Trump's turn towards overt racism is driving away a big part of his base that helped him win in 2016

[Soph0571]

“It turns out that white working-class women do not enjoy the president’s ‘turn toward more overt racism,'” the author reports. “A woman from Clark County, Nevada said of Trump during one of the focus groups, ‘He totally divides this country, like no one has ever done in history.’ Another woman from the focus groups said, ‘I feel like whenever he starts hating on Democrats, because he does this often, it really does make him sound ignorant.'”

The author speculates, “It’s hard to know why the racism of a racist president who rose to political prominence on the back of a racist lie, birtherism, is suddenly bothering white working-class women. Perhaps the overtness of his targeting of the Squad is finally a bridge too far. It’s possible that the act of watching the president target women who are just trying to do their jobs is viscerally more upsetting to these women than the many allegations of sexual assault that they did not actually see with their own eyes,” before adding, “Maybe the president’s racism, the thing he’s been using to juice his white working class base, will boomerang on him and alienate white working class women. Wouldn’t it be delicious if the racism was the thing that brought down the racist? ”

[link:https://www.rawstory.com/2019/07/trumps-turn-towards-overt-racism-is-driving-away-a-big-part-of-his-base-that-helped-him-win-in-2016-report/|

Maybe some people do have their limits... will happily play along with dog whistles all day - but draw a line when it is blatant and in your face? Hhhmmm. Not convinced, sadly

“In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued - they may be essential to survival.” Noam Chomsky

[True Blue American]

1. Attacking John Lewis

And ElijahCummings is not the same as attacking the younger ones. I honestly think his rage has consumed him.

[empedocles]

3. traitortrulmp may be 'mad' - but there can be 'method to madness'

[uponit7771]

29. Trumps lover / daughter doesn't want Cummings to investigate her husband

[mucifer]

2. he was doing all this crap before the election. I don't buy it. They knew

he was racist and assaulting women. They didn't care then and they don't care now.

[rpannier]

9. Agree

TWhat they say publicly will likely be different than what they do in the voting booth

[ginnyinWI]

13. the base won't desert him. But the rest of them may.

The independents, the moderates, the uninformed casual knee-jerk Republican voters. The "how bad can he really be?" crowd. The never-Hillary crowd.

As we saw after the mid-terms, he seems to have lost people from that group.

As for the base, he is their dream guy: just as awful as they wish that they could get away with being. No hope for them. He could kill someone on live tv and brag about it and they'd still be with him. They "know" that he's a bad one, but he's one of them, so they think. He's like them only rich, they think.

[StarfishSaver]

21. Yes. This is nothing new

He's just being who and what he's always been.

[JI7]

22. yup, just look at the support Roy Moore got

[dalton99a]

39. +1. They are loving it

[onecaliberal]

42. Look how he treated the Khans, Gold Star family. The Access Hollywood tape, calling Mexicans rapists

Dump has a well documented racist past. There is no excuse.

[mucifer]

45. yes this plus the russians. The ONLY chance we have is live impeachment hearings

for the vast majority of the public to go against trump, impeach him and then to somehow make voting more secure. That's my hope.

[HopeAgain]

4. I will believe it when I see it...

Trumps base seems to adjust no matter how low he goes.

[ooky]

41. Me too.

[gordianot]

5. Trump adapts to his base not so much as his followers adapt to him.

His message appeals to humanities inner demon. Trump was created by his followers.

[Cosmocat]

12. Yep

spot on.

He is not the cause, he is a symptom.

And, the air he breathes is hatred and malice.

[ewagner]

19. Excellent Observation....n/t

[yardwork]

6. This is how we win. Call Trump a racist every chance we get.

[olegramps]

37. I really wish that people would recognize that he is the face of fascism.

Fascism embraces every aspect of Trump's vile message of hatred, intolerance and division. It has been the Republican's playbook for over fifty years. The primary goal of the Republican Party is the establishment of an authoritarian presidency. They are very close to achieving their goal. The Supreme Court is packed with Federalist judges with lifetime appointment who have dissipated the Civil Rights Legislation that effectively silences in their determination to silence the minority vote.

