December 31, 2016

A majority of working class whites still voted Democratic for most (or even all) offices for decades

"We haven't had them in the Dem Party to any great extent since Nixon, when he used racist code to get their support."

No. Those were affluent, middle-to-upper-middle class suburban white voters who voted for Nixon. You know, those more "educated" and "tolerant" voters. In 1968, Hubert Humphrey won a significant majority of working class white voters outside the Deep South (where George Wallace, of course, got a lot of white support). Research the election results if you don't want to take my word for it. In 1972, Nixon obviously won in a massive landslide, and yes, he won a lot of working class white voters - but remember that Jimmy Carter won back a lot of those Southern working class whites who had defected to Wallace. And in both 1972 and especially 1976, the Republican presidential nominee did significantly better among wealthier voters (most of whom were/are white, of course). As is tradition.

And no, most working class white dudes did not vote for Reagan. Well, OK, a lot of them did in 1984 - in a 49-state, 59%-41% landslide. And once again, the wealthier whites did a lot better. The "Reagan Democrats" (a painfully overused and pretty much irrelevant term - most of those people are dead, and they either became loyal Republican voters or returned to the Democratic Party) tended to be more affluent suburban white voters. But again, take a look at the election results for 1984. Walter Mondale actually beat Reagan not just in his home state of Minnesota, but in many working-class white locales and counties in much of the Rust Belt - again, in an election in which much of the rest of the country, and wealthier voters in particular, voted for Reagan. You know, those same working-class white areas that Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump this year by scandalously large margins.. Same is even more true for 1988 (take a look at the electoral map that year in Iowa, for example - a state which Trump won this year by several points.

And remember....most of these places sent Democrats to Congress up until the "Republican Revolution" of the 1990s (and many of them even after that - especially outside the South). Which coincidentally, happened in the wake of NAFTA and the rise of "Third Way" Democratic politics with Bill Clinton and co. deciding that the future of the Democratic Party lied in pandering to those same affluent, suburban middle class white voters on everything from crime and taxes to "fiscal conservatism" and corporate deregulation. And all of this, of course, was done at the expense of working class voters of ALL demographic backgrounds - not just white men. And yet, a significant number of working class white men outside the South continued to vote for Democrats at most levels of government - and yes, many at the presidential level as well. And even as the Democratic Party was starting to decrease in strength among this group, a lot of working class whites outside the South (including white men) still voted for Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, and yes, Barack Obama. Hell, a lot of them voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential primaries. And yet, as we are all now painfully aware, there's substantial overlap between these voters (well, the ones who are still alive) and Trump voters - especially in the states which proved to be decisive for Trump's Electoral College win. Which, as far as I know, is still how a candidate wins the Presidency of the United States.

All of this is a long way of saying: You're wrong.

PS: Red-baiting doesn't really do you any favors in a political argument. Especially since there aren't many Reds left to bait, even among Bernie voters (of whom I wasn't one, for the record).

December 25, 2016

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania vs. Loudoun County, VA

Luzerne County, PA

Median household income: $45,897

2008
Obama: 53.3%
McCain: 44.9%

2012
Obama: 51.5%
Romney: 47.2%

2016
Trump: 57.9%
Clinton: 38.6%

Clinton's performance in Luzerne was 19 percentage points less than Obama's was in 2012.

By contrast:

Loudoun County, VA

Median household income: $115,574

2008
Obama: 53.7%
McCain: 45.4%

2012
Obama: 51.5%
Romney: 47.1%

2016
Clinton: 55.1%
Trump: 38.2%

Clinton's performance in Loudoun was 3-4 points more than Obama's was in 2012.

Many of the wealthiest areas in the country moved toward the Democrats in this presidential election, while many of the poorest areas in the country moved toward the Republicans. However, many of those same wealthy areas that voted for Clinton still voted for Republicans down-ballot, while conversely, many of those same poor areas that voted for Trump voted for Democrats down-ballot.

