I Know Why Poor Whites Chant Trump, Trump, Trump

[malaise]

http://www.stirjournal.com/2016/04/01/i-know-why-poor-whites-chant-trump-trump-trump/
<snip>
From the era of slavery to the rise of Donald Trump, wealthy elites have relied on the loyalty of poor whites. All Americans deserve better.


I’m just a poor white trash motherfucker. No one cares about me.

I

met the man who said those words while working as a bartender in the Ozark Mountains of northwest Arkansas. It was a one-street town in Benton County. It had a beauty parlor, a gas station, and a bar where locals came on Friday nights to shoot the shit over cheap drinks and country music. I arrived in Arkansas by way of another little town in Louisiana, where all but a few local businesses had boarded up when Walmart moved in. In Arkansas, I was struggling to survive. I served drinks in the middle of the afternoon to people described as America’s “white underclass” — in other words, people just like me.

Across the highway from the bar was the trailer park where I lived. I bought my trailer for $1000, and it looked just like you would imagine a trailer that cost $1000 would look. There was a big hole in the ceiling, and parts of the floor were starting to crumble under my feet. It leaned to one side, and the faint odor of death hung around the bathroom. No doubt a squirrel or a rat had died in the walls. I told myself that once the flesh was gone, dissolved into the nothingness, the smell would go away, but it never did. Maybe that’s what vermin ghosts smell like.

I loved that trailer. Sitting in a ratty brown La-Z-Boy, I would look around my tin can and imagine all the ways I could paint the walls in shades of possibility. I loved it for the simple reason that it was the first and only home I have ever owned.

My trailer was parked in the middle of Walmart country, which is also home to J.B. Hunt Transportation, Glad Manufacturing, and Tyson Chicken. There is a whole lot of money in that pocket of Arkansas, but the grand wealth casts an oppressive shadow over a region entrenched in poverty. Executive mansions line the lakefronts and golf courses. On the other side of Country Club Road, trailer parks are tucked back in the woods. The haves and have-nots rarely share the same view, with one exception: politics. Benton County has been among the most historically conservative counties in Arkansas. The last Democratic president Benton County voted for was Harry S. Truman, in 1948.

[FLPanhandle]

1. “It has become socially acceptable to mock poor whites born and raised in the South.”

"I’m just a poor white trash motherfucker. No one cares about me.

Marginalized people have been fighting for equality for decades. Admittedly, in the quest to fight for the oppressed — people of color, women, religious minorities, the LGBTQ community — we often overlook the fact that classism never completely disappeared. For the white underclass, it’s tempting to feel left out of this fight. But how can people fighting for social equality include poor whites who see them as the enemy?"

------------------------

I've been saying this here for a long time. Great article worth reading.

[malaise]

2. Yes it is a very good read

[malthaussen]

10. I find that those who mention classism...

... are often mocked and called racists/bigots for not acknowledging that the oppressed group of choice is more oppressed than the general poor class. I have never understood why some minds consider these mutually exclusive.

-- Mal

[Matrosov]

41. Because many of those poor whites would rather vote against themselves..

..than vote in favor of people of color, women, religious minorities, the LGBTQ community.

As someone lives in the Deep South, I see it all the time. Even many poor whites receiving government assistance would rather have those government benefits cut than to have the oppressed receive their fair share, or to really have any rights at all.

[Recursion]

3. Trump's support in the primaries was richer and better educated than any other candidate's

At least in general it's not poor white people who are supporting him

[gordianot]

8. In the area I live I can spot a Trump supporter by their pick up.

They are not dirt poor, do not have Trump stickers, are employed and live in houses. Generally from my encounters they are less likely to resort to a poor me plea and are more likely to tell you who they dislike. For the most part they do not have a reason based on an interaction it is just the way it is for them. They are waiting for someone to stir them up and so far Trump is only marginally successful. Given some well placed sense of victim hood and not Trump's childish name calling, watch out.

[phylny]

47. Here in central Virginia,

Trump signs abound. Rich people and poor alike vote Republican around here.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Best read of this election cycle. Thanks.

