Vanity Fair's scathing article on reporters giving Trump voters a platform

And not just any diner. Definitely not one of those Silver Diners, a chain that offers “Flexitarian” menus, whatever the fancy hell that means, or one of those shiny faux-retro diners in the suburbs catering to Happy Days nostalgia. No, it has to be a diner that still offers a wood-paneled haven steeped in the aroma and kitchen grease of yesteryear, a clientele of rumpled regulars, an old cathode-tube TV in the corner, and voilà . . . “Steven Whitt fires up the coffeepot and flips on the fluorescent sign in the window of the Frosty Freeze, his diner that looks and sounds and smells about the same as it did when it opened a half-century ago. Coffee is 50 cents a cup, refills 25 cents. The pot sits on the counter, and payment is based on the honor system.” So begins a dispatch from Claire Galofaro, an A.P. reporter whose special beat is Trump Country, in a story dated December 28, 2017. The Frosty Freeze is in Elliott County, Kentucky, a region in worsening distress which in 2016, for the first time, broke its string of going Democratic, betting on Trump to be the turnaround guy. Trip Gabriel is The New York Times’s unofficial Trump roving diner correspondent. In “In Iowa, Trump Voters Are Unfazed by Controversies,” Gabriel opened at one diner (“The eight men around a rectangular table, sipping coffee from a hodgepodge of mugs donated by customers, meet daily for breakfasts of French toast, eggs and bacon at Darrell’s diner”), then popped into another, where he quoted a waitress who didn’t vote in the 2016 election because she didn’t like either candidate, not exactly a gem worth extracting. Reuters reporter Tim Reid also drew blanks when he corralled a trio of Trump supporters at a Bob Evans diner in Jackson, Ohio, and asked their opinions on the Russia investigation. “I have never heard anything about it,” imparted Chastity Banks, and neither had the other two Trumpies. At Nana Dee’s Diner, in Mesa, Arizona, CNN interviewed a quartet of Trump supporters over the family-separation policy at the border that was ripping children from their parents. “I think people need to stop constantly bringing up the poor children, the poor children,” complained one old dear. “Quit trying to make us feel teary-eyed for the children.” Yes, that does sound like the heartfelt, cankered voice of a Trumpian.

EDITORS ARE LOOKING FOR STORIES ON TRUMP VOTERS WHO ARE MAKING DO, HANGING TOUGH.

The journalistic device of converting diner patrons into field studies didn’t originate in the aftermath of Trump’s upset victory. It’s a hoary practice that became a staple in campaign coverage of political caucuses and primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the diner became the go-to spot for getting the ornery lowdown from the red-flannel-plaid set. The deadline laureate of this hunter-gatherer journalism was the Washington Post reporter and columnist David Broder, the “dean” of the Washington press corps, who knocked on doors at dinner hour, interviewed subjects on park benches, and convened impromptu focus groups of diner patrons to get a feel for shifts in sentiment that had eluded correspondents trailing candidates from stop to stop. Broder put in the shoe leather and brought back the goods on his Tocquevillian rounds, but today that approach has become a cliché, a traffic jam, a theatrical genre. The patrons have become self-conscious in their role-playing as Average Americans, trying to finish their cardboard waffles while the politicians go glad-handing from table to table surrounded by a scrum.

It is unusual, however, to keep returning to diners, bars, and American Legion halls to take the temperatures of one sliver of the electorate and gussy up their predictable sound bites with descriptive dabs of short-storyish scene-setting. (The Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri did a hilarious send-up of this woebegone naturalism: “In the shadow of the old flag factory, Craig Slabornik sits whittling away on a rusty nail, his only hobby since the plant shut down.”) It not only privileges the attitudes of one subset of voters but it leaves a lopsided impression of the whole mural. “The media is blinded by its obsession with rural white Trump voters,” Ryan Cooper argued forcibly in a column for The Week last December. “Trump does—or did—have unusual levels of blue-collar support, but the actual bulk of Trump support is the same old professional, petty bourgeois, and ultra-wealthy capitalists who have been voting Republican for generations.” And, Cooper notes, this zoom-in on rural whites has “largely ignored the black and brown working class who never fell for Trump’s nonsense.”

