Don't be naive about calling Trump supporters racist

Page 1 of 4 [ 61 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2, 3, 4  Next

thoughtbeast
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Oct 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,337
Location: Scarlet Jungle of Krypton

21 Nov 2018, 2:18 am

Don’t Be Naive: Avoiding Calling Trump Supporters Racist Won’t Convince Them to Vote for Democrats

Quote:
I have a confession to make: I spent nearly two decades in a mostly white evangelical church in South Carolina. The staff was mostly white. The pastor was white. The music was, well, mostly white. My son and daughter, now 17 years old and 14 years old, respectively, were dedicated in that church. My wife’s literacy non-profit got a strong start at that church. I still have friends, black and white, who attend that church.

I say this to say that I know—intimately—the kind of Trump supporters the writer of this piece, “Calling Out Racist Voters Is Satisfying. But It Comes at a Political Cost,” is talking about. I know them personally, as well as professionally, given that I was also a leading journalist in that part of South Carolina for two decades. That’s why even though I sympathize with her point, I know it is wrongheaded and futile. There is no safe, or effective, way for a politician to skirt the issue of racism when it comes to white voters who might consider the Democratic Party if politicians did not point out their racism ...

... here’s a taste of her argument:

=====
Like it or not, the opinions of white voters matter, and politicians have to balance the validation that marginalized communities deserve against the anxieties of white voters. As Cheney-Rice noted, it’s frustrating that white voters’ sensitivity about being called racist often becomes a more central part of the national conversation than the actual consequences of experiencing racism. But the consequences of not considering white voters in one’s political messaging strategy are more than just frustrating. To millions of black and brown people, LGBTQ Americans, women, immigrants, and differently abled people, they are existential. In just the last two years, voting protections have been bulldozed, transgender rights stripped, and the deficit exploded on a tax giveaway to the rich — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If Democrats can’t win in 2020, things will only get worse.
=====

Gray acknowledges the well-documented racism that’s running rampant among Trump supporters, including those who may have voted for Barack Obama once, if not twice. She is clear-eyed that the issue needs to be confronted, in no uncertain terms, when it comes to racist dog whistles from politicians and the like. She even recently chided Bernie Sanders, a man she has defended several times over the past two years, for not being straightforward about racism in comments he made shortly after the midterms while discussing the performance of Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum. (Neither Abrams nor Gillum shied away from calling out racism. Though they didn’t win their respective races, they had strong showings in really difficult circumstances, given that each was trying to do something no one like them had ever done in Georgia and Florida.)

It’s just that Gray also seems convinced that making non-apologetic arguments about that racism—calling it how it is and for what it is—can lead to political defeat for Democrats, which could mean, as we’ve seen the past couple of years, the rollback of programs and policies that have helped level the playing field for people of color and others in this country. That’s why I’m sympathetic to her concerns because electoral outcomes matter and matter most to the most vulnerable among us. We should never forget that even while we remain clear-eyed about the Democratic Party’s many flaws.

I’m just not convinced that forcing politicians to moderate their frankness about racism will help more Democrats win. Why? Because I know the kinds of voters Gray believes will be moved by such tactics. I know they won’t be. I spent nearly two decades in that mostly white evangelical church, and during much of that time I defended them against charges of blanket racism, prayed with them, broke bread with them, spoke about the complexities of life with them.

And yet, when Donald Trump showed up in our area for well-attended rallies during the 2016 presidential primaries, they flocked to him and his open bigotry. Nothing I had said over those two decades meant a thing. Not even the killing of nine black people in a church a couple of counties over convinced them that rejecting the kind of bigotry Trump was espousing should be a priority for any right-thinking person—especially people who claimed they wanted equality for families like mine. We couldn’t even get a jury to convict a white cop of murdering a black man even though the killing was recorded on clear video—the cop shooting the black man in the back several times as the black man was running away.

They. Did. Not. Care. All that mattered was that Trump was saying things they wanted to hear. That’s it. And there’s nothing we can do about that. Does that mean they are irredeemable? That they are forever lost to those of us agitating for more justice, racial and otherwise? No, it doesn’t. But it definitely means they have to do the kind of soul-searching they have yet to commit to. And until that changes, nothing—and no one—can convince them to rethink the choices they’ve been making the past few years.