[Winston.Smith]

5. So very true. Thank you

[appalachiablue]

6. What brutal reality while Waltons and Hunts live in splendor. Thank you.

[malaise]

36. It's a very good article

full of truths

[zentrum]

7. The ideology of racism

Last edited Mon Jun 20, 2016, 09:14 PM - Edit history (1)

….was a top down deliberate plan of propaganda devised by the White overlords and Plantation Owners before and during the Civil War when, in fact, they saw that poor dirt farmers (non-plantation owners) were joining with slaves to resist the owners. And even if not that, the poor Whites were still wondering why the hell they should fight and die for the landowners? And were thus refusing to fight. Where was the army of the Civil War going to come from?

The Plantation owners sowed the seed of intense fear in these poor whites —they said Black men are coming for your women, your plot of dirt. Get your gun.

That is the history of how it went down. It's what makes our Civil War never end—because of a 160 years of racist ideology that has always served the wealthy and the owner-class in this country.

[gordianot]

11. That is succinct and is currently a winning strategy.

The tent of those duped now includes small numbers of minorities. Any mention they are being conned elicits howls of protest. Oligarch's, rich people, Wall Street are not the problem.

[zentrum]

31. You know that cartoon?

Three men——a rich man, a middle class man and a poor man-- are sitting at a table in front of three loaves of bread.

The rich man takes two of the loaves and says to the middle class guy, "Now watch out. That guy at the end of the table wants to take your loaf."

[gordianot]

32. Some people refuse to see they are being conned.

I attribute inflated and false pride. The wealth of the ultra rich is hard to imagine. When there is a market for luxury trans oceanic private submarines far beyond the dreams of Captain Nemo and starvation in the country of your origin you have a serious problem.

[mnhtnbb]

12. Is it an accident--or coincidence--that the movie based on the true story

of the Free State of Jones is being released this summer?

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-free-state-jones-180958111/?no-ist

[gordianot]

30. I wondered the same thing about the movie Selma.

The timing with Ferguson seemed suspicious but the filming predates the murder of Michael Brown.
The attempt to link African American support of the old Confederacy may be the motivation for this movie to show that historical truth is stranger than imagined fiction such as Confederate support by African Americans. Fear of a slave up rising is as old as the American Republic and if anything the founding fathers were quite aware of this flaw. Studies after the Civil War showed when interviewed by whites frequently the old slave "what will happen to us" line came up. The same respondents were much more honest when interviewed by African American historians. Literally lives depended on how you responded.

The last thing Southern Agricultural Buisness interests wanted was commonality among share croppers.

[malaise]

37. +1,000

That's the truth

[malthaussen]

9. Note the graph.

1970-79 was the only period where the top 10% and the bottom 90% experienced near-equal growth in income (that is, neither copped 60% of growth). This is considered a "bad" economic period by almost every analyst who looks at it.

Of course, the overall trend, from huge gains by the 90%, to even huger gains by the 10%, is even clearer.

-- Mal

[malaise]

14. Yep I saw that

I'll be reading more from Jonna Ivin and STIR

[tk2kewl]

13. good corollary read

Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War Paperback – June 24, 2008
by Joe Bageant

[malaise]

15. Thanks

[malthaussen]

20. Yes, I was hearing Bageant in every paragraph.

His web site is still being curated: http://joebageant.net/

The author should be pointed at Joe, if she is not familiar with his works.

-- Mal

[JEB]

25. K&R

[elmac]

16. sometimes voting for the wealthy elites pays off

like it did in FDR's presidency. voting is always like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get

[99th_Monkey]

43. I find comparing Trump to FDR to be an unseemly match. n/t

[alarimer]

17. Kicking for visibility

I think everyone who calls themselves liberal needs to read this. This, along with Thomas Frank's books, need to be read by everyone calling themselves a progressive. Of course, it's frustrating because we see all these people voting against their own interests because they have been persuaded by liars for generations to look down on other people. I think LBJ summed it up when he said,“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket.”

[malaise]

19. Yep

King and RBK were assassinated for exposing this reality.

