Working class whites - when did we lose them?

[runaway hero]

Last edited Mon May 2, 2016, 08:00 PM - Edit history (1)

And what will we do to get them back. A Lot of defected to the GOP and now Trump, when they SHOULD be democrats.


What happened?


And will we get these voters back at some point?

[Fla_Democrat]

1. This may be entertaining..

[Glitterati]

2. Working class white MEN

only

Summed up in 3 words - God, Guns and Gays

[cigsandcoffee]

61. White women voted for McCain and Romney.

53% to 46% in favor of McCain, and 56% to 42% for Romney.

[JoePhilly]

3. We elected a black guy as potus.

[pnwmom]

73. Yup. n/t

[Human101948]

78. Goes back further than that...

As LBJ said, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."

When that mindset was challenged by the Civil Rights Act, the Republicans nurtured the resentment that many whites felt. In fact, while their patrons were shipping manufacturing jobs overseas, the Republicans were promoting the idea that those jobs were not available to white men because they had been taken by African Americans through affirmative action programs, an imaginary reversal of the discrimination and racism that African Americans had suffered ever since the end of the Civil War.

Then the Republicans bundled in xenophobia with the anger toward immigrants from South and Central America, claiming that all those good jobs that had disappeared had actually been gobbled up by desperate undocumented workers.

On and on it goes, with the Republicans exploiting the fears and anger of one group of Americans against the "others."

[griffi94]

4. For no small number of the ones who defected to Trump

President Obama happened.

[UCmeNdc]

70. Propaganda works

The average white person believes the propaganda being fed to them by the media.

[griffi94]

72. Propaganda does work

that's why the GOP has imploded.
The RW nutters who listened to that hate filled crap 6 hours a day for
20 years finally got so angry that they've become unhinged.

Good for them.

[brush]

5. The repugs learned to play the race card way back with the Reagan Democrats.

Trying to get them back will be very difficult.

I don't say not to try but let's also look to continue to replace them as we have done with the Obama coalition that has won the last two presidential cycles.

[KamaAina]

7. Reagan Democrats.

Never did quite get that.

[gollygee]

39. Earlier than that even

Nixon.

[brush]

51. Yes.

[snot]

8. The right wing acquired the traditional media.

Most people have been living in the echo-chamber ever since.

[runaway hero]

13. But people say the media is Liberal.

[Hekate]

24. And you believe this why?

[runaway hero]

49. What makes you think it isn't Liberal

MSNBC was on our side for years and Zucker even said CNN had been a bit too liberal today.

[tabasco]

91. Get a brain, morans.

Just look at all those liberal corporations.

[dlwickham]

60. someone left their bridge unattended

[mikehiggins]

9. Exactly WHY should they be Democrats?

Working class whites have been sold down the river by this party ever since the DLC and Third Way decided sucking up to the corporations and the banks was the way to go.

There is a tendency to think working class people are somehow less intelligent than our Ivy League rulers. You can expect that from people like Bush, et al, but they are not the only elitists on the scene. '

The Democratic Party leadership turned their backs on the working class except during election years when they trot out all the convenient lies and flip-flops their focus groups and political advisors tell them will con the rubes once again.

Want to know why Sanders is so popular? He tells the truth. That is really all there is to it.

[Populist_Prole]

10. Bingo. Well said.

It shouldn't be looked at as a party/tribal issue. It should be looked at from a policy POV.

[JI7]

15. but sanders isn't popular with that group. it's trump that is popular with them

[zalinda]

20. It's because of the anger

They are angry. They feel that they did what they were told, and got screwed. Work hard, keep your head down and you can have the American dream. They have seen their grandfathers, fathers and now themselves having to work harder and longer than ever with broken bodies and government has not only let them down, but has actively worked against them. Trump's vision is appealing to them, and if it doesn't work, fuck it, burn it down.

Hillary supporters don't understand that not everyone can go to college. Not everyone is cut out for the white collar world and not everyone wants to be rich. There are those who are just fine taking pride in their manual labor. But the Democrats have been talking to them out of both sides of their mouths. In every election since 2000, I've heard Democrats talk a good game in the primaries and then when they are the nominee, they turn to the right. Their mantra is "where else are they going to go". This time the angriest are turning to Trump, the more optimistic have turned to Bernie and if Hillary is the nominee, all bets are off. We will be living in interesting times.