That’s the cold reality I had to learn the hard way, living as a black man in Trumpland. It would be unwise for Democrats to risk alienating their true base—which is the most diverse coalition of voters in U.S. history—by moderating their views on race to appease white voters who will choose to prioritize racial justice when they are good and ready, and not a day before—if ever.



LoveNotHate
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Oct 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,195
Location: USA

21 Nov 2018, 2:30 am

Obviously, you don't call people names, and expect them to listen to anything you have to say.

The link has another link that explains it.
https://theintercept.com/2018/11/18/ber ... st-voters/

Some human response: Proud to be a deplorable

So, what's the psychology of this?

Image


_________________
After a failure, the easiest thing to do is to blame someone else.


LoveNotHate
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Oct 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,195
Location: USA

21 Nov 2018, 2:52 am

Quora has Q/A on it ...though maybe someone else has a better explanation?

Why do most people resent being told what to do?
https://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-peopl ... what-to-do


_________________
After a failure, the easiest thing to do is to blame someone else.


thoughtbeast
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Oct 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,337
Location: Scarlet Jungle of Krypton

21 Nov 2018, 3:00 am

LoveNotHate wrote:
Obviously, you don't call people names, and expect them to listen to anything you have to say.

The link has another link that explains it.
https://theintercept.com/2018/11/18/ber ... st-voters/

Some human response: Proud to be a deplorable

So, what's the psychology of this?

Image



The author, Isaac J. Bailey, already responded to that nonsense supporting the appeasement of racist voters and pointed out its obvious flaws (emphases mine):

"I’m just not convinced that forcing politicians to moderate their frankness about racism will help more Democrats win. Why? Because I know the kinds of voters Gray believes will be moved by such tactics. I know they won’t be. I spent nearly two decades in that mostly white evangelical church, and during much of that time I defended them against charges of blanket racism, prayed with them, broke bread with them, spoke about the complexities of life with them.

And yet, when Donald Trump showed up in our area for well-attended rallies during the 2016 presidential primaries, they flocked to him and his open bigotry.
Nothing I had said over those two decades meant a thing. Not even the killing of nine black people in a church a couple of counties over convinced them that rejecting the kind of bigotry Trump was espousing should be a priority for any right-thinking person—especially people who claimed they wanted equality for families like mine. We couldn’t even get a jury to convict a white cop of murdering a black man even though the killing was recorded on clear video—the cop shooting the black man in the back several times as the black man was running away.

They. Did. Not. Care. All that mattered was that Trump was saying things they wanted to hear. That’s it. And there’s nothing we can do about that. Does that mean they are irredeemable? That they are forever lost to those of us agitating for more justice, racial and otherwise? No, it doesn’t. But it definitely means they have to do the kind of soul-searching they have yet to commit to. And until that changes, nothing—and no one—can convince them to rethink the choices they’ve been making the past few years.

That’s the cold reality I had to learn the hard way, living as a black man in Trumpland. It would be unwise for Democrats to risk alienating their true base—which is the most diverse coalition of voters in U.S. history—by moderating their views on race to appease white voters who will choose to prioritize racial justice when they are good and ready, and not a day before—if ever."



B19
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Jan 2013
Gender: Female
Posts: 9,993
Location: New Zealand

21 Nov 2018, 3:44 am

Trump's blatant defence of the neonazis and white supremacists at Charlottesville for whom he was a willing apologist did nothing to persuade me that he is not a blatant racist, nor did his shameful targeting of the not-white teenagers who faced false charges some time ago in New York (https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/10/ ... -park-five). Other examples are not hard to find, but those two will do.

If Trump isn't a blatant racist, then I'm a kumara (it's a kind of sweet potato). If supporters can't see Trump's racism, which he clearly shared with his late father, then their sight failure is a psychological, wilful blindness.

I am of the view that there will be many in his support ranks of the "I'm not a racist but" kind, where the but is always the giveaway of speaking with the proverbial forked tongue.

On the other hand there are bound to be some MAGAs who aren't particularly racist but are caught up in the cult-like MAGA trance where anything Trump says is true to them because they are part of the true believers, they see Trump as the redeemer of all their concerns, they appear to filter everything he does or says through a virulent cognitive bias. Some of this group really believe, no doubt, he is their swamp drainer, despite all objective evidence to the contrary.

