Elephants and Jackasses...

Personally, I feel I like to evaluate the stances of candidates and look at the overall picture of who they are not what team they play for. I was not great fan of Hillary as I thought she was a shitty candidate who was generally unlikable and scandal-ridden. She would not have enjoyed a moment's peace as president because of the constant attempts at impeachment. I almost voted for McCain until he made Palin his VP and then I was a hard no after that. Mainly because she couldn't piece together a sentence without drooling on herself.

When this election rolled around, the political issues that typically take the main stage during an election season didn't much matter to me because I felt the choice was obvious. Just listening to Trump's inability to verbalize details of anything and his general fundamental lack of understanding of how the world works made him a hard no for me. I saw the bullshit immediately. Don't take this as me patting myself on the back. I just felt it was an obvious right vs wrong instead GOP vs Democrat.

 

I know too many good, intelligent pillar of the community type people who voted for Trump to buy this. I think they were foolish, but to claim that Trump won because all of the worst people in the world came out to vote for him is to perpetuate the tone deaf approach that lost the Democrats the election. Hillary was a terrible candidate plain and simple. That is why Trump won.

 

I don't have much sympathy for people who drank "Kool-Aid" that simply made them forget who Donald Trump was for the last 35 fucking years. For as long as I have had memories, the mere mention of his name made people cringe and turn their spine into glass. Amnesia is NOT an airbourne virus.

Unlikeable, crass, spoiled to the bone from birth and everyone knows it. That's a man of the people right there.

 

Trump is literally the worst candidate that has ever stood for election from a major party. To act like all the Democrats had to do to win was be "better" is to ignore that half the country doesn't have a functional definition of "better' anymore.

 

Sanders would have beat Trump, period. During the primaries he sold out stadiums while Hillary couldn't pack half a high school gymnasium. Fact.

If the democrats had any balls whatsoever they would have publicly disgraced every single stupid fuck who helped force Hillary on to the ballot, starting with Debbie WhatsHerName-ShitHeel. Those people are toxic waste liberals who helped them lose to a giant fucktard of a human being.

 

I hate dredging up this election, but I think Trump had a social media machine behind him that no one really could battle. I think of the adage that it takes ten times the effort to refute bullshit than it does to propagate it. Coupled with the insane amount of FREE media coverage he got early in the campaign, it really made his campaign a juggernaut. There was no reason to get excited about Hillary, she was the anointed candidate from the start. Trump had an underdog drama in his favor, and early in the election was the ONLY candidate consistently making the headlines. Trump is a masterful manipulator of the media and has been for decades. Hillary has literally been the victim of the media for my entire adult life: from the Lewinsky scandal to Benghazi to her emails.

Also, he had two significant advantages, regardless of policy: one, the party pendulum was swinging in his favor. Two, Americans idolize celebrities and elect them with alarming frequency.

Sanders was never the target of the Republican character assassination machine. It's an interesting, but pointless, what-if. I doubt he'll have the steam to run in 2020 (I'm already calling the slogan of "Hindsight 2020") and at that point he would be dangerously old.

The Democrats bungled this election, to be sure, but I think they didn't take Trump seriously until it was too late and Hillary's "scandals" were what most people associated her with. Ultimately, James Comey might be to blame for his unusual involvement.

The Democrats are hamstrung because they are painted as anti-business but depend on the same donor class as the Republicans. I also feel like they simply don't lie as much. I know that sounds ridiculous, but...well, trickle down economics? Abstinence-only sex ed, LGBT rights and abortion as political issues? Illegal immigration being to blame for our economic woes (as opposed to a more realistic lack of labor protection/enforcement)? So much of the conservative platform relies on bullshit. Maybe it's my bubble, and I haven't had anyone pop my liberal media consumption bubble with reliable, factual data, but....I feel like the conservative platform is driven by business bullshit. I will happily listen to facts, but hell...conservative media is astoundingly open about not needing them.

