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[Zackat]

I've lived in Nashville, Atlanta, Raleigh, and Orlando (OK, Florida isn't really "The South"). I have family in Greenville, SC and New Orleans. I haven't experienced what you're describing. Maybe it's a small town or Deep South thing.

On the other hand, I've lived all over the eastern United States, and the first time in damn near a decade that I heard "homo" used to negatively describe a gay man was right after I moved to Detroit in 2005.

Orlando isn't "The South" but if you travel outside of the suburbs of Orlando, most of North/North Central Florida is exactly "The South" that is being discussed in this thread. Poor, small towns dot these areas just like anywhere else. Their attitudes are very similar to what is being discussed here.

 

[Random Painted HIghway]

You're so tedious.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...xt-hillary-clintons-comments-about-coal-jobs/



The applause line is the part where she says she's going to protect the people who are going to lose their jobs because of coal's collapse.

The expectation that a largely uneducated audience will hear the full sound bite at all and then interpret it as the speaker desired seems quite unlikely. Further, does anyone, let alone this population, trust the government in 2016 to provide adequate job retraining and reeducation!?

 

[Deleted member 231381]

I would consider that the right wing have won when we start telling people that 250 years of endemic racism in America exists because of free trade agreements that were written in the 1980s.

This post is bad, Crab. I'm not suggesting that community and environment don't matter, I'm suggesting that community and environment are defined primarily by social structures and those social structures have been pro-racism for two centuries in a way completely disconnected from economics.

Go back and look at the Brexit results and pull the beam out of your own eye.

In 2007, the UK was moderately strongly in favour of the European Union - most polling showed Remain / Leave at ~65-35, and the question wasn't asked that often precisely because it seemed so obvious nobody wanted to Leave.

In 2004, George Bush, a candidate perceived as being from the moderate side of the Republican Party who featured prominent black statesmen such as Colin Powell won the presidency taking 44% of the Latino vote.

In 2016, the UK tumbled out of the European Union.

In 2016, the Republican Party nominated a candidate only a few shades away from outright fascism.

What happened?

 

[darkace]

I'm not sure it's evil or racism but blocking every infrastructure, minimum wage hike, and healthcare bill then turn around and blame democrats for not caring is at least a dick move.

Maybe because every infrastructure, minimum wage hike and healthcare bill aren't good policy.

Obamacare has markedly hurt some people, while minimum wages are terrible anti-poverty tools. Hell, the original public option in the ACA has been consistently opposed by a majority of the population since the question was first asked by Gallup. The Republicans are just representing those people.

What happened?

Obama happened. Let this be a lesson about the dangers of socialism.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

The government should do a better job of helping find work for those displaced by growing technologies like this. Especially since they're leading the way with clean tech. We shouldn't use coal just because it will keep jobs alive though. That's like subsidizing the word processor industry. Neither side has done a good job of finding these people labor and the rights solution is to just keep in mining.

The government has certainly failed miserably in this regard, which is a primary reason why the people of Appalachia are so opposed to the Democratic Party as a whole. They watched Obama do what he said he would as the coal industry was forcibly stifled, and now regions like southwestern VA, eastern KY, and almost all of WVA have been left to rot. Thankfully I was able to get out but it's not that simple for many residents of those areas.

Living in southwestern VA left me feeling very cynical towards the federal government as a whole. You can really see how strategies are shaped to appeal to the massive population centers of the US while the less fortunate living in rural areas like Appalachia are forgotten at best and willfully ignored at worst.

 

[HStallion]

The government has certainly failed miserably in this regard, which is a primary reason why the people of Appalachia are so opposed to the Democratic Party as a whole. They watched Obama do what he said he would as the coal industry was forcibly stifled, and now regions like southwestern VA, eastern KY, and almost all of WVA have been left to rot. Thankfully I was able to get out but it's not that simple for many residents of those areas.

Living in southwestern VA left me feeling very cynical towards the federal government as a whole. You can really see how strategies are shaped to appeal to the massive population centers of the US while the less fortunate living in rural areas like Appalachia are forgotten at best and willfully ignored at worst.

This may be the future, most everyone is moving to city areas and the business and wealth are following them. Not to say this is the solution for many people but its just the trend of society right now. Imagine what happens if cities start trying stuff like Urban farming and can pull it off. There will be even less reason to live out in the country unless you want to and can afford it.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

Are people just venting too when they go say hateful things about other minorities? Does that make it OK somehow? SMH

You are clumping 18-19 million impoverished whites into a big basket here. Saying that they all are actively voting against their own self interest is rather insulting. It echoes of the whole "Bernie bro" shit. You are also Insinuating that they are all racists. Keep on generalizing.