We are fighting a war for the minds that is greatly tilted in favor of the extreme right wing. It is an asymmetric polarization in which the right has moved to extreme position while the Democratic Party remains very little changed in its philosophy of compromise to achieve reasonable goals. The Democrats face an near impossible situation. The underpopulated rural states with their two senators control the Senate. While the Democrats have won the plurality they are doomed to lose in these states. It would take a radical turn of events for the Democrats to recapture the Senate and until this is ever accomplished the Republicans will continue to block every effort of the Democrats to obtain progressive appointments and effective legislation. Even if the Democrats win the presidency, the battle will continue to be frustrated by the Republican's control of the senate. It will effectively be a repeat of President Obama's presidency with even more intense opposition by the entrenched Republicans who will continue to move further from compromise to intense tribalism. I am in my eighties and see little hope for the return of government from the path that the Republicans have chosen. The only hope is the massive awakening of the youth to life that they are destined to lead under authoritarian, plutocracy. What I have seen so far from the slate of Democratic candidates is less than aspiring. It appears to be degenerating into a pissing contest of who can propose the most unlikely of campaign promises and totally failing to address the real threat that the nation faces. The enemy is not from foreign powers but the enemy within that is determined to shred the constitution.

[yardwork]

40. Very well said! I'm in my late 50s and agree with every word.

I struggle to convince my millennial children that "both sides" are not equally bad and that we are on the verge of losing much that we now take for granted.

My kids are rightly concerned about the environment and feel a kind of fatalism - a feature of youth, imo - about the future of the globe.

After decades of trying to figure out how to reach people, I believe that "Trump is a racist. Do you really support that?" is the only way to prevent his re-election. Congress, as you say, remains an intractable problem.

Fox News and hate radio have brainwashed half the country. They believe things that are completely untrue and don't believe actual facts.

[ooky]

44. I believe Mitch McConnell is the poster child for today's American fascist movement

and Trump was a convenient tool he embraced to advance it. Also, Fox News and hate radio are getting plenty of assistance from the mainstream media that push and legitimize right wing talking points and personalities all.the.time.

[Joe941]

7. Honestly I don't think he wants to win in 2020...

He is trying to lose.

[Buckeyeblue]

18. You might be right

You have to think that even though Trump drives money to his hotels and resorts, he has to think that he is really missing out on a bigger payday. If he lost, he would still have the political capital to launch his TV show. And he could charge millions for making speeches.

[uncle ray]

23. that's what i thought in 2016.

unfortunately there are people who want him reelected more than he does.

[uponit7771]

27. +1, Putin's whore is going to do what Putin wants him to do

[paleotn]

36. It's not nearly as fun as he expected...

God knows what the crazy man expected, quasi absolute monarchy I guess. When faced with serious trouble, it seems his first instinct is to run away from it, hide behind corrupt lawyers, etc. Maybe he's thinking he can just stick his finger in the eyes of all his detractors by going full on racist asshole, lose and then preemptively pardon himself and his bratty kids on the way out. Who knows? Pardoning himself is uncharted territory, however. Then again, my wife tells me to stop trying to logically discern the thinking of a crazy man. Logic doesn't apply to him. He's got the attention span of a hamster and just does whatever seems good at the time, with little to no forethought.

[irisblue]

8. White Women voted for the ApricotHellbeast.

Some literature suggested 47%, others 53%.

I'll believe a change in action has occurred in mid November 2020.

[Cosmocat]

10. Did this guy miss "lock her up?"

"It’s possible that the act of watching the president target women who are just trying to do their jobs is viscerally more upsetting to these women ..."

Yeah, he cut his political bones on birtherism, but he brought home the trophy slandering the shit out of a woman.

[faymer7]

11. Oh, but it is keeping those hardcore base in line.

[DeminPennswoods]

14. Maybe white working class women aren't that

crazy about the white working men Trump is targeting with his overt racism?

