That got a legitimate irl LOL! Good one!
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Yep…spot-on as usual, @thunderbolt23.
I wanted to highlight what appears (IMO) to be the ironies of all ironies…
Trump DOES connect with heartland voters…even though he has even LESS of a true connection to them than President Obama. (Who grew up in modest circumstances; and whose grandparents who helped raise him were from Kansas…and in his own words, President Obama said: "During his teenage years, it was his grandmother who “injected” into him “a lot of that very Midwestern, sort of traditional sense of prudence and hard work”, even though “some of those values didn’t sort of manifest themselves until I got older”).
Now; I’m not naive. A Black Democrat from Chicago named Barack Hussein Obama isn’t going to be asked to bring the Potato Salad to the Baptist Church Social in Colby Kansas…but Trump’s “connection” is even more perplexing. (IMO)
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From Wikipedia:
Tacitus mentions that Nero’s death was welcomed by Senators, nobility and the upper class. The lower-class, slaves, frequenters of the arena and the theater, and “those who were supported by the famous excesses of Nero”, on the other hand, were upset with the news. Members of the military were said to have mixed feelings, as they had allegiance to Nero, but had been bribed to overthrow him.
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Fine, Zecarlo, your maple syrup is mined in Vermont. But what in the States equates to this?
He didn’t need a connection. He just needed to say a couple of nice things.
Consider that the other side was saying that people like me were scum, racists, deplorable shitbags that this country would be better without.
It ain’t rocket science.
And when and where did President Obama say these things?
He didn’t.
"President Donald Trump has claimed his supporters should be referred to as the “super elite” after last week claiming he was better than his “elite” opponents because he had more money and a bigger house.
[…]
“We got more money, we got more brains, we got better houses and apartments, we got nicer boats [!!!], we’re smarter than they are and they say they’re the elite. You’re the elite, we’re the elite,” he said, branding the elite “stone cold losers” and adding: “Let’s call ourselves, from now on, the super elite.” [emphasis mine]
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That is an attempted sell by Obama - I don’t think that “mid-Westerness” came through for anyone, friend or foe. Name one trait or characteristic that came off as authentically “heartlandy” with Obama - you can’t. He came off as a foppish academic who, when he tried to sound “real”, sounded forced. It doesn’t mean he’s a bad dude - but it does mean he had very little organic material to work with when trying to talk to folks who get dirt under their fingernails for a living.
But…BUT…whatever Obama’s shortcomings here, there is simply no explanation how Trump can connect here. He talks roughly and bluntly, which I guess is his hook. But I don’t know how that that overcomes:
- The talk is phony - he isn’t actually tough
- He’s a spoiled rich kid who didn’t have to work for anything and dodged hardships as a result
- He’s literally and exactly the kind of shitty and exploitative boss the working classes loathe and organize against
- Candidly, he comes off as a moron - he just says really idiotic things that defy common sense
But I think his real hook is that is the only person who connected on the issues, crazy as that sounds, sinxe Trump has no coherent view on any issues.
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Fair enough, @thunderbolt23…
I suppose my point is that if Obama didn’t connect with the “Heartland”…it defys logic that Trump does.
I thought that this point hit home. Trump has been more exploitative of the poor and working class as anyone. (Just ask all the stiffed workers and small businessmen in Atlantic City as a start).
“…He’s literally and exactly the kind of shitty and exploitative boss the working classes loathe and organize against…”
As you said…there is simply no sane explanation for the Trump connection, rocket science or not…
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A few of you mentioned an explanation, political correctness and identity politics. As a few of you said, there is an impression that the Democrats (or simply the left) showed a zeal for the two that seemed to supplant their commitment for the working man. Trump is a repudiation of PC and IP.
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I can certainly see that, @Sloth.
There is no question that Trump knows how to play the "Anti-anything-Left’ card to the hilt.
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Sometimes you gotta stick with the evil you know.
True.
Serious line of inquiry for people who follow politics more than me from the left @mufasa @pfury @thunderbolt @EyeDentist Won’t the “heartland”/fly-over country be irrelevant soon?
Every electoral county map shows the familiar red country with the tiny blue urban pockets where all the population lives.
I know in PA at least the Democrats sued to re-gerrymander the state in order to make sure it never goes red again. Which was interesting because the state constitution said the legislature had to draw the districts and the courts ignored that.
But dense urban centers are the future. That’s where the jobs are and the seats of political power will be. All this hand wringing about the “heartland” seems silly when you think about where the demographics are going.
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Trump steaks?
He also didn’t call them deplorables.
Neither were Bush or Cheney. But for some reason Republican voters see draft dodgers like Cheney, Ted Nugent, Rush Limbaugh, etc. as tough. Al Gore and John Kerry were Vietnam vets. Trump had bone spurs, which is BS, but he can get away with mocking McCain. Jimmy Carter’s military service makes Reagan’s look silly. And Reagan was a Hollywood snitch.
But he is able to play the victim and underdog.
His supporters either aren’t smart enough to get it or think he is playing 4D chess.
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I sure hope so 
Devil’s advocate, they also did it because gerrymandering your way into a congressional seat has become a very powerful GOP skill in recent years.
To be fair, dense urban centers are our present. Given nearly all rural areas (save the ones that can work through other industries like ND fracking etc) are propped up by farmer welfare, it makes sense the shift is still going towards urban centers where you can actually make a financially successful life happen
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To be sure. I think the Dems have learned their lesson on electoral college math and will make damn sure to mobilize the cities in the blue wall states to outweigh the rural populations.
But even with the gerrymandering battles ongoing they have ceded a lot of governorships and state legislatures.
How do dems stop being the party of only coastal elites? For trying to be the party of the “common man” they sure spend a lot of time punching down on the working poor and folks without degrees.
I guess the thought experiment is what happens to the “heartland” voter once they’re 100% marginalized by the cities (2020, 2024)? Will we finally see a successful third party?
Agreed.
It’s going to take a decade+ for the gerrymandering fixes to roll through to state legislatures and governorships.
Even then, Dems don’t typically do as well at the state/local level where their main platform topics aren’t as powerful as the GOP.
I don’t follow. Didn’t HRC (of all people) still win the youth/gay/minority/woman/poor vote? HRC didn’t do a good job compared to Obama with these brackets, however.
Probably. Hopefully.
Personally I had thought the recent year’s push into trade programs and ‘non college’ was going to translate to a slowdown of the city push, but I guess I keep forgetting the pull of the higher life. And given how so much of that area just began idolizing a silver spoon businessman from the city, it makes more sense to keep seeing the city push.