UPDATE: Wednesday, Jul 5, 2023 · 6:08:42 PM +00:00 · Dem
Some people continue even in this very diary to insist that the reason white rust belt working class union high school graduates are Trumpers is economic grievance and economic anxiety. These are the same people who consistently attack the Democratic Party as not as focused on a compelling economic message as they should be. They argue because of that failure by the Democratic Party, we are not converting these people and, they are becoming Trumpers. We know that's nonsense for a variety of reasons.
Like Michael Steele, I have heard this argument too many times to count and it drives me batshi+ crazy because as Michael says, it makes no sense. These people dictate what fixed Noise shows on their network. We often think rightly about al the right wing radio (back in the day) and fixed Noise and OANN and News Max pushing this false view of the world and the effects on the listeners, but we often fail to consider that if the listeners didn't want this propaganda, then those pushing it would lose too much of their audience to stay on the air. I think discovery from the Dominion trial made this apparent. The leaders of Fixed Noise were afraid to not push the big lie, for example, and got angry when a reporter stepped out of line because Fucker Carlson knew it would hurt them. If this was what these people were driven by, then we would see it in what Trump and DeSantis push in their campaign speeches. Look at the legislation that red states like Florida are passing. It's culture war stuff, not economic. I know that upsets those here who love to bash the Democratic Party as not being populist enough economically, but other groups are hurting as much as or more than these few Union member former democrats whom Sanford and others conjure up and these other groups are not supporting Trump and are not republicans.
Suppose a causes group z to be Trumpers.
All groups which have condition a are Trumpers.
Group z has condition a and its members are Trumpers.
But groups w, x, and y have condition a but are not Trumpers.
Condition a is struggling economically.
This seems to disprove the thesis that having condition a causes a person to be a Trumper.
And these people don't push for better economic policies that would benefit them. On the other hand, they are active in pushing culture war stuff.
Their political party doesn't push better economic policies for them or all Americans. Why don't other groups with greater economic struggles become Trumpers etc. ?
They latch onto a guy who has never known economic anxiety.
The political candidates whom they support talk about culture wars in their campaign speeches, not economic policies.
Red states are passing culture war legislation (cf Florida but it's not the only state) and making it law.
There are dozens of reasons to reject the argument that the lower middle class high school graduate rust belt union workers are Trumpers because of economic grievance and economic anxiety. Pick one.
Wow! Michael Steele and Jennifer Rubin put this argument that the Trumpers and the insurrectionists are economically aggrieved and that's why they have acted as they did in the fucking grave. They absolutely buried it! It's the best five minutes of television that I have watched in a long, long time. Michael was filling in for Velshi and Jennifer Rubin and Michael captured the essence of this and destroyed in it in the most succinct way that I have seen done. My comments on the discussion are below.
The transcript was done entirely by me. Unfortunately, there is no video on the MSNBC site or on YouTube for this yet. That might change, but I really searched and found nothing.
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After a discussion of why Lindsay's sycophantism hasn't produced more popularity among the Trumpers, former Governor Mark Sanford says:
But I want to go back for one second because it's bugged so much during the break, Jennifer was exactly right when she said that what he says about documents was crazy and not true. It's this continuation of fake news but which is just cancerous in the democratic system and it's got to be eradicated. People need to speak up against Trump and say, "This is wrong. This is not true. ". They need to do it in the political playing field, but right now I go back to what is bugging these people: The American dream is premised on an ever rising level of opportunity and fairness and the people that are in that crowd are genuinely questioning that. I saw it back in 08 at the time of the financial crisis. And he has plugged into that and with great effect because it's working.
Michael Steele :
But Mark, I hear that a lot and I just gotta put a pin in that. I've heard that so much, but I'm sitting here looking at all the other groups of people in this country, 400 years of racism, Jim Crow, all of this stuff that the African American community has gone through, talk about grievance! If anyone's going to be aggrieved. Yet, they didn't storm the Capitol when they matched on Washington to break buildings and crap all over the desk of Nancy Pelosi. They didn't kill police officers and beat them with flag poles. So this grievance argument, it has some limitations for me because it makes no sense! That that's how you're going to express, what are you aggrieved about? Just lay your argument out , elect the people who can address it without undermining and destroying democracy. But I just wanted to put a pin in it because I just think that's becoming more and more of an excuse for just undemocratic behavior!
