The comments as well.

We need to get all those who Dems who didnt vote in 2016 registered and to the polls.

They are cult members. Way too much work to deprogram them. And they love their hate.

Other than that, they're totally harmless.

Look at the damage they have already done to our Country. We need to SPEAK to them in a way they will understand.

Pontifications of a 3 grader, assuming you could find one who can grasp the issues and relate them in grade 3 speak. Even that may be too complicated and hard to follow for so many drumpf voters.

Will people volunteer to shove the trump voter and say hey you listen to me. Seems they will understand that but will they listen probably not and who would want to do that? Not me

"To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture."

I'm not sure you CAN talk to a person who thought "President Donald Trump" was and is a great idea.

I'm not sure you can talk to a person who continually and without fail gives Republicans and corporations a clear and free pass on any and every crime and wrongdoing they commit.

I'm not sure you can reason with a person who, as a default, blames Democratic tenets for the sins and robbery of Re-branded Feudalism.

I'm not sure you can reason with someone that thinks not only a mythology book is real, but we should rotate governance around it and allow it's followers to become a law unto themselves.

I shouldn't have to work extraordinarily hard to inject a default Republican with common sense. How many times does your mother have to tell you to stop pissing on the seat before you finally not do it anymore?

Makes me want to put it on a big rubber stamp so I could go around stamping it onto Trumpers' foreheads -- made up in reverse so's they'd read it every time they looked into the mirror.

they are harmless.

Since getting us all killed is obviously an extreme form of harm, the post was just a sarcastic way of saying those voters are as harmful and destructive as they could possibly be, not a claim that they are actually harmless.

'I was totally aghast and disgusted when they clapped watching Trump shove the leader to get to the front of the group....... '

no conflict from me....anyone who would clap after watching their president behave like a total asshole is probably an asshole too

No heart or soul.

getting so much attention or not. On the one hand, he thinks they are not worth all that attention, but in the other hand, he thinks maybe we do need to know about them in order to counter their influence.

He isn't conflicted about the sense or decency of the voters themselves. He is aware those qualities are lacking.

Are they a curiosity?

Is the story they tell worthy and brings enlightenment?

Why is the media continuing to run and print stories about rural America Trump voters?

talking about them to avoid the elephant in the room:

UW professor got it right on Trump. So why is he being ignored?

"On Monday researchers released the most comprehensive survey data yet aimed at understanding what actually went down in Election 2016. The group includes academics but also right-leaning outlets such The Heritage Foundation and left-leaners like the Center for American Progress.

What’s different about the Voter Study Group is that it tracks the attitudes and votes of the same 8,000 adults since before the 2012 election, and then throughout the 2016 election. So it’s like the nation’s largest, longest political focus group.

The story we’ve told ourselves — that working-class whites flocked to Trump due to job worries or free trade or economic populism — is basically wrong, the research papers released this week suggest.

They did flock to Trump. But the reason they did so in enough numbers for Trump to win wasn’t anxiety about the economy. It was anxiety about Mexicans, Muslims and blacks.

Here’s how they put it in academese: “What stands out most, however, is the attitudes that became more strongly related to the vote in 2016: attitudes about immigration, feelings toward black people, and feelings toward Muslims,” writes George Washington University professor John Sides. He notes that the media focused on less-educated whites, but negative racial attitudes fueled by Trump were a big motivator for college-educated whites, too."

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/uw-professor-got-it-right-on-trump-so-why-is-he-being-ignored/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article_left_1.1

So "economic anxiety" and "feeling left out" and all the other BS is BS but it's good fodder to fill air time and to fill up space in a publication I guess.

If one truly watched and listened to Trump, you could easily understand what drew his voters.

The media "analysis" is a way to give them cover from their uglier, truer motivations.

Being given...no conflict how I feel about them.

It's not enough of an ugly spectacle to grab the media's interest.

The other thing is, the media aided and abetted his candidacy. They were never honest about how truly moronic and cruel his speeches and rallies were. They soft pedaled it, and for that he's still attacking them. Suckers.