[NoMoreRepugs]

26. exactly - LBJ's quote explains and quantifies it perfectly

[malthaussen]

18. Callin' them poor folks stupid justifies us.

Last edited Tue Jun 21, 2016, 08:57 AM - Edit history (1)

I frankly flinch every time I see some post gloating about how the poor are ignorant, stupid, manipulated, and vote against their own interest. It would seem that the ways of separating us one from another are myriad, and all rooted in pride.

To a certain extent, this article is actually more of the same. It defines "interest" in narrow economic terms, as though man lived by bread alone, even though the author is clearly aware of the importance of amour-propre, especially among those who have no economic stability. When you got nuthin', you'll wrap yourself in whatever tatters can soothe your battered pride. The author, to give her credit, does recognize this, but because she is enlightened enough to see that we are all in this together, she calls those who are not so enlightened "manipulated," as if they were receiving nothing of value when they are justified.

One might suggest that justification is a mere fraction of what the poorer classes should expect or receive, but that's really a question of arithmetic, isn't it? If one truly believes that, despite all his running, he will stay economically in the same place (or worse), then getting some satisfaction is far superior to copping to powerlessness, especially as our culture is so derisive of powerlessness. A candidate who is prepared to milk this for all it is worth should go far. In fact, such a candidate has gone far.

-- Mal

[whathehell]

40. You make very good points. n/t

[ybbor]

21. Incredible read!

I can't wait to pass it along.

Thanks!

[malaise]

38. I've been doing the same

[melman]

22. I don't know if

some of the content of that article is allowed here on New Rules Monday.

[nruthie]

23. Well worth the long read.

This really explains a lot.

[oberliner]

24. How do you explain the non-whites who chant that as well?

There aren't a ton of them, but they do exist.

[certainot]

27. so much talk of symptoms, not the main cause

not much mention of talk radio - the dominant factor in this disaster

democracy was designed to help the little guy

a lot of people escape poverty and move on, but it's getting harder and harder as democracy was effectively short circuited in when the right subsidized and bought up a monopoly of 1200 radio stations for a classic military style PSYOPS. in most of the country there are no free easy alts for politics while working or driving. it will dominate until there is free easy fast wifi everywhere.

a few hundred think tank-scripted talk radio gods repeat the same crap every day, short circuiting democracy with volume the msm and the gop and blue dogs project as populism, while the left continues the biggest political mistake in history by giving them a free speech free ride.

here's the simple math for those who think money in politics is bad :

at a cheap $1000/hr x 15hrs/day x 1200 stations, rw talk radio is worth 4.68 BIL$/ year or 390MIL$ /month FREE for coordinated global warming denial, pro republican wall st think tank propaganda, free market deregulation bullshit, swiftboating, and the hate and fear used to get people to vote republican.

and we let our universities endorse it!

[malaise]

39. Talk radio merely spreads the hate

for those who walked away from it

[Xipe Totec]

28. K & R nt

[JEB]

29. K&R Thanks for posting this.

This is the kind of thoughtful article and discussion that I came to DU to find.

[LittleGirl]

33. Thanks for sharing

that was excellent.

[Skittles]

34. I can understand their disillusionment

what I cannot understand is why they think TRUMP is the answer

Trump isn't just the "wealthy elite" - he is an obvious buffoon

[malaise]

35. Same here

[StoneCarver]

42. Maybe I have some thing wrong but

Bill Clinton abandon the Democratic Party from the poor, Because They Do NOT Vote! How much more more do you need to know? If You Do Not Vote You do not matter! Period! Democracy is simple, you vote you matter! Corporations can NOT vote even if they are people!
Stonecarver
P.s.i'm growing tired of protecting and defending people who will not defend themselves? What can we do?
Stonecarver

[deaniac21]

44. Well poor whites don't vote

so we got that goin for us.

[Lunabell]

45. Very good read.

I understand the dynamics, but what to do about it. We still have the oligarchy. Are we still allowed to say this during the general election? Because I think HRC is a part of this.

[Uncle Joe]

46. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, malaise.