Black Hills writer Sam Hurst recovers from the election and keys a mighty essay on America’s deeply ingrained white supremacy and the need to eradicate Trumpism from our institutions and from ourselves.
Of all the discussion-worthy observations Hurst shares in his Friday tome on John Tsitrian’s blog The Constant Commoner, I perhaps self-servingly spotlight this one passage (173 words, 3.58% of the essay) that overlaps with my own thinking on the Democratic Party’s need to fight for social justice alongside economic justice:
There is a more delicate point to be made. While progressives have every reason to listen and empathize with the working class (a little organizing wouldn’t hurt, either), we should be wary of pandering to white men and their claims of victimhood. Along with crafting a populist economic message, there needs to be some push back against the dark side of the white working class. There needs to be a recognition that in the real world the American working class is, itself, diverse. It’s made up of low-income black women secretaries, Muslim policemen, Latino roofing crews, and none of them are taking jobs from white men. Of course, that wasn’t the working class that Donald Trump was speaking to at his rallies. That wasn’t the working class that delivered his ever-so-thin majorities in Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Trump’s working class won’t be easy to reach, and they can’t be reached by young black militants or DACA Dreamers or water protectors at Standing Rock. Old white men have to speak truth to ourselves [Sam Hurst, “Identity Politics, the Democratic Party, and Dred Scott,” The Constant Commoner, 2016.12.09].
Hurst says Trumpism wants to deny those non-white members of the great American working class their place in society. Trumpism wants to return to America’s Founders’ “fixed and universal” vision, which served as the basis of the Dred Scott decision, of blacks as “ordinary article[s] of merchandise… altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” That’s the original “greatness” to which Trumpism would return us. Hurst says Trumpism wants to “make American white again.”
It’s only right to help white working class males, whose jobs have been outsourced, get back to full employment. But it’s wrong to feel sorry for the part of that group who chose beer and pain pills over night school. The minority members of this working class have found a way to feed their families and get ahead … even though they have Trumpists demeaning them and blaming them for something they had no influence over.
I recommend going over to The Constant Commoner to read Sam’s full post. It’s really, really good. I like a lot of John’s ideas, too. He’s my kind of Republican.
I thought Hurst used a lot of words to make a mediocre case for something. His assumption that only white privilege is the factor behind Trump’s support is just plain wrong. I did not vote for Trump, but I can see why people voted for him assuming he was telling the truth. I think he was lying through his teeth and fooled a lot of people.
You don’t need to be fueled by “white privilege to be disgusted by instruction manuals printed in type too small to read and with dinky illustrations because it is printed in 3 languages. It is also disgusting to listen to aliens who have been here for years illegally still refusing to speak English.
I have listened to too many bunches of blather pushing the wonders of diversification without mentioning the otherwise unnecessary social costs. Also, there is general support for “diversification” with never a single specific example of why it is so wonderful. We also get the line of crap the US is a land of immigrants. It may have been 50 or 100 years ago, but apart from illegal aliens, most of us are not immigrants.
Diversity is important because without it people think like you … sitting on your white privilege and stroking your intolerance.
I have read that quite often “make America white again”. If that proposal or thought process makes it way into the American fabric over the next 4 years; there will be a revolution within our walls. I can’t speak for the “white middle class working class male” but I do know this that some of the jobs such as large dairy farms, vegetable or produce farms, all across the country are primarily worked by Latino workers. Not saying that “white class males wouldn’t do these labor jobs”; not saying that they aren’t outsourced to cheaper labor or labor that don’t have immigration papers; not saying that these corporations are always on the up&up; but in some cases, Latinos will do labor that others are not interested in doing. Also saying corporations outsource business to foreign labor to save on taxes, cheap labor and regulation. I wonder what Trump’s Dept. of Labor head Andrew Puzder will do with this already, complicated issue. I think the raise in minimum wage will become a challenge.
In follow-up in regards to “Make America white again” our children will grow up differently that I did/older Americans did. We now have two schools in Sioux Falls that offer Spanish – speaking immersion. Which our young people will need to know and which will benefit them in the years to come. I don’t understand where the Trump administration will take this country & I can’t begin to envision; but diversity is here to stay. I don’t know what the percentage is but I read where if you look at ALL people of color, the ‘white’ is the minority. Not looking at social-economic or back ground or religion or anything else, just the percentages of our population.
