AUUSN 823 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Outstanding article! For all of his buffoonery about “telling it like it is,” Donald Trump is the most politically correct and cowardly candidate in the presidential race. If he actually had the strength to articulate uncomfortable and inconvenient truths, he would turn his favorite word – “loser” – not on full-time professionals in the press, but on his supporters.The New York Times recently ran a report on “Trump geography,” seeking to solve one of the most bizarre mysteries of modern political history: Why do people support Donald Trump, and who are these people? Journalists found that in the counties where Trump is most dominant, there are large numbers of white high school dropouts, and unemployed people no longer looking for work. An alliance with the incoherent personality cult of Donald Trump’s candidacy correlates strongly with failure to obtain a high school diploma, and withdrawal from the labor force. The counties also have a consistent history of voting for segregationists, and have an above average percentage of its residents living in mobile homes. Many conservatives, and even some kindhearted liberals, might object to the conclusions one can draw from the data as stereotyping, but the empirical evidence leaves little choice. Donald Trump’s supporters confirm the stereotype against them. The candidate himself even acknowledged the veracity of the caricature of his “movement” when he made the odd and condescending claim, “I love the poorly educated.” His affection for illiteracy and ignorance did not extend to himself or any of his children, all of whom have degrees from some of the best universities in the world. The low-educated, low-income counties of Trump’s America also receive large sums of public assistance. Social Security fraud – seeking disability payments for minor injuries or conditions – is so rampant that attorneys have created a cottage industry out of offering to secure services for clients willing to pay a one-time fee for longtime subsidy. Much discussion and analysis followed the revelation that for the first time in decades the life expectancy for middle-aged white men is declining. Another study shows that Trump easily wins the counties and cities where this reversal of the national trend – rising life expectancy – is happening. Scrutiny shows that much of the failure to take advantage of advancement in medical technology and healthcare availability results from working-class white men’s high rates of alcoholism, obesity and tobacco use. Widespread poverty throughout the heartland and Southern United States is a lamentable social problem, but even in the best economic conditions, and under the friendliest government policies, the career options for high school dropouts will forever remain few and poor. Rather than accepting some “personal responsibility” – a favorite conservative concept – for their low standard of living and destructive lifestyle, the wrongly romanticized white working class is flocking to a candidate who allows them to blame other people for their problems. Their poor health is not the result of a pack a day habit and fatty diet, just as their financial misery has nothing to do with their rejection of education. It is all because of those damn Mexicans coming up from the border, the Chinese villains overseas, or the Muslim immigrant illegally occupying the Oval Office. Never mind that illegal immigrants comprise a mere 3.5 percent of the population, and that most of them are concentrated in six states, a “big, beautiful wall” will cure all the ills of a high school dropout no longer applying for jobs. Kevin Williamson of the National Review recently wrote an essay identifying some of the personal problems of Trump supporters, and members of the right-wing media immediately slipped into fits. Once they finished wiping the foam from their mouths, they condemned Williamson for his “snobbery” and “elitism,” but as Williamson suggested in a follow-up article, his critics never explained how any of his information or argumentation was flawed. Donald Trump’s celebration of the “poorly educated,” conservative commentators’ indignation at Williamson, and even the mainstream media’s continued characterization of Trump’s supporters as victims of “failed government policy” or “cracks in the economy” expose the Republican Party and powerful parts of the press as facilitators and enablers of America’s worst historical sin: racism. The inconsistency and hypocrisy evident in the right-wing portrayal of poverty, and even in the softer version of the mainstream media’s differing depiction of poor people, is overwhelming. The black, urban poor are lazy parasites who need to get it together, study longer and work harder, but the unemployed and uneducated white people empowering Trump’s vulgarity and bigotry are helpless victims of large economic conspiracies. Personal responsibility, it would appear, is only applicable to the lives of black people. Trump supporters on public aid believe that they are the exceptions to their anti-government ideology, and Trump allows them to wallow in self-pity and racism. In Illinois, xenophobia and stupidity joined forces to actually hurt the Republican front-runner. Voting for a primary presidential candidate in Illinois requires voters to select delegates, rather than vote directly for the politician. Each delegate has his or her corresponding candidate’s name in parentheses, but even so, many Trump supporters refused to vote for Trump delegates with the names, Nabi Fakroddin and Raja Sadiq. The imbecility of Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” provokes the question, “Make America great again for whom?” At no point in American history was there a greater amount of liberty and opportunity for blacks, women, gays and Latinos. Together those groups form a gigantic swath of the population, but apparently, they are not included in the calculus of Trump and his supporters. Trump himself recently spoke out of both sides of his mouth when he said that a young