Since the election we’ve heard a steady tom-tom beat even from those on the left, such as Bernie Sanders, that it was economic anxiety that drove many traditional white working-class voters away from the Democrats into the pelican flappers of Donald Trump. But the hate, bigotry, and cackling cruelty of the circus maximus that is Trump’s first term carries too loud a primal yowl to be ascribed to stagnant wages and factory closings. Something far more septic and serrated is going on. Deep data mining, as opposed to anecdotal fishing at the diner, has unearthed a more plausible driver for the Trump victory: not “economic anxiety” but racial animosity. A roundup of post-election studies and surveys by German Lopez at Vox cited a paper by a trio of social scientists that found “that voters’ measures of sexism and racism correlated much more closely with support for Trump than economic dissatisfaction after controlling for factors like partisanship and political ideology.” The headline for a long, exhaustively detailed article in The Nation by Sean McElwee and Jason McDaniel slammed home the point with a two-by-four: “Economic Anxiety Didn’t Make People Vote Trump, Racism Did.”

I’d like to toss something else into the mix when it comes to diagnosing what’s eating at the craw of the Typical Trump Voter: a raging hatred of liberals. Liberals, especially the “liberal media,” have become the all-purpose blame bucket for everything, and “owning the libs” the primary directive of the Steve Bannon brigade. It reveals its snarling face at the Trump rallies that the cable networks insist on covering, putting their reporters in jeopardy as Trump lashes up a hate storm over “fake news” and incites his supporters to get their freak on against the liberal media, which some of them do with gusto: hectoring, spitting, bellowing f-words from their hippo mouths, and flipping the middle finger, a terrible way for Grandpa and Grandma to behave. With each Trump rally drawing a larger faction of conspiracy nuts, the threat of violence gains velocity, as reporters from some of the very outlets paying such nuanced attention to Typical Trump Voters—The New York Times, CNN, and so on—are reviled as enemies of the people. [bold] Time to drop a cloth over this parrot cage. I think we’ve heard more than enough verbal static from the Trump base. There’s nothing more to learn from them, and it’s time the doting stopped.[/bold]

The media is responsible for the Trump phenomenon, and will be responsible for future demagogues as well, in the name of ratings. “Let’s listen to horrible people’s opinions and validate them.” One of the worst aspects of baby boomer libertarianism.

Is there a byline here?

Also, Democrats need to let fringe petty shit go. The "Merry Christmas" and half Trans...today, I don't know tomorrow people in a bathroom is not where undecided votes are won, nor average people swayed.

[quote] hectoring, spitting, bellowing f-words from their hippo mouths, and flipping the middle finger, a terrible way for Grandpa and Grandma to behave.

So spot on that it's frightening.

r5, there is no liberal "War on Christmas," it is a totally FOX and Drumpf created outrage and controversy, it doesn't exist and never did.

Here's a hint: Liberals celebrate Christmas too.

And even if they don't celebrate Christmas for religious reasons or even non-religious reasons (which the last time I checked was still legal), the last thing liberals and progressives care about is stopping people from enjoying their winter solstice holiday.

The so-called "War on Christmas" only exists because Dump Truck and Fox conservatives need someone/something to hate on, always.

I think a lot of this can be traced back to J. D. Vance and his "Hillbilly Elegy." The Liberal Elite ate this piece of crap up like it was filet mignon and ran with it. Their tired ass "these poor, downtrodden people have been so persecuted and ignored by us liberals" was just so much bullshit then as it is now. If there is such a thing as poor, downtrodden white people, its because they chose to be that way and choose to continue to be that way.