The Democrats have always distinguished themselves - to one extent or another - as being the party of the poor and working classes against the Republicans, who are the party of the rich and well-connected. Something is very, very wrong with the picture that has emerged from the Clinton vs. Trump election results this year.

December 21, 2016

This isn't the first time white, right-wing evangelical Protestants have chosen power over values.

One of these men is a white evangelical Protestant from the South and a devout Christian. The other won the votes of white evangelical Protestants despite being a divorced washed-up Hollywood actor who rarely went to church and who preached a secular Gospel of Wealth and Avarice. Guess who belonged to which party.

December 19, 2016

Forgot to add: The power of unions - organized working class politics - to push wages/incomes up...

...and to make all workers both more likely to vote Democratic, and more likely to vote, period - especially working class white men in the private sector, whom have trended sharply Republican over the last few decades - cannot be overstated.

Organized labor is critical to both the ability and willingness of Democrats to staunchly support and successfully advance a political program that would make the lives of working people, and people other than the wealthy and well-connected in general, better and richer and more hopeful overall.

December 19, 2016

A strong majority of whites without Bachelor's degrees voted for Trump. "Working class?"

Percentage of those aged 25 and over in selected occupations without Bachelors' degrees:

Top executives: 31.4%
Advertising and promotions managers: 21.6%
Marketing and sales managers: 30.6%
Administrative services managers: 59.3%
Financial managers: 37.3%
Industrial production managers: 46.2%
Transportation, storage, and distribution managers: 71%
Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers: 76.9%
Construction managers: 65.9%
Property, real estate, and community association managers: 58.1%

(You get the idea.)

Source: https://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_111.htm

Total employment in management occupations, 2014: Over 9.1 million

Source: https://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_102.htm

Note that these numbers/percentages are for workers whom are currently employed. There are also a lot of retired managers (numbering about a few million, I suspect) who entered the workforce at least nearly a half-century ago, in an era in which management occupations didn't need a Bachelor's degree nearly as often as they do today. And those retirees are disproportionately white men. Retired white guys in 2016 seem like a very liberal group of voters overall, if you ask me!

Furthermore, workers - of any occupation - without Bachelor's degrees are disproportionately located outside of major metropolitan areas, in the South or the "heartland", etc. - you know, those bastions of liberal Democratic political strength in 2016. And regarding income, keep in mind that salaries for all occupations - including management ones - tend to be lower outside the major metros, in rural areas, the South, Appalachia, the rural Rust Belt (and most rural areas in general), "right-to-work" states...see what I mean?

And none of this is even getting into the self-employed, or the military, or local law enforcement, or workers in anti-environmental, anti-regulation extraction industries, or uncredentialed white evangelical/fundamentalist pastors in the South or Midwest or wherever, or religiously conservative white women (particularly older white women) whom are married to men who tend to have higher incomes (or are the sole breadwinners) and higher educational attainment than their wives...

Admittedly a lot of these demographics overlap with one another, but the broader point remains: When speaking of white voters without Bachelor's degrees who voted for Trump, the relationship to class is far from straightforward.

December 16, 2016

"How DARE you call us deplorable!"

Texas electors face threats for defecting: ‘Vote for Trump or we rape your wife and daughters’
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/texas-electors-face-threats-for-defecting-vote-for-trump-or-we-rape-your-wife-and-daughters/#.WFMVAYeoWsY.twitter

Delegates face death threats from Trump supporters
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/delegates-face-death-threats-from-trump-supporters-222302

Trump Supporters Threaten To Assassinate Hillary Clinton, Overthrow Government
http://gothamist.com/2016/10/17/trump_clinton_threats.php

Trump Supporters Are Now Sending Death Threats to Jewish Journalists
http://usuncut.com/politics/trump-supporters-now-sending-death-threats/

Trump Supporters Vandalize Openly Gay Candidate’s Home With Death Threat
http://www.advocate.com/election/2016/10/28/trump-supporters-vandalize-openly-gay-candidates-home-death-threat

Donald Trump supporters 'threaten children of Carrier union boss' after he exposed false claim by President-elect
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-supporters-threaten-union-boss-children-carrier-union-chad-jones-a7462566.html

