# This article is by far best explanation I've seen as to why Trump is dominating - **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 31, 2015, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449 "2015-08-31T00:03:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/81 "2015-12-06T02:28:55Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > This is nonsense. Republicans in the main are no more racist - and in some ways less so - than our Democrat opponents. Absolutely, honestly, indubitably no, a thousand times no. Republicans have proven their racism since the Southern Strategy started capturing them. We know this because the vast majority of African-Americans and other minorities tell us so. (Muslims are now finding out what it means to be a minority despised by Republicans. Just check any statement by Republicans since San Bernardino.) Your denial of this reality doesn’t work with them. They can see the truth. And so can we. ---
**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:** [December 6, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/82 "2015-12-06T02:34:41Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > This is nonsense. Republicans in the main are no more racist - and in some ways less so - than our Democrat opponents. Then why do the vast majority of black people support the Democratic party? Are they stupid, or dupes, or evil? Or is it possible that they might understand racism against black people better than you (or most other white people) do? I expect that you have a lot better experience and understanding of issues affecting you (and folks with similar backgrounds), and I expect black people to have a lot better experience and understanding of issues affecting them. So I trust black people far more than you as an accurate arbiter of racism against black people. As a group, they’ve always been right about it through American history, and the general white opinion about racism against black people has always been wrong… I see no reason to believe that this has reversed itself. Black people, collectively, are probably still right about mistreatment and racism towards black people, just like they always have been. ---
**Author:** ![inscrutable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a88e4f/32.png) [@inscrutable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inscrutable)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/83 "2015-12-06T04:01:25Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Then why do the vast majority of black people support the Democratic party? Are they stupid, or dupes, or evil? Or is it possible that they might understand racism against black people better than you (or most other white people) Why do some support the Republican party? Are they stupid, or dupes, or evil? Or is it possible that they might understand how to get beyond racism? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/84 "2015-12-06T04:01:41Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Absolutely, honestly, indubitably no, a thousand times no. Republicans have proven their racism since the Southern Strategy started capturing them. We know this because the vast majority of African-Americans and other minorities tell us so. (Muslims are now finding out what it means to be a minority despised by Republicans. Just check any statement by Republicans since San Bernardino.) Your denial of this reality doesn’t work with them. They can see the truth. And so can we. Trouble is, wrapped up as you are in your impassioned bubble of social justice activism, you either can’t or refuse to see things as they really are. So you call Republicans racists when they object to illegal immigration and behave as though they detest anyone and everyone who’s Hispanic. You see calls to monitor activity in mosques and scream racism, when if it were the Ku Klux Klan who were known to be meeting in certain southern Baptist churches to plot bombings against black schools and gathering places you’d be screaming bloody murder to get the FBI involved. You see Republicans objecting to being forced to pay for someone’s birth control and you bellow that they’re waging a “war on women”. You constantly label things as hate that are nothing of the sort. It’s ridiculous. ---
**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:** [December 6, 2015, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/85 "2015-12-06T04:42:11Z")
> [@inscrutable](#): > > Why do some support the Republican party? Are they stupid, or dupes, or evil? Or is it possible that they might understand how to get beyond racism? Their experiences have led them to believe that the Republican party best serves their interests (so not necessarily stupid, dupes, or evil). They’re an extreme minority among black people. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/86 "2015-12-06T05:10:39Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Trouble is, wrapped up as you are in your impassioned bubble of social justice activism, you either can’t or refuse to see things as they really are. So you call Republicans racists when they object to illegal immigration and behave as though they detest anyone and everyone who’s Hispanic. Sorry, but a judge in Arizona did conclude already that Arpaio was indeed doing race profiling. It may happen that a judge will decide that his contempt of court (yes, Arpaio ignored the previous court instructions to stop that race profiling) now will be sent to a criminal phase. BTW did I mention before that Trump did came to an Arizona rally to join to the hip with Arpaio **while that was going on**? You can indeed not be a racist, but this forgetting of the bigotry that your politicians are doing and the bigots that they are supporting is a huge blind spot for many Republicans, and the longer it goes it does tell minorities like me and many other Americans that Republicans do not care that they are supporting bigots and racists. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/87 "2015-12-06T05:16:55Z")
Then minorities can be irrelevant in politics. Their educated, well considered choice. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/88 "2015-12-06T05:20:28Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Then minorities can be irrelevant in politics. Their educated, well considered choice. That will only work if hate will drive many from the non minority vote, as pointed many times before do you really want to live in such a country? As many of them demonstrated in the past 2 presidential elections they can indeed look at the better angels of their nature and vote as more informed voters. I have to notice that nowhere you acknowledge the clear bigotry seen from Trump and that Trump is supporting bigots. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/89 "2015-12-06T05:25:35Z")
