My dispatch/thoughts on living in a Trump area

[RazzleCat]

I have some thoughts about what is different about Trump supporters. These thought’s have been rolling round my head for quite a while now, built on observations from living in an area that went for Trump. What set this all off was while driving out of my neighborhood into town I pass the house with a most different set of flags. Lined up along their pool are an American Flag (standard this time of year), POW/MIA flag, (again not so different this time of year), Gadsden Flag (no comment), and a Trump flag. It is the last that made me flip out. I loved Obama, I wanted Hillary, but I never would fly a “politician flag” I celebrate my country not an individual. Why would you ever purchase let alone fly a large flag with a politician as it’s theme? Break all of it down and none of it makes any sense. An American flag next to a Gadsden Flag? Maybe they are Navy/Marine vets. POW/MIA adjacent to Trump flag, my head spins, Mr. heel spurs, avoiding STD’s was my NAM next to never forget those who gave all?

I am beginning to believe that many of his voters in my area, did not vote on his ideas, but rather voted for him because they love him for being the person he is. They wanted a bully, a person who gives simplistic answers to questions that are not simple. Someone who would say aloud thoughts they were afraid to articulate due to social norms. They have a hostility over there current plight and want someone as angry as them to lash out at everything they do not understand. They they supported “the angry man” that he represents. I said their current plight, I live in a nice area, most of my neighbors are two income families, we have nice homes with large yards, attached garages, and pools. This is not an economically depressed area, but it is very economically precarious. We are machinists, mechanical engineers, electricians, we are upper income blue collar workers. My neighbors see there jobs staying stagnate, no raises, bonuses are also gone. My neighbors are afraid, afraid of their lifestyle going away, afraid because they know they are one paycheck away from serious economic repercussions. They want some one to blame, and “The Donald” gave them many someones to point the finger at. Yes I am certain that some are just plain old racists, some are misogynist’s, and some are a “lovely” blend of the two. But most I think are just afraid, and reacting on a primal reflex to that fear.

I have no ideas on how to solve this, but taking the time to write out my ideas has helped me to see my neighbors not as “the other” but more like the villagers who attacked Dr. Frankensteins monster out of fear and ignorance.

[retrowire]

2. They just wanted their reality TV show hero

To be the president.

Problem is, they never ever ever understood the complexities or importance of the job. They have a child's understanding of the position. WOWWWW president wooooowwwwww

To them, they help their favorite TV star whom they relate to, become the president and by relation, elevated their own self esteem. If he can do it, so can I!

[HelenWheels]

3. Your post hits it right on the button

And so does the main post. My daughter and SIL are big for Trump and one of their reasons is they have bought the fairy tale that he is a religious person. I know, pretty pathetic.

[3catwoman3]

9. That must be so hard for you.

Of all the lies POSUS (Piece of Shit of the United States) spouts, the ones about him being "religious" are the biggest of them all. He is anything but. Unless, of course, we take into account that he may be worshipping himself.

[lambchopp59]

19. Alphabet soup gaining popularity: PINO: pResident in name only

Although I like POSUS too, it would have to be excrement from someone on a 100% carrots diet.
You've hit the nail on the head of the most bothersome aspect of, especially republican hypocrisy: The perfectly vicious circle of "Vote for me 'cause Jeebus", as such candidates laugh all the way to the bank. Then the religion itself reinforces the "don't question authority" edict, Fox Noise even tries to play off unchecked greed as being "Christian" somehow. Makes me want to
I wish an ever powerful Jeebus could return, so he could sort out the misguided subservient bent King James favored himself with.

[MiniMe]

4. Live in a repuke part of a Dem state.

I took my American Flag down on inauguration day, folded it properly, put it in a plastic bag to protect it, and put it in my garage. I love my country, but I can't fly the flag at this point in time.

[GallopingGhost]

11. I do too.

And I did the same. I won't fly it again until we have someone in the WH who understands and respects what it is supposed to stand for.

I say "supposed to" because some who wave the biggest flag are small people who don't know a damned thing about it.

[oberliner]

22. You can't fly your American flag?

America is a lot more than who sits in the WH.

[MiniMe]

32. I know, but I just can't bring myself to fly it at this point in time

I hate him that much.

[oberliner]

33. That is intense

I get where you are coming from - it's embarrassing that he is president, that's for sure.

[Botany]

5. Late last winter I was in western MD to cross country ski and fish for brook trout (new germany st.)

On day in the morning it was foggy and rainy so I took I drive for a few hours ....
MD, WV, and VA and some of the worst shacks in dirt poor areas had, rebel flags,
trump flags, NRA flags, and big crosses in their yards.

They are beyond help and we should not spend one second trying to connect with those
voters outside of making sure we get a clean vote and we put Ds into power and just
maybe some of them might see the benefits of Ds vs Rs. But if they are thinking gun first
24/7 fuck 'em they are gone.

[oberliner]

24. The divide just gets bigger then

Doesn't it?

