# I'm SO sick of hearing "Trump voters are not bad people...we need to empathize with them". FUCK THAT **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 18, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-so-sick-of-hearing-trump-voters-are-not-bad-people-we-need-to-empathize-with-them-fuck-that/768921 "2016-10-18T04:00:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [October 20, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-so-sick-of-hearing-trump-voters-are-not-bad-people-we-need-to-empathize-with-them-fuck-that/768921/301 "2016-10-20T23:46:45Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Push? LOL! ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-so-sick-of-hearing-trump-voters-are-not-bad-people-we-need-to-empathize-with-them-fuck-that/768921/302 "2016-10-21T13:15:18Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > The American left abandoned labor long ago This is bullshit. American workers abandoned labor and the left when they decided that they preferred the flag-waving nonsense of Ronald Reagan, and all the wedge issues that came with it. They decided they wanted a party that opposed school integration, abortion, secular education. They decided they wanted a party that went to war for emotional “We’re No. 1” reasons. They decided a party that was hostile towards immigrants. And they decided to sign on to that party, without checking to see whether that party ever intended to act on those issues, rather than their standard party values of making the rich richer. The “left” never stopped advocating for the things that would help workers—collective bargaining rights, workplace rights, minimum wages, anti-discrimination, universal health care, unemployment assistance, retraining assistance, child care … What the “left” abandoned was dead-end policies like industrial protectionism and closed borders, both in the name of economic rationality and in the name of global security. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-so-sick-of-hearing-trump-voters-are-not-bad-people-we-need-to-empathize-with-them-fuck-that/768921/303 "2016-10-21T13:44:35Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > This is bullshit. American workers abandoned labor and the left when they decided that they preferred the flag-waving nonsense of Ronald Reagan, and all the wedge issues that came with it. The rift started earlier than that. I expect you could find even earlier examples, but a clear one is in 1972 when the AFL-CIO did not endorse McGovern and the head of the union [called him](http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1972/09/04/page/1/article/meany-assails-mcgovern-views) an “apologist for the communist world”. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-so-sick-of-hearing-trump-voters-are-not-bad-people-we-need-to-empathize-with-them-fuck-that/768921/304 "2016-10-21T18:49:04Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > The rift started earlier than that. I expect you could find even earlier examples, but a clear one is in 1972 when the AFL-CIO did not endorse McGovern and the head of the union [called him](http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1972/09/04/page/1/article/meany-assails-mcgovern-views) an “apologist for the communist world”. The decline of unions in the US started in the 1950s. It was certainly accelerated by Reagan, especially because one of the first things he did upon being elected is fire all the air traffic controllers who went on strike illegally. The trouble being, it was pretty damn popular that he did so. It was of a piece with Margaret Thatcher facing down what’s-his-name in the UK, Scargill or something, and his efforts to turn every labor strike into a general strike. Thatcher won that, overall, just like Reagan did. Neither he nor Thatcher could have gotten away with it if the general public hadn’t come to consider unions as unnecessary, or at worst, counter-productive. As the labor force shifted from unskilled and semi-skilled labor to a more high-tech economy, that perception was underscored by the drop in unemployment, poverty, and inflation, that occurred in the 80s, even while unions continued to decline. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![DoggyDunnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@DoggyDunnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoggyDunnit)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2016, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-so-sick-of-hearing-trump-voters-are-not-bad-people-we-need-to-empathize-with-them-fuck-that/768921/305 "2016-10-22T19:49:24Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > You’re simply wrong. Very, very wrong. > > I’m a Republican, but not a conservative. The reason I haven’t abandoned the party is that the GOP is (supposed to be) the party of personal responsibility. The Democrats are all too eager to blame others for woes. The system keeps them down and prevents them from improving themselves. They deny responsibility for their outcomes. > > Republicans (traditionally) are better than that. Character matters: take responsibility for your actions and results. Trump (and you, apparently) have betrayed that core principle of the party. Trump has become a conservative Democrat, blaming the system and denying any personal responsibility for his own failures (personal and business). > > Republicans claiming that character does matter is the death knell of the party. Those who run around spewing about “personal responsibility” are euphemizing what they really mean: “I tell people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps… even if they don’t have shoes in the first place.” :smack: ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-so-sick-of-hearing-trump-voters-are-not-bad-people-we-need-to-empathize-with-them-fuck-that/768921/306 "2016-10-22T23:09:37Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I spoke to a Trump voter yesterday. Said voter is voting Trump because of the Supreme Court. Apparently the next president may get four nominations. Yeah, I really want Trump to shape the Supreme Court for the next thirty years. :eek: Hell, that’s my primary reason for voting against him. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2016, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-so-sick-of-hearing-trump-voters-are-not-bad-people-we-need-to-empathize-with-them-fuck-that/768921/307 "2016-10-23T10:06:26Z")
> [@Waco](#): > > Who will the Left have to hate, and feel morally superior to, if those horrible Right Wingers all went away? I’ve learned a little about human nature over my decades; one thing I’ve learned is that people impute others with the motives they themselves experience. Right-wingers think liberals are motivated by hatred because hatred is a key motivation for people on the Right. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2016, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-so-sick-of-hearing-trump-voters-are-not-bad-people-we-need-to-empathize-with-them-fuck-that/768921/308 "2016-10-23T12:38:44Z")
Yes, we are so hateful. We want everyone to be guaranteed an adequate level of housing and health care and education. We want people to have access to family leave and child care. We want people to be able to organize and bargain collectively for their compensation. We want everyone to have easy, convenient access to the ballot. We don’t want people to be sentenced to crippling prison sentences to serve the needs of a for-profit incarceration industry. We want police not to abuse their power by meting out extrajudicial punishment or unnecessarily killing people. And we are so hateful because we want these benefits to go to everyone, without consideration of who “deserves” it and who doesn’t. See, because none of these things would help conservatives or rural people or religious people or working class people, right? So hateful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-so-sick-of-hearing-trump-voters-are-not-bad-people-we-need-to-empathize-with-them-fuck-that/768921.md?page=15)