‘You should die’: Trump supporters threaten Utah delegate, she says, at Republican National Convention
http://www.sltrib.com/home/4130621-155/you-should-die-trump-supporters-threaten

Trump supporters are threatening to kill me over this tweet
http://fusion.net/story/369176/trump-tweet-death-threats-white-people-work/

Trump supporters threaten to send actress Emmy Rossum to 'gas chambers'
http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Trump-supporters-threaten-to-send-actress-Emmy-Rossum-to-gas-chambers-472594

Trump Supporters Release Home Addresses Of GOP State Leaders, Issue Death Threats
http://freakoutnation.com/2016/04/trump-supporters-release-home-addresses-of-gop-state-leaders-issue-death-threats/

Donald Trump Supporters Heckle NDTV Reporter, Threaten To Knock Her Mic Down
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/donald-trump-supporters-heckle-media-ndtv-reporter-call-them-liars-1477596

Vile Trump supporters threaten the kids of Newsweek reporter who exposed his shady business dealings
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/10/vile-trump-supporters-threaten-the-kids-of-newsweek-reporter-who-exposed-his-shady-business-dealings/

November 29, 2016

My problem with the "we shouldn't normalize white supremacy!" argument...

...is that white supremacy is already normalized here in the United States of America, the so-called Land of the Free. And this has been the case ever since many human beings - men, women, and children - from various, diverse peoples who live in Africa were brought here against their will to be cruelly, viciously, violently, and sadistically exploited - economically, sexually, culturally. This has also been the case ever since the indigenous peoples who were here long before European colonists arrived and then savagely and brutally took over much of this continent by stealing the land, (human) labor, and other resources and claiming them as their own - and that which was not claimed for a particular Crown or Empire was claimed by (male) colonists as their "private" property - and all of this was done in the name of "Civilization." And the American racial hierarchy that has enslaved - and continues to enslave - all persons of color is the consequence of the slavery, colonialism, and imperialism that people of color were subjugated to by those who benefited from slavery, colonialism, and imperialism.

This racial hierarchy, in other words, was constructed by white people for their own benefit, to legitimize their subjugation, exploitation, oppression, enslavement, even murder of everyone else. It didn't matter to the white colonists that the "everyone else" category was, in fact, an extremely heterogeneous mix of rich, complex peoples, cultures, and societies, with their own particular histories, economies, and religious, spiritual, and folk traditions. Everyone else was seen - seemingly paradoxically - as both inferior to White Civilization, and threatening to White Civilization. This contradiction is soon resolved, however, by recognizing that the Other ("everyone else" who were excluded from the conception and ideology of White Civilization, in one way or another) had to be inferior for white supremacy to exist. In other words, white supremacy - by definition - is threatened by any acknowledgment of the fundamental equality of all people, and all peoples. The only solution, then, is to treat "the Other" (which also includes women and LGBTQ persons in addition to persons of color) as inferior to, as less than, as fundamentally sub-human.

All of this is how rich white men who owned slaves and were fundamentally afraid of democracy itself - true, authentic democracy, for all people (and peoples) from all walks of life - could write such beautiful phrases like, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them include Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Only by excluding all women outright and denying the humanity and human agency of men who were not white, were not rich, did not own property, and/or were property themselves (black slaves) could the United States of America - and the corresponding ideology of "Americanism" - ever exist in the first place.

I posted a thread a little while back that pertains to this very topic:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/118758367

The reality is that white supremacy is normalized in the USA, and extremely so. And the reasons for it are very, very deeply embedded into the entire history and conception of "America" and what that even means - all of which is history that continues to be made in this very moment, this present time: Right. Fucking. Now.

We'd be much better off, IMHO, by, rather than advocating against the normalization of white supremacy, instead advocating for the de-normalization - and eventual destruction - of white supremacy.

