The column makes the opposite point -- saying that Trump voters are both nice and ordinary people. Even the part you excerpted here is reiterating that point -- Trump voters are not monsters. The column makes the noncontroversial argument that Trump voters understand his character, and they like it.
What if there are no real insights to be had about GOP voters? There is no longer any justifiable rationalization that stands up against the clear and present danger that another Trump administration presents. Zero, zilch, nada. 👎
Re immigration..so Vance wants to replace immigrants by forcing women to have babies at all cost whether it is a good decision for the mother or not? Is it just an economic strategy to him. Forced motherhood to produce many laborers, so we can put money in the pockets of the wealthy. Is that the full story line?
It’s so paradoxical that Trump’s latest wife is an immigrant who came in on a dubious Einstein Visa and subsequently brought her parents over in a chain migration, and that Vance’s wife is the daughter of immigrants and a practicing Hindu. I’m exhausted by these guys.
She apparently had a ‘fraud marriage’ in order to emigrate to Canada before she married Trump. I think it’s accurate to say the Trump family is a family of immigrants!
There was a man at the Univision town hall that said he’d spent his life earning a living picking strawberries and harvesting broccoli. He asked the demented psychopath what effect deporting millions of immigrants would have on the price of food. Clearly this man has a better grasp on economics than Trump does.
Between that and the 60% tariffs he proposes on imports from China and 10 to 20% on other imports you’d think Walmart, Amazon and many other retailers would be doing whatever they could to prevent his election. I’m guessing his supporters are cool with paying extra because Trump hates the right people. If they can’t be bothered to let simple economics penetrate their cognitive dissonance and make the effort to recall how “well” he “handled” Covid then it’s probably too much to ask them to accept responsibility for putting him back in the WH.
I remain, as the cliché goes, cautiously optimistic we’ll do the right thing and allow him to stand his trials and likely to sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest at Mar a Lago. 🤞 🙏
Will wrote: "They know Trump is vulgar and mean, racist and misogynist, a bully with dictatorial dreams. He is crude and cruel, and they embrace that. They want more of it."
This is the conundrum I’ve yet to resolve over the past ten years. I believe we all have much more in common than what divides us. Yet, half the country seems to support the observably-corrupt and traitorous Trump. His supporters cite two primary reasons: one, they like his policies. And two, a dislike of Democrats, and for many, even hate.
The conundrum for me is this explanation fails to explain Trump supporters’ willingness to condone (and for some, enthusiastically support) his threats of political violence and use of actual violence as a political tactic, his observable corruption and lies, and his baseless denial of free and fair election results. Why not support the many other Republican candidates in 2016 and 2024 who have very similar policies and share an equally-strong dislike of Democrats, but who didn’t advocate Trump’s extreme "Trumpism"? Why reject our traditional values of democracy, free and fair elections, and peaceful political discourse?
In stressful and unstable times, it’s true that many people gravitate to autocratic populists as a refuge. But in doing so, why reject our institutional norms? Norms that used to unite us. I don’t think I’ll ever understand what drives Republicans’ violent extremism.
They do it because the one thing Trump excels at is being a con man. The best there ever was. He throws out so much bait of all different kinds, and once you take it, you are reeled in before you even know what’s happening and then you become impervious to any narrative that doesn’t fit his. It’s almost like Stockholm Syndrome.
“In stressful and unstable times, it’s true that many people gravitate to autocratic populists as a refuge.”
That points out one of the major things I don’t understand. I realize there are people in this country who are having hard times. But, by and large, I’m not seeing apples being sold on street corners and many people driving big, shiny trucks.
Despite Trump’s description of the country as a garbage can it doesn’t look all that bad to me. If the people who support him think right now is dystopian, I hope they never have to face what Ukrainians or Gazans are going through.
Congratulations to him on unleashing everyone’s inner narcissist.
I'm pretty appalled that half the country is game to vote for a rapist. No matter how good they think his policies are, that should take him off the table. I'm sure they are in denial (or some pretend to be) that he is a sexual predator, but the evidence is overwhelming on that one...