If we get a Democrat in, they will pull the same crap as they did with Obama and Clinton.

Doesn't there have to be some engagement?

[Left-over]

6. I have to agree.

Sounds like where I live. It is not that the people here are bad people, rather, they have been mass manipulated by bought and paid for main-stream media.

[Cosmocat]

7. Yep

nm

[KingCharlemagne]

8. Any person who voted for Trump deserves 25% unemployment and a general

economic collapse.

[lambchopp59]

14. Problem being, that drags everyone down with them.

I shudder with how possibly accurate you are about that.

[KingCharlemagne]

17. It will be interesting to see how public law enforcement breaks when

the shit finally hits the fan, as Trump's policies will eventually ensure. Will they side with the masses or will they back the private property interests of the 1%? A century ago, Lenin cautioned that police in a capitalist state are not workers but, instead, enforcers for the bourgeoisie or what he called "bourgeois cops." So we shall see, soon enough, I would imagine.

[Lee-Lee]

23. Look to New Orleans after Katrina for an idea

Of course it will vary wildly based on area. Small towns and rural areas LE is in closer contact with the people and community and will probably carry on as normal. In big cities there is not the same sense of community or obligation and LE is seen as just a job, so you will probably see a lot more just walk off the job. Especially in communities where the LE doesn't live in the community either because it's a place you don't want to live on one side of the spectrum or a place where they can't afford to live on a cops salary on the other side of the spectrum.

After Katrina the cops in New Orleans proper largely walked off the job. Most didn't live in the city and chose to stay home and keep their families safe and the ones that did live there evacuated with families for the most part. In contrast in the small towns along the coast near there that saw the same amount of damage the cops largely stayed on the job.

[KingCharlemagne]

27. That is a very astute observation. My training as a Marxist had led me to think that

most cops would instinctively break towards protecting the interests of private capital, even in a time of general economic collapse. But I failed to take into account the urban-small town-rural sociology you explain here.

[Lee-Lee]

30. One of the big failings of Marx is he saw things only through his one lens

There are a whole lot more societal dynamics to it than that.

Most cops don't think of things all in that frame.

A sense of obligation to community they are serving is the big thing. If you work in a small community where you live in the community and you know all the people personally you will keep doing the same thing and upholding the law.

If you serve a large agency where there is an atmosphere that it is the rank and file officer against the leadership of the agency and the city who don't have loyalty to them and where you feel like the community doesn't support you or want you there day to day then when times get hard you are not going to see yourself as obligated to the job and will reach a tipping point where walking away from it is the choice you make like someone does with any other job that became untenable.


Imagine if you were an officer who had good intentions and did everything right and just who worked the inner city where you got an overwhelmingly negative response and treatment from the people. Where even the most justified arrest gets you surrounded by people screaming at you, where you are called names and shunned daily. If there is a breakdown in society where things get tenuous and violence is increasingly common you will quickly decide it's not worth it and simply quit, stay home and keep your family safe.

Now imagine you are that same officer working in a super rich upscale area where the people look down on you and don't give you the time of day, use their wealth to get out of crimes you get them for like domestic violence, treat you like trash when you are trying to help them, and who don't give two shits about you until they need you. When once again the risk is increasing and it's more dangerous to leave your family behind, because you could never afford to live where you work on a cops salary, when do you say enough is enough and those people are not worth it?

Now put yourself in a small department in a typical small town. You have your typical criminal element but the people overwhelmingly are friendly. They wave at you as you pass them in your patrol car. Some of the gas stations won't take your money if you try to pay for a coffe. Every once in a while when your eating a meal on your 12 hour shift someone anonymously pays for it. You live in the community and know the people. You are part of the community. Keeping them safe and keeping law and order up is part of keeping your family, real and extended in the community safe. If it broke down to the point where you can't even get paid anymore there is a strong chance your community is still going to take care of you best they can with food and supplies to keep you on the job.

It's all about the sense of obligation to the community. If you alienate your police force you have one that feels no obligation to your community and is just there for a paycheck.

Now, those who walked off the job will be looking for work and if a wealthy person seeks to hire them for private security and offers to pay the bills, then just like they saw their LE role as just a job and paycheck they will that too.

Now, to the extent that upholding the law involves protecting private property those cops in rural areas and small towns who stay on the job will still do so, but no more than they would in upholding all existing laws. When I was a deputy working patrol I knew all the owners of the small businesses in my area and the managers of the chains. We had a personal relationship and I had a responsibility to protect their property and capital the same as I did the property and capital, however limited, of the poorest person in the most run down trailer park in my patrol area and I would do all that equally.

[oberliner]

25. That's awful

I don't see how someone with a Bernie avatar can say that people who vote for Trump deserve economic collapse.

The whole reason we support people like Hillary and Bernie is because we oppose exactly that sort of thing.