Z

[JI7]

21. Do you think black and hispanic people can't be working class ?

[zalinda]

65. Oh course they can, but the premise was 'white men Trump supporters'

White men have a longer history of working in the cities. And, they hear stories from their grandfathers and fathers. They saw themselves as the FDR Democrats. They've got decades being a FDR Democrat before Clinton came along.

The blacks and hispanics have a shorter working history with the Democrats, their equality didn't really get here until the 60's. They are grateful to LBJ and the Democrats because of that. They still have hope which is why you see so many showing up at Bernie rallies. Their communities haven't seen a downward slide from the 1940's and be helpless to stop it, like the white communities.

But then you just wanted churn the water.

Z

[potone]

53. I think you have got it exactly right.

The Reagan revolution succeeded because working class and middle class white people felt that their taxes were constantly going up with no benefits to them, only to the poor and minorities. Reagan's policies were cynical: while those at the lowest rank of the tax base did get relief, by far the greatest benefits went to those at the top of the income ladder. Add to that the reduction in corporate taxes and the whole tax base shifted away from the wealthy.

I also agree that not everyone needs to go to college or, for that matter, should. What everyone should be taught who does not go to college is a trade. It does not help that we have largely lost our manufacturing base. If we were to reward companies by giving tax breaks to those that stay in the US (and require them to repay the tax breaks if they move offshore after a few years), and punish those who outsource jobs with high taxes we could turn this around.

How many things do any of us buy that were made in the USA? I bet not many. This is what needs to change, IMO. We cannot have a successful economy that is based entirely on service industries that are low paid, and the financial services industry, which does not produce anything at all, but just moves money around.

[mooseprime]

27. ^^^^^^^^^^ this! ^^^^^^^^^^

[Wellstone ruled]

37. You pretty much nailed it.

The wealthy Ivy League Liberals pretty much told white working class people,take a hike. I got mine,screw you.

[brush]

48. The phenomenon pre-dates what you're suggesting

Reagan and Nixon even earlier appealed to whites with racist dog-whistle politics — like Reagan announcing his run for the 1980 repug nomination in Philadelphia, Miss., the town where Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney, three civil rights workers were slain during the 1960s, using phrases like "states rights" in his racist appeal to working class whites who became "Reagan Democrats". Nixon used similar appeals in the 70s with calls to lure the "silent majority" over to the repug side with wedge issue dog-whistles.

Good try though, but Hillary and the DNC are not the bad guys responsible for repug machinations of the '70s and '80s.

[X_Digger]

54. I saw it happen in the 80's. Wall street, not main street, in Appalachia.

Southwest Virginia was about 75% Democrat, near 100% for anyone who worked and made less than $30,000 per year.

UMWA + (D) all down the ticket.

Reagan was an idiot, but his policies did good things for the coal workers in Appalachia (to the long term detriment of folks health).

By the time Dukakis rolled around, the stuff coming out of his mouth might as well have been Greek to the hillbillies of Grundy. Bill sounded a bit like the rest of us, but he was more interested in the coal company operators than the workers.

[hfojvt]

93. you forgot the other part of that

or you knew it was not safe for work.

Working class issues took a back seat to other groups, groups like

minorities
immigrants (as a subset of minorities)
women
GLBT
and, of course the "middle class" (meaning the 80th percentile and up)

Thus we have

Republicans - who fight for the top 5%
Democrats - who fight for the 80-95th percentile

Both parties claim to care about the bottom 80% but neither of them really does, but it is okay, because they are divided over different issues. Issues like abortion and public bathrooms. So we have, again, two parties

Republicans - anti choice party that does NOT care about the bottom 80%
Democrats - pro choice party that does NOT care about the bottom 80%

But hey, at least we in the bottom 80% have a choice when we vote. The bottom 80% is a huge majority. It should be so powerful that BOTH parties will cater to it. Instead both parties can just pretend and the bottom 80% has nowhere to go.

But we in the bottom 80% also care deeply about many of those social issues. So we fight about them, instead of uniting to make our representatives work for us. Plus, the top 20% makes up the vast, vast, vast majority of donations. And campaigning is all about the money. You start with candidates who are members of the top 5% - a) because they can self-finance, and b) because they have richer friends than working class people do.

[pkdu]

11. Two Ronnies view on this problem. Personally I blame anyone who plays to the ugly racist bigotry

In much of America. Southern Strategy , then Saint Ronnie , now Trump.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. 1968.