Many prominent area businesses would be thrilled to employ soon to be Americans with proper documentation and every town could use new families to boost local population, economies, and school districts.
I suspect Warren County is still under an “Emergency” declaration by the BOS Chair to prevent migrants from being brought here.
On the bright side Adirondack Welcome Circle has sponsored 2 Ukrainian families who are becoming part of our community and (fingers crossed) a Rohingya family is on the way. Because the immigrant support networks tend to be siloed a relatively new group Adirondack Regional Immigration Coalition has formed to create a regional support network for diverse groups supporting immigrants. Good things are happening!
While conservatives complain about NY tax structure “driving people out of state” there is much contrary evidence to the dire narrative. Yes, we have an aging population and many people move south in retirement and many young people move because - young people like to see the world. But NYers live in the same town on average longer than people in all or nearly all other states. Despite our taxes being very slightly higher on average than many states we have the highest per capita GDP, among the highest per capita incomes, etc etc.
Our elderly can afford to move because we are economically better off. People in many low tax states can’t afford to move in retirement.
And despite locals warning that we are losing population Warren County is not. Saratoga County is growing. Granted, the smaller “upcounty” towns in Warren county, the very ones that want to increase the sales tax, complain about the state, are in general nabobs of negativity, are having a harder time. But not Queensbury and Glens Falls where the population is growing at a rate faster than those (apparently) poorly represented communities are depleting. If only we could eliminate the Supervisor system of county government and replace it with a county legislature we could bring better ideas into those communities.
Mike how would the elimination of the Supervisor system of county government and replacing it with a county legislature system bring forth better ideas?
The supervisor system often puts town supervisors in conflict with their duties as county supervisors. They are elected and paid by their towns but also serve for the county in another paid job. There are also 9 of 20 supervisors elected solely to serve at the county but who do not receive the extra pay of a town supervisor. And the representation is inherently unequal. The supervisor of Stony Creek or Hague is elected to represent about 700 people while the supervisors in Queensbury are elected to represent about 29,000. The weighted vote system is bogus, not really creating equally weighted votes since much of the job of a county supervisor is done in committee where votes are not weighted and you can have situations where representatives of around 2,000 people can out vote representatives of about 44,000 people.
A county legislature would elect representatives from equally portioned districts with a more diverse voter base.
The bonus would be that it might create incentive to fold some of the smaller towns into large ones creating more efficiency at the town level.
A good example of a supervisor in conflict is Bolton’s Ron Conover. Bolton has a large share of the most valuable property in the county,therefore property owners who pay a lot of tax. A property assessed at $1,000,000 pays $3,290 in county property tax plus town tax and school tax. Conover likely hears fall the time from residents AND non-residents about their property tax being too high, and Conover is a big proponent of increasing the county sales tax and then reducing property tax.
But that is a terrible idea for the vast majority of residents, besides the fact that it seems wholly unnecessary to raise $25 million in revenue when the actual budget gap is $10 million and there are likely other means of reducing the shortfall.
Connover is pleased to hurt the most vulnerable county residents in order to throw a bone to wealthy Boltonites. But besides that, a property tax cut creates an incentive for out of county buyers to purchase modest homes residents could use and turn them into short term rentals.
If we has a county legislature a lot of the old guys with stale ideas would have to compete with each other and younger people who aren’t living in the 70’s for elected office. That would help diversify our set of representatives.
I think Trump voters overall fall into three camps. Those who embrace and celebrate his meanness and bigotry; those who make excuses for it in the name of lower taxes, or less regulation, etc; and those like my childhood friend who have been essentially brainwashed into believing he is the answer even while they recognize his flaws. The middle group is the only one that you can have a rational conversation with about issues.
Your third category doesn't make sense to me (perhaps that is the nature of that group). But I'm skeptical. If they recognize his flaws, how can they be brainwashed? My sad conclusion: They pay lip service to "recognizing his flaws," but secretly enjoy his flaws. If there is one thing remarkable and outstanding about Trump, it is what a bad, flawed person he is. It's impossible to say you like him despite his flaws, because flaws are all there is.