Douglas, are you multilingual? If not I highly recommend trying to master a second language. This could enhance your awareness of how difficult it must be for an adult to learn to speak, understand, read and write a new language. I have been working on Spanish for quite some time and I have an extremely difficult time understanding people who speak Spanish in a normal setting.
Thus, I am really impressed when I meet immigrants who can actually communicate in English as a second language. And I understand and empathize with immigrants who have not been able to achieve proficiency in English. Heck, many times I also have a difficult time understand some English speakers and I was born here!
In recent days the corporate world is warning Trump about the economic impact it would have with the deportation of 11 to 12 million immigrants. Among those voicing their objections are former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and even Rupert Murdoch.
America was a nation of immigrants in 1492 and they we are today, there is not denying that. Sam clearly laid out the reasons for white supremacy that started with the Founders and continues today. The evidence is clear with the hate everybody campaign of Trump culminating with his election as president.
I can see why Sam Hurst’s ‘mediocre’ case would threaten the sons of immigrants since it challenges their position of white supremacy.
There are Lakota’s that don’t or refuse to speak English, as the First Americans should they be compelled or threatened to speak English. Make no mistake about it, Lakota speakers may not speak English but they understand it. Government boarding and Catholic Missions tried to destroy the Lakota language and were largely successful, some however escaped the tyranny of White Privilege.
I wasted a lot of time in German language classes. Male and female adjectives, weird tenses and what appears to be random nature of much of it. I did find the analogies and idiomatic expressions interesting in how they were similar and different from those in English. A Spanish or Portuguese expression I heard from an SDSM&T prof suggesting his son move away from in front of the TV was translated for me to be “Donkey flesh is not transparent.” I guess English would be “You make a better door than a window.”.. which I heard more than once from my mother.
Interesting as some of this may be, the time and torture of learning languages used by illegal aliens seems like a gross waste of time. If they want to live and work here, they ought to make English their effective first language. I have not yet seen any even remotely persuasive data or arguments that come close to matching the benefits and expenses of diversity and coming up with a positive result. We are getting tons of politically correct propaganda.
My grandfather did not want his 5 children learning Norwegian. He told them that he and my grandmother had come here for good reasons and opportunity and that they and their children owed this country learning the language. He loved Norway and had photos and paintings of Norway on his walls. That still seems to me to be a sensible idea. The federal government failure to control immigration dumps a lot of otherwise needless costs on local and state governments. If the feds want immigration, they should hold all such immigrants in language training camps until the can function in a modern society with English.
Your Norsk Grandpa’s dead and so is that way of thinking. No human can be illegal. They may do illegal things but labeling is hate. I think you need someone to hate because you really don’t like yourself.
All three of my children took foreign language in high school (& then in college — German and Spanish) I took Spanish in high school but lost it because I did not practice it. I wish I would have kept it up. Not because I want to speak Spanish to the immigrants. But, because it is a good thing to have more than one language in your repertoire & it would be great for me, to understand their conversations. But the dialects are different. Should immigrants learn English? Absolutely. But their mother language is Spanish (and MANY different dialects of the language exist). Immigrants (of all ethnic back grounds) can take community classes and many times they are free; and they should and I would hope they would want to. In the United States, as a people, we are way behind in foreign language attainment. If I travel to Europe or Asia for a vacation I am in trouble. If a European or Asian travels to the USA he/she may speak five foreign languages at a minimum one of which includes English. In our communities, we have German speaking colonies of people that have different dialects of German but that is their first language and they can speak ‘broken’ or what we would define as broken, English. As Roger C. indicated in his statement; there is Lakota and also Dakota or (Lakhota). The older ones speak it well; not so much the very young tribal members. I hope the “young” continue to take multiple languages. English being the first in America and then learn more. It’s so much easier when you are young to learn than when you get old. We have computers now; so we can look up languages or take online instruction; but it’s challenging and you have to practice it. Personally, I think it’s admirable when immigrants learn the English language (and necessary for them to co-exist) but I also think it’s important for our children in school to learn other foreign languages. The world is much smaller now than ever before.
In my friend Lar’s favorite TV show, the entire Earth and seemingly much of the galaxy speaks English. There are other languages that the computers and robots can understand, but mostly everybody seems to just have settled on English as the universal language. If not English, it might ultimately be a new language that hasn’t been invented yet but ends up sort of a mish-mash combination of every language on earth except for Russian and Icelandic.
Language is about communication and it can be entertaining and fun as well.
Years ago I had a Lakota friend that was born and raised in the deep south, every year his parents would take him to the reservation to learn the Lakota language and traditions from his very Lakota grandmother.