That was when the Republican Party under the leadership of Nixon finally abandoned its abolitionist legacy and openly embraced white working class racism. By the time Reagan ran in 1980 the messaging was well developed and the rest brings us to where we are today, on the brink of electing an overt fascist.

[JI7]

14. civil rights

[Peacetrain]

17. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[uponit7771]

29. +1

[Starry Messenger]

74. Beat me to it.

[Deuce]

16. Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, Affirmative Action...for some.

[markpkessinger]

18. Google this . . .

Google the search "Al From DLC New Democrats". Then read and learn.

[Throd]

19. Stop villifying them may be a good place to start.

[runaway hero]

22. Right but

it seems everyone does it.

[Hekate]

25. Who is "everyone"?

[runaway hero]

33. Many people on DU

slam working class whites?

[Scootaloo]

40. Have you read the thread? Here, let me show you.

Working class white MEN

only

Summed up in 3 words - God, Guns and Gays

We elected a black guy as potus.

1968.

That was when the Republican Party under the leadership of Nixon finally abandoned its abolitionist legacy and openly embraced white working class racism.

civil rights

Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, Affirmative Action...for some.

Google "Southern Strategy"

they feel vilified over POC getting rights

After they had to start sharing power with non white men? tia

Just here, in supposedly thoughtful, enlightened DU, Democrats clearly believe that "white working class" = "racist bigots who hate civil rights."

Unsurprisingly this snobbish, hateful attitude doesn't really engender people to sign up for our newsletters. People don't take well to assumptions that they are innately, inherently awful people because of their race, after all. In fact I'm pretty sure there's a word for that sort of attitude.

[JI7]

30. they feel vilified over POC getting rights

[jwirr]

47. The GOP has used the rw churches, media etc to point the

finger at POC for things like the voting rights act and other civil rights legislation. But I think had our economy not been sold out from under us that would have been forgotten except in the south.

But now that out economy is falling to pieces the rw including the DLC types continue to blame minorities for these problems. No one bothers to follow the money. It is not the minorities that are getting rich - it is those people on the top.

The white male voters have been told that this is about minorities but I must say I don't think the white male voters are going to continue to believe that - Bernie has told them the true story.

[uponit7771]

31. So no other demo in America is vilified? tia

[runaway hero]

34. these people want their jobs back

and don't support illegal immigration, so they are called racist.

[uponit7771]

35. All demos don't want their jobs back? tia... I"m still tryin to figure out why they're the only demo

... in America that feels vilified in some way

[runaway hero]

41. because I believe

every single time they say their against illegal immigration, they're called racist.

[uponit7771]

44. OK, don't see that as a reason why they're the ONLY ones in America who are vilified in some way

... enough that the DNC 'loses' them.

Also, why would they be called racist seeing people are only talking about folk coming from Canada when it comes to illegal immigration? :rolleyes:

[runaway hero]

50. Come on

Illegals work for less. They won't hire a middle age white guy over that.

[uponit7771]

59. They're even less apt to hire a middle aged PoC then!! If it comes to losing jobs cause of

... immigration the white male still has an advantage no?

I'm thinking its cause white males have something to lose, everyone else has already been economically insecure.

Jus sayin, if it comes to losing influence or affluence I don't see how the other demos are fairing better

[runaway hero]

89. Of course it hurts poc too

If you go to many black forums, some are for and some are against it. I think the fact WM are the loudest makes the difference.

[Throd]

43. They aren't. But just look at the responses in this thread.

According to DU, they are all stupid, angry redneck racists who secretly pine for 1955. Their concerns are not legitimate in any way.

[uponit7771]

46. I don't see their concerns being so different than any other demo, I'm still trying to figure out wh

... why white men feel they need to be delineated from the rest of anyone else who has lost something in America

[pampango]

81. Too many republicans, particularly Trump and Cruz supporters, do "pine for 1955".

http://www.people-press.org/2016/03/31/campaign-exposes-fissures-over-issues-values-and-how-life-has-changed-in-the-u-s/



Only Hispanics and liberal Democrats come anywhere near thinking that the next generation will have it better than we do. Conservative republicans are hugely pessimistic about the future.

[Adrahil]

23. Google "Southern Strategy" NT

[Brother Buzz]

26. Repeal of the Fairness Doctrine and Rush Limbaugh

Woohoo, thank you Saint Ronnie!!!