[Soph0571]

15. Maybe. At least they are self aware enough to disavow the racism...BUT

I do not think that racism will make one jot of difference in the ballot box

[DeminPennswoods]

17. IMO, generally women work in different fields

than men like social work, child care, nursing, nursing assistants and care aides, teachers and teachers' aides, retail and so on. I suspect they encounter more diverse clients, customers and co-workers and that makes a difference in how they see things.

[uponit7771]

26. +1

[Maru Kitteh]

16. "it really does make him sound ignorant.'"

No madam. It does not make him sound, ignorant.

[Hortensis]

20. We'll see how many. It has to lose him some of those already

very unhappy with him and already wondering if they can vote for him again.

But I'm also remembering that in 2016 it typically took anywhere from 2 to 10 days for his support to recover from terrible revelations, decide they were Democratic Party lies, and at that time come back even stronger.

So, again, we'll see. Bit by bit. Those who've held the Republicans in disfavor have solidly outnumbered them for a lot of years now, during which that party has been shrinking. Even though most conservative indies continued to reliably stand against Democrats, Trump has to be making this hypocrisy increasingly difficult.

[uponit7771]

24. SO TRUE !! They were trying to deny his racism before but now he's a text book racist

[ROB-ROX]

25. Working Women

I think women have been treated like STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND at work. Women are under paid versus male established wages. Women are treated like they are strangers who do not know the "language or customs." Then there can be men who want another "conquest" so they break unwritten cultural rules to force themselves on the "new" people. I think world wide women are in a cultural struggle and the USA has many different "time or cultural" zones where women are treated differently by the cultural standards established at those zones. We do not need to go to another country to see antiquated cultural practices targeting women.......

[Baltimike]

28. his base did not help him win, the RUSSIANS did. nt

[hlthe2b]

30. I think some of these women may well be facing questions from their children about

"the President's" comments that fly in the face of what lessons the kids were supposedly taught.

I'd imagine it is just a little hard to explain to their children...

[BlueMTexpat]

31. Let us hope so,

but since this behavior is nothing new - just more blatant - I hate to get my hopes up.

[MadDAsHell]

32. Unfortunately, I think a huge portion of the population doesn't see any of this as overt.

They miss 99% of the racism we see. I work with otherwise highly intelligent people who basically only see racism in slurs. They don't see racism in statistics, they don't see racism in dogwhistles, they don't even see racism in "shithole countries."

If he doesn't specifically mention someone's skin color or isn't literally caught on camera saying the word "ni**er," these idiots will never see racism.

[nini]

33. He's never hidden who he is.

All of a sudden people see it? Perhaps they should take their vote and country a little more,seriously and get informed.

I'm not buying they're all of a sudden bothered. I do think they are crawling back into their holes and not as willing to flaunt their ignorance and hate.

They'll still vote for him.

[Roy Rolling]

34. Old Traditions

Suburban white women (Republican) often get their political advice from their husbands. It’s that simple.

It’s also simple they have grown weary from having to defend a miscreant like Trump. They first accepted Trump out of political,inexperience in 2016.

After two years of nonstop reporting how much of an a**hole Trump is, the women don’t like having to support the candidate of their husband. They realize they are being exploited and their good name is being used to support an idiot like Trump.

And lastly, some are tired of being labeled as whores for Trump. Those women aren’t dumb, they’re just exploited. They won’t let their good name be used as an endorsement anymore. They want to separate themselves from this stereotype: (internet picture is photoshopped)

flip.com

[panader0]

43. "Trump boner garage" ???

[videohead5]

35. Comey's Letter

I believe was the final thing that got Trump elected plus help from the Russians but I believe the letter 11 days before the election was the tipping point.

[duforsure]

38. He has to use racist rants

To distract from his Epstein , Putin, and tax records issues that'll explode into major disasters for him and his AG, and cause many more to run from this lying corrupt predator, who is also a traitor to this country. Immigration now is killing him with their abusing children on a daily basis.