It was an entertaining exercise to hear him speak Lakota with a southern drawl.
Forcing immigrants into training camps for any reason is outrageous and smacks of white supremacy and privilege. Or maybe people that live on or near a Indian reservation should be made to enter a training camp to learn Lakota.
As a Lakota I learned Spanish through a Spanish immersion course as a part of the training for the Peace Corps. When Peace Corps volunteers teach English around the world they also bring back with them a second or even a third language.
Anyone that is multi-lingual probably is very intelligent and I’m envious of their abilities and wish I had kept up with Spanish.
while I disagree with pushing back against the white working class (try that at an NFL game), we need to be LESS divisive, not more ( I will eventually read tsitrian’s blog article), keep our eye on the ball and push back on this:
“Trump had settled on Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson for the top State Department job.
Even as the second in command at State, Bolton is an aggressive selection from Trump, shattering the president-elect’s pledge to work peacefully with other countries. Bolton, who has called for the bombing of Iran, held high-level roles in three different Republican administrations between 1998 and 2006. He is now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank whose vice president has described Trump as “an idiot.” ”
of course if trump loses the election due to his ties to putin mentioned earlier, and now having effected the election some how, we have already learned from Standing Rock how to stand up for sovereignty, and I will sit back and watch trump go back to being nobody important.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/isis-is-back-in-the-ancient-syrian-city-of-palmyra/2016/12/10/d60523b3-21c5-4db7-883c-6f89305c1b25_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_isispalmyra409pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.a08a98569f40
sorry wrong article about bolton
make tejas mexico again! hehheh Rachel Maddow
Ms. leslie, while I have never really understood the following comment, my friend Lar often typed it and said it at breakfast and asked me to blog it for him:
“Make the west wilder and statehood for the Indian tribes and the Mexicans!”
See, I think making a special state for Mexicans is kind of like creating Indian reservations, so I don’t know if that’s a politically good or bad or sensitive thing.
It seems like probably a bad thing. What do you think?
Mr. Grudd … He wasn’t talking about putting Mexicans anywhere. VIVA LA RAZA, man. It’s about returning the land USA took that was part of Mexico since before Cortez. We could invite Hispanic people to be a state but like Native Americans, the wounds don’t heal that fast. Half of CO, all of NM, AZ and CA were taken from Mexico without compensation. Sound familiar, SoDak?
Oh. That does seem indeed different than what I thought. If half of CO and all of NM, AZ and CA were made into one giant state of Newer Mexico, perhaps you and Lar would share a common US Representative and certainly a common Governor.
If The Dakotas were split as they should have been, down the Missouri River into East Dakota and West Dakota, Rapid City would be rich with oil money from your northern counties of West Dakota.
Truth be told … The Dakota Territory was split and admitted into the Union in 1889 as two states due to the distance between the two major population centers of the territory, in the north and in the south. There are two Virginias and two Dakotas because the Republicans wanted more Republican states.
You know what Cory, I don’t want to belabor the point, but you just like the Democratic party, don’t get it. As I tried to point out to you and to other Dems, during the last session, to expect people who were/are earning minimum wage or even more than that but less than teachers, and probably renting so they get no property tax break and pay higher rent because neither does their landlord, just to give teachers the pay that they should be earning and then putting a third of that sales tax increase toward property tax relief, is absolutely mind boggling.
That is the same democratic party that at the national level, refused to have Wallace on the ticket again with Roosevelt in 1944 because he was a socialist, and even though Bernie Sanders was the people’s choice in 2016, either didn’t want him because he was a socialist or because it was Hillary’s turn.
If you don’t like the fact that Trump won the election, either do something to get rid of the electoral collage, or start nominating the people’s choice. The Democrats keep whining that the country keeps moving further right, but then keep nominating candidates that help to move it further right.
I read the whole post, and while racial tensions are certainly high, I don’t think racism is how Trumpism won (obviously it helped though). Comey, Putin and fake news were the primary factors [in my opinion].
It’s waaay too easy to sit back and declare all the huge failures of Hillary and/or the Democratic Party, but we have a two party system and one of those parties has been hijacked by an insane billionaire driven by fake news, and Russia helped make it happen.
Our political system is under attack by oligarchs from both the inside and out. Too many voters cannot see through the fog of war. Fringe racists are using Trump’s win as reason to become the squeeky wheel. Our U.S. elections have lost a certain amount of legitimacy and no one knows what to do about it.