[Brickbat]

28. It's a process that's still going on when it comes to the push for college for all, gun control,

disinterest in the wreckage of the manufacturing industry, and so on.

[uponit7771]

32. After they had to start sharing power with non white men? tia

[runaway hero]

36. not always about that.

the middle class has shrunk since vietnam. jobs are gone. towns in the midwest destroyed.

[gollygee]

38. Nixon's "Southern Strategy"

It worked more places than just the south.

[CK_John]

42. Hard Hats for Nixon.

[MindPilot]

45. I am a working-class white guy.

At 61, I've made it to what would probably be lower middle class.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I have encountered exactly three people in my day to day life who think Trump is any more than a joke. But that is just my perspective.

I don't pretend to have any answers, but let me just say that I changed my registration from D to NPP when the Democrats voted for...no, that wasn't it...the folks, was it the folks? Maybe it was that time they swept impeachment off the table. Naw, it was more what they didn't do. They didn't stand up for the poor when the repubs did stand up for the rich They didn't go to bat for the homeowner when the repubs got behind the mortgage industry. Yeah, a whole lotta shit the democrats didn't do.

Now they are paying that piper.

[bigwillq]

55. When they were persuaded to believe their tax money went to thugs

and people who don't want to work, and to illegals, and to drug addicts.
WCWs are working and don't want to give their money to people who they don't think are paying their fair share. I hear a lot of this where I live in solid BLUE CT. I live in a blue collar part of the state, and this is what I hear a lot, especially when out at the local watering hole.

[Lint Head]

56. If Wall Street crooks and WMD liars were in jail I

think people would feel Democrats were standing up for the regular American. The American who does not live in a multimillion dollar home, own several expensive automobiles and are pampered and chauffeured around the world. But have to constantly kiss the ass of the powerful.

Yeah. This is fun.

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

57. I'm somewhere between working class and upper middle class...

...depending on the day of the week.

I've been a soldier, a teacher, construction worker, etc. etc. etc.

The upper middle comes from my wife, who has almost a decade of college.

I don't resent women, 'people of color,' alternate lifestyles, people for being different, wanting a fair deal of life, equal rights, none of that.

Life and personal well being is not a zero sum game.

What I do have a problem with is near-zero percent interest rate on my savings, and that my children have to pay into their health care coverage when mine was free for so many years. I have a problem with a nearly 500 billion dollar a year trade defecit and almost 20 Trillion in debt.

I vote my children's interests - and probably most people their age's interest - no matter their color, gender, preference or anything else.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

58. 1968 Civil Rights Act onward.

[Spider Jerusalem]

62. 1968

Civil Rights Act, Vietnam protests, Nixon's "Silent Majority".

[doc03]

63. Civil Rights Act, guns, God, gays, NAFTA

[GulfCoast66]

64. LBJ told us why

When the benefits enacted by FDR were expanded and then given to people of color. Uneducated, and many educated whites fled. As a middle class, Southern white guy who hunts and drives a big truck I am often in a position to hear my peers talk freely. None all of them I know use racial epithets, truly do not think they are racist, but are walking examples of white privilege. And over the last 20 years as their prospects have dimmed it has gotten worse.

I am convinced that the prospect of no longer being majority will stir some to violence before it is all said and done.

Racism is the only reason we do not have European style social programs in this country.

[lancer78]

66. Whitey is becoming

irrelevant. This election might not quite show it, but I think the one in 2020 will.

[Ex Lurker]

68. Your bigotry is showing in the use of the slur "whitey."

this post and many others show why the Democratic party lost, and many Democrats are not interested in regaining, white working class voters.

[lancer78]

69. Yes

I am the Uncle Ruckus of the white world. However bigoted my statement might be, it is the truth. Trump is going to need 66% of the white vote to win.

[forjusticethunders]

92. White voters responded to Johnsons Great Society by electing Nixon

Responded to Carter with Reagan.

They actually voted a bit more for Bill so the whole "they abandoned the Dems bc neoliberalism" doesn't hold.

[ljm2002]

67. We have some very powerful myths in this country...

...the myth of self-sufficiency, the strong man who depends only on himself, makes it only on his own merits, and of course, who practices personal responsibility in all things.