Well, I was thinking about my friend, who while always a little more conservative than me, was a good, kind, tolerant person. Then she started taking care of her elderly mom who was not only more conservative and a longtime Fox news viewer, but who had the talk radio on all day too. My friend said at first she just dismissed it, but she said as she listened more and more it all started making sense to her. Which to me was obviously when sense stopped having any meaning for her at all, but there is no reaching across the tautological barricades the right wing media throws up. “The liberal far left radical Democrats are destroying America!” But dear friend, here are 50 examples of things which prove that is not true. “Fake news and lies which prove just how far they’ll go to destroy America!” To her, Trump may be crude and vulgar, but she sees him as the only man for the job she thinks needs to be done. If something doesn’t fit that narrative, it must be false. How do you know it’s false? It doesn’t fit the narrative! MAGA is seamlessly impervious to facts.
That’s why I think for a lot of people it is a form of brainwashing. Like a cult. People will say things and believe things and do things while in a cult that they would ordinarily never do.
The LATimes, owned by a bio-tech baron, also declined to endorse a candidate,which could be construed as a passive Trump endorsement since Kamala Harris is a Californian. I am disappointed by the local press where Chronicle editor Mark Frost insinuates that were Kamala Harris to lose the election her supporters too would not accept the results and could possibly stage an insurrection. Those comments smack of red baiting. Where is the integrity today?
What a truly dumb commentary that was by Frost. Where is the evidence for his alleged worry that Democrats will attempt to overturn the election by illegal means. Democrats have legally disputed elections in the past, as Trump's crew legally disputed the 2020 election. But Trump's crew also sought to overturn the 2020 election illegally. Democrats have not done that in the past, and, although they participate in disputes in court, legal protests, etc. this time, if they lose, they will not use the subversive, anti-democratic and illegal means that Trump and various Republican operatives did in 2020 and 2021.
True. If there ever was a time Democrats would have stormed the halls of an American institution, it would have been after the U.S. Supreme Court turned decades of legal precedence on its head and overturned Roe v. Wade. All pro-choice advocates did was peacefully protest.
There was also the supreme court (sic) decision led by Scalia that truncated Florida's ballot recount and gave the White House to Dubya. Just think of that awful administration.
After the election of 2016 women knitted pink pussycat hats and protested Trump’s election. Maybe that gave Frost nightmares. Probably not as bad as the PTSD suffered by Capitol police in the wake of January 6.
Thank you again, Will. You and Ken have been truth tellers, very articulate in naming what we are experiencing. That repeated script of grievance by good poor people echoes trump's repeated "grievance" script--all "their fault." The reality is that many of Trump's supporters are good people who would help neighbors if their house burned or if they needed food, but many poor people would never support Trump nor did they make up the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. The difference, I believe, is those who support him are mesmerized by Fox and social media; many of the men are white and feel they are losing to women and people of color and are aggrieved at their loss of "privilege"; and many in our culture are willfully ignorant, choosing "righteous" anger over understanding. In Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin was in a debate with a very wealthy Republican challenger. They, in a state of farmers, were asked about the farm bill. The challenger said he knew nothing about it but when he won as Senator he would learn. Tammy spoke about all the provisions in the bill. For the first time in Wisconsin the Farm Bureau endorsed a Democrat. The issue is really knowing and understanding and seeing- the truth-rather than blaming and hating. The issue is the power of money--look at Elon Musk--misinformation rousing fear and hatred. And look at the wealthy buying up property here and NYC and everywhere --the gentrificaton--so that regular people like teachers, nurses, fireman cannot afford to live. And think: who and what is really to blame and who can try to make our lives better.
It seems there is no obstacle acknowledged as valid to the making of money, as long as it's possible and, perhaps, legal -- not destruction of environment or community or human life.
To think that we're so close to the end of this election cycle and CNN keeps insisting that the race is 50/50. I am thinking 80/20 for Harris, when the dust settles. We need to keep going as a beacon of democracy, justice and hope for the rest of the world.
the wapo’s craven rationale for not endorsing any presidential candidate crumbles in the face of its endorsements of candidates for other offices. and, by the way, although the watergate reporting by woodward and bernstein greatly embellished the post’s reputation, it was by then already katharine graham’s paper. she had bravely decided to report on the pentagon papers, even though doing so jeopardized the post’s economic future.
