Friday, March 29, AD 2024 1:58am

Not Our Kind

 

 

It is interesting  how much that passes for liberalism these days is merely dressed up snobbishness where people with lots of money can look down their noses at people they deem “poor white trash”.  It is no accident, as Marxists used to say, that Hillary made her condemnation of 20% of the American people at a fundraising event to the cheers and laughter of the Hollywood glitterati and assorted fat cats.  Poor whites are one of the few safe groups to hate, and what is the point of having a great deal of money unless one can feel free to dump vials of loathing on those near the bottom of the economic ladder?

Daniel Henninger at The Wall Street Journal gets this aspect of our politics, an aspect rarely spoken of, but blindingly obvious:

As with the irrepressible email server, Mrs. Clinton’s handling of her infirmity—”I feel great,” the pneumonia-infected candidate said while hugging a little girl—deepened the hole of distrust she lives in. At the same time, her dismissal, at Barbra Streisand’s LGBT fundraiser, of uncounted millions of Americans as deplorables had the ring of genuine belief.

 

Perhaps sensing that public knowledge of what she really thinks could be a political liability, Mrs. Clinton went on to describe “people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them . . . and they’re just desperate for change.”

 

She is of course describing the people in Charles Murray’s recent and compelling book on cultural disintegration among the working class, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.” This is indeed the bedrock of the broader Trump base.

 

Mrs. Clinton is right that they feel the system has let them down. There is a legitimate argument over exactly when the rising digital economy started transferring income away from blue-collar workers and toward the “creative class” of Google and Facebook employees, no few of whom are smug progressives who think the landmass seen from business class between San Francisco and New York is pocked with deplorable, phobic Americans. Naturally, they’ll vote for the status quo, which is Hillary.

 

But in the eight years available to Barack Obama to do something about what rankles the lower-middle class—white, black or brown—the non-employed and underemployed grew. A lot of them will vote for Donald Trump because they want a radical mid-course correction. Which Mrs. Clinton isn’t and never will be.

 

This is not the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton. The progressive Democrats, a wholly public-sector party, have disconnected from the realities of the private economy, which exists as a mysterious revenue-producing abstraction. Hillary’s comments suggest they now see much of the population has a cultural and social abstraction.

 

To repeat: “racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic.”

 

Those are all potent words. Or once were. The racism of the Jim Crow era was ugly, physically cruel and murderous. Today, progressives output these words as reflexively as a burp. What’s more, the left enjoys calling people Islamophobic or homophobic. It’s bullying without personal risk.

 

Donald Trump’s appeal, in part, is that he cracks back at progressive cultural condescension in utterly crude terms. Nativists exist, and the sky is still blue. But the overwhelming majority of these people aren’t phobic about a modernizing America. They’re fed up with the relentless, moral superciliousness of Hillary, the Obamas, progressive pundits and 19-year-old campus activists.

 

Evangelicals at last week’s Values Voter Summit said they’d look past Mr. Trump’s personal résumé. This is the reason. It’s not about him.

 

The moral clarity that drove the original civil-rights movement or the women’s movement has degenerated into a confused moral narcissism. One wonders if even some of the people in Mrs. Clinton’s Streisandian audience didn’t feel discomfort at the ease with which the presidential candidate slapped isms and phobias on so many people.

Go here to read the rest.  So much of our current politics becomes crystal clear if we understand it as a classic battle between the haves and the have nots, with the haves using their connections with government to enrich themselves through taxpayer dollars and government policies at the expense of the have nots.  Donald Trump, the ultimate insider, has tapped into the ever building rage of the have nots, a rage met with insult, condescension and contempt by those who benefit from the status quo, and that is why he is likely to win in November.

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T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Thursday, September 15, AD 2016 6:15am

If things go wrong in November, this year could be the last that you may legally say, “Merry Christmas.”
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Vote Trump. “So that your children may be free to worship God.”

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Thursday, September 15, AD 2016 11:40am

I want Trump to win so that I can say to those acquaintances of mine who are liberal progressive Democrats (none are friends – I don’t make friends with the enemy), “Get out! Ou! You are not welcome! Leave!” I want to hear their weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. I want to see them keep their promises of moving to Canada, Mexico, Australia, Spain or wherever they swore to move. I want them out of my country and out of my Church except that they repent in sack cloth and ashes. I have had enough of their liberal anti-Christian excrement. Godless commie pinko nit wits. Out! Get the frack out of my country and my Church!
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Sorry, folks. If I am burned with anger, then how must others feel who have really been hurt by these elitist reprobates?

