Also, why is it so impossibly hard to accept that people who voted for Trump simply liked what he had to say? And no amount of revelations about the “Russian collusion” will convince them that they didn’t hear him say what he did and didn’t like it? Because that’s the simple truth. It’s not like he’s so silent and inscrutable that anybody needs to spread false information to explain what he wants to say. The guy hasn’t been able to shut up from the start.
28 responses to “They Liked It”
-
-
I have to say, the idea of training former coal miners to code does border on the very crazy.
LikeLike
-
// I have to say, the idea of training former coal miners to code does border on the very crazy.
LikeLike
-
Regarding retraining coal miners, I agree with the Russian-speaking blogger (link below) who said:
[Google translate] “It seems that it’s really hard to study at an adult age without the years of habits developed. It is so difficult that a person is ready not even to climb underground – he is ready to live in a vague hope that he will someday be allowed to climb underground, if only not to sit at the desk.
This is bad news for those who imagine a utopian world of the future, where all people enjoy creative work, changing their specialization every few years (so as not to get bored!), And the mechanical work is occupied by machines.”
https://scholar-vit.livejournal.com/525125.html
LikeLike
-
-
I still see people convinced that Trump was a terrible candidate and that anyone but Hillary could’ve beaten him. Or that all those people really didn’t want to vote Trump, they were just forced to because he was the “lesser of two evils.” A weak candidate doesn’t do better in Ohio than any Republican presidential candidate has since the ’80s. He would’ve been hard to beat in 2016, and he’ll be hard to beat in 2020, especially with screechy morons dragging the Democratic party down.
-
Absolutely. I’m worried about 2020. Yesterday I read that Bernie Sanders is “the effective leader of the Democratic party.” I asked my students. They literally don’t even recognize his name. This does not bode well.
LikeLike
-
Young people not recognizing his name? That’s crazy to me! I know older people don’t necessarily; my mama has forgotten who he is and has a faint idea that he’s a Republican from California. Yet people are convinced that he’s beloved by all.
LikeLike
-
My students would be the perfect constituency to capture for the Democrats. Young, working class origins, energetic, a keen dislike for injustice, motivated, hungry for achievement, supremely interested in traveling, seeing the world, interested in other cultures. All of them work to put themselves through school. And they either don’t vote at all or don’t vote Democrat.
Democrats could easily attract them if they started speaking the language of the working class, like they are supposed to.
LikeLike
-
The discourse is dominated by “progressive” and “establishment” Democrats, which are just different kinds of bougie, mostly white liberals. They are convinced that they are the only people in the party. The rest of us need to make our voices heard, although it’s hard when people really don’t want to listen.
LikeLike
-
-
Most people don’t vote and most people don’t follow politics. We’re outliers. We vote and we’re political junkies.
LikeLike
-
“Most people don’t vote and most people don’t follow politics. We’re outliers. We vote and we’re political junkies.”
- Exactly. Democrats need a huge rebranding effort. With a catchy jingle, preferably rhymed and an inspirational, positive image attached to it.
LikeLike
-
I know I’m not the norm, but even politically uninvolved people I knew had heard of Bernie. Like, one of my coworkers didn’t know who was a Republican and who was a Democrat, but even he had heard of Bernie., he just had to ask me which party he was (along with Trump and Clinton.)
LikeLike
-
-
I feel like the young people love Bernie thing has always been a myth created by the media. I teach in an early primary state and students on my campus were incredibly excited about Obama when he ran in the primaries in 2008 and there was all sorts of activity on campus. I had students who would not stop talking about how much they loved Obama and how excited they were about the election. Compared to 2008 and Obama, there was very little interest in the primary and very little excitement about Bernie or Hillary among my students. Most of the serious Bernie supporters I know in real life are in their 30s.
LikeLike
-
That’s my experience, too. Obama had students energized. And I haven’t seen that kind of energy since then.
LikeLike
-
I am young, and young people my age where I am loved Bernie. I imagine it’s somewhat regional though, and I haven’t met a single young southerner who liked him (not that a know a ton.) I’m not sure if it’s on the same level as the Obama love because I was living in a Republican area in 2008 so everyone supported McCain. I will say that everyone seems to have moved on at this point.
LikeLike
-
Not everyone, unfortunately. I know people who want both Hillary and Bernie to run in 2020. None of them are young, at least.
LikeLike
-
I bet a lot of the young progressives I know want Bernie to run again. But they’re not obsessively talking about him or posting on social media anymore, and that’s good enough for me.