Agree that Trumpies, urban or rural, know very well what/whom they are supporting. The ignorance, cruelty, dishonesty, criminality, and obsession with personal power are worth it because the Orange Devil promises protection. He will keep our neighborhoods White and Christian - "real Americans." He will keep uppity women in their places. "So what" (his Jan. 6 words) if the price is demolition of our Republic?
One of the worst, weird aspects of our culture has been the rise in unjustified fear -- the feeling that the outside world is a dangerous place, regardless of the evidence of our senses. This was happening before Trump. I used to argue with people that the country had become a much safer place -- especially New York City -- in the 2000's than it had been a few decades earlier, in the 1970s and '80s, when many of us were growing up without much in the way of guardrails. But the fear persisted.
The column makes the opposite point -- saying that Trump voters are both nice and ordinary people. Even the part you excerpted here is reiterating that point -- Trump voters are not monsters. The column makes the noncontroversial argument that Trump voters understand his character, and they like it.
What if there are no real insights to be had about GOP voters? There is no longer any justifiable rationalization that stands up against the clear and present danger that another Trump administration presents. Zero, zilch, nada. 👎
Re immigration..so Vance wants to replace immigrants by forcing women to have babies at all cost whether it is a good decision for the mother or not? Is it just an economic strategy to him. Forced motherhood to produce many laborers, so we can put money in the pockets of the wealthy. Is that the full story line?
When you put it that way…It would seem so!
Yep.
Can anyone say "The Handmaids Tale."
It’s so paradoxical that Trump’s latest wife is an immigrant who came in on a dubious Einstein Visa and subsequently brought her parents over in a chain migration, and that Vance’s wife is the daughter of immigrants and a practicing Hindu. I’m exhausted by these guys.
Trump’s grandfather was a draft dodger who got booted out of Germany as well.
They didn’t send their best. 😉
Trump's mother was an immigrant from Scotland. Her first language was Gaelic.
I have a soft spot for the Scottish. Many of the founders were tutored in Enlightenment principles by them.
Of course, that may not apply to Mary MacLeod. YMMV!
Ivana was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia. Trump came under Soviet interest when The Donald and Ivana became a couple and married.
She apparently had a ‘fraud marriage’ in order to emigrate to Canada before she married Trump. I think it’s accurate to say the Trump family is a family of immigrants!
There was a man at the Univision town hall that said he’d spent his life earning a living picking strawberries and harvesting broccoli. He asked the demented psychopath what effect deporting millions of immigrants would have on the price of food. Clearly this man has a better grasp on economics than Trump does.
Between that and the 60% tariffs he proposes on imports from China and 10 to 20% on other imports you’d think Walmart, Amazon and many other retailers would be doing whatever they could to prevent his election. I’m guessing his supporters are cool with paying extra because Trump hates the right people. If they can’t be bothered to let simple economics penetrate their cognitive dissonance and make the effort to recall how “well” he “handled” Covid then it’s probably too much to ask them to accept responsibility for putting him back in the WH.
I remain, as the cliché goes, cautiously optimistic we’ll do the right thing and allow him to stand his trials and likely to sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest at Mar a Lago. 🤞 🙏
Will wrote: "They know Trump is vulgar and mean, racist and misogynist, a bully with dictatorial dreams. He is crude and cruel, and they embrace that. They want more of it."
This is the conundrum I’ve yet to resolve over the past ten years. I believe we all have much more in common than what divides us. Yet, half the country seems to support the observably-corrupt and traitorous Trump. His supporters cite two primary reasons: one, they like his policies. And two, a dislike of Democrats, and for many, even hate.
The conundrum for me is this explanation fails to explain Trump supporters’ willingness to condone (and for some, enthusiastically support) his threats of political violence and use of actual violence as a political tactic, his observable corruption and lies, and his baseless denial of free and fair election results. Why not support the many other Republican candidates in 2016 and 2024 who have very similar policies and share an equally-strong dislike of Democrats, but who didn’t advocate Trump’s extreme "Trumpism"? Why reject our traditional values of democracy, free and fair elections, and peaceful political discourse?