However there will be some naive people who are just caught up in the mob fever at the weird rallies, who truly believe Trump's claim to love his "poorly educated little people" and get their high on being part of something, possibly more ignorant in terms of political chicanery than outright racist supporters.

Overall though, there is massive evidence that Trump deliberately plays to racists and so of course all the MAGAs are going to get somewhat tarred with the same brush. They may not be outright racists themselves, though they gleefully support those who are. Seen from an outsider observer, this looks like a cut from the same cloth, even if their cut is on the fringes of the cloth rather than the core substance of it.

Unfortunately right wing populism generally and racism tend to travel together like horse and cart, and the cart is loaded with an underbelly of racism that Trump manipulates in a very recognisable pattern of demonisation. Doing this in the USA, with its history, is like lobbing dynamite into a crowd.

If his followers can't see that at this late stage, then its not because they can't see, it's because they don't want to - and pretending it isn't there is a result of denial in the form of cognitive dissonance.

I haven't researched whether the greatest number of MAGA true believers tend to be residents of those states with a record for the most number of hate crimes committed against black people, though I suspect there may be such a link and if so, doubt it is merely coincidental.

100% of Trump supporters God forbid surely can't all be rabid racists, but it seems to me a safe bet that many are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_vi ... nald_Trump



thoughtbeast
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Oct 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,337
Location: Scarlet Jungle of Krypton

21 Nov 2018, 4:24 am

B19 wrote:
Trump's blatant defence of the neonazis and white supremacists at Charlottesville for whom he was a willing apologist did nothing to persuade me that he is not a blatant racist, nor did his shameful targeting of the not-white teenagers who faced false charges some time ago in New York (https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/10/ ... -park-five). Other examples are not hard to find, but those two will do.

If Trump isn't a blatant racist, then I'm a kumara (it's a kind of sweet potato). If supporters can't see Trump's racism, which he clearly shared with his late father, then their sight failure is a psychological, wilful blindness.

I am of the view that there will be many in his support ranks of the "I'm not a racist but" kind, where the but is always the giveaway of speaking with the proverbial forked tongue.

On the other hand there are bound to be some MAGAs who aren't particularly racist but are caught up in the cult-like MAGA trance where anything Trump says is true to them because they are part of the true believers, they see Trump as the redeemer of all their concerns, they appear to filter everything he does or says through a virulent cognitive bias. Some of this group really believe, no doubt, he is their swamp drainer, despite all objective evidence to the contrary.

However there will be some naive people who are just caught up in the mob fever at the weird rallies, who truly believe Trump's claim to love his "poorly educated little people" and get their high on being part of something, possibly more ignorant in terms of political chicanery than outright racist supporters.

Overall though, there is massive evidence that Trump deliberately plays to racists and so of course all the MAGAs are going to get somewhat tarred with the same brush. They may not be outright racists themselves, though they gleefully support those who are. Seen from an outsider observer, this looks like a cut from the same cloth, even if their cut is on the fringes of the cloth rather than the core substance of it.

Unfortunately right wing populism generally and racism tend to travel together like horse and cart, and the cart is loaded with an underbelly of racism that Trump manipulates in a very recognisable pattern of demonisation. Doing this in the USA, with its history, is like lobbing dynamite into a crowd.

If his followers can't see that at this late stage, then its not because they can't see, it's because they don't want to - and pretending it isn't there is a result of denial in the form of cognitive dissonance.

I haven't researched whether the greatest number of MAGA true believers tend to be residents of those states with a record for the most number of hate crimes committed against black people, though I suspect there may be such a link and if so, doubt it is merely coincidental.

100% of Trump supporters God forbid surely can't all be rabid racists, but it seems to me a safe bet that many are.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_vi ... nald_Trump


The situation is similar to that of the Confederate flag supporters. Decades ago, there used to be a group of them who saw the Confederate flag as a matter of southern pride and that's why there was the Dukes of Hazzard and the General Lee with the top of the car emblazoned with the Confederate flag. But even then (and actually long before that) there were racist elements who wanted to see the Confederate flag not just as a matter of southern pride but as a means of openly expressing hatred for blacks as a means of offending blacks, for opposing integration and so on.

