If not, I'm guessing you're either a Trump voter, delusional third-party candidate voter or somebody who didn't vote because, "they're both bad" or some variation on that sentiment.
And if you're any of those, then move along.
No, really. Go away.
Because it's not my job to educate you or introduce you to widely available facts—particularly that The Orange One is a lying liar—or argue with you or try to change your mind.
And I speak from experience when it comes to living among the 47% of you who not only voted to wallow in your own ignorance, but are angry that the rest of us—the folks who have Hillary winning the popular vote by the third largest margin in U.S. history—have no interest in joining you, worrying about your 'economic anxieties,' er, racism or listening to your ill-informed bullshit.
In the aftermath of this shitstorm of an election, there's no shortage of hand wringing/flagellation/magical thinking about what the direction forward should be for Democrats. (Really Thomas Frank? Joe Biden was the secret all along...I don't think so)
Here's my advice to you: stop it.
Because there is always going to be just enough of a segment in this country that is just stupid enough to respond to dogwhistle racism, casual sexism, blinkered nationalism and cheer on a profound contempt for anything that smacks of being 'intellectual.'
My personal experience with this comes out of growing up in one of the most racially segregated regions in the country—Northwest Indiana. For years, I listened to embittered working class white people bemoan the death of Gary and place all of the blame on 'the blacks.' African Americans who had the temerity to elect the nation's first black mayor of a major city and won the (cue the inchoate horror/protests of whitey back in the day) right to live wherever they chose.
Nevermind the fact that the true unraveling of Gary, as a company town born of US Steel, started when the jobs flowed overseas in the 60s and continued to disappear as automation allowed for high outputs with fewer human hands involved through the 1980s and today.
Nope. The "good"[1] suburban folks who I grew up around in Crown Point, a majority white suburban enclave roughly 15 miles to the south, resolutely stood by their narrative that Gary's downfall was all on African Americans.
This time, aggrieved whitey is in Ohio, West Virginia and they're angry at: Mexicans, the Chinese and, because it never ends in this country, "the blacks." As was the case during my growing up in the 80s, the 'good' folks of in the Rust Belt are still wrong. Blame the loss of manufacturing jobs on automation, not globalization.
My personal experience with this comes out of growing up in one of the most racially segregated regions in the country—Northwest Indiana. For years, I listened to embittered working class white people bemoan the death of Gary and place all of the blame on 'the blacks.' African Americans who had the temerity to elect the nation's first black mayor of a major city and won the (cue the inchoate horror/protests of whitey back in the day) right to live wherever they chose.
Nevermind the fact that the true unraveling of Gary, as a company town born of US Steel, started when the jobs flowed overseas in the 60s and continued to disappear as automation allowed for high outputs with fewer human hands involved through the 1980s and today.
Nope. The "good"[1] suburban folks who I grew up around in Crown Point, a majority white suburban enclave roughly 15 miles to the south, resolutely stood by their narrative that Gary's downfall was all on African Americans.
This time, aggrieved whitey is in Ohio, West Virginia and they're angry at: Mexicans, the Chinese and, because it never ends in this country, "the blacks." As was the case during my growing up in the 80s, the 'good' folks of in the Rust Belt are still wrong. Blame the loss of manufacturing jobs on automation, not globalization.
And while the fear and loathing about jobs among working class whites in these hollowed out communities may be legit...their expression of rage against the government is wildly misplaced; in the south particularly, its also wildly dishonest: because they get more help from the federal government than other states.
The truth of the matter is: these people 1. want to be lied to about "morning in America" and long-gone jobs magically coming back and 2. have swallowed the Fox News talking points so whole heartedly, they wouldn't know policies that would actually help them and their situations if they were hit over the head with them.
The correct answer this election is: stupid is as stupid does.
The root of this is that the GOP has, for years, used stupidity as a handy pose to condescendingly appeal to 'common' voters. By doing so, the GOP has emboldened enough of a tribe of know-nothings to now elect someone who really (and arrogantly, dangerously) doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.
So, congratulations, morons. Enjoy your shit sandwich, which your president will keep insisting is really filet mignon.
The truth of the matter is: these people 1. want to be lied to about "morning in America" and long-gone jobs magically coming back and 2. have swallowed the Fox News talking points so whole heartedly, they wouldn't know policies that would actually help them and their situations if they were hit over the head with them.
The correct answer this election is: stupid is as stupid does.
The root of this is that the GOP has, for years, used stupidity as a handy pose to condescendingly appeal to 'common' voters. By doing so, the GOP has emboldened enough of a tribe of know-nothings to now elect someone who really (and arrogantly, dangerously) doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground.
So, congratulations, morons. Enjoy your shit sandwich, which your president will keep insisting is really filet mignon.
[1] See 'the banality of evil.' Even if Hannah Arendt's take on Eichmann was way off, the phrase is useful and quite aptly describes the sort of placidly ignorant beliefs of a distressing number of people in this country.
