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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow I had a Trump voter shaking my hand. Hate Trump? Get him at the voting booth!
We must understand how this moron got elected. There were MANY reasons. Sure, many Trump voters were racist, prejudice against women, minorities, etc. There was also Russia, the Comey Letter, the effect of the third party candidates siphoning votes away from Hillary, Hillary's campaigning errors, etc. But it is simply wrong to say that everyone who voted for Trump was a rotten racist and now we should just write them off. There were millions who voted for Obama who switched to Trump. Certainly they were not all prejudiced. Voting decisions are complex. Many were willing to hold their nose and vote for Trump because they have lost their jobs, their towns are drying up, they are in the grip of the opioid crisis, etc. and for them America is not great because their everyday lives are not great. And the Dems went too corporate, lost their voice with too many in small towns and rural areas, and have not connected with them. But what have we seen in many of these special elections? Many of these Trump defectors are coming back, and the Conor Lamb win especially shows us how to get them back. Hate Trump? Beat him at the voting booth!
I recently sat in a local diner here in Maine and got talking to a guy on the stool next to me. He was around 60 and in the working middle class. We got onto political issues, but I never told him I was a Dem. I listened. He said he voted for Trump because he was angry at the government and wanted to send a strong message. He said he liked many liberals but just disagreed with them on the issues. He said he was a hunter and didn't like the "anti hunter crowd." I told him that regardless of party, the government belongs to us the people and needs to work for us the people and not the big special interests. I told him I hated all this big dark corporate money that comes in to buy off politicians. I told him it was wrong that rich people could hide their money offshore when we working folks had to pay all our taxes. I told him that on the economy we could do a lot in the rural areas like new wood products, alternative energy, new agricultural products, etc. He also added his ideas and agreed with all of mine, and I agreed with his as he talked about making new wood composites, etc. As to hunting, I told him that what people need to understand is that hunting is part of our heritage and means meat in the freezer for those who need it. Many deer die of starvation in our long cold winters, are killed by the coyotes, and hit by cars. The game biologists know how to manage the hurd, and we need some hunting to manage it and that I am deer hunter too and it goes back in family hundreds of years. I gave him a populist progressive economic message on taxation, economic development, and campaign finance reform, and a more conservative message on the tradition of deer hunting in rural Maine. Again, I never hinted I was a Democrat. He agreed completely with me, and shook my hand before he left and told me I had good head on my shoulders.
It is about how we talk to them. Ya gotta listen. Ya gotta frame things right in a way that connects to them and activates their inner progressive populist on the economic issues. And it is about having candidates who fit the districts. I don't know if this particular guy would vote for many Democrats, but with the right messaging and positions, like Conor Lamb used, we can certainly win back many of these Trump voters and we have proven it.
They are not all racists and bad people. Many are angry and frustrated and lodged a protest vote. They want economic security and change. They want a government that is on their side. And now many have buyers remorse with Trump and tired of the circus. But we need to do our job, run better campaigns in these rural areas and small towns, talk the bread and butter issues, connect better with them, and win them back and kick out the R's. This is the best way to slam Trump and his GOP enablers.
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Squinch
(50,932 posts)You never told him you were a Democrat.
He's not going to vote for any Democrats because you bonded over deer hunting at the diner.
And YES. There was no way they didn't know that asshole was a racist and a sexist. And that was fine with them. That means that they ARE racist and sexist.
Voting decisions are not that complicated. If you vote for hate, you are a hater.
LBM20
(1,580 posts)Squinch
(50,932 posts)LBM20
(1,580 posts)a red neck racist. Again, yes, many were. But many were not. We need to understand how this happened. I was trying to understand this person and show how we can re-connect with people who voted for Trump and get them back so we can beat Republicans and elect Democrats. I guess you like to lose elections. I guess you enjoy the party being DEMOLISHED all over the country. Why don't you try actually listening and learning and seeing something from another point of view. It could do you good.
Squinch
(50,932 posts)And PS. Just so you know, you didn't get him back.
Why don't you stop lecturing and insisting people bow down to your statistically unfounded demands?
femmedem
(8,199 posts)The OP was discussing strategies for winning elections.
And the OP was in the early stages of making a connection with someone and finding common ground. Next time they see each other at the diner, maybe they'll take the conversation to another level.
Sure, we need to stop voter suppression and increase turnout among Democrats. Absolutely, that's the number one priority. But if you write someone off forever because they voted for Trump, well, you're writing off a lot of voters.
I think it's absurd that on a message board devoted to supporting Democratic candidates and policies, you're belittling someone who wants to discuss ways to persuade anyone.
MrsCoffee
(5,801 posts)Okay....
Squinch
(50,932 posts)NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)Squinch
(50,932 posts)So I'm deplorable, am I? Interesting choice of words.
And interesting too that you think disagreement with you is "shameful." Shall we bow before you too?
LBM20
(1,580 posts)Squinch
(50,932 posts)I am perfectly comfortable using that broad brush based on people's own actions.
Squinch
(50,932 posts)
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)Protecting themselves from the hide while still knowing you read it.
I love transparency.
Squinch
(50,932 posts)LBM20
(1,580 posts)shameful, shallow, and deplorable. You are attacking instead of seeing the whole point. You are claiming that everyone and anyone who voted for Trump is just a racist redneck and should be written off. That is DEPLORABLE.
I want the party to succeed, and we have lost middle America. We need to be a national 50 state party. We need to understand why so many working class people, many of them registered Dems and Independents, switched from Obama to Trump. And it is DEPLORABLE, shallow, and foolish to simply write them ALL off as racists. That is simply not so. There were other reasons. I would rather have them voting for us, and that means understanding their economic anxiety and the complex reasons why this happened.