I'm not going to fall into that trap that many other progressives seem to fall in of wanting to only help certain people. There is a better solution to this than blaming them for all their problems and laughing at them for being stupid. That trap sounds so much like what the other side says when they are talking about inner city issues....

Statistically, they are more likely to have backward views on race, and statistically they have by and large voted in politicians that have harmed these towns thanks to deregulation, declining tax revenues and crumbling infrastructure.

Noting their beliefs and their voting behavior as a group is far different than assuming black people are more dangerous.

We don't have to blame them entirely for their problems, but unless we note that they are at least partly to blame for their own misfortunes then how do we move forward on any of these issues?

 

[Gotdatmoney]

I'm not sure it's evil or racism but blocking every infrastructure, minimum wage hike, and healthcare bill then turn around and blame democrats for not caring is at least a dick move.

It's totally reasonable to blame republicans for a lot of this shit but it's still pointless right here and now. At some point Republicans will win another national election and do American's really want the fall out from that. I'm Canadian and the Republican batshit insane policies alone scare me for their economic impact.

You see this everywhere in the Western world with rural communities just doubling down on conservative and often discriminatory thinkimg. Sometimes they lose but the destruction of when they win is not pretty. I'm pretty sure you all want to avoid that. I'll spit om the republican party all day but yoy are way better off tryimg to.turn the fortunes of some of these areas around or.relocate people than to just get mad.

 

[Guileless]

I'm not sure it's evil or racism but blocking every infrastructure, minimum wage hike, and healthcare bill then turn around and blame democrats for not caring is at least a dick move.

Reading this thread made me think about Emmet Rensin's "The smug style of American liberalism:"

Today, it is the excuse of American smug mind: Where did all of these poor people come from?

If pressed for an answer, I suppose they would say Republicans, elected by rubes voting against their own self-interest. Reagan, Gingrich, Bush — all those Bad Fact–knowing halfwits who were too dumb to get elected to anything.

Well, sure. In the past 30 years of American life, the Republican Party has dedicated itself to replacing every labor law with a photo of Ronald Reagan's face.

But this does not excuse liberals beating full retreat to the colleges and the cities, abandoning the dispossessed to their fate. It does not excuse surrendering a century of labor politics in the name of electability. It does not excuse gazing out decades later to find that those left behind are not up on the latest thought and deciding, We didn't abandon them. The idiots didn't want to be saved.

It was not Ronald Reagan who declared the era of big government. It was not the GOP that decided the coastally based, culturally liberal industries of technology, Hollywood, and high finance were the future of the American economy.

If the smug style can be reduced to a single sentence, it's, Why are they voting against their own self-interest? But no party these past decades has effectively represented the interests of these dispossessed. Only one has made a point of openly disdaining them too.

Abandoned and without any party willing to champion their interests, people cling to candidates who, at the very least, are willing to represent their moral convictions. The smug style resents them for it, and they resent the smug in turn.

 

[Subpar Spatula]

Poor white Americans seriously need to realize just how much the Republicans are the common enemy of all Americans.

That's not easy when you're poor. The long game isn't quite good enough anymore.

 

[Ovid]

My GF linked me to an interview with a guy that wrote a book called Hillbilly Elegy. He grew up in this area and I guess the book examines this issue: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062300547/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I agree with you that this problem has been here for awhile and Trump didn't create it, he's just put it in the public's perception.

Problem is, the way I see it, Trump may be speaking to these people when pretty much no other politician has, but he WILL NOT do anything for them if he became President. Why did the poor white people in these regions not flock to Sanders? He presented real policy changes and a platform that would directly help them.

Because Trump used the immigrant scapegoat. Republican also used Sanders own words against him, socialist.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

Statistically, they are more likely to have backward views on race, and statistically they have by and large voted in politicians that have harmed these towns thanks to deregulation, declining tax revenues and crumbling infrastructure.

Noting their beliefs and their voting behavior as a group is far different than assuming black people are more dangerous.

We don't have to blame them entirely for their problems, but unless we note that they are at least partly to blame for their own misfortunes then how do we move forward on any of these issues?