[KingCharlemagne]

28. You're obviously unfamiliar with Lenin's nostrum of "worse, then better" (meaning

a general crisis of capitalism creates revolutionary possibilities and openings). I want to see real socialism here, not the weak social democracy peddled by Sanders and his minions. The only way we get there from here is via a general economic collapse. So sue me if I wish its ill effects to land largely on the heads of those who voted for the fascist.

[oberliner]

34. OK

I get where you are coming from now.

Maybe replace the Bernie avatar with Karl Marx?

[KingCharlemagne]

35. OK, I'll check it out - nt

[sakabatou]

10. They're lost in a cult of personality

[lambchopp59]

12. Comments from California where frankly,

I didn't even know there was a focking "Trump" flag. That's messed up. I'll have to google that to see, after my breakfast has fully digested.
Even in our relatively rural area north of the Bay Area, blatantly RW nutjobs are those who have smoked way too much of something man made, and a few simpleton "Christians" who can't shut off Fox Noise.
I believe much of the key words in your diatribe are "simplistic answers".
What I see of the seasoned MAGA hat wearers who come into the hospital seriously ill is often the most difficult patient to care for next to the drug-seekers. Many are notoriously non-compliant with doctor's orders or with taking necessary steps to help their own problems.
Yes, many have actually framed medical providers as "liberals" who "are NOT going to tell them what to do"
If I could describe the actual similar scenarios I've participated in that were so astoundingly face-palmworthy I would, but HIPPA regulations could be breachable even describing to you what I've witnessed even anonymized. It is that unique.
Many of these patients, I literally run out of how to break down describing their need for compliance any simpler for them to comprehend... even when resorting to explaining a procedure like one would to a 5 year old... and still fails.
I believe what we are dealing with is a form of dementia.
From what I've seen and heard of it, Fox and hate radio present their "reasoning" in astoundingly tiny sound bytes. The only time I ever had the opportunity to listen to Lush Rimbaugh was driving a old car across radio-free northeasten Arizona. It was interesting to listen as he laid out the crazy: first by starting with logical, albeit simplistic arguments. So far, he made sense. But then the logic train jumped the tracks once resorting to utilizing the logical basis to support some wild "liberal conspiracy".
I turned it back to the Native American chanting station for the remaining 80 miles or so till I could pick up Albuquerque stations.

[bora13]

13. licorice

like back when I was a hardcore dead fan we believed in the saying that
dead heads are like people who like licorice. They really, really like licorice.
We couldn't wait to see and hear Jerry jammin to the crowd.

Now we have the worst kind of person that elicits a high level of
fandom from his base and they can't wait to hear his words (trumpian song)
and see him live.

back in the day running into
a complete idiot at a show would cause me to say,
"I come to dead shows to get away from people like you."

Now they are everywhere.

[KTM]

16. I know some of those guys

And I think in many instances you are correct.

When they say "He's not afraid to tell it like it is" what they mean is, "I'm afraid to tell it like I think it is."

Thats not to say they agree with everything he says or does. They aren't all racist or misogynystic or hateful at heart. They are conditioned; the "nurture" portion of their growth made them fear "the other," and "the other" has been vaguely attached to any and all groups for their entire lives by playing on their fears that "their lifestyle is going away".

But they are "afraid to tell it like they think it is" because at some level, they know they are wrong. They know the solutions to most issues are complex but they really want them to be easy. Hucksters have been turning that "simple solution" yearning into gold since the dawn of man.

[hedda_foil]

18. I had to see for myself what they're selling on eBay. Look here with caution.

I believe it means that they think he'll protect them.

[lambchopp59]

20. OMFG

Holy crap it's the ultimate culmination of stoked fear of "the other".
Ironic part being, the ones flying this atrocity are likely standing underneath it being trampled by the tank tracks, and most sickening of all, encourage sacrifice their own offspring in some war against whoever the Donald points out as an "enemy".
Scary part is, Frump is declaring us, as liberals, as number one of the enemies.
The Fox Faithful would go right along with another civil war.

[Lee-Lee]

21. Funniest part is I think that's a Russian APC/tank

Artist had a slip or sending a messsge?

[Achilleaze]

26. OMFG II - they put a 5-time republican Draft Dodger in an image that

makes him look like a war hero? Sick. I would not follow Comrade Casino, the republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief, into a pillow fight.

Note that his hand is in his pocket, because he's grabbed on to the only thing he really care about: money.

[3catwoman3]

29. Now THAT is the definition of horrifying!

I wonder if the artist included the piece of Scotch tape on the underside of the blowing-in-the-wind tie. And why not add in Melania, bare-assed in the thing while brandishing the pistol while standing on the wing of an airplane? That would fit right in.

Good gawd.

[Lee-Lee]

31. I went looking and that same company makes these too

Weird shit. They have JFK ones and a bunch others. Who buys that stuff? I kinda like the FDR one in his weaponzed wheelchair as a symbol of him fighting for our nation despite his disabilities, but who the hell wants that on a flag or a tank top even if you like it?