the platform of TM4BL)
4b) don't buy into the notion that we need to go out of our way to appeal to Reagan Democrats or those who voted for Trump

[RandySF]

3. And yet

There are even Democrats (and others) who want us to give up “identity politics” so more white voters feel more comfortable.

[Garrett78]

9. Yep. I've been hitting this point hard.

Those from B. Sanders to Lakoff to Sam Harris need to knock it off with the bashing of "identity politics" and the economic anxiety argument.

This is a defining moment for our party and for the oppressed. Those in denial about why people voted for Trump need to wake the fuck up, and now.

[SunSeeker]

20. Funny how they don't see pandering to white voters as "identity politics." nt

[Garrett78]

22. Yeah, the denial is strong even among many white Democrats.

An excerpt of a post I've made:

Much has been made of the *white* working class, or even white working class men. Democrats already do better than Republicans among the working class. In saying Democrats shouldn't go out of their way to appeal to *white* working class men, the point isn't to denigrate that subset of the population. The point is that the Democratic Party platform should already appeal to the working class. And, for the most part, it does, based on exit polls following every election.

Why speak specifically of *white* working class folks? We all know why. Either it's because there's this assumption that only white people work (horribly racist and obviously false), or it's because a certain portion of *white* working class folks are voting based on factors that have nothing to do with candidate positions on wage stagnation, workplace safety, health care, equal pay, paid family leave and all of the other issues that should matter to the working class. If that's the case, and I think we all know that it is, what does one suggest Democratic candidates do?

Should Democratic candidates not talk about criminal injustice, the race-based "War on Drugs," race-based voter suppression, a path to citizenship and the fact that US policy has been a driver of immigration all around the world, reproductive rights, equal pay, a culture that suggests sexual assault is tolerable, and so on? If not talking about those things, or - worse - taking the opposite position is what it will take to win over a certain subset of the population, then that's just too bad.

[TheSmarterDog]

16. Changing demographics. Whites will be a minority in less than 5 yrs.

Which is why we need to push for voter registration reform.

[Cha]

34. Yes! "Which is why we need to push for voter registration reform."

The Democratic Platform

A snip or two ..

Protect Voting Rights, Fix Our Campaign Finance System, and Restore Our Democracy
□ Protecting Voting Rights
□ Fixing Our Broken Campaign Finance System
□ Appointing Judges
□ Securing Statehood for Washington, DC
□ Strengthening Management of Federal Government

Combat Climate Change, Build a Clean Energy Economy, and Secure Environmental Justice
□ Building a Clean Energy Economy
□ Securing Environmental and Climate Justice
□ Protecting Our Public Lands and Waters

Much More..
https://www.democrats.org/party-platform

[sharedvalues]

41. "Registration " itself is a voter suppression tool

Do you need to “register” to pay your taxes? No, the government finds you.

Should be the same for voting.

[Little Star]

58. Bingo!!!!!

[lordsummerisle]

71. Well put n/t

[Cha]

33. And, it's WRONG WRONG WRONG on all counts.

snip//

Ever since Donald J. Trump began his improbable political rise, many pundits have credited his appeal among white, Christian and male voters to “economic anxiety.” Hobbled by unemployment and locked out of the recovery, those voters turned out in force to send Mr. Trump, and a message, to Washington.

Or so that narrative goes.

A study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences questions that explanation, the latest to suggest that Trump voters weren’t driven by anger over the past, but rather fear of what may come.

White, Christian and male voters, the study suggests, turned to Mr. Trump because they felt their status was at risk.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/us/politics/trump-economic-anxiety.html

[scarletwoman]

7. Truly excellent! Thank you for posting this. nt

[MrScorpio]

8. White supremacy promotes white mediocrity over racial egalitarianism...

Last edited Fri Apr 27, 2018, 11:53 PM - Edit history (1)

And especially over black excellence.

Hence we end up with a man like Trump getting into the White House on the wave of a white-lash after having Obama as president.