Please let me rephrase this for you in a different light so you can maybe gain some perspective here:

Statistically, they are more likely to be criminals, and statistically they have by and large voted in politicians that have harmed these urban centers thanks to corruption declining tax revenues and crumbling infrastructure.

Noting their beliefs and their voting behavior as a group is far different than assuming white people are racists.

We don't have to blame them entirely for their problems, but unless we note that they are at least partly to blame for their own misfortunes then how do we move forward on any of these issues?

That is just as sick as what you said. It just is accepted to say what you said and not acceptable to say what I changed it to.

 

[Guileless]

The applause line is the part where she says she's going to protect the people who are going to lose their jobs because of coal's collapse.

OK, I'm convinced. People who have been in coal mining families for generations in towns built around coal mining should be just fine with this statement during wave after wave of mining bankruptcies because she talked about job programs.

Rensin again:

I am suggesting that (liberals) instead wonder what it might be like to have little left but one's values; to wake up one day to find your whole moral order destroyed; to look around and see the representatives of a new order call you a stupid, hypocritical hick without bothering, even, to wonder how your corner of your poor state found itself so alienated from them in the first place. To work with people who do not share their values or their tastes, who do not live where they live or like what they like or know their Good Facts or their jokes.

This is not a call for civility. Manners are not enough. The smug style did not arise by accident, and it cannot be abolished with a little self-reproach. So long as liberals cannot find common cause with the larger section of the American working class, they will search for reasons to justify that failure. They will resent them. They will find, over and over, how easy it is to justify abandoning them further. They will choose the smug style.

 

[Fallout-NL]

My GF linked me to an interview with a guy that wrote a book called Hillbilly Elegy. He grew up in this area and I guess the book examines this issue: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062300547/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I agree with you that this problem has been here for awhile and Trump didn't create it, he's just put it in the public's perception.

Problem is, the way I see it, Trump may be speaking to these people when pretty much no other politician has, but he WILL NOT do anything for them if he became President. Why did the poor white people in these regions not flock to Sanders? He presented real policy changes and a platform that would directly help them.

Because for some reason, America still believes socialism is bad.

 

[old]

The biggest thing I dont think people get is that a lot of those jobs and single industry small towns just flat out cannot exist in todays global economy. It doesn't matter what democrats or republicans say. If you live in the middle of nowhere you have lesser prospects because companies either do not want to invest there or its simply a different time and that industry isn't realistic anymore.

You can't legislate economic suicide towards companies. With things being more global you realistically need to build out from cities and create metropolitans or try and build a large economy by joining smaller towns. And even with that you have to attract young people for that to work. And young people are driven further towards tech and softer skills opposed to labor and trades and that makes them want to live in cities.

You cant tell people their prospects will not improve in that area. But its the truth. Voting democrat might have helped them but its not like voting democrat means this wouldnt happen as an inevitable conclusion.

I'll let you in on a little secret. Most people in Nowheresville, USA don't want to be there either. They were born there. They'd love to move to NYC, SEA, SF, CHI, AUS, and LA. They don't have the money. They don't have friends or family in those locations to help facilitate a move either.

The smart ones use college to get the hell out. They use their 4 years in college to relocate across the country and never come back (eg, they want to live in NYC so they go to college in NYC and never leave). But many don't get those opportunities.

 

[shamanick]

Reading this thread made me think about Emmet Rensin's "The smug style of American liberalism:"

This article, long as it is, should be required reading for all liberals/left/progressives. It's disheartening to see folks write off poor people due to the color of their skin, and it's important to remember that all people deserve respect.

 

[B4s5C]

What If All Us Coal Workers Were Retrained to Work In Solar?-HBR

Here is a good article from HBR that came out today discussing the logistics of retraining coal country to produce solar energy.

Side note:
Really disappointed in some of Gaf here with the lack of empathy for people they themselves claim are undereducated and/or brainwashed. Like, what? Someone said empathy was a two way street. Empathy isn't a two way street in fact. You have to understand another person and be able to argue for them to construct an appeal to them. Expecting empathy from others before you give it is the most selfish form if empathy that I have ever heard about.

 

[Gotdatmoney]

I'll let you in on a little secret. Most people in Nowheresville, USA don't want to be there either. They were born there. They'd love to move to NYC, SEA, SF, CHI, AUS, and LA. They don't have the money. They don't have friends or family in those locations to help facilitate a move either.

