Dems aren't talking to Dumbfuckistan 'Murika

[maxrandb]

I'm so sick of this fucking Dems aren't talking to middle America bullshit.

Dems "ARE" talking to middle class blue collar workers.

Unlike the Retrumplicans, Dems aren't "lying" to middle America, or just telling them what they want to hear.

Some of them just want to hear racist shit, so fuck them. They are beyond help.

For the rest of middle America, I'm sorry, but fucking coal isn't making a comeback, but Dems will help with policies that help convert and use your skills for the future.

Dems will help fix education opportunities so that your children can get the fuck out of Dumbfuckistan 'Murika if they want to.

Dems will help your children get the skills they need if they want to come back to Dumbfuckistan 'Murika and invest... so it can stop being Dumbfuckistan.

Retrumplicans don't give one fuck about Dumbfuckistan 'Murika. Their only goal is to make it even more Dumbfuckistan.

If you enjoy being lied to... Donnie Shit for Brains and his fuckstick enablers are all for you.

[bitterross]

1. Acceptance of reality takes change. They don't want to change.

You are correct. The Dems are speaking to middle-America. To the blue-collar workers. You are correct. The Dems are being honest about how the coal mines and the factories are not coming back.

The Dems are speaking about them having to make changes in their thinking and their way of life. No one likes change. It's just human nature.

So it's no surprise that the party that tells them they don't have to do anything and they'll get everything back is more popular than the party of reality.

I think it will have to be the die-off people speak about that allows real change to happen in middle-America. The voter rolls have to become full of people who never had those jobs, never had parents who had those jobs, and don't see them as the only thing that will make their communities thrive again. We're still a generation or two away on that.

[NoMoreRepugs]

2. I've spent time in rural middle America amongst the

hard core Righties. The ones in their 20's and 30's aren't all that different from their parents. Thinking there is going to be change is a pipedream IMO. A few will see the light , most wont.

[Farmer-Rick]

5. The South use to be reliable Democratic voters.

But I've read that it was based on the racism of the Democratic party back then.

"Scholars often point to Goldwater’s opposition to the Civil Rights Act — on libertarian grounds — as helping to set the stage for the 50-year secular realignment of Southern whites from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/02/09/black-voters-struggle-with-racism-both-democratic-republican-parties/?utm_term=.a027ff56944d

Now most black populations in the South vote Democratic while gerrymandering has diluted the effectiveness of their votes. But, I've spoken to many of those former Democratic voters and they blame abortion and gay marriage.

It's probobly both. I live in the rural South and the propaganda coming out of the pulpit is just awful. RepubliCON talking points are constantly being preached by pastors. Seems no matter how poor and desperate you are here in the South, you are never too poor or desperate to hate someone else.

[Hekate]

24. A little history here: Black voters were reliable Republicans because Abraham Lincoln was Republican

And of course, Lincoln freed the slaves. So of course Southern whites wanted nothing to do with the Republican Party.

One reason that changed was Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy, which was designed to lure Southern white voters away from the Democratic Party by embracing racism.

Another reason for the change was Lyndon Johnson's Civil Rights legislation. He signed it into law and afterward predicted that the Democratic Party had just lost the South (the white part of it that is) for a generation.

So go the wnds of change. Abe Lincoln was right. LBJ was right. Dick Nixon was too, in his way.

[Martin Eden]

3. You are right about it being a false narrative

But when they hear us calling their home "dumbfuckistan" they won't listen to anything else we say.

I admit there's a certain satisfaction in calling them dumbfucks. In my view no intelligent person who isn't a racist or an oligarch would vote for Trump, and without a doubt the white nationalists are not a tiny minority.

However, we should keep in mind that broad swaths of people in red states are victims of decades of pervasive propaganda. They've been conned into voting against their own interests.

Very few MAGA diehards will ever change their minds, but that doesn't mean that Democratic policies won't help people in "flyover country" -- or that the Democratic message isn't for them, or that we should not even try reaching out.

But that message will never reach them if what they hear is "dumbfuckistan."

[watoos]

8. Betsy DeVos is a big problem

Children aren't being taught critical thinking in public schools. Not all public schools are bad but my point is that DeVos doesn't want to help public schools succeed. My daughter lives outside of Pittsburgh, she does her homework evaluating schools. She paid to send her pre-school son to Montessori where they teach critical thinking even at that young age.

I was lucky to graduate from college and when people ask me sarcastically what I learned, I tell them, to think for myself. I tell them I learned not to believe anything I see on TV or read in the newspaper.