Even in this day and age it’s just a little too much to ask of the white majority in this country to divest America of its legacy as a white utopia.

[ismnotwasm]

13. +infinity

[dalton99a]

17. +1

[True Blue American]

89. You put it right

First a superior black man, then a more than qualified white woman.

For many that affected their sense of superiority. You can see it at Trump’s rallies.

Look at those who are screaming,shouting and applauding.

[Garrett78]

10. Brilliant. Best piece I've read since asshole took office.

I've made the same case, but my hat's off to Mr. Grey.

[smirkymonkey]

11. Makes me sick.

[jcgoldie]

12. This is a great thread

I think its why the Trump election hit some of us so hard. The problem with Donald Trump being president isn't Donald Trump. That idiot is inept and can barely govern with a majority in both houses. He's a criminal that will go down in humiliation inevitably. But the real problem is the 40% of the population that put him there, most of which is steadfast and true no matter how hateful and embarrassing their leader is. The problem won't go away even with a blue wave in the coming elections. They will stew in that hate.

[sharedvalues]

42. If we break the propaganda machine, we can fix this

That 30-40% have the hate due to the GOP propaganda machine and it’s message of hate to promote greed.

And they still support the president because they are being lied to by the propaganda machine - right now.

If we can reduce the effects of GOP propaganda we can take back the country and reduce that hate.

The best way to do it is to tell everyone you know that watching Fox and listening to Limbaugh is unpatriotic. If you see Fox on in public, register your objection with the business owner. When talking to a GOP voter, don’t discuss politics, tell them about GOP propaganda and its purpose.

We can all do that right now.

[oberliner]

14. Romney got a higher percentage of the white vote than Trump

[BobTheSubgenius]

15. That was a brilliant thread of tweets.

Just an excellent exposition on exactly how the pieces fit together...and I believe it completely.

[RandomAccess]

18. Believe it or not, LBJ had this figured out way long time ago

[misanthrope]

24. He didn't have to figure it out

He had seen it in action his whole life, growing up with Jim Crow ruling the land of his birth. It couldn't have been more blatant.

[RandomAccess]

69. All right then, he ARTICULATED it.

There, is that better??


Sheesh.

[misanthrope]

70. I wasn't arguing with you

but reiterating LBJ's statement. He "figured out" those things by being immersed in it.

[a la izquierda]

36. That argument was made in the pre-war South. Nt

[paleotn]

86. Bingo.

It's been that way in the South for a long, long time. Something many to this day refuse to acknowledge or address.

[PaulX2]

19. Trump Everything Bad About America In One Body

Flaming scum.

[Puzzler]

23. Thanks for the full thread!

-Puzzler

[Honeycombe8]

25. He "won" because of Russia. nt

[misanthrope]

26. I can't disagree with any of that.

It parallels what I've observed.

[calimary]

27. Truly not pretty. And pretty doggone shameful.

[uponit7771]

28. K&R, Number 21 is explosive ... shows people would rather make less money and feel on top

... than make more more and feel on bottom.

Humans can be irrational.

[Cha]

31. And, brainwased humans via fuxnoise and hate radio...

forgedaboutit.

[uponit7771]

35. Yep, Fux Knus appeals to the lesser angles of human kind. I read this article and it confirms

... number 21's outcome which was asked multiple different ways during that Harvard study, similar results

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/why-we-compete/403201/

Looks like we humans are more competitive than I ever thought us to be

[Cha]

38. I'm glad I'm

not competitive like that anymore. I use to drive myself crazy.

thanks uponit

[Maeve]

46. I'd need a bit more info on that study

Maybe because I came of age in a time of inflation....if folks around me make twice what I do, what does that do to prices? Will I be unable to afford a house, because of market forces? Will I have to struggle to pay for essentials? That is what went thru my head when I read the set-up; that, and the thought that I could probably do more with the extra money than most folks, and I don't mean just for myself...I have to turn down a lot of charities I'd like to give to because I can't afford it.