The smart ones use college to get the hell out. They use their 4 years in college to relocate across the country and never come back (eg, they want to live in NYC so they go to college in NYC and never leave). But many don't get those opportunities.

That's not a secret. I'm aware of the idea of being financially committed to a dying area. Or not having the resources to leave. It's the exact same reason people live in the hood and dont move out or why people in poor countries dont just go "you know what I'll just leave". What I said was that there is a subset of people both living there and elsewhere that do not recognize that those places are not viable long term "at all".

That's why I said in another post we are much better off tryimg to pick a few key areas to grow and helping relocate a bunch of the rest. Moving is expensive and often not feasible. I'm not naive to that.

 

[Pryce]

My opinion:

God, guns and racism are what keep these people down and voting Republican.

If one party has demonized the other to the point where they're seen as anti-american, anti-god and anti-black welfare moochers who don't want jobs, they won't change. They've bought into supply side economics and scare tactics that dems want to make Christianity illegal for decades.

I don't know how to change that.

 

[Azulsky]

This may be the future, most everyone is moving to city areas and the business and wealth are following them. Not to say this is the solution for many people but its just the trend of society right now. Imagine what happens if cities start trying stuff like Urban farming and can pull it off. There will be even less reason to live out in the country unless you want to and can afford it.

Farming is moving to a Latifundia model, except with automated machinery instead of slavery. Whole towns that supported independent farmers will have little need to exist.
Roman Empire went through this same transition for agriculture.

Many small towns along the Interstate corridors exist primarily to support the trucking industry. Once they automate out trucking we are going to have a real issues, and I would say that is realistically going to take place in millenial lifetimes.

I personally dont like the 'feeling' of being in big cities. Its always a good feeling to come home where things are a bit more spread out. Just something awkward about being in a city and its like the infrastructure, buildings and people keep going on for miles and miles. Dont know that it perfectly explains it but its something like an opposing version of looking up at the stars and feeling alone, I seem like just another ant in the colony.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

This is the same thing that led to the Brexit vote, as the UK outside of London is pretty much in the same situation.

 

[Ekai]

That's not easy when you're poor. The long game isn't quite good enough anymore.

I don't care for slow change. In fact I hate it. All it does is harm the people in the process. But continuing to support Republicans is only going to make it harder and take longer to reverse.

 

[MisterR]

Reading this thread made me think about Emmet Rensin's "The smug style of American liberalism:"

Amazing article. Those of us who are progressives should read this and learn from it. We've started to despise and mock the very people that we should be wanting to help. If we want to truly govern as progressives, then we need to win back the working class.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

Amazing article. Those of us who are progressives should read this and learn from it. We've started to despise and mock the very people that we should be wanting to help. If we want to truly govern as progressives, then we need to win back the working class.

Judging from the manner that Hillary supporters act on GAF, there is no hope for American liberalism. Actually there hasn't been hope for liberalism worldwide after neoliberalism hijacked it and overturned every single economic principle that modern liberalism was founded on, these days 'liberalism' is little different from 'Wall Street' and it's baffling that many liberals wholeheartedly support it.

The liberals in the UK didn't fare much better with their working class and the result was Brexit.

 

[lightskintwin]

Any American should be concerned about poverty in this country, no matter where it is and who it is.

 

[thegoosen]

The explicit lack of sympathy in this thread (from some posters) is surprising. These are real people with real lives. You might not like how they vote, but the reason they vote that way is because our culture isn't sympathetic to their issues.

We might not have solutions, but at the very least we should be able to acknowledge that there's a legitimate issue here.

Self awareness is needed to open up a dialogue and finding solutions. These people who vote politicians who will make the lives for everyone worse are definitely lacking that. "Our culture" has been sympathetic to people who just want to stay ignorant long enough.

 

[Quixzlizx]

Obama happened. Let this be a lesson about the dangers of socialism.

Are you a joke character?

 

[Meguro]

I can't believe people still use that Vox article.
It's written by someone who lacks the perspective of a minority actively at risk by conservatism.
Empathy for racists is a thing only white people can afford, I'm afraid.

 

[MisterR]

Judging from the manner that Hillary supporters act on GAF, there is no hope for American liberalism. Actually there hasn't been hope for liberalism worldwide after neoliberalism hijacked it and overturned every single economic principle that modern liberalism was founded on, these days 'liberalism' is little different from 'Wall Street' and it's baffling that many liberals wholeheartedly support it.

The liberals in the UK didn't fare much better with their working class and the result was Brexit.

