I'm not wasting my time trying to apologize for or "understand" racist people better.

[DanTex]

I can accept that maybe some fraction of Trump voters are not actually racist, they are simply OK with racism and bigotry even though they are not racists and bigots themselves. I also get that, due to the inherent undemocratic nature of the electoral college, a system create to sustain slavery, the probably-racist-but-maybe-not votes are worth more than other votes.

So in light of that, if the Dem leadership, in their postmortem, decides that they need to do more to cater to quasi-racists, I will understand that. I am, after all, a pragmatist, and winning elections is important.

But let's not delude ourselves as to what's going on. The whole push against "identity politics" is basically saying, look, lots of people are somewhere on the racism spectrum, and putting emphasis on anti-racism and anti-discrimination in all forms alienates racist bigots, so to get a bigger chunk of the racist vote, given that racist votes count more than others, maybe talk more about other stuff and go easy on the anti-discrimination in parts of the country where people like discrimination.

It's nauseating, but maybe it has to be done. But it's extra nauseating when people to pretend that this isn't what's going on, that really it's about economics and not bigotry.

Fortunately, I'm not a politician, so I don't have to play that game myself. I don't have to worry that if I don't wink-wink-nudge-nudge to the racist portion of the electorate, voters might think I'm part of the "liberal elite". This last election was a big victory for racism and bigotry. That's why white supremacists and neo-Nazis are the ones celebrating the most. And as a non-politician, I don't have to pretend that losing your job is an excuse for hating minorities and women and LGBT and Muslims and everyone else.

And the other thing I don't need to do is feel sympathy for the segment of the white working class that voted against their own economic interests because they like racism more than they like having a decent paying job. Notice that I said "segment". Even in those 80-20 Trump coal country towns we read about, 20% of the electorate are decent people. And if we grant that some of the Trump voters are just idiots, as opposed to racists, maybe that's 30%. For those people I do feel sympathy.

But overall, Trump put racism on the ballot, and racism won. Yeah, Russia/Comey/emails/media/etc. played a big role. But in terms of substance, this election was about racism and bigotry.

[mythology]

1. Considering the rise of far right nationalist parties in many other western countries

That approach seems rather short sighted. I'd rather understand the Trump voters, find the ones we can reach with a message that doesn't change our fundamental values and limit the power of the far right.

Even if you're right that the election was all about racism (which statistically you aren't given Clinton substantial drop in the polls after the second Comey announcement), the fact that Trump won, even if only by a hair, says his message resonated with a enough people to win. I don't want to repeat that in 2020.

[SidDithers]

2. DU rec...

Good post.

Sid

[uponit7771]

3. +1, if it was a bunch of racist Hispanic people I don't think the question would even come up !!!

[tenorly]

10. Good point.

Many White Hispanics are in fact intensely racist. Being White in Latin America is practically a badge of honor, you see, and in many of these countries there is an unspoken Apartheid system just as effective as anything in 1980s South Africa.

Once these people move to the U.S. though, they often find that due to their accent and/or surname, they are lumped together with their fellow Latinos of color. Many White Hispanics as a result became Republican, often in the belief that White Americans would accept them more easily if they did so.

Over the last 20 years though, they've become increasingly Democratic as it's become clear to them that while many White Americans welcome them, most Republicans do not. In fact, they hate them.

[lunasun]

4. And this talk of the dem party catering to trump voters must be going beyond dem forums like this

I have heard more than one unpolitical but faithful dem voters say over the holiday they are done with voting if the dem party politicians turn around to these trump people and it starts shaming PCness and IDP as if it was the fault for election loss. So it must be out in the MSM and
none of them are elite either so this meme must be carrying to the general public ears now.
Is this the consensus of the party now or just being put out there by a certain party faction?

The party may lose some of the ground gotv type people along the way and maybe the party won't care when it looks at the trump formula who had little of this yet won.

Those parts of the Dem faithful base will tune out not turn out & best of luck if these politicians think they have a whole lot of trump voters to take their place if they accept "soft racism & soft sexism" ...whatever that is or evolves into, but party officials know the numbers better than most do and will reinvent the party as needed I suppose

[R B Garr]

5. Good post, and it should also be expected that a certain

Senator calls out the obvious racism instead of his usual divisive approach towards Democrats where he makes everything only about his distorted economic message like he did in the primary.

[treestar]

6. Yes. We do understand racists.

And that is why we should not cater to them.

[Garrett78]

7. The GOP would cease to be a viable institution if not for bigotry.

Trump could violate virtually every campaign promise and it wouldn't put a dent in his level of support. But imagine if he and Republicans in Congress came out in support of Black Lives Matter, a path to citizenship, and LGBTQ rights. The party would splinter so as to make it unviable.

You'd still have the trickle down believers, the jingoists, the advocates of privatization, but no Republican could win a national election. Bigotry, particularly racism, is the tie that binds. It's the glue that holds that party together.

[pnwmom]

8. Yup, it's extra nauseating when Dems pretend the racism and bigotry

is really about being anti-establishment and worried about the economy.