That’s the real problem here.
Lanny, I think it has been admirably proven that HRC was not beaten, but had the election stolen because of outside interference in our election from Russians and our own FBI. If I remember my government classes from way back when, interference in elections is a criminal offense and the results are suspect at best and denied as illegitimate. Where is the cry of alarm about wingnuts stealing the vote? Where is the cry of alarm after Giulianni and Lewandowski and others claimed they were working with the Russians and FBI during the campaign? Is this the new norm for wingnuts? Is this good for democracy?
I think America would be better off if the thing calling itself grudznick were eradicated.
There needs to be a recognition that in the real world the American working class is, itself, diverse. It’s made up of low-income black women secretaries, Muslim policemen, Latino roofing crews, and none of them are taking jobs from white men.” No it’s not. Out of 4 million secretaries only $560,000 are black women. There are an estimated 11,900 muslim police officers in the US. “Latino” roofing res? Ya got me there. But the jest of the matter is you are talking about a total impact of less than 1% of the US population. These specifically “picked” fields are not representative of the working class but rather “members of” and certainly not at a level to represent as “The working class”.
If you are really wanting to find the “Boogyman” in all this you would be better off discussing why a disproportionate number of Black minorities do work in federal positions. Black employees represented 18.1 percent yet only 12.3% of the US population is black. While Hispanic employees only represented 8.4 percent Federal Workforce while they are 17.6% of the US population. 5.6% of federal employees are Asian/Pacific which reflects exactly their percentage of the over all population in the US, 5.6%. 63% of the US population is white yet 66.6% of the federal jobs are held by whites.
“Your Norsk Grandpa’s dead and so is that way of thinking. No human can be illegal. They may do illegal things but labeling is hate. I think you need someone to hate because you really don’t like yourself.”
My point is exactly that my immigrant grandfather is deceased. Most of us have deceased immigrant grandparents. That does not mean we are now an immigrant nation.
I don’t really hate anybody. Hate is a wasted emotion, but I am fed up with the BS about the benefits of diversity which always is a general statement without any specific substantiation. Native Americans and all students in SD schools would be better off learning a computer programming language than another language plagued with so many dialects that the “high” Germans, Spanish, etal cannot understand the twisted dialects in those languages.
I think humans of nearly all colors and ethnicity can succeed if they want to work. There is nothing in second languages that will aid success unless it is exploiting those useless languages to teach others the useless languages.
I do not see why anybody in the US should be expected to learn the languages of immigrants..legal or otherwise. Nor do I see why local school and other governments should be forced to waste resources made necessary by the failure of the federal government to control US borders and allow aliens from cultures so alien that they have no interest in ever becoming part of the US mainstream culture.
Another interesting type of diversity propaganda is finding somebody in an ethnic or racial group who has succeeded like tens of thousands of others not in that culture and somehow then proclaiming the wonders of diversity as a result. It is a bit like saying that finding one gold ingot in a pile of rocks means those rocks are also obviously all golden.
And, Hillary lost because she was personally disagreeable in the minds of many who heard her screeching speeches, and her organization ran a mediocre campaign that did not take into consideration the president was selected by a the electoral college which has been a known institution for over 200 years. I listened to Hillary talking to Charlie Rose in a conversational tone. Her ideas and persona seemed totally better than her effect as a public speaker. She had multiple problems for somebody running an actual national campaign. She should have stomped Trump into the ground, but completely screwed up her own election chances. She did not have to be attacked by the Russians to lose the election, but obviously that and FBI Coomey had some measurable impact.
Wiken …. It’s inwardly delusional to say USA isn’t an immigrant nation. May the ghosts of Roger’s ancestors disrupt your sleep for ten haunted nights until your anguish is unbearable. Those who proclaim themselves not to hate , yet wish others ill will are harboring unbearable guilt. Everything else you said after that wasn’t worth reading; and I didn’t. Bless your tortured soul.
As blog owner and commenter, I find that Wiken’s comments are terribly “mediocre.
He’s no Sam Hurst, Sam can put logic and intelligence into his reading of history.
Porter, keep on pushing your nonsense and misreading and Democrats will reap the world wind and minorities paying attention to diversity propaganda will fail in the real world.
The US was necessarily an immigrant nation when the population was near zero in much of it. It is no longer an immigrant nation and no longer needs immigrants..legal or otherwise.