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Governor Mark Sanford:
I totally , let me be clear, I am not justifying it or sanctioning it . I am just observing it and I have been observing it since 08 when there was the sort of the beginning of the tea party and the way a thousand people showed up at the Capitol steps back then , sort of a precursor to the Tea Party phenomenon and you go out and talk to these people and one will be a truck driver and they're married to a convenience store clerk and they're struggling to get their kids off to school and do all the things that go with life and they were really ticked off that at the fact that while their cousin's pizza shop did not get a subsidy some money centered bank was bailed out and you know the folks got to continue to live in the Hamptons do all that they do and it's morphed into something more dangerous, more cancerous, but I want to be clear I am not sanctioning it, but the root of the cause here is these grievances that have been bottled up and turned cancerous.
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Michael Steele:
I hear you. Weigh in Jennifer
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Jennifer Rubin:
Yeah, I don't think it's economic grievance. The average Trump voter was richer than the average Hillary voter. Many people who are following him are quite affluent who have done very well and were the people who got the PPP loans. This is about cultural grievance. This is about a group of people who feel like they were on top, that white Christian people frankly who have dominated this country for a very long time and then that's when we hear this noxious voice from another cable network that says we're being replaced. I don't recognize America. That's not an economic grievance. That's a racial grievance; that's a cultural grievance. And so I think we have to be clear that what a bunch of people are aggrieved about CANNOT BE SOLVED. WE ARE NOT GOING TO GO BACK TO A WHITE DOMINATED COUNTRY! WE ARE NOT GOING TO UNBROWN THE UNITED STATES BECAUSE OF IMMIGRATION ! WE'RE NOT GOING TO BECOME A NON PLURALISTIC DEMOCRACY! THAT'S REALLY WHAT THEY WANT! And the beauty for Trump of that is because it's insoluble, it's a constant grievance. If you could solve it, then it stops being a grievance and he stops having utility. So long as people are aggrieved, we've got something that cannot be solved. YOU CANNOT MAKE WHITE CHRISTIANS A MAJORITY IN AMERICA ANYMORE. Them they'll continue to have anger and he'll continue to stoke it and he'll continue to have them venting. Those people who stormed the Capitol were not carrying signs that said ,"PPP loans for me"; they were carrying CONFEDERATE FLAGS. They were wearing tshirts that said,"Camp Auschwitz"! We have to be very clear about what is underlying this. And although there are people who have economic grievance, there are people who have suffered, frankly that's not the motivating force the biggest correlation with Donald Trump is people who think white people have been victims, that's the biggest identification with Trump. You watch Fox News and you think white people are victims and, oh by the way, women don't know their place anymore. And THAT'S HOW YOU IDENTIFY A TRUMP VOTER!
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Michael Steele:
We're going to have to leave it there. Thank you very much Jennifer Rubin and former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford!
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My comments below:
The people who could afford to make that trip to the Capitol are NOT ECONOMICALLY AGGRIEVED! What would the economically aggrieved HAVE IN COMMON with Donald Trump? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. WHEN did Donald Trump become popular with these people? After pushing BIRTHERISM!
People who are hurting economically tend to be women and people of color. That's what statistics tell us! Most people who are hurting financially are democrats. Whose policies benefit those who are hurting economically? The Democratic Party! Are these people pushing for $15/HR minimum wage or are they against diversity and against Black Lives Matter and against the LGBTQ community? What is Ron DeSantis pushing, a higher minimum wage or culture war stuff? Is Donald Trump running on raising the minimum wage? I HAVE NEVER HEARD HIM PUSH FOR RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE! The nonpartisan CBO scored the one significant piece of legislation passed while Trump was president, the tax cut for the wealthy, as benefitting almost exclusively the wealthy!
Former Governor Mark Sanford's faulty premise that Trump's voters support him because of lack of economic opportunity was exposed. He tried to give them an excuse that they weren't entitled to. Even if he didn't say that their attack on the Capitol was justified, he did try to say that their feelings of aggrievement were justified and based upon reality. The fact is that these people do better than most of America and their experience as white fundamentalist Christians has been far better than the experience of people of color, than women, than the LGBTQ+ Community, and than other marginalized communities!