In stressful and unstable times, it’s true that many people gravitate to autocratic populists as a refuge. But in doing so, why reject our institutional norms? Norms that used to unite us. I don’t think I’ll ever understand what drives Republicans’ violent extremism.
They do it because the one thing Trump excels at is being a con man. The best there ever was. He throws out so much bait of all different kinds, and once you take it, you are reeled in before you even know what’s happening and then you become impervious to any narrative that doesn’t fit his. It’s almost like Stockholm Syndrome.
“In stressful and unstable times, it’s true that many people gravitate to autocratic populists as a refuge.”
That points out one of the major things I don’t understand. I realize there are people in this country who are having hard times. But, by and large, I’m not seeing apples being sold on street corners and many people driving big, shiny trucks.
Despite Trump’s description of the country as a garbage can it doesn’t look all that bad to me. If the people who support him think right now is dystopian, I hope they never have to face what Ukrainians or Gazans are going through.
Congratulations to him on unleashing everyone’s inner narcissist.
And why do people hate Democrats so much. They seem reasonable to me.
I'm pretty appalled that half the country is game to vote for a rapist. No matter how good they think his policies are, that should take him off the table. I'm sure they are in denial (or some pretend to be) that he is a sexual predator, but the evidence is overwhelming on that one...
Enjoy.
https://youtu.be/QP6rDE5Vm94?si=nnHOE0LZrzBOgh0P
Kathleen Moore (former PS, TU) wrote about migrant children refilling the Albany school district, their parents now legal to work are (likely) helping fill positions in businesses that complain of the difficulty of finding workers. https://www.timesunion.com/education/article/migrant-children-among-surge-new-english-learners-19846382.php
Many prominent area businesses would be thrilled to employ soon to be Americans with proper documentation and every town could use new families to boost local population, economies, and school districts.
I suspect Warren County is still under an “Emergency” declaration by the BOS Chair to prevent migrants from being brought here.
On the bright side Adirondack Welcome Circle has sponsored 2 Ukrainian families who are becoming part of our community and (fingers crossed) a Rohingya family is on the way. Because the immigrant support networks tend to be siloed a relatively new group Adirondack Regional Immigration Coalition has formed to create a regional support network for diverse groups supporting immigrants. Good things are happening!
While conservatives complain about NY tax structure “driving people out of state” there is much contrary evidence to the dire narrative. Yes, we have an aging population and many people move south in retirement and many young people move because - young people like to see the world. But NYers live in the same town on average longer than people in all or nearly all other states. Despite our taxes being very slightly higher on average than many states we have the highest per capita GDP, among the highest per capita incomes, etc etc.
Our elderly can afford to move because we are economically better off. People in many low tax states can’t afford to move in retirement.
And despite locals warning that we are losing population Warren County is not. Saratoga County is growing. Granted, the smaller “upcounty” towns in Warren county, the very ones that want to increase the sales tax, complain about the state, are in general nabobs of negativity, are having a harder time. But not Queensbury and Glens Falls where the population is growing at a rate faster than those (apparently) poorly represented communities are depleting. If only we could eliminate the Supervisor system of county government and replace it with a county legislature we could bring better ideas into those communities.
Mike how would the elimination of the Supervisor system of county government and replacing it with a county legislature system bring forth better ideas?
The supervisor system often puts town supervisors in conflict with their duties as county supervisors. They are elected and paid by their towns but also serve for the county in another paid job. There are also 9 of 20 supervisors elected solely to serve at the county but who do not receive the extra pay of a town supervisor. And the representation is inherently unequal. The supervisor of Stony Creek or Hague is elected to represent about 700 people while the supervisors in Queensbury are elected to represent about 29,000. The weighted vote system is bogus, not really creating equally weighted votes since much of the job of a county supervisor is done in committee where votes are not weighted and you can have situations where representatives of around 2,000 people can out vote representatives of about 44,000 people.