 

The main thing I've noticed is that a lot of the democratic establishment has given up on trying to court lower income, high-school educated voters in their camp. They spent a lot of time courting the people they were going to get anyway. This will be somewhat anecdotal, but I was in Arkansas(gorgeous place BTW) for the 4th of July weekend on a small vacation and I met a lot of the local folks from smaller towns. The conversations I overheard in restaurants and from talking to people doing various activities makes me think that the are gettable, politically if some kind of outreach were made. On a superficial level, a lot of the people are on medicaid and are struggling to get by. The small towns have tremendous meth problems and a lot of the people wish weed would be legal already. I know that's just a small fraction of a political belief system, but much of what they want is similar to what people all over the country in blue states would also want. And legal weed is a big deal across the country. But the main thing I was told from several people is they don't like being treated like a bunch of stupid hill-billys. Folks like this can smell elitism from a mile away so they vote for the person who makes them feel like they matter and doesn't judge them.

My point is: the next democratic candidate needs to realize they will already get the big coastal states. They have to actually work on folks in the traditional red states now. They have to stop with the "I'm offended." campaign platform and try to speak people.

 

I'm frankly sick of catering to these people's feelings. If you want to stop being treated like a bunch of stupid hillbillies, stop voting like a bunch of stupid hillbillies. Hillary had numerous planks in her platform about job training for rural areas, non-college graduates, etc. But somehow the delusion of coal returning was a better option ...if you're a stupid hillbilly.

 

He didn't *need* a social media machine. CNN et al gave him all the coverage he might've wished for. For every minute of "craaaazy Trump!" there were 2 minutes of "victory rally Trump" putting out a resonant message.

 

But the party isn't ignoring them. There were entire policy proposals geared directly toward them. But Hillary didn't enough enough cheese curds in Wisconsin or some shit, so they felt ignored and felt taken for granted. You want to feel taken for granted? Live in a solid Blue or solid Red state; politicians don't give a shit about pandering to us, but we vote for what's best for the country like adults anyway.

 

So these are single issue voters who got their single issue wrong. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of their not-stupid-hillbilly-ness.

 

As has been said hundreds of times. Keep the stupid hillbilly mantra up, you will be pleased with the results. You continue to look outward and blame, look inward and find a solution.

 

Or how about the voters learn to take some god damn responsibility for their votes. They sit there and blame "the elites," but ascribe 100% of their voting choice to those same elites. Totally incapable of taking responsibility for their own actions. This fuckup is on the voters, no one "made" them pick the wrong candidate.

 

I'm honestly curious what economic benefit has resulted from the conservative party in the last 40 years? I think this is part of the issue: for single-issue voters, they constantly vote against their own interests. Why?

Could it be the blatant lies fed by the right-wing media? Could it be they aren't truly single-issue voters? Could it be they don't educate themselves on the actual ramifications of these policies?

My 80 year old grandmother bitches and moans about welfare handouts when she a) hasn't paid taxes for 25 years, b) lives on "welfare" herself, c) doesn't know a single person on actual welfare and d) conveniently ignores the fact that the average person receiving those benefits is a 21 year old single mother with a high school education (I mention this because I don't know of a soul that believes women like that have it easy or are entitled). She just bought into the Fox News bullshit, and is unreasonably angry about things that ostensibly aren't happening in our society.

Imagine the frustration of using logic, reasoning and facts that sometimes point out unflattering truths about the individual to refute their position. There's more than enough blame to go around, but...well, how long do we have to suffer because of willful ignorance and blind faith in lies?

 

Despite what the legacy media, whose best days are long behind them say, how has their day-to-day life changed since Trump's election? How can you convince them that things would be better or worse if Clinton was elected? Without that, what do you actually have here?

 

I'm pretty sure it will flip flop soon. They probably went republican this time because their life was getting shittier over the last 8 years. Their life will Continue to suck for the foreseeable future and they will go back to voting blue. This cycle will continue until they realize no one gives a shit about them unless it's an election year.

The Michigan thing surprises me. Remember when the government bailed out the auto industry? Just imagine how red it would have been without that.