# I don't understand what voters Trump could've picked up between 2016 and 2020 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 4, 2020, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722 "2020-11-04T08:30:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![XAEA\_12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/f0a364/32.png) [@XAEA\_12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XAEA_12)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/241 "2020-11-08T18:10:56Z")
Sure, here’s one: [https://mobile.twitter.com/SharikaSoal84](https://mobile.twitter.com/SharikaSoal84) ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/242 "2020-11-08T18:12:45Z")
Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/243 "2020-11-08T18:17:02Z")
Interesting. I do wonder where she gets that. As she also makes accusations about liberals being pedos and that she things that they are disgusting and retweets debunked doctored video, I’m not sure that I can really take any of her claims at face value. I agree that that is what she thinks, and how she feels, but her conclusions are not shaped by reality. How to reach someone who is that divorced from reality, I don’t know, but I don’t think that she is the sort that we should really be putting much effort into reaching anyway. Her pinned tweet is “Cops leave you alone if you don’t break the law.” Counterfactual claim. I am sorry to lose her support for a more inclusive and egalitarian society, but I’m not sure that she ever would have supported it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/244 "2020-11-08T18:21:47Z")
It would appear she was maybe molested as a child, in an adoptive family? So sad 🥺 I can see why she would jump on some of the QAnon pedo stuff, it struck a chord with her. But I would definitely venture to guess she isn’t representative of the unexpected Black and Latino voters for Trump. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/245 "2020-11-08T18:38:47Z")
You’re all being so nice. I think she’s a delusional fucking lunatic expert at self promotion. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/246 "2020-11-08T18:41:41Z")
Well, honestly, I think calling her a “conservative black woman” is a bit insulting to conservatives. A reactionary, sure. And, yes, with a bit of a… loose relationship with reality. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/247 "2020-11-08T18:45:00Z")
Agreed. A bad example to use. ---
**Author:** ![Summerday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@Summerday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Summerday)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/248 "2020-11-08T19:17:23Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > But, pretty much every fictional media depiction I have ever seen involving rural vs urban has where the uptight urban people through some contrived circumstance end up being forced to spend time in a rural environment, and end up falling in love with it and learning some valuable lessons. This is the plot of basically every Hallmark Xmas movie. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/249 "2020-11-08T19:40:51Z")
> [@Summerday](#): > > This is the plot of basically every Hallmark Xmas movie. I would love to see the Hallmark Christmas movie where the small town gal forced to spend Christmas with the city slicker realizes what a boring, backward shithole she’s from and decides to move somewhere with upwardly mobile job opportunities and diverse cultural offerings. ---
**Author:** ![Summerday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@Summerday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Summerday)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/250 "2020-11-08T19:57:16Z")
Haha! Me too, I’d love it! ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/251 "2020-11-08T20:03:37Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > It would help if the left-leaning outlets were not also so obviously partisan. In 2016 they acted like the world was coming to an end. And here we are in 2020, and it hasn’t. Well, the world kinda is coming to an end. - We’ve had more hurricanes than we have names for this year. Climate change, anyone? - We have a massive pandemic and our nation’s “leaders” stole PPE from my state when we needed it most, and continue to discourage their followers from taking basic precautionary measures. - We have literal Nazis marching in the streets, and the president says nice thing about “some” of them. My Temple dues increased to pay for the increased security measures we have taken in response to the increased number of threats we get. - We have weird anonymous people literally starting riots and burning police stations (and no, the ones who have been caught haven’t been liberals, they’ve been far-right “activists” setting false flags). - We have a supreme court justice who lied blatantly to congress in his nomination hearings, who seems incapable of civility or rational discourse, and who probably attempted rape in his youth. - The US has become the laughing stock of the world. We have ceded the mantle of "leader of the free world to … Germany! - The rich have gotten richer while the poor have gotten poorer – those coal miners who were worried about their jobs? Auto workers? SOL. - The world in general, and my nation in particular, seems like a much worse place than it was 4 years ago. > [@DemonTree](#): > > Journalists tend to be from a certain demographic that trends liberal, Journalists – legitimate journalists, not the pseudo-journalists hired by Sinclair News, tend to care a lot about the truth. The biases them towards liberals these days. > [@k9bfriender](#): > > I _almost_ did that in 2016. It was a hard decision, and one that if I had a chance, I’d definitely go back and change. But, I decided that I wanted the Overton Window moved a bit to the left, and lent my vote to Bernie. > > Not that one vote makes a difference, and not that Ohio made any difference, but I still look back on that decision with a bit of regret. I voted for Kasich. I didn’t believe either Clinton or Bernie could possibly win the general election, and I wanted my vote to matter. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/252 "2020-11-08T20:03:49Z")
> [@flurb](#): > > Zapata County, Texas, lies on the U.S.-Mexican border. Trump’s border wall would run right through it. It is overwhelmingly Hispanic. I’d wager 90% of the population is bilingual. Families have members on both sides of the border, cultural ties with Mexico are strong, and the economy is strongly dependent on cross-border travel and trade. Clinton carried Zapata County by 33 points in 2016. > > Trump won it by 5 points this year. > > All along the Texas-Mexico border the story is the same. Across 28 Texas counties on or near the border, Biden won by 17 percentage points compared to Clinton’s 33 points. That’s just a jaw-dropping turnaround in four years. I’ll let the post-game analysts figure out the why, but it shows that the scale of the issue is immense. this is interesting. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/253 "2020-11-08T20:04:33Z")
Interesting to look at the states which voted heaviest for trump: West Virginia, Wyoming, Tennessee, etc Georgia went Blue, North Carolina almost went blue, same with Texas. The South is turning blueish. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/254 "2020-11-08T20:05:14Z")
