Thursday, January 26, 2017

POLITICO REAFFIRMS THE POLITICAL WORLD'S RULES ON AUTHENTICITY

Democrats are at a party retreat in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Politico has a brief story about how they're seeking to improve their outreach to Trump voters:
Senate Democrats geared up for battle with President Donald Trump by preparing to talk to people who voted for him....

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) moderated a “discussion with Trump voters," according to a draft [retreat] schedule obtained by POLITICO....

Former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D), along with Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), held a session on “speaking to those who feel invisible in rural America," according to the schedule. Other sessions were along similar lines: “Listening to those feel unheard” and “Rising America -- They feel unheard too.”
Well, fine. I don't think Democrats should focus on this to the exclusion of all else, but it's okay if they do it.

But I do object to Politico's headline for this:
Democrats hold lessons on how to talk to real people
Oh, right -- none of the nearly 66 million Hillary Clinton voters are "real people." Democrats never are. Democrats are all privileged white coast-dwellers in an elitist bubble, regardless of race, income level, or how far away from an ocean they live. The intersection of "real people" and regular Democratic voters is the null set.

Respondents to a new Public Policy Polling survey give Donald Trump 44% approval and 50% disapproval on his job performance -- which means that half the country simply isn't real. No one demonstrating against Trump right now -- minimum-wage workers, schoolteachers, whoever -- is real. We're all just fake people cooked up in a Soros-funded lab. Want to be real? Vote Republican, dummy. How hard is that to understand?

5 comments:

Philo Vaihinger said...

This is the real white privilege.

The Electoral College undervalues coastal and urban voters, which O'Reilly and others agree means nonwhite and liberal voters.

The Dems have got to do better with white voters in battleground and near thing states like Pennsylvania.

Or they have to get rid of the Electoral College.

I think you'll agree that the second is impossible and the first merely very difficult.

Could Bernie have done it, with his anti-establishment, anti-free trade rhetoric and views?

I don't know, but maybe.

But the Democrats need to convince a lot more white people that they are the working man's friend, regardless of race and including the white working man, and the Republicans are not their race ally but their class enemy.

Philo Vaihinger said...

My blow.

The senate is even worse, where the 39 million coastal people of California (72 % white, 39 % Hispanic) have the same say (2 Democrats) as the 585,000 inland people of Wyoming (91 % white, 9 % Hispanic) (2 Republican).

Any Republican will tell you this is exactly how things should be.

Those inlanders are the real Americans, you know.

Victor said...

Why not just say the following:
Real Murkin's is white and bigoted. and live in the Heartland, not open-minded Libtards who live in or near cities!

That bigoted part's not 100% true either, but it's at least something a bit different from the usual Libtard "Coastal Elites" meme.

Harrigan said...

If you understand what a null set is, you're not a real American. Sad.

Jimbo said...

The coastal-inland divide is not unique to the USA; it is found virtually everywhere a country has a coast(s) and an inland area. For countries without coasts, the corresponding divide is usually capital/other large city and rural areas. There are very few inland rural areas that are mostly or even modestly liberal and cosmopolitan (maybe recreational areas?). A major reason is simply lack of exposure to different cultures, livelihoods and ways of thinking and the corresponding lack of diversity in the rural economy.

When climate change impacts really start impacting rural communities in the US, starting with a lack of water and the GOP does nothing about it, Democrats have to be out there yelling very loud about adaptation and mitigation measures for farming communities.