November 26, 2016

There's an asymmetrical perception issue between rural areas and big cities/metros

Specifically, between the least populated (and often, least in terms of population density) regions/counties/towns, and the large, densely populated, diverse, wealthy, and extremely culturally influential (if not essentially dominant) metro areas like those of New York, DC, Los Angeles/Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area...basically, the East and West Coasts (with places in the interior like Chicago and maybe Denver also approaching that status).

The divide is not just one of cultural perspectives and perceptions of the other culture, it's asymmetrical in the sense that, while most people in America's metropolises (particularly the largest and most cosmopolitan ones) have little (if any) awareness of what life is like "out there" out in "the boonies" (other than crude media stereotypes - very often manufactured by people whom have never even set foot in a rural community (and have no desire to, much less ever live in such a community), rural Americans certainly know at least some of the thought/opinions/perspectives of the "city-slickers" - specifically, those of Hollywood, the mainstream news media, and other figures and institutions who, quite frankly, are ELITE. And rural people see the loudest, most influential voices in the media and the broader culture being almost entirely from large, wealthy, cosmopolitan, metropolitan, and LIBERAL areas (all of which seem to be correlated, certainly from the view of rural America) talk about rural people and their communities like they are authorities and experts on them - in spite of the fact that most of the media pundits are very far removed from "the country" - and deeply resent their snobbery, their lecturing, their acting like they know people they don't know (much less, respect), and all the rest of it.

This, IMHO, is a BIG reason for Clinton's very poor performance in so many rural counties in the US - even counties in which Obama won in both 2008 and 2012. While both big metropolitan and rural/small-town residents have many misconceptions regarding each other, the difference is that rural Americans actually do hear (and see) "big city folks" talk about different subjects (including rural America) - and on a daily basis, at that - while the converse is emphatically not true. Who's "uneducated " again?

November 23, 2016

While I don't think violence is the answer

I have no respect for the shameless concern trolls in the media who rant and rave about protests (which are almost EXCLUSIVELY nonviolent) but are silent (or worse) about all the violence inflicted daily on black people and other PoC, the poor, the homeless, and the mentally ill, and the fact that so much of the violence is inflicted on them by those who are sworn to protect the public. And these concern trolls are almost to a person, rich white assholes. They have no shame, no class, and no respect. Fuck them.

November 7, 2016

27 of the 55 delegates to the 1787 US Constitutional Convention were slaveowners

Just about half. These are their names:

Richard Bassett (DE)
Jacob Broom (DE)
John Dickinson (DE)
George Read (DE)
William Houstoun (GA)
William Few (GA)
William Samuel Johnson (CT)
Daniel Carroll (MD)
Luther Martin (MD)
John Francis Mercer (MD)
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer (MD)
William Livingston (NJ)
William Blount (NC)
William Richardson Davie (NC)
Alexander Martin (NC)
Richard Dobbs Spaight (NC)
Pierce Butler (SC)
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (SC)
Charles Pinckney (SC)
John Rutledge (SC)
John Blair (VA)
James Madison (VA)
George Mason (VA)
Edmund Randolph (VA)
George Washington (VA)
George Wythe (VA)
Robert Morris (PA) (though he didn't actually own any slaves, he owned a slave ship and was heavily invested in the slave trade, so for all intents and purposes...

In addition, 12 of the 43 men who have served as President of the United States owned slaves, eight of whom owned slaves while serving as POTUS:

George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
James Monroe
Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
James K. Polk
Zachary Taylor
Andrew Johnson
Ulysses S. Grant (mostly through his wife)

Additionally, James Buchanan was somewhat of a borderline case since his brother-in-law owned two slaves whom Buchanan bought and then hired as indentured servants.

Of those 12, only two (Washington and Jefferson) were delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention. So that's 10 other Presidents who owned slaves.

Just remember: the current President of the United States could very well have been owned by any one of the men listed above, had he lived within one and half to two or so centuries ago. And his successor as the Democratic presidential nominee, and likely (fingers crossed) successor as President of the United States, would also have been considered the property of her husband on the account of the fact that she is a she.

I don't think a lot of people - even a lot of Democrats/liberals/progressives/left-wingers - realize the significance of all of this. Really puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

Sobering.