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bijouxbroussard · F
It would seem counterintuitive that the second choice of people who supported the most left leaning candidate would be the representative of the far right.
sarabee1995 · 26-30, FVIP
@bijouxbroussard: Well, it is counter-intuitive only if you fall victim to this "left-right" perspective of our political landscape. "Populism" has a home among both liberals and conservatives. Just as with any political issue (abortion, race relations, guns, etc) there are people who look at all issues and there are people who are single-issue voters where one issue is supreme to all others (nothing wrong with this, btw).
Well, if a populist movement is your #1 issue that "trumps" all others, then Bernie would have likely been your primary choice because Hillary is completely wrapped up in the Washington establishment and Wall Street money and globalism. On the right side, Trump was singing the very same populist message so when Bernie got cheated out of a fair contest, many of his supporters from the unions and other domestic labor sympathetic voters heard Trump's populist jobs message and jumped right to him.
Those Trump votes had nothing to do with things like the 2nd amendment or immigration or race relations or sexism or any of that. Those votes were about making fair trade deals that allow us to keep some jobs here. So we cannot assume that every Trump voter was in agreement with everything he said. And we shouldn't "unfriend" people because of a vote.
You know my thoughts on both Trump & Clinton. Neither should have been allowed to run for dog catcher. My primary vote went to Bernie and my general vote went to Gary Johnson.
Well, if a populist movement is your #1 issue that "trumps" all others, then Bernie would have likely been your primary choice because Hillary is completely wrapped up in the Washington establishment and Wall Street money and globalism. On the right side, Trump was singing the very same populist message so when Bernie got cheated out of a fair contest, many of his supporters from the unions and other domestic labor sympathetic voters heard Trump's populist jobs message and jumped right to him.
Those Trump votes had nothing to do with things like the 2nd amendment or immigration or race relations or sexism or any of that. Those votes were about making fair trade deals that allow us to keep some jobs here. So we cannot assume that every Trump voter was in agreement with everything he said. And we shouldn't "unfriend" people because of a vote.
You know my thoughts on both Trump & Clinton. Neither should have been allowed to run for dog catcher. My primary vote went to Bernie and my general vote went to Gary Johnson.
bijouxbroussard · F
@sarabee1995: Part of the socialist message has been government as the people, and working with the people so that everyone benefits---not this separate entity that helps individuals get and keep the majority of cash and prizes. The right wants federal government to remain small so they can run their states like fiefdoms and legislate majority rule even on things as basic as human rights (that's how segregation, anti-miscegenation laws, etc. remained in some states but not others). The Trump votes, imo, had to do with a lot of factors: maybe jobs (by people unaware that as a businessman Trump regularly outsourced work for his clothing line, a common practice) the 2nd Amendment (by people the NRA convinced that the Democrats' plan is to take away their guns---8 years and more guns than ever apparently hasn't registered). And yeah, it is about race relations. Trump has his history with the blacks as he puts it. It has to do with the times he's been sued for refusing to rent or sell to blacks, his practice of having black employees leave the floor when so-called "high-rollers" came to play, when he owned his clubs. Then of course, there's the issue of illegal immigration, which is a hot button. People are also unaware that Trump has used labor of questionable legal status, and was sued for that. The difference ? His workers were European (Polish). So there's a lot of backstory there. But I understand why people were unfriended and blocked over this, and the analogy I used in my question was not an overstatement. To some of us it's that serious.
sarabee1995 · 26-30, FVIP
@bijouxbroussard: No need to convince me Bij. I'm not a Trump supporter.
Certainly there were some people who listened to everything he said and bought it all hook, line, and sinker. But in politics on all sides (right and left), that is the minority of people. Most people are motivated by a relatively small subset of issues.
My point was simply that among his many votes are certainly some laid off union workers who voted for him only because he promised to negotiate better trade agreements (along with many other single-issue voters) and we can't paint them all with a single broad brush.
My grandfather was an ex-marine and a very avid hunter. He had many guns, none of which I know anything about, but I did fire several of them with him. As long as I can remember, he voted on one issue and one issue only and that was guns. I loved him, but this was one thing about him that I truly never understood. I would talk to him about the other issues that his candidates supported and none of that mattered to him. He was able to disagree with them on so many things and hope they never succeeded, but still vote for them because of the gun issue.
There are people like this within every issue: Pro Choice, Pro Life, Low taxes, etc, etc. I just don't want us to assume that every Trump voter is a racist homophobe bigot. Some certainly are, but not all.
Certainly there were some people who listened to everything he said and bought it all hook, line, and sinker. But in politics on all sides (right and left), that is the minority of people. Most people are motivated by a relatively small subset of issues.
My point was simply that among his many votes are certainly some laid off union workers who voted for him only because he promised to negotiate better trade agreements (along with many other single-issue voters) and we can't paint them all with a single broad brush.
My grandfather was an ex-marine and a very avid hunter. He had many guns, none of which I know anything about, but I did fire several of them with him. As long as I can remember, he voted on one issue and one issue only and that was guns. I loved him, but this was one thing about him that I truly never understood. I would talk to him about the other issues that his candidates supported and none of that mattered to him. He was able to disagree with them on so many things and hope they never succeeded, but still vote for them because of the gun issue.
There are people like this within every issue: Pro Choice, Pro Life, Low taxes, etc, etc. I just don't want us to assume that every Trump voter is a racist homophobe bigot. Some certainly are, but not all.