I agree R8

They're also way too afraid to admit that people just like them, college educated professionals in major urban areas, voted for Trump in large numbers. He didn't win most of the white collar suburbs, but he didn't lose them by a whole lot either.

What they should be investigating is why those voters went for Trump. Were the hopeful about an outside? Major closet racists and sexists? Just so completely turned off by Hillary they would have voted for dead cat just to stick it to her? Tired of an overly PC culture where they sense people are not saying what they're really thinking?

Those voters are the keys to the next round of elections.

A lot of these Trump voters are not even that poor either. They earn good salaries from blue collar jobs like policeman, construction, etc. which can go a long way in some of these more affordable small towns. Or in the case of retirees, they sit on fat pensions which no longer exist for anybody else who came after them. The idea that they are all struggling is an absolute farce. They suffer more from their own avarice and xenophobia than anything else.

It was a Whitelash and White Grievance. It doesn't take a genius to recognize that.

It was a story with no "there" there. Let's make a huge sociological issue of something that largely doesn't exist, but it makes us feel better for having attempted to examine it. When in reality, the simple, stupid fact is that what fuels Trump supporters is hatred--hatred for those not like themselves. It cuts across all the social classes of Trump supporters, but how much attention has been paid to the upper class Trump supporter? There's more than economics going on in their voting patterns.

It's a combination of needing to show "both sides" and also trying to attract men to media. You'll notice that despite white women giving Trump his majority almost none of these stories are about tghem. I also suspect that it's a queasiness about writing about women who are not particularly "modern". It offends feminists and and probably makes editors feel that they'll be labelled as sexist. I also suspect that female reporters can't quite wrap their heads around these women.

I hope somebody forwarded this article to the New York Times!

Trump embodies all of the Seven Deadly Sins. That is viscerally seductive to some people. All sorts of people are going to be susceptible to at one of those temptations.

This was a perfect storm of ultra-wealthy "disruptor" assholes, chronically aggrieved right wing media consumers, conspiracy theory doomsday preppers, fundamentalist rapturistas, misogynists, racists, rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, half-wits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, conmen, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers, and Methodists! Also highest bidder traitors, Amway Distributers, and the Russian mob. All aided and abetted by a profit driven msm that was more than happy to put on the show.

And, yeah I know, Hillary is a Methodist.

I agree. They need to stop talking to them and treating them with kid gloves.

Hallelujah. So tired of those diner stories. I bet half those people never even switched from Obama to Trump.

I work with one deplorable who for years talks about how proud he was to vote against Obama twice and hated him and now tells everyone he actually could have been swayed by Dems but they are the ones making him vote Trump. Yeah fucking right

These people are in PAIN. We're wrong to make fun of their abject stupidity.

I really like R8. We need more people who think as he does.

R20 here. I fucked up. I meant R9, not R8.

Not so crazy about R8.

Hillary was too hated. If we had a better (ie. less controversial) candidate, we could have won the EC. Don’t kill me; I voted for her. But I never appreciated how much ppl hated her. Sure, that was largely sexism, but the Clintons seem to be bad blood.

Wish Martin O’Malley hadgot the nomination. He’s hawt! And more palatable to hicks. I hate having to appeal to the square states but until we eliminate the EC, there it is.

Sure Jan.

I agree with everything you said R23. I like Hillary. I knew some republicans hated her but I thought it was just the most fringe-y

I had no idea how much everyday republicans hated her, it was over the top

It's been over the top for 20 years, r25....

R26 Honestly I thought she was too boring to hate that much. she was a pretty vanilla liberal.

Exactly, R11, plus after 8 years of that n—, I mean that black guy, they just wanted a “real American” back in the White House again.

Honestly I’ve never hung out with ppl who are obsessed by the Clintons. I know hicks hate them but I never thought about it much—not til 2016.

Didn’t the Clinton administration make the rich richer? They benefited, didn’t they? But working class people were also better off financially in those years. Maybe that pissed the Repugs off. Never understood all the hate. Like the article says: must be racism.

