I've Been Thinking...

[SoFlaJet]

In 2016, we were still living in Florida and I have to say it, I was SHOCKED at how many African Americans in Palm Beach County voted for Trump because they hated Hillary. I would be talking to people and assuming they were Dem-voting progressives and at the early voting site I spoke to these two elderly Black women, telling them how much I appreciate them always standing for the right side, the good guys, the Democratic side. Now our fellow black "democrats" are on TV talking about how they gave us Biden and how they are OWED and how now the Democrats are weak and letting us all down by not getting rid of the filibuster! Well I'll tell you what, those who voted a protest vote against Hillary Clinton in 2016 are partly responsible for what has happened to this country, for what is now happening to us all! They helped bring Trumpism to the world. And if this voting shit isn't straightened out, there will never be another democratically elected Democrat and the whole country will be exactly like what Florida has become, a facist state where no Democrats have any say or any power.

I'm a poor white guy and I am a Democrat NO MATTER WHAT! There is no room anymore for "protest votes" Sometimes things just have to be said. I saw with my own eyes that of which I speak and I have lived in a state that purged my name off the rolls so that they could steal an election in 2000, it changed my life and I vowed to never let it happen again.

[SheilaAnn]

1. I'm in West Palm and have been in Florida since '89 from Jersey. It has always been pretty much

repub since I've been here but I absolutely agree with you. It started with the Al Gore loss, I'll never forget it.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. Oh, my.

I can't imagine them voting that way.

I'm a white person, and I recognize that there is an awful I don't and will never understand about racism or being Black in this country. I do my best, but so much is simply outside my experience.

I also think too many other normally faithful Democratic voters likewise voted for Trump or perhaps stayed home because they didn't like Hillary. I kept on saying, back in 2015 and 2016, that too many people, especially here on DU, completely underestimated the antipathy towards her. I was generally ignored, or dismissed out of hand.

Your story underscores exactly that antipathy.

[FakeNoose]

3. There was a strange disconnect with black voters during Hillary's campaign

I'm not black so I can only guess at this. But my guess is that in 2008 Hillary ran against Obama, and the black voters were almost 100% for Obama. So during that election they viewed Hillary as "the enemy" I guess.

After the 2008 primary, which Obama won, they kissed and made up. Hillary went out and campaigned to help Obama get elected. Once he was in office, Hillary got a really primo assignment - Secretary of State. Somehow the black voters never understood that Barack and Hillary were on the same team.

When 2016 rolls around, Hillary was out pounding the pavement for every vote. I didn't see Barack doing much campaigning for Hillary. And it would have made a big difference among black voters if he HAD gone out for her. But you know, once you're in the White House, you see things differently I guess. He didn't give her the help she needed when it really would have mattered.

Maybe by 2016 he was just tired of politics, I don't know.

[Blue_true]

4. I am Black.

Leading up to the November 2016 General Election, I talked to another Black person who was in the know (met lots of other Black people daily). When he told me that a lot of guys were thinking about voting for Trump, I was floored. Mind you, pretty much all of the people that he deals with are poor or working class. They just have well bashed themselves in the head with a hammer.