Cops, firemen, a nurse, a teacher, a doctor, all white, Italian and Irish, all voted for Trump.

What brings them all together is their hatred of the dark people. Truth.

anxiety" as the reason Trump won. Was clear from the exit polls that HRC won voters whose top priority was the economy. And Trump won voters whose top priority was immigration and terrorism.

I hope you post this as an OP.

the more info proving it the more it is ignored. Amazing eh?

The latest

http://www.cleveland.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/06/on_suburban_drive_donald_trump.html#incart_river_index

They would kill all of us, given the chance.

but empathy is not ignoring the problem. And this is where many on the left, who call themselves progressive, are failing abysmally. They haven't made the distinction - calling out bullshit doesn't mean you must insult but you have to be courageous. To empathize doesn't mean you support, or try to legitimatize or diminish abhorrent views.

We will have to be strategically empathetic- Think of how a hunter catches prey - the hunter has to know how the prey will react in certain circumstances, is the prey solitary or moves in groups? What's the best way to approach it? How does it see the world?

It was crystallized for me recently in a post I read online which referenced Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor as a failure of empathy - Japan didn't understand how America would react to a violent threat and foolishly believed aggression would result in a quick capitulation. They were wrong.

To understand the terrain we're fighting on, we have to understand what triggers these attitudes, what is causing it, and it doesn't help when our leaders fail to see what is front of them.

They don't deserve our empathy, they deserve our best efforts to crush them.

He gets things done. When asked what? He said, he kept his promises! Huh?

voting.

Avid Trump supporters cannot be persuaded to abandon him. By clapping when they saw Trump rudely push that guy, doesn't that tell you a lot about who they are? What kind of values are those? What matters are your own values, your own integrity and virtue.

Unfortunately, there are always these scummy people, who delight in bullying, saying stupid and hurtful things. We cannot change them. Personally I have no problem with the media showing them for what they are. I can look at them without fear. Their bad behavior just strengthens my resolve to vote for Dem candidates. I am 70 yr old, and have never voted for a Republican. Never.

that validates the liberal elitist narrative. Trump is exactly what a culture that does that, enjoys watching people be humiliated on reality TV or youtube, and enjoys conflict driven cable news would produce. He is us- right and left.

But I'm afraid it' might be too late for this message to be heard...

As a Buddhist, I am challenged to see every single sentient being as having Buddha nature. It's just that accessing enlighted mind is made virtually impossible for those, whose minds are clouded with dark delusions and negative emotions. Demonizing them is not helpful in getting them to look at themselves or aspire to something better. Demonizing them just drags us down to their level. I am better than that.

DOES IS AWESOME......Can't they see what he has already done in these 140 ? days...

Jesus.....I could understand it if someone would step in and say "Yes, I believe I ...I just didn't want
Hiliary in, or I've been a republican all my life. Dump is not even a republican....

they get a dopamine ding ding ding whenever they feel that righteous outrage, whenever they feel they're patriotic americans, whenever they feel they're under attack by the left or the elites or whatever.

they love the conflict, especially when it ends with a feeling of satisfaction knowing that they've done their part to protect america from the dang libruls. it doesn't matter if they don't make sense, it doesn't matter if they don't convince anyone, it doesn't matter if they drive the rest of their family away. their addiction tells them that they're making a moral stand to protect all that is holy in this world, and that dopamine release is all they need.

we're wasting our time until we treat them like the addicts they are.

They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

They are fecal bacteria wrapped up in a human-looking package, and capable of movement.

I do see them differently now. Not so much with the second term vote with Bush, but I do with Trump.

Mostly, they are ignorant of what is happening. They exclusively watch Fox News. When we have conversation about what Trump did or is doing, they are surprised. They do not agree with it. Then they lull themselves back to the delusional view of Trump that allows them to support him. Or, they make themselves into pretzels trying to validate Trumps behavior.