A county legislature would elect representatives from equally portioned districts with a more diverse voter base.
The bonus would be that it might create incentive to fold some of the smaller towns into large ones creating more efficiency at the town level.
A good example of a supervisor in conflict is Bolton’s Ron Conover. Bolton has a large share of the most valuable property in the county,therefore property owners who pay a lot of tax. A property assessed at $1,000,000 pays $3,290 in county property tax plus town tax and school tax. Conover likely hears fall the time from residents AND non-residents about their property tax being too high, and Conover is a big proponent of increasing the county sales tax and then reducing property tax.
But that is a terrible idea for the vast majority of residents, besides the fact that it seems wholly unnecessary to raise $25 million in revenue when the actual budget gap is $10 million and there are likely other means of reducing the shortfall.
Connover is pleased to hurt the most vulnerable county residents in order to throw a bone to wealthy Boltonites. But besides that, a property tax cut creates an incentive for out of county buyers to purchase modest homes residents could use and turn them into short term rentals.
If we has a county legislature a lot of the old guys with stale ideas would have to compete with each other and younger people who aren’t living in the 70’s for elected office. That would help diversify our set of representatives.
Still waiting for W Tucker to acknowledge that I answered the question in some detail.
I think Trump voters overall fall into three camps. Those who embrace and celebrate his meanness and bigotry; those who make excuses for it in the name of lower taxes, or less regulation, etc; and those like my childhood friend who have been essentially brainwashed into believing he is the answer even while they recognize his flaws. The middle group is the only one that you can have a rational conversation with about issues.
Your third category doesn't make sense to me (perhaps that is the nature of that group). But I'm skeptical. If they recognize his flaws, how can they be brainwashed? My sad conclusion: They pay lip service to "recognizing his flaws," but secretly enjoy his flaws. If there is one thing remarkable and outstanding about Trump, it is what a bad, flawed person he is. It's impossible to say you like him despite his flaws, because flaws are all there is.
Well, I was thinking about my friend, who while always a little more conservative than me, was a good, kind, tolerant person. Then she started taking care of her elderly mom who was not only more conservative and a longtime Fox news viewer, but who had the talk radio on all day too. My friend said at first she just dismissed it, but she said as she listened more and more it all started making sense to her. Which to me was obviously when sense stopped having any meaning for her at all, but there is no reaching across the tautological barricades the right wing media throws up. “The liberal far left radical Democrats are destroying America!” But dear friend, here are 50 examples of things which prove that is not true. “Fake news and lies which prove just how far they’ll go to destroy America!” To her, Trump may be crude and vulgar, but she sees him as the only man for the job she thinks needs to be done. If something doesn’t fit that narrative, it must be false. How do you know it’s false? It doesn’t fit the narrative! MAGA is seamlessly impervious to facts.
That’s why I think for a lot of people it is a form of brainwashing. Like a cult. People will say things and believe things and do things while in a cult that they would ordinarily never do.
The LATimes, owned by a bio-tech baron, also declined to endorse a candidate,which could be construed as a passive Trump endorsement since Kamala Harris is a Californian. I am disappointed by the local press where Chronicle editor Mark Frost insinuates that were Kamala Harris to lose the election her supporters too would not accept the results and could possibly stage an insurrection. Those comments smack of red baiting. Where is the integrity today?
What a truly dumb commentary that was by Frost. Where is the evidence for his alleged worry that Democrats will attempt to overturn the election by illegal means. Democrats have legally disputed elections in the past, as Trump's crew legally disputed the 2020 election. But Trump's crew also sought to overturn the 2020 election illegally. Democrats have not done that in the past, and, although they participate in disputes in court, legal protests, etc. this time, if they lose, they will not use the subversive, anti-democratic and illegal means that Trump and various Republican operatives did in 2020 and 2021.
True. If there ever was a time Democrats would have stormed the halls of an American institution, it would have been after the U.S. Supreme Court turned decades of legal precedence on its head and overturned Roe v. Wade. All pro-choice advocates did was peacefully protest.
