f Sparrows and Curtain Rods
“The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it.”
This thread has a bit too many unkind things being said about people who are not members of the privileged classes.
I’ve been thinking more and more about this quote over the Trump years.
I could tell you 100 reasons why the lower classes like Trump.
I hear things.
It would probably shock you if I said what my own opinion is. So I won’t say.
Someone needs to scream loud and clear, where they would absolutely hear it and understand it: “You are the first in line when he starts clearing out the people he doesn’t think are his people!”
Yep.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
—Martin Niemöller
If trump wins- the editorial staff at the NYT are in for a rude surprise. And quite a few others.
Firstly - much of it is based on actual evidence. Like Clinton’s “deplorables” comment, just because it isn’t kind doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
Secondly - you should hear what Trump voters say about people who aren’t them. “Unkind” would be a generous description.
Except the fact is that these people have been relentless pandered to for longer than we’ve been alive, by Republican and Democrat alike. When they say they “aren’t listened to”, what they mean is that people other than them are allowed to speak their opinions and make decision. What they want is a world where everyone else is either silently submissive to them, or dead. They want a “Day of the Rope”.
Some of it is a perception problem. They start from a privileged situation where only their voices are heard, and there is a Monoculture.
Couple that with the typical experience that however things are when a person starts paying attention, that’s what they perceive as normal, and the way things have always been.
So along some changes that allow others outside the monoculture to have a voice, and the perception is that suddenly the white opinions don’t matter, that white voices and white needs are being overlooked, that whites have become less important than others.
A chance to participate is perceived as “they’re taking over the world!”
You can explain to sheep a million times how the mutton and wool industry works but they will remain convinced the shepherd is only selflessly looking out for their best interests.
The rich ruling class want low (or no) taxes and fewer (or no) regulations on their businesses. Trump gives that to them. It’s pretty simple, follow the money.
ETA_ oops! I misread the title. The rich are setting factions of the working class against each other. Propaganda, fear, hatred.
Looking at the Trump supporters in the lower tiers of my own community, by and large I don’t see the extreme hate angle as something uniform. More of a twisted sense of “fairness” in the sense of yeah, the system is screwing me over, and if it can’t lift ME up then I want it to screw everyone over just as much, and I want them to have to just shut the f— up and eat their shit sandwich just as I have to eat mine. (notice it’s somehow “baked in” that there’s nothing you can do to select a different sandwich for everyone)
And of course there’s the misguided zero-sum notion, that if there’s any sort of consideration for any other groups or identities, that means taking away from ME from what little I do have. Like was mentioned before,
Another of the common “hooks” that the ultrapopulists use to grab onto the less privileged is the mythical concept of "Hard Work™ " . As in, the less privileged get flattered by being told they are the Real, Hard-Working Americans. Inserted into this, of course, is not just antagonism towards “welfare moochers” but also towards intellectual pursuits, a somewhat traditional American contempt for "too much book learnin’ " . Now, the people involved may have noticed that all the Hard Work™ is not getting them much, but they will then be told it’s because we are being forced to divert the benefits to someone else less deserving.
Trump’s personality traits will not upset this demographic too much, since they are accustomed to dealing with the concept of the Asshole Boss you just have to live with. The actual policies that are being proposed behind his candidacy, well, they comprehend them about as much as he comprehends them.
Quite so. Even near contemporaneously to it, people were not thinking of Reagan in terms of a recession with double-digit unemployment, Iran-Contra, fired Air Controllers, busted budgets, SDF boondoggles, cabinet sleaze factor, etc., they just dwelled on “It’s Morning in America”, “Shining city on a hill”, and “Tear down this wall”. Emotional highs so you can feel it was all for the sake of something loftier, and it’s all that counts.
40 years later the bar has been lowered to just allowing you to vent primal rage and who t.f. cares about lofty ideals. That may be the greatest damage of the past decade.
Those who are not privileged might feel that everyone should be treated equally, and vote based on that rather than selfishly voting special treatment for themselves.
Racist xenophobes are going to gravitate toward a candidate who supports border security. Looters and smash and grabbers will prefer a candidate who is soft on crime. It is bigotry to lump all people who vote the same into the same basket, as if their beliefs match those of everyone who votes the same.
Not everyone interprets Trump’s remarks, such as “Dictator for a Day,” the same way. Democrats built their campaign around it and how it means Trump is plotting to end democracy. Trump supporters think it means he will get down to business on Day 1. “Dictator for a Day” is much like “Fine People on Both Sides” was in the 2020 election.
That would mean a lot more coming from someone who didn’t try to do just that. He said he would do it. He tried to do it. What else is there to prove?
Maybe, but - again, when it’s time to vote, it doesn’t matter whether a perception is accurate or not. All that matters is whether it exists.
Then why do they vote for a candidate that openly promises special treatment for themselves?
Then why don’t they support Biden, who has been far stronger on border security than Trump ever was?
Like Trump?
So when you mentioned people who “selfishly vote special treatment for themselves”, who did you have in mind?
Maybe it’s because the Republicans have openly stated on multiple occasions that they want to end democracy in America.
And because they have an extensive actual plan to do so.
And because Trump and his circle tried in multiple ways to overturn legal elections in 2020, including use of a violent mob of his followers.
Given all that, this interpretation…
…is completely unwarranted. Unless by “business” you mean “destroying democracy”.
Where? It has unkind comments about bigots and stupid people who buy the Impossible RW Populist promises.
Good thing there are none- well except trump, who is soft on certain kinds of crime committed by his party and himself. And the “Looters and smash and grabbers” voting block is so tiny as to be invisible. But the racist voting block is larger than many of us think.
Exactly.
I certainly hope you hear his words.
He’s a convicted criminal. Has probably been a criminal his whole adult life.
Stepped on and over anyone he could to feed his ego and fat face.
He is all about himself and getting what He wants.
He doesn’t care for anyone else.
He’s as clear a narcissist as there ever was.
Any one is extremely foolish and can only read the big block MAGA on hats and shirts and not real information on the man.
Now, after the attempt on his life he has the sympathy of these idiots.
He’s a shameful excuse for a human being.
And, full of crap.
Do Not Believe A Word He Says!
She might not have been incorrect by your lights, but she shouldn’t have said that because she has no right to make that judgment . A wealthy Caucasian woman, of the elites and the upper end of American politics, looking down on “the lower classes” and characterizing them as a basket of deplorables is a dead giveaway of how the speaker herself, and the “upper tier” of American society in general, tend to view poorer Americans…
During the Republican convention, they tried to push the idea of “Grandpa Trump”. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t see him as having a loving relationship with his grandchildren, or even his children when they were young.
I agree it was foolish politically to say it out loud, but she wasn’t denigrating anyone for their economic status. It was for their hateful beliefs.