Yep, we've lost a lot of focus on the founding principle of liberalism. Unfortunately, winning elections has become much more important than actually trying to make meaningful change to the people we should be working for. Obviously all this stuff goes for conservative politics, and much worse, but we should worry about fixing our problems.

 

[PsychoSoldier]

I don't have much hope for attitudes in the rural South changing anytime soon. I work in public service in a semi-rural city and I'll see people blame the federal government or some nebulous other for every problem they have.

And I see truly good and smart people convinced of the wildest, weirdest conspiracy theories every day and nothing I say will even begin to bridge the gap between us idea-wise.

We have a local government that has enriched themselves and their other political cronies for gain, basically openly, and the local people keep voting them in just because they're more "conservative".

 

[shamanick]

I can't believe people still use that Vox article.
It's written by someone who lacks the perspective of a minority actively at risk by conservatism.
Empathy for racists is a thing only white people can afford, I'm afraid.

You don't have to be a minority to have empathy for poor people, regardless of color.

If you think that racism is the biggest social problem, it doesn't mean that classism isn't a problem at all.

I fail to see how empathy for poorer people is a negative quality because some white people are racist.

 

[Quixzlizx]

Judging from the manner that Hillary supporters act on GAF, there is no hope for American liberalism. Actually there hasn't been hope for liberalism worldwide after neoliberalism hijacked it and overturned every single economic principle that modern liberalism was founded on, these days 'liberalism' is little different from 'Wall Street' and it's baffling that many liberals wholeheartedly support it.

The liberals in the UK didn't fare much better with their working class and the result was Brexit.

The liberalism you're thinking of and "neoliberalism" aren't related. Also, neoliberal is just a dogwhistle for capitalist.

 

[Ekai]

I can't believe people still use that Vox article.
It's written by someone who lacks the perspective of a minority actively at risk by conservatism.
Empathy for racists is a thing only white people can afford, I'm afraid.

That sums up a lot of my view on it. Republican viewpoints only harm millions of people and it's hard for me to muster empathy for any of them. Especially since they're active antagonists against me.

That said, I'd like for Republican voters to see how the minority is nothing more than a scapegoat used by their media/politicians. I recognize their hardships but blaming us isn't the solution. They need to look at what they're actually voting for. Perhaps some of them can change. But personally speaking I'm tired of trying to communicate the merits of diversity and the humanity of everyone. Not just with Republicans but Democrats as well.

 

[Zeuanimals]

How to reason with people that seem to invent their own separate reality? Delusions are impossible to cure if nobody in their social circle realizes it.

Or, you'd be shunned and/or thrown out of the social circle if you try to point it out.

 

[Meguro]

You don't have to be a minority to have empathy for poor people, regardless of color.

If you think that racism is the biggest social problem, it doesn't mean that classism isn't a problem at all.

I fail to see how empathy for poorer people is a negative quality because some white people are racist.

*EDIT*
Actually after rereading your post, I have no idea what you're trying to say.
Nowhere did I imply having empathy for poorer people is a negative.
All I'm saying is that some people just can't afford to have empathy for people that vote for a party that actively wants to harm them.

 

[tuxfool]

Any American should be concerned about poverty in this country, no matter where it is and who it is.

There are people that care, but it becomes increasingly annoying to help people that actively work against those that are willing to help.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

The liberalism you're thinking of and "neoliberalism" aren't related. Also, neoliberal is just a dogwhistle for capitalist.

Neoliberalism is an economic doctrine. "Liberalism" is an all-encompassing term for the political left-of-center in various countries, and that includes a full spectrum of socioeconomic principles and doctrines.

The problem with post-millennial liberalism is that it has embraced the economic doctrine of neoliberalism, which is strictly an anti-liberal economic doctrine by the traditional definition of what a liberal would support. This is why liberalism today is facing catastrophes like Brexit and Donald Trump.

We can trace the origins of this catastrophe to Bill Clinton and Tony Blair and the "Third Way" of liberalism they pioneered to get the wealthy and prosperous on board with social liberalism. In doing so they sold the world out to the super-rich, and we're about to elect another Clinton to the White House!

 

[shamanick]

I'm more talking about people that vote for representatives that can actively ruin someones life cause they are a minority.
I don't blame my minority brothers and sisters at all for not having empathy for us white folk.
I'm not saying minorities don't have empathy for poor people.
I'm saying it's not hard to understand why they wouldn't for people that either hate them or don't care about them.