Not that these are bad ideals in and of themselves. But then when you want to manipulate those who have invested their own identity in that powerful myth: they see themselves as embodying the myth; so all you have to do is to paint the Others (city folk; or black folk; or wimmin; or pretentious liberals; or stupid idealistic youth... you get the idea) as people who are not virtuous and do not adhere to these obviously superior values.

So Republicans play on the myth, never acknowledging what any rational person knows: that if nearly everyone in a very rich society is struggling -- well that means by definition, there is something wrong with how society is set up. Instead they push the myth of the individual, as though any of us exists in a vacuum. Of course we must honor the individual; we must also honor the group, the larger body of which we are all part.

That's part of it. The other part of it is that the Democratic Party has, in a very real way, stopped being the party of the working man and woman. They mad a choice to court the more liberal elements of corporate America, in exchange for financial support; and that is where the party now looks when considering policy matters. Unions have been relegated to second-class status, and blue collar (so-called uneducated) workers get little respect, much less good paying jobs, at least in this country. So people aren't stupid, they see where they stand with the so-called "liberal" party. They see the hypocrisy of the liberal elites who do little to help avert the slide into poverty for society's losers, which is becoming more and more of us. And once they see that hypocrisy, they are more likely to buy into those aforementioned comforting myths, from people who at least seem sure of themselves and who don't try and hide who they are.

JMHO

[islandmkl]

85. BINGO!!...the hypocrisy of the 'evolved' Democratic Party...the talk versus the action...

an alienated people do not disappear into some black hole...they either fill a void elsewhere or are drawn into a group that professes to address their interests with action....

it matters little if the Republicans can (or are willing to) do little to actually help them survive, let alone prosper...they have already been jerked-around by the Democrats and they will look for something different, anything...

kind of like elections presenting 'the lesser of two evils'....when one side no longer works for you, you might tend to give the other side your consideration...

nothing is static...

[Iggo]

71. 1968-ish?

[ileus]

75. We don't need them...

We have more than enough voters to keep power in all the areas that count.

[runaway hero]

88. like where?

[AgerolanAmerican]

76. The responses to this thread are all you need to know

working class white men are regarded by today's Good Democrat as stupid and racist

and they got the message loud and clear

[The2ndWheel]

82. Not just regarded as stupid and racist, but their problems aren't real

If we live on a finite planet though, there are only so many things people can do. Everything is a give and take. We're all prisoners of history in one way or another.

[Lee-Lee]

77. I don't know when we lost them, but I can tell you why we still do

Arrogant people who are seen as the face of liberalism and the Democratic Party talking down to them in arrogant and condescending ways is a huge turnoff.

Gun control costs a HUGE bunch. I work in a partially Union facility right now and the #1 reason they mock what the union send sour as voter education material is gun control.

Combine the two and you get the likes of an arrogant limousine liberal like Mike Bloomberg talking down to them on gun control and any candidate that comes near him is a lost cause.

There is more- the sudden rise of the phrase "white privledge" without an education of what it means left it open to the meaning being muddled and left a lot of white, working, barely scraping to be middle class workers scratching their heads wondering why the people on TV or in academia who all make more and live better than him or her called were labeling them as "privledged" and that rolls right around to my first point...

[Duckhunter935]

79. Corporate people like Clinton

And NAFTA

[beachbum bob]

80. when they started watching foxnews and listening to rush limbaugh who all blamed their problems

on blacks, on the poor.....

[forjusticethunders]

84. The Dems didn't abandon the white working class

The white working class abandoned them. White workers voted enmasse to sacrifice their children to the Moloch of racism. That came BEFORE, not after the Dems became more corporate and is a primary reason why that happened.

There was a contradiction between the Democratic Party as "the party of the working person" and "the party of white supremacy" and that contradiction was resolved by the exile of the latter, but by getting rid of so many white working class people, it weakened the power of Labor to resist corporate power.

So for white workers, the choice is clear - are they going to get on the intersectional bus to feed their families, knowing that they're not in the driver's seat anymore? Or are they going to whine and pout and vote to be pillaged even more?

[islandmkl]

87. seems like you have it backwards...but i admit i had a little trouble tracking your argument...

it seems like a 'party' doesn't get 'abandoned' unless it has stopped addressing the concerns and needs of its party's 'members'...

there are myriad factors, but the members have the privilege of selection...the recognition of which apparently was lost by Democratic Party leadership once they veered toward 'liberalized money'...

there are millions of people who don't need to be in the driver's seat...they just get off the bus...