No one is forcing Doug to learn another language, which seems to undermine his “learn the language” argument. Meanwhile, an anecdote about learning Spanish – We have a good friend of Mexican ancestry who was born and raised in the USA. Her grandparents spoke only Spanish and she grew up speaking both English and Spanish. When she learned that I was studying Spanish, she said she really liked the fact that this endeavor showed great respect for her culture.
Wow, and now Doug says the USA doesn’t “need” people if they happen to have been born outside the USA? When does the value of other human beings become so diminished in your mind that you are willing to assert that they are not needed? Showing respect for other cultures is not a character flaw, and might even help rebuild some lost empathy and help dissipate whatever fear or anger one might be experiencing about our fellow human beings.
Hear, hear BCB. Bullies must be confronted.
BCB, not to make light of your post, but I’d go out of my way to beat the snot out of any and all Drumpf pinatas I could find. Pinata snot beating is a Mexican custom I could really enjoy if my rotator cuffs and labrums would cooperate. :)
I am terribly shocked and disappointed the notion that US is not a land of Immigrant is to deny oneself of her/his heritage. Except for Native Americans, how long should we deny their existence as the Landowners of this Land. Once we start to acknowledge that we all except for Native Americans came from various parts of the world to seek a better way of living. If we continue to deny the Native Americans as the rightful owners of this land, we will never develop respect towards people who are of different cultures, Religions etc.
I have one request, please keep your comments clean, thanks.
In all reality, even the Native Americans had migrated here. They did not evolve separate from the rest of humanity, on the other side of the world. They are humans too, and they are ‘immigrants.’
Every human on Earth is a gosh darn immigrant.
Do you still live in the house you grew up in? No? Then you migrated away from “home.”
Mr. Adam, I read you and understand and agree, but there are people who think that a supernatural being created people, and there are people who think that the American Indians climbed out of Wind Cave from the bowels of the earth, and there are people who think that aliens populated the earth by transporting laboratory specimens from some far-flung cosmic pet impoundment. I think the issue at hand would be the recency of the immigration, not if it’s my great grandpappy vs. Mr. C’s caveman era superpappy, or somebody else’s pa who came over from Europe just 20 years ago. It’s all a simple matter of time and perspective. I think that is what you are saying, sir, and I agree with you.
Mr. Wiken has his opinion. I disagree with them completely regarding immigrants and his lack of understanding his own heritage of taking lands that were not his to take because of some back door thievery done in the name of progress. What scares the hell out of white folks here in the state is that they will loose their stolen lands to those who actually owned them by treaty rights. Instead of working together to understand what his immigrant family did, most want to ignore that little fact while belittling the actual first owners. Good trick, but everyone knows the game.
If the time and generation of people who immigrated was the issue, then I’d like to think that all the anti-immigrant semtimate should be built on defining how long ago the immigration should have took place in order to determine the moral justification for any one American living here and obtaining citizenship.
Too bad anti-immigrators don’t have any sort of conversation like that in order to flush out their idea of right and wrong.
Wiken continues to amuse. He claims immigrants are no longer needed in his mythical country.
Cities around the country, including Sioux Falls, are crying out for more immigrant labor because of severe labor shortages.
I pointed out earlier in this post that major corporate owners are asking Trump to tone down his immigrant deportation ideas for the sake of the U.S. economy. The deportation of 11 or 12 million is fat talk that would cripple the U.S. workforce and economy.
It has always been contention that if the immigrant labor forces boycotted for a month they could inflict a pain that would hurt every U.S. citizens pocketbook
It’s a fools errand to try to protect jobs; yet it’s imperative to protect workers.
Richard Baldwin explains:
http://qz.com/854257/brace-yourself-the-most-disruptive-phase-of-globalization-is-just-beginning/
Wiken is no anti-immigrationist. Wiken’s posts and sentiments for years have defined who he really is. He’s a white supremacist. He’s a bully and he’s a pathological narcissist with self destructive tendencies. He lives on land stolen from Indian tribes and is ripe for the picking. As Jerry points out, “He will lose his stolen land to those who actually own it by treaty rights” and we will laugh and rejoice at the justice. Sleep well, Dougie.
Yes John, even surgical procedures are presently being done robotic-ally right here in South Dakota. Avera, Regional Health in Rapid City and this from Sanford
“With robotic technology, surgeons are able to operate with greater precision and control than ever before. From gynecology and urology to heart surgery, even the most complex and delicate procedures can be performed with a minimally invasive approach. Expect more choices. Experience exceptional results, including greater comfort, less scarring, shorter recovery time and a faster-than-ever return to the life you love. Contact your physician to learn if robotic-assisted surgery is right for you.”