Understand, I'm not arguing most of the points, just that one hit me as possibly off.

[John Fante]

51. You think the people who'd rather make $50k

were asking such complex, nuanced questions? I don't.

[Maeve]

52. They were students and faculity of Harvard

So, yeah, I do...I at least think ascribing motives to people should be done cautiously.

Look at it this way--how would youy answer if the question were "Do you want to have half as much to live on as everyone else or twice as much?" Do you think you'd say "half"?

[MarcA]

59. Agreed. That point was not very well thought out. n/t

[uponit7771]

67. The question took in account buying power and was asked in 3 different ways one of the

... ways was landing on another planet but with more buying power and the outcome was the same.

People value position a lot even without racial aspects

[treestar]

62. Truly an astounding finding.

It is all about feeling superior.

[Cha]

30. I've seen this meme ad nauseam.. it suits their agenda..

2. All too often I see the framing that “Hillary lost to the worst candidate in history.” But I think this framing has always been wrong, and it allows people to bypass a question that they don’t want to grapple with: why was Trump electorally viable to the degree that he was?

Totally ignoring Reality.

Trump Voters Driven by Fear of Losing Status, Not Economic Anxiety, Study Finds

snip//

Ever since Donald J. Trump began his improbable political rise, many pundits have credited his appeal among white, Christian and male voters to “economic anxiety.” Hobbled by unemployment and locked out of the recovery, those voters turned out in force to send Mr. Trump, and a message, to Washington.

Or so that narrative goes.

A study published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences questions that explanation, the latest to suggest that Trump voters weren’t driven by anger over the past, but rather fear of what may come.

White, Christian and male voters, the study suggests, turned to Mr. Trump because they felt their status was at risk.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/us/politics/trump-economic-anxiety.html

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210532271

Not to mention the big damn elephant in the room..

We’re suing the Trump campaign and Russia.

snip//

"Today, the DNC is filing a civil lawsuit alleging that Russia perpetrated a brazen attack on American democracy during the 2016 election, and found a willing partner in the Trump campaign.

Here’s why: a major part of Russia’s attack on American democracy was the cyberattack on the DNC and theft of the DNC’s proprietary information. This stolen information was then released to the public by Russian agents and
WikiLeaks to damage the Democratic Party and influence the 2016 election.

We’re taking this action because we believe no one is above the law, and we must pursue every avenue of justice against those who engaged in this illegal activity against the DNC and our democracy. We must also prevent future attacks on our democracy, and that’s exactly what we’re doing today."

More.. https://medium.com/TheDemocrats/were-suing-the-trump-campaign-and-russia-72a6b76067e6



P.S. Just what I've been saying..

Now, putting together a lawsuit like this, with all the proper documentation, has taken some time. That’s why we’re filing it today, both to seek justice and to deter further attacks on our democracy.

Link to tweet

Mahalo, IT

[Squinch]

37. I agree with everything in this thread. However, though it does mention sexism, it would be

a mistake to underestimate the role sexism played in the decision of the republican voter. The voters for the republican president have an innate fear of people of color. White men see themselves losing their unearned advantages and becoming less and less able to compete with people of color in the economic sphere. But they have an innate hatred for women who are successful and competent, which Hillary is. It is a mistake to underestimate their desire to see her beaten, even if it was only at the ballot box.

[malthaussen]

50. GMTA. n/t

[Squinch]

60. .

[kacekwl]

40. I know racism is and always been alive and well

and the main reason people voted for trump. They try to hide behind jobs and the economy . I bet you couldn't get 10 people together who benefited from anything drumph has done . Unless you're way on the high side economically.

[IluvPitties]

45. White Privilege refuses to die.

[lindysalsagal]

48. Faux news doesn't make people racist: It makes racists feel good and righteous about hating.

It makes hate "christian" and honorable.

I agree that there are lots and lots of rich and middle-class racists: It's not the disenfranchised: It's the tribal brain that will never accept differrences. Some people are hard-wired to be racist. Having a beautiful, kind black man as their president proves they cannot move beyond their fear of the "other."