Are many Trump voters racist? Sure. Is that deplorable? Sure. Is it deplorable to say that ANYONE and EVERYONE who voted for Trump, some of whom had even just voted for Obama four years before, are all just racists "assholes" who should be just written off? Yes, that too is DEPLORABLE.
Squinch
(50,932 posts)because I know that IF YOU PUT AN OPENLY AVOWED RACIST IN CHARGE OF YOUR COUNTRY, YOU ARE A RACIST!!!!!
The future of our party lies in GOTV with women and people of color. We learned this in Alabama. But there are still those folks like you who insist that we need to make nice with the RACISTS and SEXISTS who voted for the RACIST and SEXIST president.
Nope. I won't. Tell me again about how shameful I am because I will have no truck with RACISTS and SEXISTS. They are the ones I find deplorable. Your mileage seems to vary.
EffieBlack
(14,249 posts)But some Trump-supporting strangers’ unwillingness to not align themselves with Nazis and white supremacists to vote for an ignorant, racist pig means they’re just misunderstood and we just need to listen to them more sympathetically.
Got it.
Squinch
(50,932 posts)EffieBlack
(14,249 posts)Squinch
(50,932 posts)
ismnotwasm
(41,971 posts)They with full knowledge voted for that asshole. I have half a country of non-voters to reach out to. I refuse to legitimize bigots.
still_one
(92,106 posts)MrsCoffee
(5,801 posts)Aristus
(66,307 posts)But I'm not really buying the 'angry and frustrated' explanation.
People who claim not to be racist, but voted for Trump in order to 'send a message', are merely lashing out blindly.
Smart people who are angry and frustrated think through the problem, and use reason and logic in order to determine the best path to the best solution.
Stupid people who are angry and frustrated lash out blindly. And stupid people are much more likely to be racist, bigoted thugs.
They voted for Trump because he shares their hatreds and prejudices. That's all. The rest of this is just smoke-filled coffee house crap.
EffieBlack
(14,249 posts)dalton99a
(81,426 posts)EffieBlack
(14,249 posts)Ok. Right.
femmedem
(8,199 posts)But I want you to know that if I were a candidate, I'd want you canvassing for me. 
EffieBlack
(14,249 posts)But because he/she is attacking fellow Democrats for not wanting to ignore Trump supporters racism/racism tolerance and doing the same thing.
Squinch
(50,932 posts)How many decades are we going to make that same mistake of thinking the conservatives are going to one day wake up and vote Democratic? How many decades are we going to repeat that same mistake?
Not for me. GOTV of women and people of color. If it can work in Alabama, it can work everywhere.
But you know that would be “identity politics” so we can’t do that because it would be wrong.
Squinch
(50,932 posts)And deplorable.
Not reading further.
shockey80
(4,379 posts)Nobody in their right mind should have voted for Trump, for any reason. It was the dumbest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. There are no excuses.
HopeAgain
(4,407 posts)If we could just get everyone who would vote for a progressive out to the polls, we wouldnt need to try to save one MAGAt at a time. Reasonable people don't like what is going on in Washington and we'd do better by convincing those people that every vote matters.
question everything
(47,460 posts)It is too bad that many, here, at least, insist on "the truth," and refuse to talk to the Trumpeters and continue to offend and belittle them. Yes, many of them are bigoted and refuse to open their horizons. But we, supposedly, are better. We do think beyond our immediate needs and comfort zone. So why shut them off?
I am afraid that Hillary's comments in India will plague us all the way to November. Most everything that she said is true - except lumping all white married women as following what the men in their families say - but this does not mean that we should say it. We need to build a bridge to reach them, otherwise we will not be able to take control of Congress.
Here is what William. Galston, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and the author of “Anti-Pluralism: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy” (Yale University Press, 2018) writes in today's WSJ. (He is the liberal voice in the Journal's opinion):
In its early stages, the populist revolt appeared to be motivated by economics. Competition from developing countries eroded manufacturing throughout the West. The modern knowledge-based economy thrives on the density and diversity found in larger cities, and the resulting urbanization of opportunity intensified inequality. A globalized, urban economy, it turns out, serves the interests of elites everywhere and of most people in developing countries, but leaves behind the working and middle classes in developed economies.
The Great Recession that began in 2007 represented a colossal failure of economic stewardship, which leaders compounded with their inability to restore vigorous growth. As economies struggled to recover and unemployment persisted, the hardest-hit groups and regions lost confidence in mainstream parties and established institutions, fueling populism.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/populisms-challenge-to-democracy-1521239697 (paid subscription)
Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)There are tens of millions of potential voters out there who don't vote. I'll concentrate on them. Life is too short to waste my time or my energy on brainwashed cultists.
lark
(23,078 posts)we will never win the hard core racists and haters and should not even try. Picking off the ill informed also will not work, not in the age when russia hacks the voting roles. If they hacked them, you know they changed them. There is strong evidence of this happening, but it is not being investigated because repugs at the state level refuse to allow it and feds do nothing. there were numerous districts in
wI with more repug votes than there were people registered in those counties. Same thing was found in 3 MI districts before the gov shut down the counting. In PA and FL the presidential undervotes in heavily blue districts was massive and unprecedented. Russia stole the last election and they will steal the next as well. Winning trumpers over to the light is good, but that will not make a difference in election results - stopping Russia & 'repugs from stealing the vote with electronic media and with actual vote tampering is what will make a difference. If nothing is done, I really think we are doomed as a country and our constitution is on the verge of being destroyed by the orange assface who took a (lying) oath to protect it when he really is protecting russia and destroying us.
elleng
(130,820 posts)Thanks