Spent a weekend with distant relatives in Virginia Beach during the Obama years. Couldn’t understand the hate. Even their eight year old son was full of hate and bitterness over the Obama presidency. These were career military people. The only explanation for the hate again: racism.

Stupid me.

R29, Republicans' reaction to the Clintons is the very definition of the term "triggered snowflakes' which they love to throw around so much. It's insane how obsessed they are by them.

Do you all even listen to yourselves? There is so much hate spewing out of your mouths (in your written word) yet you chastise the conservatives for being (perceived as) hateful? What? Time for some self-reflection perhaps.

Most really successful, educated, respected, decent people (young and old) I know voted for Trump but they aren't about to tell everyone due to the viciousness coming from the left. They don't want to be attacked and that is a legitimate concern.

Here is a question: What exactly has Trump done to harm the Gay community?

^^Oh, brother. If ever there was an appropriate time for this gif.

For quite a while i didn't see many "I'm a liberal who recognizes how terrible HRC was" posts around here, but now that midterms are here, we're getting a lot of it.

They always arrive with the "I'm a liberal who thinks we should be empathetic to the poor Trumpsters who are hurting so" posts, too.

They are desperate to keep framing this as an anti-Hillary election. It's not, of course.

r31 eats bloody stools

[quote]the hate, bigotry, and cackling cruelty of the circus maximus that is Trump’s first term carries too loud a primal yowl to be ascribed to stagnant wages and factory closings

Absolutely true, and I can find only one reason for so much of the media to ignore this: they don't want to scare off the racists that make up their viewers.

But most of these Trumpsters don't read NYT or watch CNN so it seems like a bad plan, personally.

[quote]Most really successful, educated, respected, decent people (young and old) I know voted for Trump but they aren't about to tell everyone due to the viciousness coming from the left.

That and the unbearable, soul-devouring shame they will forever endure.

Major media to this day cannot and will not acknowledge their role in unjustly mythologizing Trump and unfairly demonizing Hillary, which was a culmination of decades of both-sides bullshit. So they keep thrusting this true-blue red-state Americana crap down our throats to maintain the facade. Because the truth is that there is a strong rotten core of racism and misogyny in this country that has always festered, some in the very places we keep championing as real America, and all of our institutions, including the press, have cocooned and protected it.

r31, my god. are you really as soulless and ignorant as you seem in your post? utterly amoral and uncaring. geez.

Have any of these reporters covering the Deplorables asked outright what exactly has Trump done to make THEIR OWN PERSONAL LIFE BETTER? Because you know he hasn't done one damn good thing for them. The Carrier plant fiasco should have taught these mons not o trust Trump! He keeps lying to these jerks and they keep believing him.

Have any of them started new and better jobs? Are they making more money like the 1%? Have the tax breaks helped them? Have their health insurance premiums gone down? Because, remember, we were going have "the best and cheapest health insurance!" Are they "winning" so much they can't take in anymore?

These Trumpsters shouldn't be coddled. Unfortunately, when these idiots tell the journalists "Trump is doing GREAT!" The next question should be, "Exactly how is he doing great in reference to YOUR life?" I would love to see those hillbilly morons be at a total loss for words.

Yet there they are in their stupid MAGA caps and Trump T-shirts, which I can imagine they PAID for! More money for their Fearless Leader!

These Trumpsters are some incredibly stupid people. Most of them keep spewing talking points which they have no clue what they're talking about, they simply parrot the verbal diarrhea they hear daily on Faux News. Pathetic. Our country is being brought down by a bunch of uneducated fools.

The people I know who voted for trump are doing just fine, thank you, with white collar jobs and actual houses that are if not paid for, damn near paid for.

One lives in the house his wife had gotten in a previous divorce settlement.

I know for a fact that there are no black people in his life.

[quote] The people I know who voted for trump are doing just fine, thank you, with white collar jobs and actual houses that are if not paid for, damn near paid for.