Over the decades it has become the consensus that the racists successfully hijacked the Confederate flag (not that that was hard to do) and it is generally recognized now that anyone who displays it is a clear and open racist. Maybe out there somewhere is some lone southerner who sheds a tear for a lost symbol of southern pride, but the vast bulk of Confederate flag flyers are intense racists.

This is similar to the MAGAt caps; two-and-a-half years ago wearing a MAGAt cap didn't necessarily entail racism, although even then a significant percentage of wearers were racist. But as we've seen from the past election, which according to Trump was "all about him" as usual, the tide has significantly turned. Those who remain with Trump and continue to wear MAGAt caps are now far more likely to be racists and the MAGAt caps have themselves become symbols of expressing racist hatred. I'm guessing that someday that e-bay will prohibit their sale, for the same reason they prohibit selling nazi memorabilia. But America will have suffered much before it reaches that state, sad to say.



Biscuitman
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Mar 2013
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,665
Location: Dunking jammy dodgers

21 Nov 2018, 6:59 am

LoveNotHate wrote:
Obviously, you don't call people names, and expect them to listen to anything you have to say.

The link has another link that explains it.
https://theintercept.com/2018/11/18/ber ... st-voters/

Some human response: Proud to be a deplorable

So, what's the psychology of this?

Image


The mindset of someone with a 'proud to be deplorable' shirt is a baffling one

Hillary said deplorables were "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic - you name it". And now there are people who say they are proud they are like that?! :lol:

What a world we live in



Piobaire
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 Dec 2017
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,347
Location: Smackass Gap, NC

21 Nov 2018, 8:07 am

Quote:
100% of Trump supporters God forbid surely can't all be rabid racists, but it seems to me a safe bet that many are.


Certainly not all of those who voted for Trump are racist, but it is certainly true that all of those who voted for Donald Trump did so with full knowledge of and despite his frequent racist demagoguery, his history of racial discrimination in housing, and his tenacious "birtherism". On November 8th, they freely chose to vote for the candidate endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.

Certainly not all of those who voted for Trump are misogynistic, but it is certainly true that all of those who voted for Donald Trump did so with full knowledge of and despite his extensive and well-documented history of bragging about forcibly grabbing women by the crotch and forcibly kissing them with a Tic Tac, leering at 12 year olds; calling them "hot", sexualizing 1 year old infants; speculating about their breasts and legs, and of course repeatedly fantasizing about shagging his own daughter.
On November 8th, they freely chose to vote for a "Grab them by the p****!" male candidate with no experience at all (modern Presidents average 13 years in prior public service and 5.6 years of military service) over a woman with 45 years governmental experience.

Certainly not all of those who voted for Trump are bigots, but it is certainly true that all of those who voted for Donald Trump did so with full knowledge of and despite his frequent demonizing of Muslims. On November 8th, they freely chose to vote for the candidate who repeatedly stated his intention to go to war (and commit war crimes pursuant to the 4th Geneva Convention) against 1.6 billion people; 23% of the people of Earth, and to abrogate the First and Fourteenth Amendments, suspend Habeas Corpus, and round up 3.3 million American citizens and put them into concentration camps based solely upon their religion.

Certainly not all of those who voted for Trump are Fascists, but it is certainly true that all of those who voted for Donald Trump did so with full knowledge of and despite his consistent espousal rigid authoritarianism, primitive nativism, rabid nationalism, aggressive militarism, a smirking disdain for democracy, the intelligentsia, and human rights, scapegoating of minorities, suppression of dissent and the press, naked encouragement of political violence, the seamless merger of corporate and State interests, overt racism, homophobia, xenophobia, religious bigotry, and misogyny. On November 8th, they freely chose to vote for the candidate endorsed by neo-Nazis.