[forjusticethunders]

90. You do realize

That the DLC and Third Way were a response to their white working class base abandoning them for Nixon and Reagan right? And this was after Johnson implemented the Great Society so it wasn't the Dems getting too corporate that did it, it was the Dems repudiating Jim Crow.

[islandmkl]

94. you skipped Carter...and your history ignores the control of Congress that the Party enjoyed...

http://wiredpen.com/resources/political-commentary-and-analysis/a-visual-guide-balance-of-power-congress-presidency/

Contrary to popular belief, most of the time (in modern political history) Congress and the President are at odds; that is, most of the time the same political party does not control the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Only 13 times (26 years) since 1945 have both branches of Congress and the Presidency been controlled by the same party; the Democrats have held this advantage more often than Republicans (11 to 2).

At the same time, Congress has usually been controlled by the same party. The “odd man out” has literally been the President. Since 1945, the House and Senate have been controlled by different parties only seven times (14 years) — but three of those have been since the 2000 elections, which makes this “seem” more normal than it is, historically. And there have been only two complete turn-overs of Congress since 1949: one in 1995 and the other in 2007.

[we can do it]

86. I'm a working class white woman (retired firefighter/paramedic)

Always been a democrat, even before I could vote.

[whatthehey]

95. Whole bunch of reasons

I am white, male and working. I personally am comfortably off but my hobbies, workplace and habits mean I associate almost entirely with very much working class white males.

Are some of them sexist and racist? Sure! It's anecdotal but I'd guess maybe 30% of them really would have problems voting for a female or POC president.

But 99%+ of them are what the DU purity crowd would call racist and sexist, and the 70% who really aren't so resent that. Being told you can't be a real liberal if you aren't furious and outraged every time somebody mentions CP time or uses bitch as a verb, and that it's no different a mark of your character than standing on street corners in a pointed robe shouting "All N...ers must die!" by many of a party's strongest advocates is not going to endear that party to you.

For anything but urban-dwelling white males, and even for many of them, the obssession with limiting guns, and demonizing gun owners, is a slap in the face to centuries of traditional American culture. Yes it's an easy sell that lunatics don't need machine guns, and it wouldn't be too hard to tighten up checks etc, but when such measures inevitably come along with pointless silliness like cap limits and the war on ugly black rifles, the heavily armed white working class just do facepalms.

For the less well educated, jobs are becoming scarce and either low pay, unpleasant or both. For all the wrong reasons, the fathers of the current white working class middle-aged Trump bloc didn't have to compete for jobs with women and POC as much as they do. When the Dems still spend so much of their political influence on these competitors, a zero sum game assumption is hard to refute. Yes people who follow such things closely know that women and minorities aren't even on a level playing field, but that's scant comfort to Stan when he sees Deshawn or Emily get "his" job and still have programs pushed by Democrats to assist them. We need to change messaging somewhat to support equality but to stress equality for all and at the cost of none. When there are almost no safety nets out there for men without children (and when men are rarely granted custody of them), resentment again is hardly a surprise.

We do not offer as simplistic a vision as the Reps do. Yeah yeah elitist liberal snobbery yadda yadda but if you are asking about a less well-educated demographic, you can't with any honesty be hypocritical and pretend they are slavering at the bit to hear wonkish data on GINI coefficients and race-biased sentencing. This really is the main reason why I favor Sanders over HRC despite hardly approaching socialism or the doctrinaire far left; he's the best on our side I've ever seen about explaining to non-wonks what the problem is and how to fix it, in easy and compelling strokes that sell WIIFM.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

96. Urban Rioting, Anti-War Movement, Student Protests and Nixon's appeal to the silent majority

My father can rant about this for hours.

[ChaoticSilly]

97. I'm not really sure what happened...

I am a middle-aged, working class, southern, white man who has voted Democratic in every election since 1992. But according to most of the opinions here, I am evil incarnate and no longer wanted in the Democratic party. I'm sorry that I'm not wealthy or more enlightened, but that's where that whole working class thing comes in.

On the bright side though, I no longer have to worry about working all day, rushing to the polls before they close and then standing in line for 2 hours to cast a meaningless vote for people who despise me.

[nadinbrzezinski]

98. 1980 and that election

using the same kind of resentments and dog whistle politics, or prefer to the southern strategy of Nixon?

Given them something they care, like good jobs and all that shit...