R40, that is the true commonality amongst Trump voters. As long as they get or have gotten theirs, screw everybody else.

R40, I'm willing to bet their lives were just fine before Trump and that his presidency hasn't really impacted them outside of coddling their sense of entitlement.

R40, doesn't matter. They will insist Trump has improved their lives even absent any actual evidence because they are wedded to that narrative.

I remember an interview with Geraldine Ferraro years ago where she talked about her and Mondale's disastrous 1984 campaign. She talked about how on the campaign trail they met with blue collar workers all over the country who were getting screwed by Reaganomics. When she'd ask them why they were still supporting Reagan, they'd answer "because we're standing tall." I always remembered that line because it's indicative of this very American disease--shit on me all you want as long as I have someone to look down on also.

^Oops, meant that as a reply to R39.

Lawd help me but I have a friend who voted for Trump and she is quite visibly African American. Maybe that’s why I tolerate it, though it’s really quite bizarre and surreal. We are both mad about ballet and share that in common and our friendship is based on that. Plus, she is super sweet but utterly clueless. ( We live in a place with maybe 2% Republicans so I figure her vote doesn’t matter much anyways).

We can remain friends because I liken her vote to the rest of her life which is an utter train wreck: stalker ex-boyfriend, career and finances a mess, can’t afford her own place so lives with her sister or her mom and she is in her fifties (!), got her car repossessed but went out and bought another luxury car anyways you get the picture.

I think she’d one of those “We should support our military so I vote Republican “ types. Not the sharpest tool in the shed. I feel a bit sorry for her.

But when it comes to other MAGA people I am nowhere near as forgiving.

I remember that, r43. I think it may have been mentioned in that lengthy PBS bio of Reagan from about 10 years ago, too.

Strange that people had this phenomenon figured out back then, but nowadays are suddenly asking why people voted Trump. "For the same reason they always vote for a popular racist demagogue" isn't a sexy enough answer, I guess.

Exactly, R46. "A large segment of Americans have always been very dumb and very racist" just isn't an exciting narrative.

r39, FWIW, two of the old, fat white men trumptards I work with have now realized that their taxes are going UP thanks to that tax scam bill.

All of us had to attend a meeting where our current withholding rate was compared to the new rate so people could make sure they weren't going to get hit with a big bill come April.

Well, the both of them were at a complete loss for words and just could not process how their taxes went UP when Fux noise has been telling them how wonderful this tax scam is.

I actually started laughing like a loon at them and said, "did you really think that would benefit you?" and I was promptly scolded by our manager.

The two tards were still unbelieving even when they were shown how much they will owe if they don't start withholding at a higher rate.

They won't believe it until the IRS comes for them. And even then they will probably still insist that they should have gotten a tax break because the orange fool and Fux noise said so.

And...still no answer to what exactly has Trump done to hurt the Gay community?

R23, the republicans would have assassinated the character of *any* dem who ran for president.

Remember how they swift boated John Kerry...a decorated active combat war veteran?

The vast right wing conspiracy against the Clintons has been going on for decades...it’s very effective.

But we can’t let the republicans decide our noms. They would be ok with, say, Bernie Sanders, because they know he’d be toast.

BS has never experienced the attacks that HRC has withstood for decades.

R49, do you think any of the thousands of people who died unnecessarily after the hurricane were gay?

Do you wonder if any of the asylum seeking refugees were gay?

Do you really think gays are safer under this hateful bigot?

[quote] And...still no answer to what exactly has Trump done to hurt the Gay community

Yes, R49. The Trump administration is denying visas to same-sex partners of US diplomats. And that's just one thing.

The Trump DOJ has also ceased defending gay rights against religious freedom cases. Although I don't the deplorable will care. Gay republicans usually have deep rooted issues. Nothing can change his mind

The Trump administration argued that a 1964 civil rights law does not protect gay employees from workplace discrimination.

This, of course.....

The Trump admin has redirected money meant to treat AIDS to Homeland security to fund their jails for immigrant children at the border. But yup R49 Trump is just great for the gays!