black gentleman at the Chicago fiasco, who was better dressed and better groomed than the Trump supporters at the rally, was a “bum” who should “get a job.” Trump’s entire campaign is predicated on the phony populism of American recovery from third-world status. His out-of-work white constituency is in desperate need of his artistic deal making, but the black protestor is just lazy. While it is far from perfect, the truth is that the American economy is doing rather well. Unemployment has dropped in half since the black Muslim became president, the housing market has begun to come back, gas prices are significantly lower, GDP rates are decent, and the United States has experienced 72 consecutive months of private sector job growth. The failure of the recovery to penetrate the lives of high school dropouts who have stopped filling out job applications is not evidence that the “American dream is dead” or that “America is going to hell,” as Trump often puts it with characteristically inspirational rhetoric. He is able to make his gullible supporters believe him, however, and that is all that really matters to his campaign. Never in the history of American politics has a candidate been so far apart from his constituency. Donald Trump is an Ivy League-educated, billionaire real estate developer living in Manhattan with his supermodel wife. His lifestyle is a distant fantasy to his voters, and it seems unlikely that, in any other context, Trump would ever share a room with any of them. He is running a con. “I love the poorly educated” makes sense, because the ability to see through the sophisticated bull**** of confidence men is one benefit, among many, of a good education. http://www.salon.com...him_right_back/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,354 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Hah. Beat me to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Tiger 4,261 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,354 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Possibly, but the supporters of Trump were actually researched. And there are only so many uneducated losers to go around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Tiger 4,261 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Possibly, but the supporters of Trump were actually researched.---all the millions of them? And there are only so many uneducated losers to go around.----so in your elitist mind, anyone who is not educated is a loser? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUUSN 823 Posted March 21, 2016 Author Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Read the article. Here..Widespread poverty throughout the heartland and Southern United States is a lamentable social problem, but even in the best economic conditions, and under the friendliest government policies, the career options for high school dropouts will forever remain few and poor. Rather than accepting some “personal responsibility” – a favorite conservative concept – for their low standard of living and destructive lifestyle, the wrongly romanticized white working class is flocking to a candidate who allows them to blame other people for their problems. Their poor health is not the result of a pack a day habit and fatty diet, just as their financial misery has nothing to do with their rejection of education. It is all because of those damn Mexicans coming up from the border, the Chinese villains overseas, or the Muslim immigrant illegally occupying the Oval Office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,354 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Possibly, but the supporters of Trump were actually researched.---all the millions of them? And there are only so many uneducated losers to go around.----so in your elitist mind, anyone who is not educated is a loser? Millions? No, but most losers are uneducated which is primarily their own fault. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Tiger 4,261 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Possibly, but the supporters of Trump were actually researched.---all the millions of them? And there are only so many uneducated losers to go around.----so in your elitist mind, anyone who is not educated is a loser? Millions? No, but most losers are uneducated which is primarily their own fault. Do you have data to back that up or is it just your opinion? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,354 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Possibly, but the supporters of Trump were actually researched.---all the millions of them? And there are only so many uneducated losers to go around.----so in your elitist mind, anyone who is not educated is a loser? Millions? No, but most losers are uneducated which is primarily their own fault. Do you have data to back that up or is it just your opinion.? You seriously need documentation to accept that statement? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Tiger 4,261 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Possibly, but the supporters of Trump were actually researched.---all the millions of them? And there are only so many uneducated losers to go around.----so in your elitist mind, anyone who is not educated is a loser? Millions? No, but most losers are uneducated which is primarily their own fault. Do you have data to back that up or is it just your opinion.? You seriously need documentation to accept that statement? Absolutely YES. You are the one always big on data and facts so back your statement up or just say it's your opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AURaptor 1,121 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 Yes, look at the very worst examples and then hold them up as " typical " supporters. Obama phone lady ? Oh, she was rare, random and a clear indictment on the RACISM inherent with anyone opposed to Obama. But w/ Trump? The low-educated, low-income counties of Trump’s America also receive large sums of public assistance. Social Security fraud – seeking disability payments for minor injuries or conditions – is so rampant that attorneys have created a cottage industry out of offering to secure services for clients willing to pay a one-time fee for longtime subsidy. Sounds a lot like ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUFAN78 3,890 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Possibly, but the supporters of Trump were actually researched.