Bernie To Dems: Stop Neglecting Trump Voters!

[JHan]

116. There are several responses a liberal can make towards trump voters

(Aside from the fact that bravenak's argument was not a strawman at all but got to the heart of it )

Empathy is "seeing life through someone else's eyes" - Most of us can feel for someone who has lost a job, lost their life's savings, or feels there's no future ahead of them. These are pretty standard concerns for democrats.

On the other hand, we can't ignore Trump's divisive bigoted campaign which targeted and scapegoated mexicans, muslims and exposed his sexism. Trump's support among his base remains unchanged, this despite the reports of people being detained for all sorts of spurious reasons, despite the drip drip of possible direct collusion with Russia, the dismantling of the EPA and a horror show of a cabinet made up mostly of billionaires. They're sticking behind him which means they're okay with it.

You can either dismiss them completely, or believe them to be misguided, or maybe even empathize with them, or maybe tell yourself that some of the things Trump ran on had merit , or take it even further and think of supporting Trump. Once you make the switch to "Trying to understand", and rationalizing, using the farce of finding common ground , you're ignoring reality and softening rejection of Trumpism and unethical behavior that's already defined his administration.

Trump voters don't have a monopoly on economic anxiety.

Trump voters aren't the only ones anxious about healthcare and the economy.

We don't need to reach out to "Trump voters", we need to sell our ideas hard and get back to old school style activism at the local government level and make our presence felt.

Ellison is aware of this and Perez is aware of this. They're going on a tour soon and they're passionate and driven and UNITED.