So even professional services like surgeons and attorney’s are being replaced by robots. Adidas is now making shoes with robots to take away sweat shop jobs in Asia. When there is no work for anyone, then there are real problems. Look at reservations or to Appalachia or to Eastern Europe and Russia. Drug addition, mental health the whole spectrum of misery.
There are solutions, but those take investment. Climate change has taken many of the jobs and climate change can bring them back with an infrastructure that allows for that employment.
Name calling is a measure of the emptiness of your arguments and assignment of motives when you are clueless about them.
Those aren’t names. Those are adjectives.
The more Wiken comments, the more he sounds like a self-righteous republican.
Now Porter wants to redefine adjectives and nouns in the interest of his feeble arguments.” He’s a white supremacist. He’s a bully and he’s a pathological narcissist with self destructive tendencies.”
Adam, FYI – Russians are extremely racist kin the white supremacists tradition. Russian influence and Comey interference were the PROCESSES by which the Trump won – not the REASON – not what his APPEAL was.
Doug Wiken – your beliefs about who most of us are is informed chiefly by those with whom you are proximate. I lived for 6 years in a census block in the San Fernando valley of California where 78% of the residents were foreign born, Jamaican, Filipino, Greek, Mexican, Colombian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Polish, Salvadoran; the list gores on and on as to where they came from. Those are only the variety of people who lived on the same city block I lived on. That census block was comprised of approximately the same number of people who inhabit Aberdeen. Now maybe where you live there are no more immigrants. That is NOT the case of the entirety of the country. In fact, the US currently has the highest percentage of immigrants in its population since 1924. There are 41.5 MILLION immigrants currently living in the US. Just not where YOU live.
US has highest percentage of immigrants in 93 years.
The United States has returned to its melting-pot glory days — it is now home to 41.3 million legal and illegal immigrants, the highest percentage in 93 years, according to a new report released Thursday.
http://nypost.com/2014/09/26/us-has-highest-percentage-of-immigrants-in-93-years/
U.S. immigrant population projected to rise, even as share falls among Hispanics, Asians.
The nation’s foreign-born population is projected to reach 78 million by 2060, making up 18.8% of the total U.S. population, according to new Census Bureau population projections. That would be a new record for the foreign-born share, with the bureau projecting that the previous record high of 14.8% in 1890 will be passed as soon as 2025.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/03/09/u-s-immigrant-population-projected-to-rise-even-as-share-falls-among-hispanics-asians/
Great stats, Mr. Schriever. Our new melting pot, much to the dismay and hair pulling out of D. Wiken, is more of a salad than a stew. Immigrants are encouraged to retain, remember and teach the customs and cultures of where they came from. Wiken’s idea that they must all do this and all do that, because three generations ago that’s what was done shows a lack of assimilation on HIS part. Perhaps a few mandatory training/re-education sessions for the bloggster Wiken would make USA an even better place. Hmmmmm?
Richard, I can easily accept what you say about the process vs. the reason, but I do tend to very deeply believe that Liberal morals have allowed the perfect to become the enemy of the good – and have kept Democrats from participating in certain processes which keep them such a minority in rural America.
I say, “If Democrats talked the same language as Republicans, rural people would understand them better – and thereby naturally prefer a two-party system.” I know it’s a very vague statement, but it would take me a fair amount of time to elaborate. I know anyone can say things like this while sitting in an armchair from a distance, but when we recognize that conservatives need us to mouth words like, “I believe in a limited government,” and,” I just think the taxes should be kept as low as possible,” then sometimes we have to be willing to do that – even though we might feel it dumbs down the whole concept of why government exist.
In many ways, the ‘reason’ is us letting the ‘perfect be the enemy of the good’ by not participating in the simple processes that are necessary to communicate with voters.
Donald Trump just mouthed the right words, and that’s it. He’s never done a darn thing to prove that he can do a darn thing as President. He thought of mouthing those words as just simply part of the process… And it thereby became the reason.
Disturbing … another promising topic derailed and reduced to the lowest common denominator.
I find it both amusing and disturbing that there is such loud support for senseless, expensive ethnic and racial diversity and nearly zero tolerance for diverse opinion here. “Liberal” ideological and intellectual arrogance may be factors that aided Trump’s election. That may turn out to be the greatest social cost of that arrogance and anti-diversity when it comes to ideas and information contrary to politically correct cant.