---all the millions of them? And there are only so many uneducated losers to go around.----so in your elitist mind, anyone who is not educated is a loser? Millions? No, but most losers are uneducated which is primarily their own fault. Many of our inner city children drop out of school for a variety of reasons. They may not be as educated as some, but I would not consider them losers. They are victims of a system that is failing them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mims44 1,864 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Read the article. Here..Widespread poverty throughout the heartland and Southern United States is a lamentable social problem, but even in the best economic conditions, and under the friendliest government policies, the career options for high school dropouts will forever remain few and poor. Rather than accepting some “personal responsibility” – a favorite conservative concept – for their low standard of living and destructive lifestyle, the wrongly romanticized white working class is flocking to a candidate who allows them to blame other people for their problems. Their poor health is not the result of a pack a day habit and fatty diet, just as their financial misery has nothing to do with their rejection of education. It is all because of those damn Mexicans coming up from the border, the Chinese villains overseas, or the Muslim immigrant illegally occupying the Oval Office. That would be way away from my experiences. Most dropouts support Sanders, and a few hillary fans, cruz, etc... The trump fans I know have good jobs... though no matter how much I talk to them I can not understand why the **** they like trump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUFAN78 3,890 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Read the article. Here..Widespread poverty throughout the heartland and Southern United States is a lamentable social problem, but even in the best economic conditions, and under the friendliest government policies, the career options for high school dropouts will forever remain few and poor. Rather than accepting some “personal responsibility” – a favorite conservative concept – for their low standard of living and destructive lifestyle, the wrongly romanticized white working class is flocking to a candidate who allows them to blame other people for their problems. Their poor health is not the result of a pack a day habit and fatty diet, just as their financial misery has nothing to do with their rejection of education. It is all because of those damn Mexicans coming up from the border, the Chinese villains overseas, or the Muslim immigrant illegally occupying the Oval Office. That would be way away from my experiences. Most dropouts support Sanders, and a few hillary fans, cruz, etc... The trump fans I know have good jobs... though no matter how much I talk to them I can not understand why the **** they like trump. Away from my experiences too, but admittedly, I don't hang out with white high school dropouts on the government dime.As for the aforementioned inner city dropouts, those of legal voting age and their families are voting for Hilary. The article is nothing more than a partisan political hit piece and not entirely accurate. Like it or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AU_Tiger_88 417 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Read the article. Here..Widespread poverty throughout the heartland and Southern United States is a lamentable social problem, but even in the best economic conditions, and under the friendliest government policies, the career options for high school dropouts will forever remain few and poor. Rather than accepting some “personal responsibility” – a favorite conservative concept – for their low standard of living and destructive lifestyle, the wrongly romanticized white working class is flocking to a candidate who allows them to blame other people for their problems. Their poor health is not the result of a pack a day habit and fatty diet, just as their financial misery has nothing to do with their rejection of education. It is all because of those damn Mexicans coming up from the border, the Chinese villains overseas, or the Muslim immigrant illegally occupying the Oval Office. That would be way away from my experiences. Most dropouts support Sanders, and a few hillary fans, cruz, etc... The trump fans I know have good jobs... though no matter how much I talk to them I can not understand why the **** they like trump. I have seen some local interviews and the folks down here were mainly saying that they can't stand the status quo and in the last round elected folks who were supposed to shake things up in DC but didn't so they are hoping trump will. They may not like him as a person but consider it a protest vote to the establishment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeBags7277 734 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 There's a ton of aging, lily-white fuddy-duddies I know who support Trump, and the reasons why are plainly obvious to those who wish to see, so I'll leave them out. Out of those I know who are <45, almost without exception the Trump supporters I know: did not make above a C average in high school showed little initiative in terms of career advancement- tech school, 4 year degree, or otherwise made poor life decisions in their childhood and continued making them into adulthood frequently run into easily avoidable financial problems had children out of wedlock, aforementioned self inflicted educational issues, and refuse to work full time- three characteristics that are well established, near guarantee make or break in terms of whether one does or doesn;t live in poverty. But an orange man from Manhattan with tiny hands and a disdain for basic human decency says it's all because of Mexico, China, and Muslims, and they just eat it up and drag the rest of us along with the sheer power of numbers. Democracy sucks. There, I said it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,354 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Possibly, but the supporters of Trump were actually researched.