"I can't Hate Donald Trump"

[xoxoxoBruce]

I Can’t Hate Donald Trump.
I do hate the Republicans who’ve enabled his remarkable popularity.

An interesting take on Trumps supporters at Slate.

Many have been struck by the overwhelming whiteness of Trump’s campaign, not least the small number of self-identified “white nationalists” who’ve rallied around his campaign. I would argue that the Trump coalition illustrates how whiteness as a category is so expansive as to be almost meaningless. The Scots-Irish or “American” whites who see Trump as their champion are profoundly different from the metropolitan whites who dominate the upper echelons of U.S. society—so much so that the convention of lumping them together as “white” detracts far more from our understanding of how they fit into our society than it adds to it. J.D. Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, a forthcoming book on the place of Appalachian whites in modern America, estimates that roughly one-quarter of whites belong to the Scots-Irish tribe that has embraced Trump. If we were to separate out these Americans as a race or ethnicity unto themselves, Vance writes, we would finds rates of poverty and substance abuse that would shock our national conscience. But we don’t generally collect detailed statistics on the Scots-Irish. We don’t have a clear sense of how their labor force participation or disability rates compare to those of other Americans, including other white Americans. And so their experiences and their collective traumas blend into whiteness, where they can be safely ignored. Whites are privileged, after all.

[Clodfobble]

A timely anecdote:

In my daughter's "share and tell" time in class, the girl right before her shared that no one should vote for Donald Trump. This caused my daughter to share that the other day, we drove by a homeless man with a sign reading, "Give me $1 or I'm voting for Trump." Everyone else in the class yelled, "NOooooo!"

So rest assured, he has absolutely none of the hippie-school-second-grader vote.


But back to the thread topic... what ethnicity are these "metropolitan whites," if not significantly Scots-Irish? Is the argument that they're all German/French/Italian?

[xoxoxoBruce]

He says the Republicans supporting Trump come from lower socio-economic counties than Republicans supporting other candidates, and have a higher percentage of Scots-Irish voters. The Scots-Irish in urban areas have a different life experience, higher education and higher income, so lumping them all together as white doesn't explain the split. In fact white is meaningless as a demographic.

[Big Sarge]

I come from a part of the Nation where whites are working class Republicans and blacks are welfare class Democrats. My area is strongly invested in Trump. I admit this worries me because people are voting based upon sound bites and knee jerk reactions.

[DanaC]

The idea of Donald Trump at the head of the world's most powerful fiscal-military machine is fucking terrifying.

[Big Sarge]

Originally Posted by DanaC

The idea of Donald Trump at the head of the world's most powerful fiscal-military machine is fucking terrifying.

I totally agree with you.

[Undertoad]

Pussies.

[Beest]

Originally Posted by DanaC

The idea of Donald Trump at the head of the world's most powerful fiscal-military machine is fucking terrifying.

My only glimmer of saving grace in this bizzaro event , is that he's not a really a Republican, that's just a tactical flag of convenience, if he got in he wouldn't be beholden to the old GOP conservative tea partiers in the way the next two or three possible candidates would.

[Undertoad]

^^

[fargon]

What Beest said.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That's true, however he would be like Putin, rich, famous, gigantic ego, and lots of deadly toys.

He's got the whole world in his hands,
he's got the whole wild world in his hands
He's got the whole wild world in his hands,
he's got the whole world in his hands

He's got the little bitty baby in his hands,
he's got the little bitty baby in his hands
He's got the little bitty baby in his hands,
he's got the whole world in his hands
He's got the whole world in his hands...

[tw]

Trump defined who believe what Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlessinger, and Ann Coulter have told them what to believe.

[Pamela]

Everybody have a cup of chamomile tea and relax. Trump has this.

[Griff]

I saw a lot of movies as a kid about America being anti-fascist, looks like I needed a better filter.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Didn't go well the last time.