[quote] today, I don't know tomorrow people in a bathroom is not where undecided votes are won,

??????

[quote] What they should be investigating is why those voters went for Trump. Were the hopeful about an outside?

????

R57, I had the same reaction to that mish mash word salad.

It's from someone pretending that we have a "war on Christmas" and that Democrats are running on nothing but allowing people to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity, R58 and R59.

In other words, it's likely from a Fox viewer. Or someone dumb enough to be a Fox viewer.

And don't forget that Trump revoked an Obama-era executive order that strengthened protection for LGBT workers. And, of course, putting Kavanaugh and Gorsuch on the Supreme Court and a few dozen other extremists on the lower courts.

[quote]And...still no answer to what exactly has Trump done to hurt the Gay community?

It took 30 seconds to find the various items listed above. Now the question for you: why did you not care to put in that 30 seconds yourself?

I bet R49 must feel really stupid right now. More than usual, at least.

The GOP will come up with a reason why working class & middle class people are receiving increased tax bills. When we win back the house, Gops will say the taxes went up because the democratic congress did such and such thing that made taxes go up.

"Your taxes went up because the democratic congress wouldn't give Trump the tax-fix he wanted. Your taxes went up because of all the people flooding border towns asking for asylum. The US needs to give them lawyers and have them appear before courts and that costs money. That's why your taxes went up"

And they'll be successful. Because we don't have a wily loudmouth to counter attack. Just chuck schumer in his shawl and granny glasses and Nancy Pelosi with her "Impeachment is off the table. No, we will not fight back" schtick

[quote] why did you not care to put in that 30 seconds yourself?

Because doing so would actually require that poster to leave their 24-7 safe space bubble of FOX News and Breitbart, R62.

Dear Republican Voters: Stop Blaming the Left. You're Trash. Own It.

One of the reasons the Clintons were so successful is because they had James Carville stacking their enemies and because they weren't afraid to use GOP tactics against the GOP.

So what did the media do? Called the Clintons ruthless, amoral, cold blooded, remorseless cutthroats. The GOP committed treason in 1968 and in 1980 when their candidates made deals with foreigners to throw the election. Reagan promised Iran arms and Nixon got Anna Chennault to fuck up LBJ's peace talks in South Vietnam.

But did the press go after them for treason? Hell no. They still portray Reagan with a halo around his head

I just wish I was as powerful as our trolls have frequently claimed I am. "You are the reason that Trump won!"

Really? An anonymous poster on a middling gay board is singlehandedly responsible for making people vote for Trump? Whodathunkit?

Anyone still voting Republican is just an evil racist cunt at this point, I don't want to hear shit from them. This has zero to do with Hillary, and everything to do with secret nazi loving assholes suddenly finding their lord and saviour.

They can all die in a (preferably retro) diner grease fire as far as I'm concerned.

You know what's almost as boring and meaningless as diner interviews? Media critics.

If you don't like diner interviews change the channel. Go online. Listen to the radio.

Atherosclerosis will end them all! All those clogged arteries from their buttery toasts, bacon, biscuits and gravy. Needlessly FAT, gluttonous, flabby people.

I thoroughly enjoyed the angry piece at r66, but I’m a little mournful about my reaction. I don’t like thinking of human beings as garbage. But that’s about the point I have arrived at.

A lot of these comments about reporters and stories are true, but I think the bigger problem is the laziness and herd mentality to repeat gossip. The story that the NYT ran about Trump's tax fraud and his father's tax fraud is a great example. What if that had run 2 years ago this month? The story about Trump's dealings with the mob and the mob being taken over by the Russian mob is another big example. Any serious investigative journalism like the kind that led to Watergate could have led to a significantly different outcome in 2016. Remember, Woodward and Bernstein stumbled onto the Watergate story by accident by seeing the Watergate burglars in court and it led to an increasingly bigger story. Freedom of the press is part of the 1st amendment and I don't think journalists or the media are holding up their end.