[hurple]

80. Not true

My dad has never been racist.

But, a few years ago started watching FoxNews, and now he's always, always going on some tears about those useless "African Americans" even so far as to say that term is ridulous and why can't they just stay happy being called "black".

I have watched it turn him over time, as he watched.

[malthaussen]

49. Point 16 is important.

It is counter-intuitive to those who do value merit, but a necessary consequence to one who values classification above all. The white supremacist is not supreme because he is more worthy, but because he is more white. (Of course, they will try all sorts of intellectual gymnastics to demonstrate that whiteness = superior merit because other classifications are innately inferior)

But I wonder what role misogyny plays, as well. All the reasons supporting White supremacy support Male supremacy. I note that when the country had a choice between an African-American male candidate for President, and a female, they went with the AA male. While many other factors surely applied to this choice, I also must note that when the selfsame female was the candidate for President, the unqualified white male secured the election (through whatever means). The fact that the female won the popular vote by a handy majority is, in this case, irrelevant, as what I am wondering is how feeding Male supremacy might have nudged enough state totals towards an Electoral College superiority.


-- Mal

[ancianita]

57. Very. The "content of one's character" feature w/ Obama got thrown under the bus by Trump voters.

Last edited Sun Apr 29, 2018, 11:14 AM - Edit history (1)

I don't wonder about the role misogyny played. It cannot be ignored that across continents, determined men made sure the qualified female would lose. Nothing personal. Just male business. Misogyny = male essentialism (innate superiority).

[malthaussen]

90. When I say "I wonder,"

... I typically mean "I would like to see a statistical analysis."

-- Mal

[ancianita]

92. Good luck with that.

That analysis would have to establish then measure the criteria of deeply internalized intent.

Impossible.

Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow presented the legal fight up to the Supreme Court's ruling that defined all statistical analyses irrelevant in proving intent.


Doesn't make #16 any less important, though.

[bluestateboomer]

53. Excellent Analysis. N/T

[czarjak]

55. At least racism is dead though, huh?

[dchill]

61. Yep. K&R.

[lovemydogs]

63. There are several things that came together in a perfect storm

No one thing caused Trump to win.
There were several.
One of the big ones is whiteness. Many whites, especially older whites are in fear of Majority/minority.
It goes perfectly with scapegoating of latinos and the rising violent police state against african americans and the ongoing laws taking women's rights away with healthcare.
Many older whites are having nostalgia dreams over the way they think life was perfect when they were kids, not realizing that everything seems perfect as a kid no matter the era.
20 years of demonizing both Hillary and democrats hurt her badly
And the tv circus of Donald Trump all the time while never showing a Hillary event.

[Ferrets are Cool]

64. The three R's of winning an American election...

Racism, Russian hacking and Repugant's ignorance.

[Ninga]

65. Thank you so much. It's the best thing I've read in a long, long time.

Sending off to my net work!

[cadaverdog]

66. Respectfully disagree. I believe the REAL reason Trump was elected

was much simpler, and a lesson we need to heed. Following is a note I sent to Lawrence O'Donnell in July of 2017:

(snip) it seemed obvious to me that he won mostly because he was this outsized personality who came into people’s homes for over ten years with the Apprentice, which allowed him to earn a misplaced respect in the mind of millions of tv viewers. I think you can see where I’m going with this and all that follows from it. Yet I never heard any “talking head” seem to really pick up on it; any number of reasons for Clinton’s loss except the most obvious. Why did Arnold S. win the California governorship? Because he was a secret political genius? No, because he was the “Terminator.” (A senior student at Cal State Berkley was asked to sign a recall petition to remove Arnold from office. He replied, “Hell no, I want his autograph (signature) on my diploma!”) And if we invite boorish "billionaire" into our homes for ten years, he pretty much gets a pass on his behavior.