[Garrett78]

9. Especially when all of the evidence disputes the economy/anti-establishment narrative.

It's bad enough that Trump supporters exist within an alternate reality. I expect better from DU posters. But maybe I shouldn't. After all, I saw the denial of reality on display throughout the primary. People insisting that Clinton only led because of superdelegates or because of closed primaries while ignoring the impact of undemocratic caucuses (not to mention Clinton won a majority of the open primaries). People denying what so many of us knew by mid-March, which was that the race was essentially over. People claiming that Clinton and her surrogates were going around saying "it's her turn." People spreading the myth that "independents" are non-partisan, disaffected or wishy-washy, even though numerous surveys make clear that most independents are strongly partisan.

And now we hear people claim that Clinton didn't talk about economics even though that topic dominated her campaign. I've even seen posts claiming that she spent more time talking about "transgender bathrooms," which is an absurd right wing talking point used to inflame bigotry.

It's fine to like Sanders. It's fine to want a Democratic nominee who speaks forcefully against plutocracy. But it's not fine to deny reality in favor of your own alternate reality. Leave that BS to the Trump supporters.

[RBInMaine]

13. No, social issues dominated her campaign & the majority of people who voted for Trump aren't racist.

[Garrett78]

15. The actual evidence says different, and it's been posted many times already.

[pnwmom]

20. No, it didn't. Her speeches were analyzed and her number one topic was jobs,

by far, and her second was the economy.

And every single Trump voter was willing to vote for a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, anti-Semite, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim -- they also bear the stain of their choice.

[atreides1]

26. The majority who voted for Trump aren't racist

Most Germans weren't members of Nazi Party, either! But they supported the actions that took place, even if it's true that many didn't know what was going on.


http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/whic/ReferenceDetailsPage/DocumentToolsPortletWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&u=mlin_n_governor&p=WHIC%3AUHIC&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CCX2876500037&zid=4ca0ce2b32f3a54ca0622bbb17c1c6d5

[True_Blue]

11. Trump voters voted for a racist

And they need to own it and quit blaming Democrats for their vote. It's not our fault that they chose to vote for a clearly unstable unqualified narcissistic racist who campaigned on destroying millions & millions of lives. I have yet to meet a Trump voter that respects the lives of African Americans, Muslims, Hispanics, Immigrants, Gays, Women ...etc.

[RBInMaine]

12. OK, Well I guess everyone who voted for Obama but went to Trump are just all racists. Sheesh.

[DanTex]

14. That's a tiny number of people, and I don't know if they're racist or not.

At the very least they are OK with racism, which puts them on the racism spectrum.

[Garrett78]

16. Read this:

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/11/why_did_some_white_obama_voters_for_trump.html

Trump can break virtually every campaign promise he made and it won't make a dent in his level of support. But if he were to come out in support of Black Lives Matter, a path to citizenship and LGBTQ rights, his support would crumble.

[True_Blue]

17. What do you think White voters would do

If instead of Trump, we have a Black candidate that ran on a not-very-subtle Black nationalism platform, but made the exact same promises like building a wall and bringing back manufacturing jobs? Would the disaffected White workers show up en mass to vote for him since he promised to bring back manufacturing jobs? Would White voters stay home leaving their fate to others because neither candidate excites them? Or vote 3rd party out of protest? What do you think White voters would do in this scenario?

[pnwmom]

21. Some of them are misogynists and others are anti-immigrant,

anti-Muslim, homophobic or just pro-KKK.

Just because someone voted for Obama doesn't mean they can't be bigoted in other ways.

[TheKentuckian]

18. Catering to racists is just smarmy but nonsensical code for refusal to address working

class economic issues, favoring broad poverty, and rolling over for corporate donors because delusional folk think it somehow helps them and/or under the greatly mistaken impression that repeating failed actions will result in different results because...reasons.

We have way too many people seemingly committed to Whiging out our party or at best turning us into the Washington Generals.

[DanTex]

19. "Favoring broad poverty"? Are you kidding? You seriously think the Dems favor broad poverty?

If so, you are so far removed from reality it's not even worth discussing. A racist who wants to cut taxes for rich people, get rid of the minimum wage, and destroy unions wins. And you somehow think that the problem is that the Dems "favor broad poverty". It's hard to believe that you are serious.

[pnwmom]

22. Hillary's #1 topic in her speeches was jobs, and her #2 was the economy.

Her website had hundreds of pages devoted to the issues you claim she was refusing to address.

You were spending too much time listening to DT's lies.

[Warren DeMontague]

23. So okay... fuck the Trump voters. Now who is left?

And how can we try and win them over, instead?

Any ideas?

[Yurovsky]

24. Seriously... many were Obama voters in 2008 & 2012...

So there's a good chunk of these folks who are worth going after. Or are we going to say those Obama voters were just racists who voted for the black guy by accident???

We keep writing people off and we're going to run out of voters...

[Warren DeMontague]

25. yeah, I'm not what you would call a math expert

but that makes sense.