This assumes that everyone who votes Republican (or conservative in general outside of the US) is doing so with the knowledge that it hurts minorities and they don't care. In reality, it's not as simple as Republican (conservative) = racist. The demonizing of the other in politics is extremely damaging to the discourse and although it is worse on the right, the left has increasingly been seduced by the idea of us(good guys) vs. them (bad guys). It's fine if individuals don't care about other individuals, but we are discussing the movement.

*EDIT*
Actually after rereading your post, I have no idea what you're trying to say.
Nowhere did I imply having empathy for poorer people is a negative.
All I'm saying is that some people just can't afford to have empathy for people that vote for a party that actively wants to harm them.

I was responding to this

Empathy for racists is a thing only white people can afford, I'm afraid.

 

[SoRuffShoNuff]

I'll let you in on a little secret. Most people in Nowheresville, USA don't want to be there either. They were born there. They'd love to move to NYC, SEA, SF, CHI, AUS, and LA. They don't have the money. They don't have friends or family in those locations to help facilitate a move either.

The smart ones use college to get the hell out. They use their 4 years in college to relocate across the country and never come back (eg, they want to live in NYC so they go to college in NYC and never leave). But many don't get those opportunities.

Sometimes you have to move, that's all there is to it. I moved to a new city with nothing but clothes and a TV for a job opportunity. Slept on the floor for a month and the only seating I had was a 5 dollar steel folding chair I bought at Wal-Mart. I didn't know anyone there either.

Im now a lot better off for it and those days are well in my rear view mirror.

 

[timetokill]

Definitely reminded of the "Smug Style" article from this thread. It's bizarre. If it's poor minorities, we need to help them at whatever cost. If it's poor whites? lol they vote Republican, fuck 'em. That's liberalism? That's progressive?

If we're willing to accept that people are in many ways a product of their environment (and we have to be, considering how we view privilege and minority status, underachievement, and crime) then why not consider the environment many of these people grow up in?

They're not going to rally to a candidate or a party that tells them it's all their fault, they're stupid, regressive, racist, bigoted, hopeless, "clinging to guns and religion" like their entire environment, the one they identify with and have grown up with, is bad and the people in it should feel bad. How does that help anybody?

Candidates like Trump are acknowledging their unhappiness and fears as opposed to dismissing them or mocking them for it. It sure would be nice if we had the supposedly "sane" party consider doing some of that. Yes, they hate you right now. But with the way you talk about them, can you blame them?

 

[Ekai]

This assumes that everyone who votes Republican (or conservative in general outside of the US) is doing so with the knowledge that it hurts minorities and they don't care. In reality, it's not as simple as Republican (conservative) = racist. The demonizing of the other in politics is extremely damaging to the discourse and although it is worse on the right, the left has increasingly been seduced by the idea of us(good guys) vs. them (bad guys). It's fine if individuals don't care about other individuals, but we are discussing the movement.

It's hard to muster empathy for a party that justifies systematic racism, desires theocracy, harasses religious minorities, makes a scapegoat of everyone that isn't a straight rich white christian cis male, insults women and their capability, wants to control a woman's life, wants to legalize torture of LGBT americans like me, etc. etc.

The parties couldn't be anymore polarized at this point. Which is weird to say since the Democrats aren't even far-left (though I'd love them to pull further left). The Republicans are just so far to the right that it's terrifying.

I can understand the economic troubles individuals who vote Republican face. But that doesn't justify their vote for a party that represents the worst of everything. Especially considering it's mainly Republican economics/Democrats compromising with them that created a working poor class in this nation.

 

[collige]

All I'm saying is that some people just can't afford to have empathy for people that vote for a party that actively wants to harm them.

What do you mean by "afford"? It's not like minorities are gonna just start voting Republican if they start having empathy.

Sometimes you have to move, that's all there is to it. I moved to a new city with nothing but clothes and a TV for a job opportunity. Slept on the floor for a month and the only seating I had was a 5 dollar steel folding chair I bought at Wal-Mart. I didn't know anyone there either.

Im now a lot better off for it and those days are well in my rear view mirror.

So, bootstraps then.

 

[HStallion]

So, bootstraps then.

The irony would be delicious if it wasn't so sad.

 

[Otakumegane]

Reading this thread made me think about Emmet Rensin's "The smug style of American liberalism:"

Thank you for this. I'm going to keep this handy.