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Thursday, September 15, AD 2016 1:06pm

The only way for Hillary to make her welfare system work is that lots of folks must be exterminated. That’s right, exterminated. That will be babies, old folks and poor folks.
Babies by abortion, old folks by euthanasia, poor folks by drugs, mayhem and suicide. Hillary is the Presidential candidate from hell.

c matt
c matt
Thursday, September 15, AD 2016 1:08pm

I have a colleague who keeps saying Hildebeast(!!) is less likely to get us into unnecessary wars (go figure). So on a less than virtuous level, I would want to see Hildebeast win and when we end up in a war with Russia or China, I will not only repeatedly and vociferously say “I told you so,” I will demand she say “you told me so.”

c matt
c matt
Thursday, September 15, AD 2016 1:23pm

Cruz’s video reminds me of The Job.

data
data
Friday, September 16, AD 2016 8:56am

“So much of our current politics becomes crystal clear if we understand it as a classic battle between the haves and the have nots,” — Is that not the thesis of socialism?

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Friday, September 16, AD 2016 11:56am

The ideas of the leftover left are as wrong as ever but the effect of them is on full display for all to see and for many of us to feel as a crushing burden.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Friday, September 16, AD 2016 12:03pm

A mutual agreement has been reached between the Haves and Have Nots. A sufficient portion from each side have agreed to benefit, to enrich themselves, off government. This is not entirely monetarily enrichment. It’s cultural too. One way this materializes is the Have Nots agreeing to be balkanized in return for targeted favors. Hillary’s base is primarily those agreeing with this philosophy, aka status quo. Trump’s support is (A) a mix of the kind Donald McClarey describes and (B) those adopting a less extreme version of the philosophy espoused by Hillary. (Some in group A are being groomed to accept B’s understanding. “Well maybe government playing husband by paying for maternity leave isn’t so bad.”) This November, pick your poison.
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In other news, the GOP, the never been more conservative party (/s), rejected impeaching the IRS commissioner. A repeating refrain, justice not served.

Michael Dowd
Michael Dowd
Friday, September 16, AD 2016 1:01pm

“The success of the Trump campaign indicates that there is no truce between the true haves and the true have nots. Brexit was merely the first round of a fight that will dominate this century.”

Well said Donald. I agree. This is a battle for the soul of mankind. In my mind big business and big government must be destroyed. If not, we will be destroyed.

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Friday, September 16, AD 2016 4:11pm

Subsidiarity or Statist tyranny! Christ or Antichrist. That is the choice.

William P. Walsh
William P. Walsh
Friday, September 16, AD 2016 4:15pm

After the election, let’s impeach Koskinen, Obama and Hillary, just to make a point.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Friday, September 16, AD 2016 4:26pm

Yep, an impeachment that would never have gotten a conviction in the Senate. Why waste time on that now and take attention away from the Democrat party’s current exercise in self destruction?
A Senate without conviction will not attempt a conviction. Exhibit A, Senator Mitch McConnell. Not surprised. Cowards: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/senate-republicans-koskinen-impeachment-irs-227802
An impeachment would likely fail because the GOP has let the liberals and Democrats control the air space in the public square. They control the conversation. The people have insufficient understanding and appreciation for the justified motives behind an impeachment.
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Even if the Democrats lose November, they are not on a path of self-destruction. At worst, they are taking a breather after their massive successes over the last 8 years. Liberalism is a religion. The Democrat party is their church. They will not abandon their church because one member is tainted, which is truly only possible if a member shows agreement with conservatism, e.g. respecting the Constitution and other founding documents.
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The success of the Trump campaign indicates that there is no truce between the true haves and the true have nots. Brexit was merely the first round of a fight that will dominate this century.
Again with Brexit? 😉 Those who do not have a truce belong in group A. While their anger is at Big Government, they are receptive of Big Government to achieve an ends they hope comes to fruition, e.g. single payer healthcare, wage controls, high tariffs, paid maternity leave, etc.
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Success? I would not count the chickens before they hatch. Trump’s campaign is not tracking any differently than Romney and McCain. They both spiked around this time and lost in the end. There are those debates to go too. Trump’s poll improvement mostly attributed to Hillary’s baggage and health, not any great efforts on Trump’s part. And not because of Brexit like awakening.

ms. Trump voter
ms. Trump voter
Friday, September 16, AD 2016 4:27pm

P2B – WTC

( Proud 2 B – White Trash Catholic ! )

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Friday, September 16, AD 2016 8:24pm