I could go on at considerable length, but for brevity's sake I'll assume that you get the idea. I do not believe that these are minor differences of tastes, opinion, or expressions of mere tribalism like Raiders v. 49ers or preferences in pizza toppings. These are very profound differences of fundamental values and a dark, violent misanthropic vision of America which presents a real and immediate threat and has the very real potential to inflict grievous harm upon millions of human beings and the ecosphere itself. So, regardless of why someone voted for Trump, these are the people they have chosen to support and inflict upon the rest of us, and I for one will never let them forget it.



superaliengirl
Toucan
Toucan

Joined: 20 Mar 2018
Gender: Female
Posts: 289
Location: Scandinavia

21 Nov 2018, 8:16 am

I've never met anyone who likes Trump who also isn't a racist and has lots of prejudices against anyone who's non-white.
I'm not too involved in politics in general but I think that says something.



Magna
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jun 2018
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,932

21 Nov 2018, 8:26 am

Biscuitman wrote:
Hillary said deplorables were "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic - you name it". And now there are people who say they are proud they are like that?! :lol:

What a world we live in


I don't understand your logic here. Because Hillary said it it makes it so?

Illustration with any celebrity removed:

Manfred Marfelton said that anyone who likes drinking milk is a racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic - you name it. And now there are people who say they are proud they are like that (milk drinkers)?! Illogical.



thoughtbeast
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Oct 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,337
Location: Scarlet Jungle of Krypton

21 Nov 2018, 8:43 am

Magna wrote:
Biscuitman wrote:
Hillary said deplorables were "racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic - you name it". And now there are people who say they are proud they are like that?! :lol:

What a world we live in


I don't understand your logic here. Because Hillary said it it makes it so?

Illustration with any celebrity removed:

Manfred Marfelton said that anyone who likes drinking milk is a racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic - you name it. And now there are people who say they are proud they are like that (milk drinkers)?! Illogical.



Way to take something out of context.

He preceded that with:

"The mindset of someone with a 'proud to be deplorable' shirt is a baffling one"



Magna
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Jun 2018
Gender: Male
Posts: 6,932

21 Nov 2018, 8:54 am

Ok I think I see where you're coming from:

Hillary said "deplorables" (Trump supporters) were "ists" et al.

So when a person might say they are proud to be a "deplorable" meaning they are a proud supporter of Trump, you're thinking that they must mean they're proud to be "ist" et al because Hillary spoketh and made it so.

Got it. :roll: :roll:



Fnord
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 May 2008
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 59,750
Location: Stendec

21 Nov 2018, 9:04 am

Trump Hater: "You are a racist!" :evil:

Trump Lover: "You say that like it's a bad thing." :roll:



ASPartOfMe
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Aug 2013
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 34,245
Location: Long Island, New York

21 Nov 2018, 9:48 am

Back in early 2016 I used to argue with a now banned member that Trump was marketing himself to bigots. In the end is does not matter if he is personally a racist or just blantently appeals to them he has enabled some to create violence and normalized things that should not have bern normalized.

The priority is about being as smart as possible to ensure Trump does not get reelected and if he is defeated a smarter authoritarian does not at some point replace him.

In 2016 few believed Trump would be elected and even the most pessimistic believed if somehow he was elected the office would tone him down. In 2020 these misconceptions will not exist. So he reasonably not should be relected and the Democrates should easily take the Senate because the numbers will not be against them.

The way this sure thing could become not a sure thing if not in is the way it was blown in 2016 have non hardcore voters come to believe both sides are lunitics. The “basket of deplorables” remarks combined with her persona did Trump’s job for him.

Now and going forward saying Trump appeals to bigots or is a bigot is stateing something that non hardcore Trump people already know about him, hardcore pro Trump people either like about him, don’t care about, or can’t be convinced about. There is no political gain in stating it. Indeed in the 2018 blue wave the vast majority of Democratic candidates learned their lesson avoiding deplorables rhetoric and even avoided talking about impeachment and investigations. There were a lot of women candidates but many of them were veterans who would appeal to for lack of a better term moderates. Even the Bernie socialist wing for the most part avoided SJW rhetoric and tactics. It worked.

The democrats will probabaly win in 2020 even if they go full on SJW because Trump will a sure thing unlike them and they would be the lesser of two nightmares. But if Trump loses he is out of the picture, and they are the “lunitic” governing party. Waiting in the wings will be a smart authoritarian who can still appeal to the bigots, convince the middle he or she is the reasonable one and once elected be more skilled then Trump in undermining checks and balances. Even if said person is not a candidate or does not get elected said person could lead or enable more deadly and crippling terrorism.