All of which brings me to yesterday’s edition of MTP Daily. Finally, a guest who gets it: Christopher Dickey of the Daily Beast. In 90 seconds he totally destroys the myth of President Trump. BAM! Again, this is the Monday, 7/17, edition at 14:00. I hope you find this interview of interest. It is so important that we not only bring down Trump, but do it in such a complete fashion that he will always be the poster boy for election stupidity. (end)

What follows is a transcript of the MTPDaily interview with Daily Beast writer Christopher Dickey, on 7/17/2017:

DICKEY: But I talked to a lot of people about why there is so much support
for Trump, and I think it`s – I think sometimes we miss the point. I
think it`s really important that he`s an entertainer. He`s not a
statesman. He`s not a politician.
He tweets about this is what any politician would do. He doesn`t know what
a politician would do. That`s not what he is.
[17:15:00] He is an entertainer. And I think people, many people in the
south and around the country, got used to him being in their living room
with “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice.” And, really, he`s no
different now than he was then.
But they`re familiar with it. They`re easy with it.
Whereas a politician who is telling them what to do, telling them that he
or she knows best, how they should run their lives. They`re not so easy
with that.
TUR: And they would bring up “The Apprentice” when I would ask them why
they liked Donald Trump. And they would say, he`s going to hire the best
people. Well, how do you know? Because he did so on “The Apprentice.”
So, that definitely resonated.
DICKEY: Yes. But that makes them sound maybe more stupid than they are.
TUR: No, no, no. No, no, no. I mean, it – no. It`s more like they
believe in the – in the person that he has put forth. This idea that he
is a very successful businessman. That he knows what he`s doing because
look at the empire that he`s built. And their best accessible example of
that was that show.
DICKEY: Yes. Well, it`s very interesting to contrast the European view of
him which is that he`s ignorant, incompetent, incontinent. That he`s just
a disaster. With that kind of point of view, what you`re talking about is
what we used to say down south. If you`re so smart, why ain`t you rich?
Well, he plays it the other way. I`m so rich, therefore, I`m so smart. (end)

And, yes, Lawrence did reply and said he agrees with me "completely", and although he had not seen the Dickey interview, he would check it out.

Now let's see if WE have learned anything from this experiment in Tinseltown government.

[bitterross]

68. It's LBJ's maxim.

17. Trump won the GOP primary and was propelled to the White House because a swath of white voters wanted to send this message to people of color after 8 years of a Black President who successfully governed: “The worst of us should still be given deference over the best of you.”

LBJ said it decades ago and he is still correct - unfortunately:

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." - LBJ

[jayschool2013]

72. "Bad Stories"

May I also suggest "Bad Stories: What the Hell Just Happened to Our Country?" by Steve Almond.

I can't read 34 successive tweets, but I can read an entire book. It's an old-person thang.

[NNadir]

76. Trump "won" because of an artifact in the US Constitution put there to protect slavery.

Three million people more than accepted him rejected him.

It's time to do away with the Electoral College which is still inappropriately protecting racists.

[Freddie]

79. this x1000

The asshole being POTUS is like getting out of a traffic ticket because the cop didn’t show up to traffic court. He’s there on a technicality.

[Freddie]

77. Sexism was a huge factor

One of my husbands co-workers, a guy in his mid-50s (not of the “little wife” generation) commented during the election “I don’t want to see that c*nt in the White House”. A certain group of people - way too many - are repulsed and threatened by a smart successful woman, especially if she is older. That’s why Nancy Pelosi is the bogeyman. I used to think I’d certainly see a woman president in my lifetime (I’m 61) now I’m not sure. Maybe my granddaughter will. She was 6 then and I was so looking forward to talking to her about how we finally have a female like ourselves in the WH.

[greatauntoftriplets]

78. Awesome post.

K&R. Bookmarking this.

[Hamlette]

88. Then who voted for McCain and Romney?

Although Obama won, McCain and Romney only received 2 or 3 million less than Trump. I suspect the same 60M who voted for those two voted for Trump. Did America become that much more racist after a black president? I fear I will go to my grave never figuring them out.