Trump is a bad apple, no question. But to call Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio racist is just laughable. If minority voters want to see a responsible Republican Party, they have to get involved, IN the Republican Party. Their votes have to be available to win. If they aren’t, then we just rely on the white vote, which last I checked is still a large majority, and minority interests just get completely ignored whenever Republicans win, which is pretty frequently still. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/90 "2015-12-06T05:28:42Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Trump is a bad apple, no question. But to call Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio racist is just laughable. It should be indeed, now where are the big ads from them denouncing Trump for his bigotry? As for being involved in, many have tried, and it seems that you are willfully ignoring that currently a virulent anti-immigrant sentiment among the Republicans now just does not lead to many minorities willing to be followers of the current crop of clowns. > **[Why I quit the Republican Party](https://www.salon.com/2013/05/14/why_i_quit_the_republican_party/)** > > Once called the future of the GOP, Latino outreach director Pablo Pantoja tells Salon how intolerance made him bolt ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/91 "2015-12-06T05:31:50Z")
The candidates have been denouncing Trump for lots of reasons, including his statements about Latinos, ever since he got into the race. Starting with the debates that got those record audiences. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/92 "2015-12-06T05:35:28Z")
Ran out of edit time, I wanted to quote this from the linked article: > [@](#): > > Last night, Pantoja put the Grand Old Party in his past. In a moving online letter, he rejected his half-decade of work as a Republican operative and announced he’d become a Democrat. The reason was simple: He’d become fed up with “the culture of intolerance” on the right. “When the political discourse resorts to intolerance and hate, we all lose in what makes America great and the progress made in society,” he wrote, singling out the Heritage Foundation’s recent attacks on immigrant intellectual capacities as the icing on a very large prejudice cake. > > Pantoja’s flip was dramatic, and it could be a bellwether for conservatives’ well-documented troubles with minority voters. But the ideological gulf between Republicans and Democrats is vast, and no thoughtful person crosses that divide quickly or easily. Who is Pantoja, really, and how did he decide when enough was enough? In an exclusive interview with Salon, he offered new details on his career, how he was pigeonholed, and how he flipped – as well as on how the two parties approach Latino issues differently. > > For a long time, he says, he didn’t understand what the Democratic Party was really about, assuming it was a pack of socialists trying to destroy American freedom. But he began to realize his misconceptions. “The only way some of these elected [official]s can function in the Republican Party is if they take these extreme positions,” he says. Democrats, on the other hand, “seem more in tune with the reality of what happens in diverse communities.” ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/93 "2015-12-06T05:38:51Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > The candidates have been denouncing Trump for lots of reasons, including his statements about Latinos, ever since he got into the race. Starting with the debates that got those record audiences. Talk is cheap, specially when is not in the form of advertisements launched coast to coast. Advertisements that BTW would do a lot of good by defusing a lot of the hate out there and letting many of the movers and shakers in the Hispanic and black communities that indeed there are Republicans that are different, but their silence where it counts now is clearly geared to not alienate the very conservatives that will be courted later by Jeb or Rubio. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/94 "2015-12-06T15:55:24Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > If minority voters want to see a responsible Republican Party, they have to get involved, IN the Republican Party. And if minorities wanted a responsible Ku Klux Klan, they should have gotten involved in more Klan meetings. Parties attract voters by reaching out to them. The Southern Strategy reached out to disaffected Democrats by offering them the type of institutional racism they had been comfortable with in a slightly more respectable package. The Democrats reached out to minorities by offering them actual laws and protection. Adding minorities to the Republican party cannot work if the party continues to publicly proclaim hate at every moment, and continues to try to damage minorities in Congress. Yes, a few politicians have seen advantages to themselves by acceding to these policies in order to quickly advance as tokens to be displayed. Even so, you never see them publicly refuting party politics by offering any policies differing from the core Republican values. Those values are institutional racism and hate. That is the Republican brand. They are shouting it louder than ever with the anti-Islam hate speech that all Republican officials have been spouting this week. (Their God must indeed be working for them because it allowed the talk of the Christian hate propaganda fueling the Planned Parenthood killings off the front page.) If and when the Republicans stop spewing hate, then minorities can judge whether any of their other policies attract them. But the party must make the first step. It won’t, of course, and that will lead to horrible pains for the next decade, but it is entirely on their heads. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/95 "2015-12-06T18:01:43Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Absolutely, honestly, indubitably no, a thousand times no. I don’t know about a thousand times no. Maybe once or twice no? Nate Silver, on his blog FiveThirtyEight looked at this, breaking down a study of racial attitudes by political party, which you can see here; > **[Are White Republicans More Racist Than White Democrats?](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/are-white-republicans-more-racist-than-white-democrats/)** > > The comments made by Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling this month demonstrate that the U.S. is far from a colorblind society. And the reaction to their comments … He finds there is a gap between the attitudes of white Republicans and white Democrats about blacks, but it’s not a big one. As he concludes: > [@](#): > > As of 2012, this index stood at 27 percent for white Republicans and 19 percent for white Democrats. So there’s a partisan gap, although not as large of one as some political commentators might assert. There are white racists in both parties. By most questions, they represent a minority of white voters in both parties. They probably represent a slightly larger minority of white Republicans than white Democrats. > > Fortunately, the expression of racism by whites toward blacks has decreased over time, and for Americans in both parties — at least, according to this survey. In 1990, the index of negative racial attitudes stood at 40 percent for white Democrats and 41 percent for white Republicans. > > There hasn’t been much of an overall increase or decrease in the index since Obama took office. On average, between the 2004 and 2006 editions of the surveys — the last two before Obama was either a president or a candidate — the index of negative racial attitudes stood at 22 percent for white Democrats and 26 percent for white Republicans. Those values are within the margin of error for those in the 2010 and 2012 surveys. ---