_________________
Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman


Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 21 Nov 2018, 11:21 am, edited 4 times in total.

thoughtbeast
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Oct 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,337
Location: Scarlet Jungle of Krypton

21 Nov 2018, 10:00 am

(September 2016) Yes, half of Trump supporters are racist

Quote:
Hillary Clinton may have been unwise to say half of Donald Trump's supporters are racists and other "deplorables." But she wasn't wrong.

If anything, when it comes to Trump's racist support, she might have low-balled the number.


Trump, speaking to the National Guard Association of the United States' annual conference here Monday afternoon, proclaimed himself "deeply shocked and alarmed" about Clinton putting half of his supporters in the "basket of deplorables" — as if anybody, especially Trump, could be shocked by anything this late in the campaign. How dare she, Trump said, "attack, slander, smear, demean these wonderful, amazing people."

But this isn't a matter of gratuitous name-calling. This election has proved that there is much more racism in America than many believed. It came out of hiding in opposition to the first African-American president, and it has been welcomed into the open by Trump.

The American National Election Studies, the long-running, extensive poll of American voters, asked voters in 2012 a basic test of prejudice: to rank black and white people on a scale from hardworking to lazy and from intelligent to unintelligent. The researchers found that 62 percent of white people gave black people a lower score in at least one of the attributes. This was a jump in prejudicial attitudes from 2008, when 45 percent of white people expressed negative stereotypes.

Republican Mitt Romney won 61 percent of those who expressed negative stereotypes. And, when the question was asked during the 2008 primaries, those with negative racial stereotypes consistently favored Republican candidates — any of them — over any Democratic candidate in hypothetical matchups.

Clinton's infelicitous "basket of deplorables" phrase takes its place alongside Romney's "binders full of women" in the awkward pantheon and could only have been devised by a woman who previously gave the world "ladders of opportunity." But for the large number of racists drawn to Trump, the shoe fits.

Research by Washington Post pollsters and by University of California at Irvine political scientist Michael Tesler, among others, have found that Trump does best among Americans who express racial animus. Evidence indicates fear that white people are losing ground was the single greatest predictor of support for Trump — more, even, than economic anxiety.


Few people embrace the "racist" label, so let's help them. If you are "very enthusiastic" about a candidate who has based his campaign on scapegoating immigrants, Latinos and African-Americans, talked of banning Muslims from the country, hesitated to disown the Ku Klux Klan and employed anti-Semitic imagery — well, you might be a racist. But if you are holding your nose and supporting Trump only because you think him better than Clinton, that doesn't put you in the basket.

The new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds the two groups roughly equal: Forty-six percent of Trump supporters say they are "very enthusiastic" about his candidacy. The rest were "somewhat" or not terribly enthusiastic.

There were mostly the latter at the National Guard gathering in Baltimore. Donny Crandell, a pastor from Nevada who serves as a National Guard chaplain, figured the audience was 70-30 for Trump, but with few of the "deplorables." Said Crandell: "I don't think you'll find a lot of military types who are core Trump fans. They just like him better than her." That includes Crandell, who backed Ted Cruz and would prefer Marco Rubio to Trump, whose "meanness" offends Crandell. "But he's the choice we have," the chaplain told me.

Trump, on stage, rejected any notion of racism, saying people who want secure borders "are not racists," people who warn of "radical Islamic terrorism are not Islamophobes" and people who support police "are not prejudiced." But moments later, he repeated the campaign slogan he borrowed from an anti-Semitic organization that opposed involvement in World War II.

"America First — remember that," he said. "America First."

That's deplorable.



roronoa79
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 22 Jan 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,174
Location: Indiana

21 Nov 2018, 11:20 am

Trump supporters: Sure, opposing bigotry is important, but is it really more important than lowering my taxes?


_________________
Diagnoses: AS, Depression, General & Social Anxiety
I guess I just wasn't made for these times.
- Brian Wilson

Δυνατὰ δὲ οἱ προύχοντες πράσσουσι καὶ οἱ ἀσθενεῖς ξυγχωροῦσιν.
Those with power do what their power permits, and the weak can only acquiesce.

- Thucydides