What camp do you find yourself in Mr. Wiken? You say “liberal” ideological and intellectual arrogance factored and aided Trump’s election, where are you in all of this? How to define you in other words.
Adam, I understand the impulse to “talk the same language as Republicans,” but I will caution that that tactic could lead us to the Bud Light trap: if we define ourselves as mostly like Republicans, just a little less filling, people won’t see a meaningful difference between us, and South Dakotans will keep defaulting to R. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do what you’re saying; that’s just a caution.
I spoke Spanish at a few doors in Aberdeen this year. I’m pretty sure I got their votes. We should require every high school graduate to demonstrate some skill in a second language.
I really see it as more of a continually affirmed >10 year study of rural politics – not so much an impulse.
It’s a losing venture to try and sell chocolate to people who only eat vanilla, or teach 12 grade material to 5th graders. Those two things are what Dems have been trying to do in SD for far too long.
No offense taken.
Mr. Wiken, What is the difference between anti-diversity and white supremacy? You being white, your call for anti-diversity is obviously aimed at anyone “not white”. Aren’t anti-diversity and white supremacy the same thing?
Also, equating the equal treatment and tolerance of non-white and non-English speaking humans with the lack of total tolerance for your personal opinion is a false equivalency. The basic humanity deserved by certain people you don’t like and a lack of tolerance for an opinion I don’t like are too far apart to be equated.
above cite http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-bolton-trump-state-department_us_584c6b3be4b0e05aded43d0e
Approximately 55 percent of eligible voters went to the polls, down from both 2008 (61.6 percent) and 2012 (58.6 percent). Trump, then, actually received around 25 percent of eligible votes….The vast majority of the Trump vote was the Republican base. These are the voters who have long adamantly opposed the Obama agenda from a staunchly right-wing perspective and, for that matter, oppose almost all progressive causes. In various opinion polls what is notable is that for this segment of the electorate, terrorism and immigration are a top concern. It is also worth noting that, at least during the primaries, Trump’s base had a median income above both the national median and the median for both Sanders and Clinton voters.
So, while it is true that Trump received 14 percent more votes from white people with less than a college education than did Romney, and 10 percent fewer from whites with a college degree, Trump voters were not mainly poor and unemployed….there was no massive defection of white working class voters to Trump. In fact, Clinton won the majority of voters earning under $30,000 (53 percent to 41 percent) and voters under $50,000 (51 percent to 42 percent)….Trump voters as a whole were overwhelmingly white, and herein lies the discussion that truly needs to happen.
Trump’s real triumph was his ability to shift Republican politics to straight racism, misogyny and xenophobia with a potent authoritarian tone, yet still create a winning voting coalition—time will tell how stable—that brought together the core Republican electorate, including right-wing evangelicals, as well as some disaffected former Democratic voters.
blacks, Latinos, Asians, unmarried women, young voters, union households—the core of the Obama Coalition—all voted for Clinton, but in somewhat smaller percentages than they had voted for Obama in 2012. The black Democratic vote fell from 93 percent in 2012 to 88 percent, including only 80 percent of black men. The Democrats’ winning percentage among Latinos fell from 73 percent to 65 percent (although a poll conducted by Latino Decisions concluded the real number was 79 percent for Clinton.*); Asians from 76 percent for Obama to 65 percent for Clinton (another poll says 75 percent); unmarried women from 67 percent to 62 percent; young voters’ Democratic support declined by 5 percent; and union households fell to 51 percent from 58 percent. The only strongly progressive voter group that increased its vote for Clinton, according to the national exit poll, were lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender folk. And the hoped for surge of Latino voter participation apparently did not materialize….November 8th was a revolt by 58 percent of white voters. It was a revolt spearheaded by a significant, but not very large, segment of the electorate that had been energized by the appeal of white nationalism and right-wing populism. The nature of the appeal is the call for a return to the past; actually the return to a mythical past, in the face of a complex and changing world.
November 8th also represented a slight but electorally crucial demobilization of an important segment of the so-called Obama Coalition, partly by multiple efforts at voter suppression, e.g., the elimination of polling locations in the South, and the removal of voters from registration rolls….the deeper and darker feature to right-wing populism in general and Trump specifically is that what neoliberal globalization has done has been to limit and capture the world’s resources and place them in the hands of the global elite.
