This falls right into the “fake news” " alternative facts" camp. I had a guy at work run up to me and say pretty much what @robstein did. “Why do the Republicans want crazy people to have guns?” My work friend had no clue what the bill was, or what the executive order said that Obama had originally signed.
To all the would be constitutionalists that have sprung up in the wake of Trump’s inauguration, lets be consistent. You complain about Executive overreach now? Where have you been? (Not directed at anyone in particular)
I don’t understand. Generally speaking, dog-whistle campaigns are aimed at low-information voters. Are you suggesting the low-info targets of the campaign shouldn’t be held responsible for responding to the whistle, because they didn’t realize they were being manipulated in such a crass and deplorable manner? (A suggestion I am sympathetic to, BTW.)
I remain anxious to hear PP’s report in this regard, should she decide to ask him.
Ironic, because Silver (for whom I have tremendous respect) missed the mark so badly re predicting the election.
My understanding is Trump’s electoral-college victory turned on his ability to knock down the ‘Blue Wall’ (PA, MI, WI). Further, my understanding is the knockdown was a function of less-than-expected turnout in urban centers (HRC’s failure), and greater-than-expected turnout in the rural districts of these states (Trump’s success). Thus, and IMO, dissecting Trump’s victory comes down (at least in part) to determining the motivations of these Blue Wall rural voters. To the extent they were dog-whistled into the voting booth, it might well have been the critical factor in Trump’s victory. It’s an empirical question, hence my desire to see the analysis.
Which part–“illegal” or “Mexican”–did Trump emphasize? I for one do not recall hearing him rail against the significant number of white illegal immigrants (ie, Europeans who have overstayed their visas) in this country.
Trump was very explicit in demonizing Mexicans. Let’s not kid ourselves here.
As someone who grew up and moved back to blue wall rural PA I can help you interpret this. Your average voter who responded to MAGA in a rural area may go a month or longer without ever seeing a non-white person and that’s just at the grocery store in a more urban area.
My high school had 3 black kids in all four grades. Race just isn’t something they worry about. You’d be suprised to know that most rural people have a very live and let live (mind your own damn business) attitude. Lots of “confirmed batchelors” and “spinsters” in the community were accepted and left alone. That’s rural code for gay couples before it was culturally acceptable to call folks gay.
They are farmers, coal miners, steel mill workers etc… they can remember a time when their fathers and grandfathers were able to support families and have a house, car and a stay at home wife all with a high school diploma. This was of course a product of the post-war world where North America was the only continent not f’d up so we had an advantage.
Then come the late 70’s through today where factories shuttered and the non-college guy loses ground constantly. The reason there are Steeler bars in every metro in the US is because of the mass exodus during this time frame. Western PA’s population was cut in half from 75-85. Everyone that stayed faced limited prospects.
These people are not irrationally angry at some “other”. They are legitimately worse off than their parents were. The mexicans didn’t take their jobs. Their jobs left. Most of the workers were staunch democrats, Kennedy democrats and proud union members. Now there’s no workplace to unionize.
There’s no dog whistle, because there’s nobody to be racist against in rural PA, OH, MI, WI. Have ypu ever been to rural Wisconsin? The only non-whites they have are the cows. Lol
Seconded. Even though the area I live in now is very diverse, I distinctly remember when I was young and lived in WV a black family moved to our town (I was maybe 7?) and for many of my classmates it was our first time meeting a black person.
My mom’s entire side of the family still lives in WV and they staunchly don’t believe racism is a problem, and half the reason is probably because they actually don’t know any minorities. Sadly the other half is probably because my mom’s side of the family reeeeeeally loves the confederate flag.
Hmm…Makes you wonder who all those people whooping and hollering “Build the wall!”, etc, at Trump’s rallies were.
At any rate, as I said above, it’s an empirical issue. Thus, if someone has voter-attitude data to bring to bear, that would be yuge. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere. (I’ve looked around online a bit, but haven’t found any yet.)
And just an FYI, I live in the second-poorest region of the country. I know rural.
Why is it racist to ‘build a wall’ on a macro-economic level, but not racist to lock up one’s personal property rather than share and share alike on a micro-economic level?
Hey, you added the wall nonsense. The blue wall area doesn’t have illegals for the most part. But they do care about the rule of law. Also most heroine infecting the trailer parks and slaughtering poor white people comes across the porous border.