One last example has been the constant reference to Susan Collins as a moderate republican. That is a lie and yet every MSM outlet repeats this. I don't have time to research every fact that the MSM puts out. I have expected these news sources, as have many, to put out the truth. It was apparent for years that FOX was lying, but the rest of sources have gradually started doing it as well, with increased spin and the whole nonsense with false equivalency.

Fat, fat, fat fatties!!!

F-A-T!

The NYTimes also described Nikki Haley as a moderate in their story about her resignation. The GOP smashed the Overton Window and the press just shrugged in response.

Nikki really doesn't care.....

[quote]tomorrow people in a bathroom

Pics please.

R73 - what do you mean journalists and the media aren't holding up their end of the First Amendment?

Why is calling Susan Collins a moderate Republican a lie?

Because Susan Collins betrays women. Over and over again.

What the fuck is R5 going on about?

R80 It's the trans troll, who I thought DL had finally been able to purge. He had been gone for a month or so. But he's back to spouting his incoherent nonsense again. I just saw him on another thread

More like one of the anti-T trolls, and DL has never been able to purge them, no matter how many of their threads get locked or deleted. They are absolutely obsessed.

R31 lives in a highly conservative area, so his view of Trump is in alignment with others in his community.

What R31 absolutely, and complete REFUSES to acknowledge, is that he is a racist, and a homophobe, just like others in his community.

R31 despised Obama for doing what only white men of privilege were allowed to do: become POTUS.

And R31 despises gays, because he believes that gays are going to hell, because of their abominable sin: sex within the same sex.

This is just older white people, sounding off about their moral virtue, when others react to their hypocrisy. Unfortunately, these people have kids, who are raised to fear and hate blacks, and gays. But they will NEVER admit to the racism, because they all have that one black friend.

Our country will never, ever get out of this quagmire of inequality, until we either do away with racism, or until most of these racists die off, and our country continues to become more liberal, which it is, and will continue.

You know what sucks? People like r31 have missed out on getting to know some amazing people, due to unreasonable fear, and denial of that fear.

Thanks for that link, R66. I needed reading something like that.

R39 You and 3/4ths of the people on this site just don't and never will understand WHY Trump supporters feel he is doing great.

It isn't about the Carrier plant, cheap insurance or tax cuts. It is the slowing down of neocon-ism and globalism.

[quote]It isn't about the Carrier plant, cheap insurance or tax cuts. It is the slowing down of neocon-ism and globalism.

What about the low-rent trash trash and the other segment of working class people who basically can't pay their most basic of bills? Of course they voted for this orange faced liar, he promised them the WORLD! Don't be naive.

I assure you they don't even KNOW what "neocon-ism and globalism." even mean! Get a clue. Talk about living in a rarified bubble.

Not only did that article provide a much needed laugh about these frightening political times, but R15, you sir (?) are a fucking GEM.

In case anyone missed this amazing use of a "Blazzing Saddles" quote from r15, the current light of my life (I mean, just damn perfect) HERE YOU GO:

'This was a perfect storm of ultra-wealthy "disruptor" assholes, chronically aggrieved right wing media consumers, conspiracy theory doomsday preppers, fundamentalist rapturistas, misogynists, racists, rustlers, cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, half-wits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, conmen, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass kickers, shit kickers, and Methodists! Also highest bidder traitors, Amway Distributers, and the Russian mob. All aided and abetted by a profit driven msm that was more than happy to put on the show.'

"And, yeah I know, Hillary is a Methodist."

My bad: BLAZING SADDLES (have no idea why my phone decided to add a z)

R15; this one's dedicated to you, cause I think of it every time "poor rural salt of Americans" are brought up...

(Jim:) "You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers... These are people of the land... The common clay of the new West..."

"You know… morons."

--Blazing Saddles

*** salt of the earth Americans*** (got so excited I'm flustered now!)