Good evening. I am returning tonight to one of my favorite themes: Republican contempt for their own voters. I can’t count the number of times I’ve mentioned it in diaries and comments, A cursory search located two Top Comments diaries I wrote about it (one, for reasons too involved to rehash here, published twice on the same night, so, technically, three diaries).
The first was in October of 2012, the second in November of last year. (I linked ‘em, you certainly don’t have to read them. Stay here with us, instead!) They aren’t as hypothetical a pair of diaries as some might suspect. I live, as I have said, in a deeply red area of the country. That means I have regular contact with quite a few people who vote Republican. I do not have extremely rich friends. None, to my knowledge, belong to the sheltered 1% of super wealthy. All are middle-class. Just about all would receive greater benefit from their government - local, state and national - if they had Democratic representation. They would have better lives, their children would have much better future prospects, and their own prospects in retirement would be better. Still, they go into the ballot box, election after election, and tally their votes for Republicans.
Simply, these people vote against their self-interest to vote Republican. They ENABLE those who deride them, criticize them, undermine them. I know, as well, from my experience with many of those Republican candidates that they have a deep-seated contempt for those enablers, for their dupes, if you will, even if they happily bank those votes, election after election.
(And what I am writing tonight I have not seen diaried anywhere on Daily Kos. Please correct me if I am mistaken, and I’ll happily update the diary and provide links.)
Yesterday, Tom Sullivan (of scrutinyhooligans) provided me a link to a Daily Caller article about a National Review writer who said that Trump’s appeals to the white working class are immoral, because, well, in the author’s words:
National Review’s Kevin Williamson believes Donald Trump’s appeals to the white working class are “immoral” because that demographic’s way of life deserves to die out.
Scott Greer, who wrote the article for Daily Caller, says further:
This article isn’t the first time Williamson has harshly criticized trying to appeal to working-class whites. In one February article, he said that this class is made-up of “economically and socially frustrated white men who wish to be economically supported by the federal government without enduring the stigma of welfare dependency.” He also claimed that their interests have no place in the “mainstream of American conservatism” and, in a follow-up post, said that the only message conservatives should give them is “get a job.”
The National Review article, entitled The Father-Führer, may be found here. It is mostly hidden behind a pay wall. I’m sorry, I am not giving National Review even $0.25 (Abbie Hoffman would understand), so I’m not providing quotes that I personally took from Williamson’s article. (You are certainly welcome to go there, of course.)
Scott Greer provided a couple of quotes, and a totally incredulous Jazz Shaw, at hotairdotcom, posted more. The Williamson piece quotes below are from Jazz Shaw’s piece.
It is immoral because it perpetuates a lie: that the white working class that finds itself attracted to Trump has been victimized by outside forces. It hasn’t. The white middle class may like the idea of Trump as a giant pulsing humanoid middle finger held up in the face of the Cathedral, they may sing hymns to Trump the destroyer and whisper darkly about “globalists” and — odious, stupid term — “the Establishment,” but nobody did this to them. They failed themselves.
And, then this:
If you spend time in hardscrabble, white upstate New York, or eastern Kentucky, or my own native West Texas, and you take an honest look at the welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol addiction, the family anarchy — which is to say, the whelping of human children with all the respect and wisdom of a stray dog — you will come to an awful realization. It wasn’t Beijing. It wasn’t even Washington, as bad as Washington can be. It wasn’t immigrants from Mexico, excessive and problematic as our current immigration levels are. It wasn’t any of that.
Did you get that?! Even Washington is not to blame! It is their own failings! And fuck you!
This is the contempt I have been talking about, in the explicit words of a conservative columnist, published in a bastion of conservative ‘wisdom.’ This is a passionate conservative writer calling the broadest base of Republican voter support fools to their faces, to blame for all the things that cause them the anger Republican candidates tap into and mine so gleefully. He even disrespects their breeding, likening it to the rutting of sub-sentient species.
The demographic MOST essential to Republican electoral success, noses rubbed in steaming excrement. And, yet, how do you think they will vote, come November?!
I’ll tell you how I’d vote, if I were one of them, made aware of this kind of contempt. This kind of derision and hypocrisy. And, yes, I do absolutely make them aware. Every chance I get. I hope you will, too. You can see how deep their contempt is for their voters. And it goes well beyond the act of voting against their own self-interest. It is complete contempt for who and what they are.
Thanks for reading. On to tonight’s comments! Collected and formatted by brillig!
TOP COMMENTS
Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down.
Note: Especially during this passionate primary season, please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig.
From sfbob:
I'd like to nominate this comment by hankg and the entire thread it gave rise to. As if the original bubbanomics post (with his usual title) weren't already superb, this particular graphical response and the rejoinders to it surely won the internet for the day.
From Tara TASW:
In Hunter's diary "New Republican attack ad highlights Donald Trump's rhetoric toward women", stevemb has both a great idea for Democratic ads, and really memorable metaphor, and MikeTheLiberal has a wicked quip.
From brillig:
Denise Oliver Velez’s The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. is endorsing GOTV brought this epically true top comment from Onomastic
Highlighted by belinda ridgewood, this comment is the first comment of a person who was once Bella Abzug’s press secretary! Please extend a hearty Daily Kos welcome to Harold Holzer!
TOP MOJO
Top Mojo for yesterday, March 13th 2016, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo.
TOP PICTURES
Top Pictures for yesterday, March 13th 2016. Click any picture to be taken to the full comment. Thank you jotter!
