(sigh)
Le facebook outrage...... about as bad as /r/politics on reddit
Ok If you are pissed that trump won you are A) missing more than a few points of importance that have little to do with the executive branch (like the house and the senate matter way more than trump) and B) also why it happened. Spoilers it had little to do with racism as the same counties that heavily voted for obama in '08 & '12 voted for trump. So do you really think that in a span of 8-4 years the same people waving hope & changes sign turned those in for a white hoods kerosene and a cross? Much as obama didn't magic away racism trump didn't magically make it come back. IF you want to believe that it was just racist hicks, You are a) wrong not even overly simplistic or reductionist just wrong b) there are reasons why trump won which have nothing to do with the media, trump voters, but are very symptomatic of DNC corruption, Washington's corruption, the podesta emails, and yes left wing rhetoric. This is a time for A) self reflection of the left, B) leaving the DNC as an institution behind, C) voting during midterms D) taking rhetoric off of race/sex and putting on to Economic class issues.
First off trump won because the left in this country effectively started ditching economically left wing policies in the 70s. Unions were dying due to automation and outsourcing, which was the base of the economic left. At the same time the left had several important victories in civil rights which had a new generation that was staggeringly well educated to its prior generation of left in accademia during that period. (Basically we swapped unionist for academics). Overtime what happen is the labor part of the left slowly died, the more social justicey part of the left having many victories took prominence. This is where the problem starts. SO as the economic left is dying a slow death not fully realized until the 90's and in finality in '08 the more social justice part of the left was rising. Except the social justice part of the left is for all intent and purpose as garnish in terms of broad appeal. People especially poor people, especially poor men who consistently over like 40 ish years vote on economic issues first second and last. Social justice to them sounds nice but it doesn't pay the rent. Next what happened is during the 70's a lot well meaning but radical people started to ascend the ranks of academia forming social justice academic programs. They became cloistered and increasing detached from the reality. So they are pushing social justice based academic programs which often are not terribly rigorous, but because A) the program are largely filled with people that agree with each other, B) rather than being fields of academic inquire that their findings were outcome independent they started using their positions to push narratives and 'research' to support said positions because of point A) they went largely uncritically examine (because peer review can be corrupted). This lead to social justice becoming cover for neo liberalism (which is antithetical to historic economic leftism). Essentially NEo liberalism is the notion that if we leave the market unregulated it will seek optimal results. problem this often destroys the poor. What social justice as we see it today did is it took focus off of pundits using faulty studies to push a narrative which takes peoples attention away from economic leftism and puts there attention on to race and sex/gender. The problem is is that the largest determinant for a persons life is economic class not race or sex. So this plays right in tothe neo liberals game which is: "no, the wealth disparity (between whites/blacks women/men) isn't because of economic class issues, Its because of racist systemic oppression of [insert non white/male demo]". Meanwhile the neo liberal is actively working against the interest of the poor regardless of race to make money and further raising sexual racial tension to keep attention away while they fleece the nation). Now the common rebuttal from social justice is something something systemic racism/sexism, followed by citing white [mostly men] at the top of corporation and government. This is an apex fallacy which is compound informal fallacy between the texas sharpshooter and cherry picking fallacies. Simply put ask you self this in 08 in detroit who was laid off? was it just minorities and women? no the data suggests that the 08 recession hurt men most both immediately & long term, a majority of them (just based of the demographic for the country happen to be white). The system isn't racist or sexist though member of the system maybe racist or sexism but racist/sexist individual of a given system does not a racist or sexist system make.
So Neo liberal took over the left using social justice for academic and political cover, but you may be asking how does this lead to trump. Well Simply put a lot of the left has been really condescending to a lot of poor people [especially poor (economically) whites/men in the rust belt and rural whites/men. No there is no one breaking point but this has been more of a death by a thousand cuts scenarios. As it turns out campaign like #masculinitysofragile and media pundits like Cenk urgary being disapointed that the san burindio shooter (among other incidents) weren't white tends to annoy white people that may have other wise voted democrat. I mean go back through the guardian and slate (ect) and Look at issues like race. It turns out when you call people racist for no reason they tend to say fuck it and vote for the person not calling them racist for no reason. Really the disdain for the working class white due on the left is a problem. I get why the left specifically core democrats are either largely urban poor (mostly not white) or urban upper class (mostly white). To the upper class white half all there peer are white and well off and the rural poor get typecast as rednecks (BTW red neck is a racial slur) republicans. And to the urban poor who are often not white the rural poor get portray as racist and intrinsically there opposition by the left. Funny how that neatly divides the poor along racial lines just like old union busters used to do with the irish catholic and anglo protestants and italians back in the early 20th century.
The next big campaign killer is the entitlement, hillary ran as if her candidacy was a foregone conclusion. The DNC acted as if many minority votes were locked down and as if minorities owe the dnc loyalty. Well in a shocking turn of events trump out competed romney with minorities. think about that. Simply put the DNC acted as if it was owed this election all along the line and paid for it. DO you think bernie would have lost the rust belt? i don't.
I am not going to elaborate on the DNC's wide spread corruption it should be fairly obvious to anyone who dares to look nor am i going to examine the podesta emails. They both play role, the former with democratic party member the later with independent and soft support democrats. Oh and all the accusation of sexism in the world doesn't make the corruption go away. the DNC fucked up by putting the fix in for hillary. ITs surprisingly isn't the largest issues in this election but it definitely put all the other shit over the top.
The larger issues i pretty addressed which is the erasure from left wing dialogue about poor (economically) whites/men and by way of that not addressing the death of industry and decent paying jobs, condescension and the entitlement .
FTR i voted stien in NY, malick for rep district 19 teach out and and some other dude.
You want the left to win next round? A addressing working class and poor whites and mens issues which spoilers aren't just white working class mens issues because their issue is an economy that is being wrecked by automation outsourcing and like 15 other things. and fixing those poor white male issues is really just addressing a class issues in the wider economy but doing from an inclusive frame that doesn't tell the poor of the wrong sex or skin tone to fuck it self.
That is why trump won. Not because racist white folk but a lack of outreach and frankly empathy from tea totling urban leftist that our out touch with the realities of the rural poor. blame left wing rhetoric for this election going tits up for the neo liberal left (who hate the poor regardless of race) is why this election went the way it did. ITs not as simple as blaming it on poor rural racist white people but its vastly more accurate. You want to win in 2018 & 2020 start talking to trump supporters to see why they voted the way they did. IF you were gonna de-freind someone for voting trump you are helping the gop keep the house and senate in 2018 & 2020 and get trump re-elected. Hate trump? fine but you will still need his current supporters to get people elected who you agree with in 2018 & 2020 and if all you have for dialogue is 'they are racist evil sexists', then you are guaranteeing the left wont see office until 2024 or later. You also need to apply pressure to the DNC or form a new coalition. i think the DNC is beyond saving and green has more than few retarded policies so i would recommend making new party and circling around that.
YOu want the left in office in 2018 and 2020 it starts with empathy. IF you can't even cognate why trump voters might have said fuck it then you are just asking for more of the same.