Personally, I have developed a real issue with these people, and have lost the respect I felt for them.

how can an educated American citizen who is not a millionaire who would directly benefit from trump policies, think a born rich narcissist and failure as a businessman should be president.

being a part of the bigotry and misogyny. That produces a lot of disappointment when I look at them.

I'm not talking about the older ones but the young alt righties.

... because there is no peace to be made with racists, misogynists, homophobes, authoritarians, tools of authoritarians, and unethical business people.

The outspoken Trump voters are a not a majority. We must not forget that. Trump and his allies gained power by gaming the system. These games must be exposed. If we can do that then a certain number of Trump voters, and many of the "they're all the same" third party voters and people who weren't motivated to vote might realize they've been taken for fools.

Changing the minds of Trump's most outspoken supporters is a lost cause. These are the same sorts of people who were enthusiastically doing business with and celebrating Nazis before the U.S.A. declared war on Nazi Germany. They quit expressing their admiration for the Nazis when it became dangerous, but they didn't change.

All the Trump voters in my life know I'm intolerant of their ignorance. They won't talk politics with me. Generally all it takes to shut them up is an eye roll and a question, "How's that working out for you?"

If they are brave enough to answer it will be a stupid answer. If there is any hope for them they will recognize it's a stupid answer the moment they say it.

Last edited Mon Jun 19, 2017, 11:45 PM - Edit history (1)

This proves that Hillary Clinton was spot on when she said about half of Trump supporters can be described as a "basket of deplorables". These people are not nice people. They do not believe in treating others as they would like to be treated. Trump pushing that foreign leader was a deplorable act, yet his supporters loved his action. They love the way he aggressively shakes people's hands. They love the way he mistreats people. Trump's strongest supporters are what most decent people would call deplorable.

deplorable dimwit racists. She was way to kind.

I am a spiritual person, I work hard to fight against my anger at what they have wrought us, but part of me feels they will deserve every last bit of hurt Trump's horrendous policies bring them. Reap what you sow, baby.

They endorse this crap. They say they didn't vote for racism or misogyny. They claim all kinds of reasons to vote republican. Just look at what republicans do you fucking pieces of shit! That is what you vote for.

I did finally get my mom to admit, that she did not like Nixon, and she called him Tricky Dicky...lol! That was the first time I ever heard her say anything bad about a Rub.

The hard core is mostly the religious fantatics...Robertson on the 700 club even had Dump on his show and prayed with him. My mom believes anything they tell her...I think if they told her to jump off a mountain...she would. The religious fanatic prey on the paranoid, uneducated insecure people.

They believe by joining together...they can bring the country back to god! Because if this country does not accept god, than we will be destroyed as predicted in Revelations....

I have heard it all........Jim Bakker over and over....

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.-Soren Kierkegaard

I believe at this point, there is no reasoning with the unreasonable. I have spoken with Trump supporters that insist there is a war on coal. That the government is to blame for the decline in coal jobs and subsidies distort the market. Now I talked about specific cases where there were environmental disasters due to waste in coal as well as statistics on salaries, number of jobs, etc. I also mentioned health issues and wind and solar. There is nothing getting through to them.

You are told "Rainy days make you feel gloomy". And you believe that to be true, but you can have fun on a rainy day as well. That is how fragile the truth really is. Trump voters have a totally different perspective then us.

...are the people who voted for him and are now embarrassed.

Someone in my neighborhood had pictures of Trump in their window, they were so exited to vote Trump. As of about a month ago, the pictures were taken down! I'm sure it's the bad coverage and the Russia stuff. If you knew this person, you wouldn't have thought this would happen!

Two groups that I have given up on are the hardcore Trumpers and the "must win my vote" types that vote for socalled progressive third partiers. If they haven't woke up by now, to hell with them.

The people that we need to talk to are the ones that voted for Obama twice, but sat home in 2016. We need to get and keep them actively voting, I think Trump with his insanity is helping our efforts there.