To the extent to which these resources are not available for the billions of souls on this planet there is an immediate question: how should one divide up what is left over? The answer provided by right-wing populism is found in identifying so-called legitimate and illegitimate populations. The allegedly legitimate populations should have access to Medicare, education grants, and the like (at least until Congressman Paul Ryan gets his hands on them), and the so-called illegitimate or undeserving populations should be cordoned off, jailed, or excluded entirely from society. This is what one could call either “global apartheid” or the genocidal impulse that exists within capitalism generally and right-wing populism in particular.
…the Movement for Black Lives, largely [is] in response to the police killings of unarmed African Americans. This movement shook the U.S., and Trump took advantage of it in order to play to the deep-seated fear within white America of a supposedly ever-present threat of black violence.
…accurate analysis of the election is essential in order to develop longer-term strategy. Our suggestions are as follows:
1. The top of our agenda must be to defeat Trump and Trumpism. We need to make him a one-term president, and build the forces over a longer period of time to decisively defeat the far right in all branches of the federal government, most states, and in workplaces, neighborhoods, and the streets. Defending communities that Trump attacks and building progressive power are crucial to defending our peoples and defeating Trump. But, barring extreme circumstances, he will ultimately need to be taken down at the polls.
2. Even with the technical defeat of Clinton, what is clear is that there is a “new majority” inexorably coming into existence. This progressive new majority crosses racial and ethnic boundaries and needs to be galvanized into a major force in the streets, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods—and in the Democratic Party and elections.
http://www.salon.com/2016/12/09/fighting-back-against-the-trumps-angry-white-voters_partner/
I am still very puzzled by the xenophobic idea that the Country where an individual is born (in which he or she obviously has no choice) is a valid factor in determining the value or desirability of that individual. It would seem that place of birth outweighs age, education, religion, political beliefs, talent, compassion, and all other factors that might actually have a rational connection with predicting an individual’s future behavior.
There seem to be some inescapable comparisons of racism and xenophobia, such as:
– Judgment of the value of a person based on a factor over which that person had no control and cannot change (skin color or place of birth);
– Using either factor to make broad stereotypes and generalizations about individual people who are, in fact, each quite different from each other; and
– Using either factor to diminish humans who have never done anything to deserve being diminished.
Here is an article describing the positive health and intellectual benefits from learning a second language, including diminishing the chance of dementia as we grow older and making more money during our careers.
http://www.salon.com/2016/12/13/speak-something-new-learning-a-new-language-can-give-new-insight-improve-tolerance_partner/?source=newsletter
Adam, you put the sales question in interesting teaching terms… although I’m sure that if I engage the analogy to 5th/12th-grade reading level, my response will show up in future Novstrup attack ads claiming that I view South Dakota voters as ignorant children whom I need to educate.
So let me focus on picking apart the chocolate/vanilla analogy: we’re not talking about mere taste. We’re talking about veggies versus crap sandwiches. I can’t say, “Hey, the meal I’m offering is just like what you’re used to, just with a little more Vitamin C.” I have to be honest: “Don’t eat any more crap sandwiches! They’re bad for you! Eat some veggies!”
The closest I can come to speaking the language Republicans are familiar with is to ask voters to distinguish between the veggies (family values, fiscal responsibility, liberty) Republicans put on the menu and the crap sandwiches (wages too low to raise a family, wasteful spending and corruption, police state and less educational and economic opportunity) they actually serve when in office. We Democrats actually serve what voters say they want.
The Hill runs this essay from a Detroit commentator who skips balancing act and lets angry white voters have it:
The right-wing blogosphere goes predictably bonkers, saying the essay shows that urban elites (hey, one guy wrote the essay) hate real Americans.
I’d like to see an ad, starring Cory, where he is hooked up to a lie detector and being questioned by an expert.
Question #1: do you believe in having a limited government?
Question #2: do you think we should try to keep taxes as low as possible?
Question #3: do you think it is important to prevent regulations fromt killing economic development?
When Cory answers all 3 questions the exact same way a conservative would, the viewer witnesses absolute proof that this Democrat is telling the truth about how he shares their deepest, most intimate thoughts and feelings.
Absolutely no one believes in an “unlimited” government, or that taxes should be so high that they are hard to pay, or that regulations should choke economic development.
Those are the magic keywords that rural people identify with the most. I also identify with those just fine too.
Adam, I like the imagery there. How much does it cost to hire a lie-detection expert for an hour of shooting an ad like that?
I have no idea – never worked with those folks before – but I think you’d need a retired person with a police background. They used those people on the Jerry Springer Show all the time. They’re out there. =)