 

[Meguro]

This assumes that everyone who votes Republican (or conservative in general outside of the US) is doing so with the knowledge that it hurts minorities and they don't care. In reality, it's not as simple as Republican (conservative) = racist. The demonizing of the other in politics is extremely damaging to the discourse and although it is worse on the right, the left has increasingly been seduced by the idea of us(good guys) vs. them (bad guys). It's fine if individuals don't care about other individuals, but we are discussing the movement.

If you don't educate yourself on the consequences of your vote, then yes by very definition you don't care what happens to other people who might be affected.
The left could do a better job, sure.
No one is denying that.

 

[jmdajr]

Reading this thread made me think about Emmet Rensin's "The smug style of American liberalism:"

Hmmm. Had never read that before.

 

[Quixzlizx]

Neoliberalism is an economic doctrine. "Liberalism" is an all-encompassing term for the political left-of-center in various countries, and that includes a full spectrum of socioeconomic principles and doctrines.

The problem with post-millennial liberalism is that it has embraced the economic doctrine of neoliberalism, which is strictly an anti-liberal economic doctrine by the traditional definition of what a liberal would support. This is why liberalism today is facing catastrophes like Brexit and Donald Trump.

We can trace the origins of this catastrophe to Bill Clinton and Tony Blair and the "Third Way" of liberalism they pioneered to get the wealthy and prosperous on board with social liberalism. In doing so they sold the world out to the super-rich, and we're about to elect another Clinton to the White House!

Rejecting globalization would've been a catastrophe. The problem isn't with accommodating the new (and inevitable) global economy, it's with not using the profits from said economy to benefit everyone.

 

[shamanick]

It's hard to muster empathy for a party that justifies systematic racism, desires theocracy, harasses religious minorities, makes a scapegoat of everyone that isn't a rich white christian cis male, insults women and their capability, wants to control a woman's life, wants to legalize torture of LGBT americans like me, etc. etc.

The parties couldn't be anymore polarized at this point. Which is weird to say since the Democrats aren't even far-left (though I'd love them to pull further left). The Republicans are just so far to the right that it's terrifying.

I can understand the economic troubles individuals who vote Republican face. But that doesn't justify their vote for a party that represents the worst of everything. Especially considering it's mainly Republican economics/Democrats compromising with them that created a working class of poor in this nation.

I am talking about empathy for individuals, not policies. A lot of people (maybe even most?) who vote Republican don't want to legalize torture of LGBT people. If you see them all through that lens, yeah it would be difficult to find empathy for them.

If you don't educate yourself on the consequences of your vote, then yes by very definition you don't care what happens to other people who might be affected.
The left could do a better job, sure.
No one is denying that.

I would be very surprised if there was a significant difference between Dems and Repubs with regard to voter information.

 

[tuxfool]

They're not going to rally to a candidate or a party that tells them it's all their fault, they're stupid, regressive, racist, bigoted, hopeless, "clinging to guns and religion" like their entire environment, the one they identify with and have grown up with, is bad and the people in it should feel bad. How does that help anybody?

Candidates like Trump are acknowledging their unhappiness and fears as opposed to dismissing them or mocking them for it. It sure would be nice if we had the supposedly "sane" party consider doing some of that. Yes, they hate you right now. But with the way you talk about them, can you blame them?

The problem here is that there is one candidate that actually is attempting to address their issues (beyond dog whistling), those people will not vote for her. She isn't the first, and won't be the last (has there ever been a Democratic candidate that blamed them outright for their situation?).

 

[MisterR]

Many seem to think all poor whites are voting Republican because of racist reasons. I thought this was an interesting part of the Atlantic article.

The distinction’s relevance persists today. Large areas of “real America” are almost entirely white. In Appalachia, that homogeneity, along with the region’s populist tradition, helps explain why white voters there took so much longer to flip from Democrat to Republican than in the Deep South. This does not mean that racism is absent in these areas—far from it. But it suggests that the racism is fueled as much by suspicion of the “other” as it is by firsthand experience of blacks and competition with them—and that political sentiment on issues such as welfare and crime isn’t as racially motivated as many liberal analysts assume. A focus on the South also eclipses places where low-income whites consist mainly of descendants of later European immigrants. (Think of the South Boston Irish, or Baltimore’s Polish American dockworkers depicted in the second season of The Wire.)

This is much more the condition in Appalachia. Writing all these people off as racist idiots is not doing us any favors.