John Russell, a reporter from More Perfect Union, went to a Trump rally in Erie, PA last month and actually asked questions that they answered honestly, and their answers were almost exactly what a Democrat would say.
Q: How much money is too much money for one person?
A: it’s a tough call. I know. Well, they have these billions and they really don’t need it. Yeah, we agree with that.
Q: Why Trump instead of a Bernie Sanders?
A: What I look at is that more progressives like the Bernie Sanders factor, and stuff like that. We actually, see a lot of the same problems.
(Different person): I would vote for a Bernie Sanders before I would vote for a Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio.
(Later, also a different person) I’m here to support my 45th President. He definitely didn’t lose. He called out the Washington establishment, and I absolutely loved it.
(Another) Y’know, he definitely isn’t a Republican because Mitch McConnell would be backing him and DeSantis wouldn’t be running against him. He’s definitely no Democrat no more. We’re more of a politically homeless faction that loves America and we’ll make all the changes we can to make it great.
(A Previous Speaker) Prices are just higher. You go to the grocery store. I buy the same thing every time I go to the grocery store, I spend $102, just told my uncle this. I spend over $200 bucks now. So things are more expensive, people are more scared.
(Another) Money doesn’t have no value, and that’s why we’re having problems. This whole inflation thing, it’s been building and building for decades. It’s getting close now.
Other than “he didn’t lose” is there any part of this that we would disagree with?
There are things here we can work with.
Here’s a reaction to the previous video by Cenk and Ana on TYT. I appreciate their reaction but I wanted to include the original video so you can see the full discussion because Cenk and Ana go off on their own tangent about how it’s counterproductive to endlessly scold the GOP over the bigoted culture war issues.
I believe it’s a good point that you can’t get a positive response from someone if all you’re doing is attacking and ridiculing them.
If you spend all your time calling someone a “Racist” they’re not going to say “Well, yes, of course I am.” They’re going to fight back and defend themselves. They’re going to accuse *you* of being biased, of “playing the race card” and so on and so forth.
I think we’ve all seen, even when those accusations of racism and bigotry are fully justified, its gets us nowhere. Accusation leads to counter-accusation.
Here’s another video from Jon Stewart where he points out how the GOP and Texas resembles China and Sri Lanka in attracting businesses who are out to screw over their workers with the lowest taxes and loosest regulations.
I do happen to believe that the core of Trump’s support is racist, but it’s not *only* racism. People forget that when Hillary Clinton did her speech about “Deplorables”, after she said that she made another point which has been totally ignored in the 7 years since.
Y’know just to be grossly generalistic. You can put half of Trump supporters into what I call the “Basket of Deplorables.” Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic you name it.
And unfortunately. there are people like that.
It’s at this point that the clip stops and everyone walks away either laughing or grumbling about the statement. They always ignore what came next.
And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites. 11,000 people, now 11 Million. He tweets and retweets. They’re obsessive, hateful, mean-spirited. Some of those folks, they’re irredeemable but thankfully they are not American.
But the other basket, the other basket, and I know because I look at this crowd and I see friends from all over America here. I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas. As well as, k’now, New York and California.
But that other basket of people who feel the government has let them down. The economy has let them down. Nobody cares about them. Nobody worries about what happens to their lives. And they’re just desperate for change. It doesn’t even matter where it comes from.
They don’t buy everything he says but he seems to hold out some hope that they’re lives will be different. They won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear. Lose a kid to heroine. They feel like they’re at a dead end.
Those are the people we have to understand and empathize with at home.
She was absolutely correct. About all of it.
Some of them are irredeemable. Some of them are crazed and deplorable.
But some of them have some legitimate grievances. Some of them have a common cause with us and our agenda.
They just don’t trust us to implement it because corporate donors control the Democratic party as much as they control the GOP.
Mostly.
It was Democrats in the House who voted to implement a $15 minimum wage. It failed to pass the Senate in 2021 because 8 Democrats voted “No.” [Note: All the Republicans also voted “no.”] We almost got there, almost.
The GOP whines and complains about high inflation and they blame Joe Biden for it (even though Inflation is an international problem), but it was Democrats who crafted and passed the Inflation Reduction Act. And consequently, Inflation has come down by a record 6% in the last year. We saw that problem, we did something about the problem and it’s been working.
We have to keep pushing on this and other issues, and we have to keep highlighting that *WE* are the only people who are even trying to do the right thing. We are the party that supports Unions and most often receive union support. We are the only ones who will — sometimes — buck the Corporate power structure.
We are the only ones truly looking about for the common man.
Amids accusation and counter-accusation, culture wars, CRT Panic, grooming, gender-affirming care, and DOJ weaponization — we are the ones that are ultimately on their side.
Not Trump, who gave a $2 Trillion tax cut to the rich that exploded the deficit by $400 Billion in 3 years. Being a cult, they may not listen to us — but that’s on them. It’s on us if we don’t even try.
If we ignore all that, or at least put it in perspective, and primarily address the kitchen table bread and butter issues — we win.
And so do they.