In the case of my Southern friends and family, it’s racism against Hispanics. Not blacks.
Because black people have been their neighbors, coworkers and friend for decades now. My 90 year old mother has been known to go on rants about how Black Lives Matter. CNN’s United Shades of America is their favorite TV show. My brother threw an alarm salesman off the property with several choice words after he intimated that we might need an alarm system because we had black neighbors. Most of the young people in my nephews wedding party were black. There was the time I caught my nephews then fiancé making a face when I mentioned a mutual friend and her black boyfriend, but when I said something to my nephew he laughed and said it was because she used to date the guy.
But they get tweaked when they hear people speaking Spanish in public. Even though none of them has ever lost a job to a Hispanic immigrant, they see Hispanics working construction and think “those guys are taking jobs away from real Americans”. They see Hispanics with large families and think they are in danger of becoming a minority. It’s easy to sell them on the Trump “immigrants are destroying the country” rhetoric because they want to buy it. And because of that, they support heartless and economically unsound anti-immigrant policies.
No, I’m sorry, but Trump is no iconoclast. He’s pure, classic, politician. He did exactly what Ted Cruz had been trying to do for so long, but just employed reality TV bullshit and public imagery, which many dupes (who watch nothing but reality TV) easily fell for.
Trump is the logical result of modern media/entertainment consumption, and really, not much more than that.
That Trump is an “iconoclast” is the cliche that lazy media use over and over again, since it sounds intellectual, but of course all that really does is feed his base, because they like to flatter themselves (and him) with that idea. In reality, it’s all just an act–a dog and pony show.
The political pundits and the media are reluctant to just face this fully, and instead continue to analyze and talk about Trump as though he were some kind of meaningful, coherent ideology, because, after all, it’s their bread and butter to explain things–that’s how they make their money. They talk about “Trumpism,” which is just bullshit. But in fact, there is very little to explain in this regard. It’s better for them to examine all the craven opportunism that is going on behind Trump, while he distracts everyone like the Wizard of Oz–the man behind the curtain.
Thank you for pointing that out. A perfect example of my point.
Some folks perceive benefits for poverty level citizens, for example, food stamps, and taking something from them and giving it to those who do not deserve it. There is some abuse of food stamps, but Maimonides wrote, “If you give money to ten beggars, and nine have lied to you, you have done a good thing.” Food stamps involve something around .02% of the government budget. There are more important things to be concerned about.
Many Americans felt white people were now a discriminated-against race, that white men in particular were the targets of the “punching up” phenomenon, that political correctness was becoming 1984 Orwellian, that the country was changing dramatically in a direction they didn’t like, that illegal immigrants should be deported, that America was becoming an Emperor’s New Clothes society, that the mainstream media was heavily liberal, that Hollywood was elitist and liberal, that flyover America was ignored, that Christianity was under persecution in America, that telling the truth now resulted in societal punishment, that SJWs were histrionic and unreasonable, that America was no longer “great” and needed to be revived.
Whether these things are true or not is irrelevant as far as votes are concerned. What matters is that Trump’s message clicked with many millions of Americans who felt this way.
Because a lot of people feel some group of “They” are getting ahead at the expense of hard-working, God-fearing folks like themselves, while “we” are stuck with the bill.
Trump and his ilk found an incredible bunch of different “They.” Depending on what you were sensitive about “They” were Latin Americans who stole our menial jobs, Asians who stole our manufacturing technology, faceless bureaucrats who made us quit mining coal and priced healthcare out the market, uppity black football players who didn’t respect the flag - you name it, there’s a “They” who’s our enemy, and Trump will smite them.
Because it absolves them of any personal responsibility. All of their problems are the fault of the global market, immigration, minorities getting rights, gays getting married, or black people becoming president.
It doesn’t ask them to make any sacrifices, or even think all that hard. It just delivers, in perfect bite sized chunks, reassurance that the white conservative straight male is blameless, and that everything that is wrong is the fault of others.
I think it’s mostly the other way around. Many already felt this way but didn’t voice it out loud. Fox News, etc. simply voiced it out loud or agreed with their inner thoughts.
People were tired of worrying about hurting feelings and people whining, being told they were the cause of all problems (white conservative males) and that they should make exceptions for others. That and wanting a president that is actually intimidating and arrogant in his resolve.
There is no ‘radicalization’, just people who got fed up and didn’t want more of the same.
I have heard it said that very early on Trump’s handlers zeroed in on a constituency in need of a leader, which turned out to be the same constituency that Pat Buchanan had identified years earlier. According to this assertion, Trump tossed his liberal bona fides in the fire and adopted the views of his ready-made base.
The Buchanan/Trump constituency opposes immigration, NAFTA, and globalization, as well as abortion, gay rights, and women serving in combat. Buchanan was occasionally accused of racism and anti-Semitism. He seemed at times to court white nationalists and Holocaust deniers. Apparently, Buchanan was simply ahead of his time.
The human craving for bright lines and certainty. Which only happens in science, and then, not every time. Science you can take to the lab, run the sample through the gas cryptonomicon, see just precisely which isotopes of lead the children are drinking. Can’t tell you why it is, or how to stop it, or how to make sure it never fucking happens again.
On that, you get opinions, complex, riddled with grey uncertainties. People hate that, they love the guy who can lay it out in a way that totally comports with what they think they know, the guy who tells them they were right all along.
Course, now we’ve modernized. Siri insists its all Obama’s fault but Cortana blames the Jews. Clippy asks if you need help and recommends Scientology.
Yes. Voting for Trump is like the online poll that chose Boaty McBoatface as the name of a British research vessel. The jokey, ridiculous, in-your-face option gets all the attention which amounts to a lot of votes. Sad.
Obama was pretty bad. The three biggest failures during his time were:
• The economy had a decline in the labor rate, which is the number of people working at a given point in time. Unemployment numbers only count for a year, after that those who can’t find a job are more counted.
• Obama and his administration accumulated more national debt than all other Presidents combined. This is rather shameful, especially after Obama himself criticized Bush for having debt and called it " unpatriotic "
• Healthcare. If you like your doctor, you can keep him, and health care rates will go down on average $2,500.00 per family. Pure snake oil. Not everyone could keep their doctors, and health care rates went up.
Mix in a sub par candidate in Hillary Clinton, and you can see why Trump won.
Yes, just as they were told that Clinton was trafficking children from a pizza parlor. That guy with the AR-15 may have been extreme, but still is completely representative of a way of thinking which the right has been cultivating for a long time. (Trump just jumped on the bandwagon when he saw how easily it is to exploit.)
When people start losing their entitlement they’re easy marks for these fantasy narratives. As the overall population changes more and more demographically, and the as the overall population strives to level the playing field more and more, the Republicans, of course, know they can cultivate this mindset of aggrievement–in fact, they have to, in order to survive.
Some people really love to think of themselves as aggrieved–especially those who are losing their entitlements. Everyone from Limbaugh to Trump has been profiting from that–literally–with great success. It’s an easy narrative to spin.