---all the millions of them? And there are only so many uneducated losers to go around.----so in your elitist mind, anyone who is not educated is a loser? Millions? No, but most losers are uneducated which is primarily their own fault. Do you have data to back that up or is it just your opinion.? You seriously need documentation to accept that statement? Absolutely YES. You are the one always big on data and facts so back your statement up or just say it's your opinion. OK, you got me. Most people who drop out of high school are roaring successes financially speaking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,354 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Possibly, but the supporters of Trump were actually researched.---all the millions of them? And there are only so many uneducated losers to go around.----so in your elitist mind, anyone who is not educated is a loser? Millions? No, but most losers are uneducated which is primarily their own fault. Many of our inner city children drop out of school for a variety of reasons. They may not be as educated as some, but I would not consider them losers. They are victims of a system that is failing them. OK, "victims" if you prefer. :-\ They are victims of their own families, environment and culture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,354 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Read the article. Here..Widespread poverty throughout the heartland and Southern United States is a lamentable social problem, but even in the best economic conditions, and under the friendliest government policies, the career options for high school dropouts will forever remain few and poor. Rather than accepting some “personal responsibility” – a favorite conservative concept – for their low standard of living and destructive lifestyle, the wrongly romanticized white working class is flocking to a candidate who allows them to blame other people for their problems. Their poor health is not the result of a pack a day habit and fatty diet, just as their financial misery has nothing to do with their rejection of education. It is all because of those damn Mexicans coming up from the border, the Chinese villains overseas, or the Muslim immigrant illegally occupying the Oval Office. That would be way away from my experiences. Most dropouts support Sanders, and a few hillary fans, cruz, etc... The trump fans I know have good jobs... though no matter how much I talk to them I can not understand why the **** they like trump. I have seen some local interviews and the folks down here were mainly saying that they can't stand the status quo and in the last round elected folks who were supposed to shake things up in DC but didn't so they are hoping trump will. They may not like him as a person but consider it a protest vote to the establishment. Does that sound like an intelligent decision to you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AU_Tiger_88 417 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Read the article. Here..Widespread poverty throughout the heartland and Southern United States is a lamentable social problem, but even in the best economic conditions, and under the friendliest government policies, the career options for high school dropouts will forever remain few and poor. Rather than accepting some “personal responsibility” – a favorite conservative concept – for their low standard of living and destructive lifestyle, the wrongly romanticized white working class is flocking to a candidate who allows them to blame other people for their problems. Their poor health is not the result of a pack a day habit and fatty diet, just as their financial misery has nothing to do with their rejection of education. It is all because of those damn Mexicans coming up from the border, the Chinese villains overseas, or the Muslim immigrant illegally occupying the Oval Office. That would be way away from my experiences. Most dropouts support Sanders, and a few hillary fans, cruz, etc... The trump fans I know have good jobs... though no matter how much I talk to them I can not understand why the **** they like trump. I have seen some local interviews and the folks down here were mainly saying that they can't stand the status quo and in the last round elected folks who were supposed to shake things up in DC but didn't so they are hoping trump will. They may not like him as a person but consider it a protest vote to the establishment. Does that sound like an intelligent decision to you? The better question is Do I care why people vote for trump or their reasons? But is seems to bother the heck out of you and others on this board. I really don't care why people vote the way they do as it is a personal choice that everyone that participates has to come to grips with why they voted the way they do... