White Rural Rage gets at the heart of why rural whites have come to constitute the basis of the Drumpf cult and why they continue to vote against their own interests. A must read for anyone wanting to better understand the living nightmare we're still stuck in!
Sounds like a good read. Good write up too: Also, they vote Republican. This confounds the authors, because “there is no demographic group in America as loyal to one political party as rural Whites are to the GOP that gets less out of the deal.” By less, they mean policy prescriptions — stuff that might better their lives. What these voters do get from Republicans, the authors argue, is someone to stoke their rage — to fuel its flame from a bottomless stack of cultural kindling. Republicans long ago figured out that it is really the blue yonder that makes rural White voters see red. Exacerbate the villainy in that city-country divide and you have yourself some dependable voters.
Great line from this precursor article: So while, it is admirable to think “understanding” can fix this country, it is also naive. Progressives should ask themselves: When’s the last time you heard any Trump supporters talking about the need to understand you? You haven’t — and that ought to tell you something.
Great line from the article. Next to their characterizations, “basket of deplorables” sounds almost quaint, and many readers may find guilty satisfaction in that. The book was written for people who believe everyone who disagrees with them is worse than deplorable and takes satisfaction in having their biases confirmed. Hate mongering sells. It will probably do well in certain areas.
I can do better: Maga cult = leftist econ policies wrapped in a flag. What more would one expect from the Ethanol King?
An alternative view is that many people are losing patience who reject facts, logic and evidence and instead treat society as this giant us and them where it’s all about being on the right side. I am kind of tired of those who treat these people as victims or unaccountable for their ridiculous views. They’ve made choices to be ignorant, and their choices go against their own best interests and the nations best interests but they are either too brainwashed or too dumb to figure that out.
American Left and right don’t mean the same thing as they used to. It is actually approaching a more global historical definition of left and right.
Then why is he doing better with minorities than any Republican before him? It just doesn't add up dadgummit!
Nothing explained it better than MTG entering Congress for the SOTN speech with a MAGA hat on. That woman is utterly without class.....as is Santos for making an appearance in the balcony
IMO racism is an underlying strength of the MAGA cult. Why do you think Trump is so fond of dog whistles? Those rural whites are "angry" at least partly because they see the white race losing control of the country. It's white nationalism at the core. It's Make America White Again. And there's some truth to Trump's claim that there are some "good people"among white supremacists. I think of the white Southern family that I came from (none of them college educated FWIW). Always seemed like good decent people. Except when it comes to race. The N word was always standard in their vocabulary. But it's not just blacks they don't like. My late brother married a Mexican woman. After having two children they got divorced, and my mother had to raise the two girls. She told the girls not to let anyone know that they were half Mexican. Now why would my good decent Southern white mother tell them something like that? (The older girl BTW has since disowned the whole family.)
There's certainly something radical going on and it looks like the authors do a good job at identifying some or most of it. And Trump - who seems like such obviously dishonest, ignorant and selfish buffoon - has somehow locked into it. Or it's locked onto him. I get that people are disturbed by cultural changes. People changing genders, etc. Some of it is clearly real, but much is either fiction or greatly exaggerated. Drag queens are coming for our kids! Litter boxes in school classrooms! Hoards of illegal immigrants pouring over Steak Mountain and raping our cattle! I don't think you can minimize the role of misinformation and conspiracy theories. A bunch of quick interviews with Trump supporters are popping up everywhere online. And I fully understand you have to take those with a grain of salt. Maybe they interviewed 50 reasonable people to get the one wingnut they post. But lordy. Some of the stuff they apparently believe. Middle-aged women calling for violent revolution to install Trump, American deaths would just be 'collateral damage.' There's two militaries. Trump is still president and in charge of the good one. Biden has died and is being portrayed by several actors. Obama made it clear he wanted a third term and is really calling all the shots. Trump never said anything shooting someone on Fifth Avenue or suspending the Constitution, the media made that up ... On and on ... And these are not crazy people wandering the streets in their bathrobes complaining about aliens stealing their shoes. They're seemingly normal, decent people with families, jobs, mortgages ...
"Anyone who disagrees with me is either clinically delusional or motivated by evil forces like racism and sexism. They are also uneducated and have inferiority complexes because they cling to false morals and have small genitalia." - Thought I'd just save everyone the time with this summary. It's been the "go-to" tool of the MSM and Democrats for decades.
When the cult leader is clinically delusional and motivated by evil forces like malignant narcissism, hatred, and obsession with retribution, it doesn't say a lot for his followers, does it?