Right-wingers often love their baseless attacks.
There was also the supreme court (sic) decision led by Scalia that truncated Florida's ballot recount and gave the White House to Dubya. Just think of that awful administration.
After the election of 2016 women knitted pink pussycat hats and protested Trump’s election. Maybe that gave Frost nightmares. Probably not as bad as the PTSD suffered by Capitol police in the wake of January 6.
Will, do you have a link to Mark Forst commentary?
I didn't see it on the Chronicle website. I read it in hard copy
would that be issue 2,071 Oct 24-30 article tile "What if Trump Wins?"
Page 8 , last sentence of his top left paragraph of his “The Inside Scoop” column in the free paper copy.
Susan the last sentence? "So much to pounder."
Obeying in advance is how Tim Snyder describes what WaPo and LATimes has done or the billionaires who own them have instructed them to do.
I would like to think Mark Frost knows better but maybe not.
https://snyder.substack.com/p/obeying-in-advance?utm_source=podcast-email&publication_id=310897&post_id=150757391&utm_campaign=email-play-on-substack&utm_content=watch_now_button&r=9qpud&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Maybe they would as they are being hauled away to relocation camps.
Thank you again, Will. You and Ken have been truth tellers, very articulate in naming what we are experiencing. That repeated script of grievance by good poor people echoes trump's repeated "grievance" script--all "their fault." The reality is that many of Trump's supporters are good people who would help neighbors if their house burned or if they needed food, but many poor people would never support Trump nor did they make up the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. The difference, I believe, is those who support him are mesmerized by Fox and social media; many of the men are white and feel they are losing to women and people of color and are aggrieved at their loss of "privilege"; and many in our culture are willfully ignorant, choosing "righteous" anger over understanding. In Wisconsin, Tammy Baldwin was in a debate with a very wealthy Republican challenger. They, in a state of farmers, were asked about the farm bill. The challenger said he knew nothing about it but when he won as Senator he would learn. Tammy spoke about all the provisions in the bill. For the first time in Wisconsin the Farm Bureau endorsed a Democrat. The issue is really knowing and understanding and seeing- the truth-rather than blaming and hating. The issue is the power of money--look at Elon Musk--misinformation rousing fear and hatred. And look at the wealthy buying up property here and NYC and everywhere --the gentrificaton--so that regular people like teachers, nurses, fireman cannot afford to live. And think: who and what is really to blame and who can try to make our lives better.
It seems there is no obstacle acknowledged as valid to the making of money, as long as it's possible and, perhaps, legal -- not destruction of environment or community or human life.
https://www.repaircafehv.org/glens-falls
Great initiative. Thank you for sharing, Will.
To think that we're so close to the end of this election cycle and CNN keeps insisting that the race is 50/50. I am thinking 80/20 for Harris, when the dust settles. We need to keep going as a beacon of democracy, justice and hope for the rest of the world.
I wish
I'd settle for 55-45.
the wapo’s craven rationale for not endorsing any presidential candidate crumbles in the face of its endorsements of candidates for other offices. and, by the way, although the watergate reporting by woodward and bernstein greatly embellished the post’s reputation, it was by then already katharine graham’s paper. she had bravely decided to report on the pentagon papers, even though doing so jeopardized the post’s economic future.
Agree that Trumpies, urban or rural, know very well what/whom they are supporting. The ignorance, cruelty, dishonesty, criminality, and obsession with personal power are worth it because the Orange Devil promises protection. He will keep our neighborhoods White and Christian - "real Americans." He will keep uppity women in their places. "So what" (his Jan. 6 words) if the price is demolition of our Republic?
One of the worst, weird aspects of our culture has been the rise in unjustified fear -- the feeling that the outside world is a dangerous place, regardless of the evidence of our senses. This was happening before Trump. I used to argue with people that the country had become a much safer place -- especially New York City -- in the 2000's than it had been a few decades earlier, in the 1970s and '80s, when many of us were growing up without much in the way of guardrails. But the fear persisted.
Ah Will, despite all the horrid news thanks to self centered republicans, your comment re Mark made me laugh.
They are that.