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,354 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 I guess the idiots who are supporting Trump are the leftie version of the idiots supporting Hillary Read the article. Here..Widespread poverty throughout the heartland and Southern United States is a lamentable social problem, but even in the best economic conditions, and under the friendliest government policies, the career options for high school dropouts will forever remain few and poor. Rather than accepting some “personal responsibility” – a favorite conservative concept – for their low standard of living and destructive lifestyle, the wrongly romanticized white working class is flocking to a candidate who allows them to blame other people for their problems. Their poor health is not the result of a pack a day habit and fatty diet, just as their financial misery has nothing to do with their rejection of education. It is all because of those damn Mexicans coming up from the border, the Chinese villains overseas, or the Muslim immigrant illegally occupying the Oval Office. That would be way away from my experiences. Most dropouts support Sanders, and a few hillary fans, cruz, etc... The trump fans I know have good jobs... though no matter how much I talk to them I can not understand why the **** they like trump. I have seen some local interviews and the folks down here were mainly saying that they can't stand the status quo and in the last round elected folks who were supposed to shake things up in DC but didn't so they are hoping trump will. They may not like him as a person but consider it a protest vote to the establishment. Does that sound like an intelligent decision to you? The better question is Do I care why people vote for trump or their reasons? But is seems to bother the heck out of you and others on this board. I really don't care why people vote the way they do as it is a personal choice that everyone that participates has to come to grips with why they voted the way they do... Well, it does "bother the heck" out of me. I love and appreciate my country. The Trump phenomenon reflects a dumbing down of the electorate beyond what I thought possible. It's as if reality TV has become actual reality. It just confirms that there is absolutely no reason to believe The Great American Experiment was nothing more than a flash in the pan of history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexava 6,973 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 It is weird how Trump is able to combine hate for Mexicans, Muslims and Chinese into support from this base. They are three separate arguments and are basically unrelated as their effect on the economy. The Chinese "villains" are not to blame. It's the business owners such as Trump himself that are sellouts. Most of the people I know supporting him also supported the confederate flag "ban" a few months ago. Without the bigotry the economic policies would not be heard or well received. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,354 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 It is weird how Trump is able to combine hate for Mexicans, Muslims and Chinese into support from this base. They are three separate arguments and are basically unrelated as their effect on the economy. The Chinese "villains" are not to blame. It's the business owners such as Trump himself that are sellouts. Most of the people I know supporting him also supported the confederate flag "ban" a few months ago. Without the bigotry the economic policies would not be heard or well received. No one knows what his actual policies are, assuming he even has any. If he actually implies a policy, he refutes it the next day. He is simply appealing to emotions and people are filling in the substance with their own imagination. He's about as specific as a Rorsach test. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexava 6,973 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 It is weird how Trump is able to combine hate for Mexicans, Muslims and Chinese into support from this base. They are three separate arguments and are basically unrelated as their effect on the economy. The Chinese "villains" are not to blame. It's the business owners such as Trump himself that are sellouts. Most of the people I know supporting him also supported the confederate flag "ban" a few months ago. Without the bigotry the economic policies would not be heard or well received. No one knows what his actual policies are, assuming he even has any. If he actually implies a policy, he refutes it the next day. He is simply appealing to emotions and people are filling in the substance with their own imagination. He's about as specific as a Rorsach test. yep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,354 Posted March 21, 2016 Share Posted March 21, 2016 And then there's the lying. People who are obsessed with Clinton's supposed lying don't seem to mind when it comes to Trump: And of course there are the lies. Politico Magazine tallied more than 60 in a week of Trump appearances. At a rally in Boca Raton, Florida, on March 13, I heard him utter at least two bald untruths in the first two minutes of his speech (he said there were 25,000 people at his Chicago rally when the arena holds fewer than 10,000, and then he repeated the falsehood that no one had been injured at the event). But journalists I talked to who continue to report the lies as such don’t feel their efforts have much effect. “How many times can you write that the same statement is untrue?” mused one reporter. “At some point, the lie stops being news.” And debunking a claim doesn’t stop Trump from making it again. The hokum washes over you after a while. A reporter sitting next to me at the Saturday rally in Cleveland chuckled when Trump bragged there were 29,000 people in the room. “That can’t be remotely possible,” she said, lifting her head for a moment to assess the crowd, then giving up and returning her gaze to her laptop. A fire marshal later announced the attendance had been about 7,000. The lie, though, never made it into her piece. Why bother to spend the time and column space to correct a silly exaggeration, when this same man has said he might want to summarily execute enemy combatants and defile their bodies? You need to pick your battles. “We used to fact-check everything, every day,” another reporter told me, “but it gets hard to keep up.” For a writer filing on deadline an hour after a rally ends, there’s not enough time to thoroughly fact-check the dozens of fabrications that spilled from the stage. It’s also hard to know who the fact-checking is for. At this point, anyone who hates Trump has ample evidence he’s a liar. And anyone who loves Trump doesn’t care. http://www.slate.com...ress_corps.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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