I’m embarrassed for you, kos.
The more I think about the title of your latest work and the mean-spirited words that follow it, the more I wonder who we are and what we stand for. Is your diary intended to make us all feel better because we’re smarter than the dumbfucks who bought into Trump’s “throw-the-bums-out” bullshit, and who most certainly will get more screwed by him than any Democrat, Clinton or otherwise? Is that the point? So we can all feel good about ourselves?
Your headline and story are simplistic in the extreme. As I point out in a comment in your diary, there are all kinds of reasons that people bought into Trump’s line of bull. He was the id of what so many people in this country have been thinking and experiencing over the past 20 years (regardless of whether his prescriptions were true or bullshit — and we know they’re bullshit).
A lot of people in this country are on their way down with no hope of regaining what they once had. Trump’s bullshit spoke to these people. As I note in that comment in your piece, yesterday’s New York Times story on private equity companies and how tax laws incentivize them to rape and pillage companies, workers and communities is far more detailed and revealing on why Trump won (especially in places like Ohio) than the drivel you have just spewed here.
From that New York Times story:
The collapse and revival of Hostess illustrates how even in a business success, many workers don’t share in the gains. The episode also provides a snapshot of the economic forces that helped propel Donald J. Trump to the White House.
Since losing his job at Hostess in 2012, Mark Popovich has had three jobs, including one that paid about $10 an hour, half what he made at the Twinkie-maker. A lifelong Democrat and devoted “union man,” Mr. Popovich said he supported Mr. Trump, the first time he ever voted Republican.
…
Before being laid off from Hostess, Mr. Popovich made about $20 an hour. Every year, he went on vacation in the Bahamas or St. Martin. His health insurance covered the $385,000 cost when his wife needed major surgery.
“I lived a good life,” said Mr. Popovich, whose most recent job driving a forklift at a solar panel plant paid about $16 an hour.
Mr. Popovich is also entitled to a pension, which he was promised after working more than two decades at Hostess. But he recently received a letter at his home in Toledo, Ohio, warning that the pension fund was nearly insolvent.
...
Looking out over those next 15 years, nothing seems guaranteed to Mr. Popovich, the former Hostess worker from Toledo. Right before Thanksgiving, Mr. Popovich was laid off from his most recent job at the solar panel plant.
The idea of searching for work at age 58 is daunting. He has been sending out his résumé, but has not received a call back.
“It’s been four jobs in four years,” he said. “Here we go again.”
This guy is a Trump voter. A lifelong Democrat. I suppose you want to shit all over him, too.
Where were Democrats when this guy went from a good, all-American life to being broke, looking for a job, and losing his pension at age 58? Hell, Clinton was actively courting these types of exploitative financial firms for donations during her campaign.
Yeah, we can piss all over guys like this and make ourselves feel superior, but I think that’s precisely the wrong tack to take. We need to figure out how to help the coal miners and the Mark Popovichs of the world. We should be figuring out ways to ensure that every worker gets a pension.
I don’t like shitting on working people. It turns my stomach.
UPDATE: We’ve lost the war
In kos’ piece, I had this exchange with someone who responded to my comment (which became this diary):
What entitlement! I can’t even conceive of the life he (ed. Popovich) has gotten to live, and I’m just about 18 years younger than him. And the generation younger than me, they’re working shittier jobs than Popovich — no pension, no health insurance, no fucking trip to the Bahamas every year! Are you kidding me???? The ones in their 20s and 30s are in debt up to their ears, working at Starbucks where they get yelled at by trolls for saying “happy holidays.” It’s total bullshit. He fell for a shit sandwich liar. My friends in their 20s and 30s sure didn’t fall for it. But because Popovic doesn’t want to send out another resume, it’s okay to vote for a hateful anti-woman, anti-black, anti-environment scum. No, no sympathy.
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Boy, you’ve bought into the whole right wing tale that began under Reagan. Can’t blame you. I am always amazed when I hear Democrats ask a question like, “How come those union people get a pension and I don’t?”
The Republican messaging machine has won. We are supposed to accept the crumbs the swells dole out to us. The Republicans have pitted the working class against the working class, while the wealthy make off with all the spoils.
The correct question is, “How come I don’t have a pension?”
Democrats used to be the ones fighting for working people. Now they play along with the current system and niggle around the edges.
We’re asking the wrong questions and fighting for the wrong things
A Democrat begrudging someone else a pension and an annual vacation. How far we have fallen.
The Republicans have won. Working class folks fight among themselves for the table scraps of the wealthy.
UPDATE 2: And another one
This, from the same comment string in kos’ piece:
Mr Popovich had it really good. Maybe he should have looked at what it’s like for the rest of us, who don't have that health insurance and get to drive places for vacation.
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There you go. See my comments in this thread, above.
The Republicans have succeeded in pitting working people against working people for the table scraps of the wealthy while the rich make off with the spoils. Your comment is the perfect example of that.
This poor fucker working making Twinkies was making 20 bucks an hour, had health insurance and was taking one nice vacation a year and you’re going to begrudge him that because you have less.
You’re asking the wrong question.
It’s not, “Why does he get that and I don’t?”
It’s, “Why don’t we all have what he has?”