[Martin Eden]

11. Education is a big part of it

But decades of propaganda aren't the product of DeVos, who's been SecEd a little over 2 years.

Children are shaped by many influences, with parents and peers likely having the greatest effect. Every once in a while we hear about someone rising above their societal conditioning, but breaking ingrained beliefs is not easy.

Schools should provide prime oportunities for exposure to diverse ideas and critical thinking, but school boards and teachers are often the product of the narrow minded society in which they were raised -- especially when fundamentalist religion is in the mix.

[maxrandb]

21. It depends

Virginia where I live now has some pretty damn good public schools because we pay for them and are turning bluer by the day.

Ohio, where I grew up used to have decent public schools, but they've gone so far over the Retrumplican cliff that you can now use public education funding to go to a school that will teach you the earth is 6,000 years old, and that man rode dinosaurs... like the fucking Flintstones were historically accurate.

I'm so glad I got out of that shithole.

[Hekate]

25. DeVos has been working on destroying public schools her whole life. She's just the end-product...

...not the original thinker and planner. Personally I don't think she's ever had an original thought in her life, but she is deeply religious and comes from more money that all of DU put together. She never even set foot in a public school until she got this job, and apparently the experience rattled her.

Right Wing Watch will be a good place to start some research.
Google Christian Right + home schooling + textbooks + lesson plans.
Google for DeVos activities in that regard.

The extreme Christian Right has been opposed to secular public education a very long time. I can't recall the name of the fundamentalist billionaire who kickstarted homeschooling as a movement, but when I first heard about it it had been going on at least 30 years, so add another 20 to that.... Yep, they've had 50 years of actively trying to destroy even the concept of public education as a good idea and part of the commons.

And of course they've had lots of help from people who have no idea who's behind it. Due to our pioneer past, homeschooling is still a legal thing in this country. Due to the anti-tax movement, public schools have suffered. Due to the charter-school movement, more tax money was removed from needy schools. Whoopsie, public education is broken, let's get rid of it.

Well, enjoy your researches. Cheerio.

[keithbvadu2]

9. Depends on who says it.

Depends on who says it.

Trump says 'dumb southerners' but that doesn't stop their adoration.

[Martin Eden]

12. All I could find was two quotes not caught on tape

Once when tRump referred to Jeff Sessions as a "dumb southerner" and another when he referred to his Maples in-laws that way.

Does he actually say "dumb southerners" at his rallies?

[keithbvadu2]

15. probably not. Two are plenty.

[renate]

20. That cartoon is perfect nt

[paleotn]

13. But the truth has been shouted in the wilderness...

like John the Baptist for years....but they failed to listen. They heard only what they wanted to hear....the racism...the sectionalism. They demonize those who speak the truth, when anyone with half a fucking brain would stop and listen to reason. For many I know and have known in the south, its willful ignorance. They know better, but don't care. They like being racist, ignorant fucks. Thus, they are dumbfuckistan

[Martin Eden]

16. Calling them dumbfucks accomplishes 2 things:

1) Provides us with the gratification of venting against those who've been conned or are willfully ignorant.

2) Reinforces their attitude towards us and probably increases their ranks. Dumbfucks are made, not born.

My point is we should not reinforce and help build the walls around dumbfuckistan. I can't think of any positive benefit. Not everyone in red states are cut from the same cloth. Some will be on the fence until they're given that last push over to the dark side.

We should not provide that push.

[certainot]

4. the disconnect is caused by the ignorance by dems and the left of talk radio

40 states are dominated by buzz that democrats ignore. the media and politicians 'hear'/feel the buzz but think it's legitimate instead of mostly coming out of limbaugh's ass, maybe via the kremlin. the left and dems get it after the lies are established and think it's legitimate and just a pack of idiots who get what they deserve and discount the massive secondary and tertiary audience in those 40 states who are too busy or apathetic to look for alternatives and that is the only free easy source for politics while working, driving, doing chores. many of those people just have to see dems challenging talk radio, calling them liars, protesting radio stations and boycotting their advertisers and giving rw radio the attention it deserves instead of blaming talk radio's little brother fox.

then the media would pay attention to it and poll for it instead of crediting it to 'popular' sentiment in the heartland that democrats don't pay attention to.

maybe all it would take is for a dem in one of these hearings to say to a republican's lies, "well that's what limbaugh says, but....."

limbaugh spent 2 years since inauguration yelling about 'deep state coup', leading it from 1500 radio stations, maybe coming from russsia, and media and dems have no clue, think it's trump, and are letting the cons get closer to forcing obama and clinton to testify in hearings or use that possibility to leverage concessions.

ignoring talk radio is the biggest political mistake in history

[Progressive Jones]

23. You speak the truth.

The "popular" sentiment in many rural areas has mostly been provided by RW radio propagandists.
The likes of Limbaugh put forth the false narrative that "big city, educated liberals want to take your
guns and eat your babies", and it took hold. They've been conned that they're "under attack" by said baby eating liberals.
And, of course, the RW propagandists have managed to pull at the "patriotism" heart strings to fluff up the feeling of "persecution". "These liberals hate America, and want to destroy it!" is a common refrain.