I do think a lot of them will be lured away by other candidates in 2020. Kamala Harris would have a real in with a lot of them. Sherrod Brown would obviously lure people away too since this is Ohio.
LikeLike
-
I’m in a very different region. Many of our students are from Missouri, and that is almost the South. It’s impossible to imagine our students getting excited either about Hillary or Bernie because they don’t understand the language of the 1980s and the 1970s respectively that these politicians speak.
I still don’t know Kamala Harris well enough to say anything but Sherrod Brown could interest them.
I love these young people, and I want them to find a way to get interested in politics. Which will not happen for as long as we run people who are like extraterrestrials for them.
LikeLike
-
-
-
-
-
-
Maybe your students aren’t representative of the overall US youth population. This is from April 2017.
LikeLike
-
We have all seen the value of these polls in the last election.
LikeLike
-
Well then, it’s your gut feeling vs mine. And I believe Bernie is still the most popular politican in the country. No surprise that the 2020 aspirants (Kamala Harris, Warren) are moving more left than right.
LikeLike
-
“And I believe Bernie is still the most popular politican in the country.”
- I’m guessing you haven’t spent much time in the Midwest. 🙂
LikeLike
-
Dems used to laugh at the idea of single payer/universal healthcare. Pelosi literally said it was never going to happen, only a few months ago.
And now it is inconceivable for a dem candidate in 2020 to NOT run on that platform. What do you attribute that to? Sanders or Clinton? I don’t care if Sanders runs or not (actually prefer if he didn’t), but his influence on the base is undeniable, and it would be a huge mistake for the centrists to once again diffuse and disperse all that energy coming out of the left.
They’ll do it anyway.
LikeLike
-
You’ll note that all the politicians enthusiastically getting behind single payer are in safely blue areas. Sherrod Brown is quite progressive, yet he didn’t sign on to Bernie’s bill. Makes you think…
I do agree that Bernie has successfully pushed the platform left. I just disagree that that’s a good thing. I don’t necessarily need a centrist in 2020, but I would like our candidates to have a certain amount of flexibility, rather than everyone having to have a certain position on every issue.
LikeLike
-
-
-
If Bernie actually runs in 2020, he’ll be 79 years old — two years older than the oldest U.S. President (Reagan) when that President left office (and was considered by some to already be in the early stages of dementia).
Anyone who thinks that a majority of American voters would elect a 79-year-old avowed “socialist” as President is very misguided about the U.S. electorate. American opinion isn’t nearly as far left as certain misleading polls would suggest, and as some Democratic players strongly claim while they’re jockeying for leadership within the party.
For example, many voters who initially say they like the idea of a single-payer healthcare system quickly backtrack when told that this would require giving up all their personal employer insurance, and putting all their trust in the government. Many Democratic legislators like Sherrod Brown acknowledge this.
Nobody will be happier than the Republicans if the Democrats run on a hard-line, hard-left platform in 2018 and 2020.
LikeLike
-
“Anyone who thinks that a majority of American voters would elect a 79-year-old avowed “socialist” as President is very misguided about the U.S. electorate. American opinion isn’t nearly as far left as certain misleading polls would suggest, and as some Democratic players strongly claim while they’re jockeying for leadership within the party.”
People, wake up. It doesn’t matter who’s left, schmeft or screft. What matters is who has the best jingle. And the most tweets. Most people are entirely unaware of the meaning of the words “left” and “right” in the political sense.
“Nobody will be happier than the Republicans if the Democrats run on a hard-line, hard-left platform in 2018 and 2020.”
Forget the word “platform.” It’s a bad, bad word. Remember the word branding instead. Branding. Marketing. Product placement.
LikeLike
-
“Most people are entirely unaware of the meaning of the words ‘left’ and ‘right’ in the political sense.”
This may be true, but it’s also true that most people would have no idea what you’re talking about when you use words like “neoliberalism,” a very frequent term on this website. Since the politically-aware readers here understand the terms, it’s more convenient and practical to write them than to take an entire paragraph to explain which views or brand we’re referring to.
Would you really advocate writing sentences like, “Klara likes the clown toy with the hat that’s the color of most roses and with the pants that are the color of the sky when it isn’t cloudy,” when you can simply say, “Klara likes the clown toy with the red hat and the blue pants”?
LikeLike
-
What I’m saying is that people will go for anything as long as there is a catchy jingle. My proof is sitting in the White House right now.
LikeLike
-
-
A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
Leave a comment