What good would a waste of time impeachment trial do, especially when incumbent Republicans need to be on the campaign trail?
It’s only a waste of time in the current climate. (The idea of impeachment has been floating since October 2015, which is well before the meaningful campaign season.) Under other conditions, completely beneficial to serve justice. Of course, the GOP has been too busy being Obama’s lapdog to pursue any impeachments or other justice in the last 8 years. Oh well.
This is what separates the men from the boys. The Dems pursue what they think is right without regard for politics. And if they lose, i.e. have a setback, just wait a little longer or claim to be the only party to make things right. GOP has no long game.
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Idiotic stunts remain idiotic stunts even when McConnell is opposed to it.
Do you always think pursing justice, what’s right, is idiotic? Does justice take a vacation? Corruption doesn’t.
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the Democrats haven’t been weaker on the state level since the twenties of the last century.
Power in numbers but not principles. Better than the GOP Feds. I’ll give you that. I dread thinking about the GOP led states that have played with the idea of adopting Obamacare in part or whole or have done so.
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The last candidate to come back from the type of deficit that Trump faced after both conventions was…
I was speaking primarily about the rolling average patterns matching, but we can talk in absolute numbers. Trump shows a 6.4 gain in the RCP average. John Kerry went from 11 point spread in Sept (Conventions were July/Aug.) to 1.5, a 9.5 gain. It was harder to find Bush vs Gore. Gallup shows a 13 point spread. Gore made up 11 points by election time.
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Trump’s numbers look better thanks to Hillary. His rising numbers will convince him to keep the big government stuff rolling. And the public eats it up. The biggest players this election cycle, Trump, Hillary, and Sanders, shows America is not ready to embrace American liberty as envisioned. They can’t Brex from their government. And that helps them warm up to Trump, some of them at least. An acceptable Hillary alternative that won’t roll back Obama’s fundamental transformations.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Saturday, September 17, AD 2016 7:25am

In the entire history of the Republic there have been eight successful impeachments of Federal officials.
If you’re arguing we have had too few, I agree. Amazing not one impeachment during an administration as corrupt as this one. What level of corruption must exceeded before the inconvenience of impeachment is overcome?
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Looks like there are more than 8 with a positive outcome. Add 2 to this list for presidents.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_United_States#Federal_officials_impeached
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If your side doesn’t win elections…
What’s the point of winning elections if it’s not used effectively? If all your side does is be a lapdog or whipping post for the opposition? If you win and are too afraid or inconvenienced to do what’s right?
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I am not saying they should be performing an impeachment on the eve of election. That wasn’t required as the IRS commissioner issue has been floating since Oct 2015. And I am certain there were plenty of opportunities to perform other impeachments before that. But I’m sure there’s never an optimal time to do the right thing. Politics and all.

In regard to Kerry-Bush, the GOP convention ended on September 2, and Kerry was always the underdog thereafter.
If by underdog you mean trailing in the polls, then you are right. So is Trump as of now. Even if you go beyond the wake of convention, say Sept 19, the spread was 6.8. Kerry gained 5.3, which is not far from Trump’s 6.4.
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Her deplorables remark…
It was bad. I call that a Trumpism.
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I believe she is seriously ill, and she is one medical event from the bottom falling out of her campaign.
I used to believe that was tin foil hat territory. Now, I entirely agree.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Saturday, September 17, AD 2016 9:06am

I regard an impeachment only as successful if it ends in conviction in the Senate trial.
I defer to Yoda on this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EwcYwax4Oo
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A better effort would be to pass legislation giving taxpayers a right to sue the IRS for discrimination and to place the burden on the IRS to establish non-discrimination.
Given the IRS scandal, the raising of this idea prior to, and GOP control of Congress, what’s the progress on this?
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What we are seeing now is nothing short of a revolutionary change in the polls.
All polls have Clinton ahead except Fox News, aka Trump information ministry, and LA Times polls, 2 of them almost back to back. LA Times, a poll which has been generally favorable to Trump throughout. Hardly revolutionary. Ref previously mentioned come backs.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Saturday, September 17, AD 2016 9:06am

Refer, not defer, to Yoda.

Kyle Miller
Kyle Miller
Saturday, September 17, AD 2016 12:48pm

Any legislative attempts are meaningless until a Democrat isn’t in the White House.
You don’t have to win every battle to win the war. But you do have to engage in battle to win the war. Hillarycare was a loss. The fight set the stage for Obamacare. It planted a seed.
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Unless you count CNN, Rasmussen, UPI/CV, etc.
Indeed. I meant to say the average of all polls have Clinton ahead, specifically RCP average.
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It will be interesting to see if Trump can keep the momentum going. Maybe he’ll promise fully paid community college/trade school tuition, saying Hillary/Sanders’ 4 year tuition paid plan was going too far. He might release a global warming policy but maybe not since the payoff isn’t going to be that high.

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