**Author:** ![botsgotme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@botsgotme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/botsgotme)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/96 "2015-12-06T18:19:41Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > And Central America? That’s where the most recent wave came from. > > Plus visa overstayers come from all over. And that’s the easiest thing in the world to enforce, because these people are documented. Going after visa overstayers is as simple as tax enforcement, something the government is actually motivated to do. You are absolutely right-the government doesn’t want to enforce the law. try not paying your auto excise tax; see what happens to you-they will have your license lifted immediately. Meanwhile, illegal aliens commit crimes and the government “doesn’t have the resources to track them down”-yeah, right. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/97 "2015-12-06T18:23:30Z")
> [@botsgotme](#): > > You are absolutely right-the government doesn’t want to enforce the law. try not paying your auto excise tax; see what happens to you-they will have your license lifted immediately. Meanwhile, illegal aliens commit crimes and the government “doesn’t have the resources to track them down”-yeah, right. Actually many of the deported (at record numbers compared to other administrations in the past) are indeed the illegals that get involved in crimes. The reality is that demagogues just add the people that actually will benefit America like the Dreamers to that and call it a day. ---
**Author:** ![botsgotme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@botsgotme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/botsgotme)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/98 "2015-12-06T18:25:44Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > It’s not even the question of “addressing the issues”. It’s gone past that. After decades and decades of politicians “addressing the issues” during the campaigns, then not doing anything about the issues after they are elected, people don’t trust one word that comes out of a politician’s mouth - even when/if they are “addressing” something. > > So they go with the gut. And the “gut” and experience tells them to dismiss professional politicians as inveterate liars and scoundrels. It is not a coincidence that the three leading candidates in Iowa right now - [Trump, Carson and Fiorina](http://www.monmouth.edu/assets/0/32212254770/32212254991/32212254992/32212254994/32212254995/30064771087/85775b52-ec99-4ad3-bbee-14826bdf86e5.pdf), together accounting for 56% of the polled Republicans, have not ever held a political office. > > I bet if someone with big name recognition, high charisma and no political experience was running on Democrat side, he’d be trouncing Hillary in polls right now. Good ananlysis. the fact is, an inexperienced hack named Obama was sold to the American public as “something different”-he was nothing of the kind. Obama worked out well for the people he works for (wall Street and big firms), but doesn’t address anything that concerns most Americans. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/99 "2015-12-06T18:34:00Z")
> [@botsgotme](#): > > Good ananlysis. the fact is, an inexperienced hack named Obama was sold to the American public as “something different”-he was nothing of the kind. Obama worked out well for the people he works for (wall Street and big firms), but doesn’t address anything that concerns most Americans. Not very good analysis as the evidence posted already, after that post of that banned poster, shows that indeed Trump and Carson are inveterate liars and scoundrels, just not politicians yet. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2015, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449/100 "2015-12-06T18:42:05Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > This is nonsense. Republicans in the main are no more racist - and in some ways less so - than our Democrat opponents. The main qualifications for Republican support are conservative values and a conservative viewpoint. Clarence Thomas has them, Herman Cain has them, and Ben Carson has them, and they’ve all been welcomed heartily by Republicans all over the country. Naturally they’re excoriated by Dems and the black establishment as Toms or tokens, but that’s because it simply won’t do in their view for any blacks to be crossing to the dark side. ------------- This is abject nonsense and grade A bullshit. I am immersed in a sea of Republicans in my business and in socializing. While there are racist Democrats it’s more along the line of hating the sin and not the sinner re what they perceive as the negative or dysfunctional behavior of black people. It’s kind of a despairing, disgusted pity like with an adult child that can’t seem to grow up. And yes there are a number of white Democrats that have this perspective. Republican animosity on the other hand is visceral and personal and after a few drinks the more chatty ones will acknowledge “there are few good blacks” like their favorite sports stars or the cheerful man who cleans their office, but black people in general are just irredeemable, mentally incompetent, parasitic criminals. “They are takers not makers” is a favorite phrase and will regale you with stories of loafing, worthless black people they have known. If Democratic racism is a level 2-5 this is a 6-9. They really do not like black people as a group. So yes there are racists in both camps, but black people are plenty savvy about which side has their best interest in mind. The awkward, ham handed “We’re not racist… really!” Kabuki dances by the GOP are just comical. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-article-is-by-far-best-explanation-ive-seen-as-to-why-trump-is-dominating/729449.md?page=6)