Because- people are leaving the rural areas in droves. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/255 "2020-11-08T20:20:33Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > But, pretty much every fictional media depiction I have ever seen involving rural vs urban has where the uptight urban people through some contrived circumstance end up being forced to spend time in a rural environment, and end up falling in love with it and learning some valuable lessons. > > I also see where the country people, through some contrived circumstance ends up visiting the city. Where the city people end up being impressed by his independence and masculinity, and they learn valuable lessons about how great the country life really is. When a contrast is set up, indeed, this is almost a standard boilerplate. I supposse what is being alluded to is that in entertainment where the plot is not set up to give that contrast, “liberal urban” ways are portrayed as _the_ default norm. I am not exactly seeing that as such a blatant antagonistic thing either, but we know there are people out there for whom even a mere favorable depiction of something they oppose is perveived as a condemnation and attack against what _they_ believe. > [@k9bfriender](#): > > There was the assumption, given people like Derek Black, that racists wouldn’t be able to pass their racism down to their children. Which makes one wonder, how the hell did they think the already-existing racists got to be so. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/256 "2020-11-08T20:29:52Z")
Not on the Hallmark Channel! According to them, urbanites across America are realizing that landing that big promotion at the publishing company won’t really make them happy, but embracing the quirky charms and slow pace of living in the picturesque small town their car broke down in might. Especially if that ruggedly handsome sheriff keeps coming around. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/257 "2020-11-08T20:37:10Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > where the plot is not set up to give that contrast, “liberal urban” ways are portrayed as _the_ default norm. I will admit that I am not a fan of sitcoms, or most popular entertainment in general, but I will say that it seems to me as though it is the suburb that is most typically portrayed as the norm, rather than either city or urban life. > [@JRDelirious](#): > > Which makes one wonder, how the hell did they think the already-existing racists got to be so. That’s a good question. Does anyone have the answer? ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/258 "2020-11-09T10:27:48Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Well, the world kinda is coming to an end. Maybe we’re suffering apocalypse fatigue. 😑 > [@puzzlegal](#): > > Journalists – legitimate journalists, not the pseudo-journalists hired by Sinclair News, tend to care a lot about the truth. The biases them towards liberals these days. Journalists also tend to be university educated, live in urban areas, and even if not raised middle class, that’s their social circle. They understand the lives and concerns of the people they hang around with very well, but the lives and concerns of the ‘red tribe’ are foreign to them. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Who cares what some random people say? I haven’t said this, at least not recently (I might have briefly thought so in 2008/2009, but certainly not since then). I don’t think I’ve heard anyone say it since 2016. The point is you can’t treat demographic groups as monoliths who all have the same interests or beliefs. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I’ve never said that racism is the only thing motivating Trump voters – I’ve said that, according to the data, it (along with xenophobia, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and similar bigotries) is the most significant motivator. And I stand by that. 🙄 They’re bad, they’re wrong, and they need to be re-educated? > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > This election has taught me something, though – that the country is more divided than I thought. The one thing I didn’t expect was that Trump would get millions more votes than he did in '16. But despite record Republican turnout, Biden still won, and won decisively. So my hope that Trumpism would be resoundingly rejected by a large majority of the country is unfulfilled. How can you fight something if you don’t understand it? I think a lot of voters didn’t care if Trump was racist, or were in denial about it, because they liked other things about him and his platform. That’s not the same as voting for him because he was racist, and a Democrat could potentially adopt some of the non-racist parts in order to appeal to voters. > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > What do you suggest I do? Pretty much this: > [@asahi](#): > > Democrats and progressives have to acknowledge that there’s some legitimacy to the fears and concerns - in some cases. That is the only way that their case for tolerance is going to be heard, and ultimately accepted. Also, listen to people and don’t assume you always know better than them what their problems are and what the best solution is. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/259 "2020-11-09T12:25:16Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > 🙄 They’re bad, they’re wrong, and they need to be re-educated? They’re wrong. Some are just decent folks who are very wrong on the facts. The facts can be explained to them, and policies implemented to make their lives better. What else can we do? > [@](#): > > I think a lot of voters didn’t care if Trump was racist, or were in denial about it, because they liked other things about him and his platform. That’s not the same as voting for him because he was racist, and a Democrat could potentially adopt some of the non-racist parts in order to appeal to voters. Adopting bad policies to appeal to voters is a bad idea. There’s no point to gaining political power just to do dumb things that hurt America. > [@](#): > > Pretty much this: > > > [@asahi](#): > > > > Democrats and progressives have to acknowledge that there’s some legitimacy to the fears and concerns - in some cases. That is the only way that their case for tolerance is going to be heard, and ultimately accepted. > > Also, listen to people and don’t assume you always know better than them what their problems are and what the best solution is. I’ve never had a problem with any of this. But I feel no need to coddle or cater to the very clearly hateful, or the very clearly ignorant (aside from trying to explain the facts to them), as many Trump supporters are. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2020, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722/260 "2020-11-09T12:46:01Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Adopting bad policies to appeal to voters is a bad idea. There’s no point to gaining political power just to do dumb things that hurt America. Draining the swamp? Having a president who isn’t beholden to corporate donors and will actually do what the voters want? Create more good jobs? I don’t believe Trump ever intended to do what he promised, but I can see why those things are attractive, and they are not dumb things that would hurt America. The biggest problem for the Democrats IMO is that they won’t (can’t?) go against corporate interests to do things that would really benefit their voters. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-understand-what-voters-trump-couldve-picked-up-between-2016-and-2020/924722.md?page=14)