President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

It doesn't matter. I'm fine with it. I think I've been clear.

What I am writing is: Most working class Americans did not sign up for what's happened to their America they think they grew up in. The world is better now than it was in the 1980s in many ways, but it doesn't feel that way to them - for a variety of reasons, one of which is right-wing media tells them, unceasingly, that it isn't.

I'm not excusing it so much as I'm writing: Hey, look, the world is better for women today than it was in the 1980s, too. But there are plenty of women who think, for various reasons, all of their gains are at risk. "The Handmaid's Tale" mantra is back, which, given our culture, is kind of laughable - we're less fundamentalist Christian and more pluralistic than we've been maybe ever.

Working class Americans aren't much different. And now they have Trump - a champion for their narrative - as president. I think - heck I know - he's going to betray them six ways to Sunday, but they like what they heard from the guy.

I don't like what I heard, and neither do you. But I also don't like what I've heard - for years - from the Democratic Party, either. It's become an elitest social agenda party where working class voters are not wanted or needed unless they're willing to check off a bunch of social agenda boxes. Shunning and shaming Trump had no effect on these voters - because they felt shunned and shamed. Whether they should have or not, they did, and they moved to the party that would take them, guns and traditional views on marriage and all.

It's true on a national level, but it's worse on some local levels. It's rough there.

 

It's not a good time to be a self-professed liberal around where I live. I have seen countless posts on FB calling down people for their political views, and some of them are angry and not in the least subtle in their disapproval and ill wishes. I have a FB friend who is a climate scientist and teaches at a major Southern university, who has expressed well reasoned and scientifically accurate views with regard to what is happening with the weather. I find that I am hesitant to share his posts, certainly without asking him, because of the possible blowback against him at work through social media.

I suppose that is partly out of courtesy to him, part caution, but certainly part of it is fear that I would inadvertently damage his career prospects to make a point on FB. I don't know that I've ever muzzled myself out of fear in that way before.

 

Because Vlad doesn't want people to respect others or the press to be a watchdog instead of a lapdog.

 

Out here in the walking-around world, yes. But your average state legislature, much less Congress, is stuffed full of Elmer Gantrys just itching to tell everyone else what to do with their lives.

 

They don't even have fiber internet; these stupid bigots.

 

I'm really upset about what ... Patrick Nathan? ... tweeted.

 

Near the Old Executive Office Building last week:

 

I demand YF include a "who the hell this is guy is" section when he posts these random tweets.

 

From what I can gather, Mr. Nathan is a Minneapolis-based budding writer whose debut novel is set to be published in 2018.

So no less than this era's F. Scott Fitzgerald, basically.

 

I'm waiting for the "I like mothers who don't have to choose which of their two kids to save" tweet.