Some of the Americans who need Dem policies more than anyone else just don't know what's good for them.

[librechik]

6. ummm...They want to kill us. With the guns they think we will take from them

All we can do is model good behavior. Some will see the light and join us.

Remember, if you think it's hard for you to change a bad behavior (losing weight, stop smoking)in yourself, it's a lot harder to change someone else--who doesn't even want to change.

[DownriverDem]

7. Many of those coal miners

would not take advantage of the programs that would make them marketable put in place by Obama, because they bought trump's coal is coming back crap. Yes the Dems are talking to all of America. I am so tired of some folks here who attack them every day. They need to wake up, We the people are not as far left as many here. Instead of fighting us here, you need to concentrate on beating the repubs. Unless the Dems win big in 2020, your goals will never see the light of day. So stop attacking us here.

[watoos]

10. Trump isn't really a Republican,

he is a Trumper. He is for whatever benefits him. He is a con man, a mobster con man. The people who need to be admonished are the Republican politicians who embraced Trump.

Trump will gladly give disaster relief money to red states for hurricanes and floods, but he will hesitate to give disaster relief money to California for wild fires or to Puerto Rico because they are brown people. That's one of the differences between Democrats and Republicans today, Democrats won't think twice about giving disaster relief money to people in Arkansas who are getting flooded out.

I live among Trumpers in central Pa. they don't vote for Republicans they vote against Democrats, they will never vote Democratic. Look at the slime they bashed Hillary with. Trumpers tell me, I couldn't vote for Hillary, she has brain damage from a fall, has only 6 months to live, has a hole in her tongue, ran a pedophile ring out of the basement of a pizza shop that doesn't have a basement, had Seth Rich and many other people murdered,

Whoever our nominee is in 2020 is going to get the same slime, Republicans have nothing positive to run on. Yeah, the debt is 22 trillion and the deficit is 1 trillion a year and rising, they can't even lie any more about being fiscally responsible. 28 billion dollars going to soy bean farmers because of Trump's tariffs.

[keithbvadu2]

18. Trump is a republican

Trump is a republican

Selected as a republican at the republican convention.
Ran as a republican.
Elected as a republican.
Acknowledged as the republican leader.

Certainly not an old style republican with morals, ethics and integrity.
Those folks are gone.

But he's a republican.

[maxrandb]

22. Please... they are all "Retrumplicans" now.

[Chakaconcarne]

14. Well, when you speak to a crowd of blank stares......

You GOT to dumb it down..,,

Hey everyone, watch me pick my butt... hoorah..woot...woot.

[sarisataka]

17. I wonder why

The dumbfucks won't listen...

[procon]

19. Republicans and their enablers have been

working diligently for over half a century with propaganda and message slogans to create their perfect voting base. They were successful beyond their wildest dreams.

Even if Dems launched a counter campaign to challenge rightwing group think, and change in the public mindset takes at least a generation. Unfortunately we don't have 25 years to convince that segment of society that they have been bamboozled for their whole lives.

[RandySF]

26. When pundits talk about blue collar workers

they're only talking about the portion of blue collar workers who are white.

[lunasun]

27. Your posts talks about concern that Dems are talking to middle class blue collar workers and

you mention “ middle America” a few times
i am assuming the concern is for white people only who fit this demographic from the points made

[maxrandb]

28. No, my point is that

It's easier to win people's votes if you lie to them, or just tell them what they want to hear. That's what Retrumplicans have been doing for decades.

And yes, there is definitely some racism involved. LBJ was the one who nailed it; you can easily convince the most ignorant white man that he is better than the most accomplished black man.

It takes real leadership to tell people the hard truth and have them follow you.

When the MSM spew that bullshit about Dems not talking to middle America, what they really mean is Dems aren't telling them what they want to hear and aren't validating their biases.

In the Navy we used to say good leaders had the ability to tell someone to go to hell and have them smile and be on their way.