Throw in the evangelicals, the low skill out of work and a few greedy billionaires and you have the perfect storm that swept the this miscreant demagogue into office. The path the Republican have chosen was inaugurated by Nixon. Over the last fifty years the Republican Party has developed into outright criminal enterprise with each succeeding administration's increased contemptuous disregard for the nation's laws. Unfortunately, their flouting of the law has become increasing accepted as normal by a large segment of the citizens. The nation has undergone a transformation from the nation founded on the principle of unity as expressed by its official motto, E pluribus Unum, (Out of many one) into uncompromising tribes. It is no where more exemplified than by leader of the nation who hourly utters outright nonsensical gibberish embolden with lies to his adorning crowd who accept it as profound wisdom. Its actualization of Orwellian thought in which lies become truth and truth become lies which are reinforced by hundreds of broadcast stations spewing propaganda 24/7.

My hope is these fools end up exactly like their loud mouth, racist, ignorant hero, Rosanne Barr. Ran out of town into silence while the country, like her show, moves on without them with great success. Rosanne all those assholes into oblivion. Send Fox to the same place.

The country is full of mentally deranged people.

racism, misogyny, xenophobia. This type of person has always been the foundation of modern (Reagan and post-Reagan) rethuglicans. Unfortunately, it's been part of the Democratic party too, but in smaller numbers. He's saying what became "politically incorrect" to utter aloud in public from about the past twenty years or so. They represent his base, but the rethug party of today is the party that emerged after the Civil Rights movements in the sixties and forward.

Definition of idiom: an expression in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (such as up in the air for "undecided"

I'm right across the state line from you in NE Ohio.

I fear that there is no hope for brainwashed Trump cultists like you mentioned. They will piss and moan about the economy, but the real reason they support Trump is because he is a racist and bigot like they are.

I don't know what else to say except keep speaking up, I try to do so as well, I doubt we'll change any minds, but like you said, we have to at least make it known that there are progressives around here who hunger for sanity and integrity in government.

I felt as though in the last election, the Democrats ignored our area of NE Ohio-Western PA. No visits, no mailers, very few TV ads. So, of course, the GOP propaganda took over here. Trump came to Youngstown and made his famous bullshit speech on "don't sell your home, I'm bringing manufacturing back." I got one of those big mailer cards in my mailbox almost every day with Trump garbage on it, never anything from the Dems. Lots of GOP TV ads on the local airwaves, and very few for Hillary. I hope that will change. I have written to my state Dems pointing this out. I hope they listen to us, my friend.

It's the same way here.

The view here is unfortunately the same. Properties in the local countryside are dotted with Trump signs. Both scary and dumb.

It also is a bastion of Trump lovers. My county when 71% for Trump 24% for Hillary in 2016. Kind of a lonely place for a liberal democrat.

He brought it out of the closet and into the open, where it could gain a little “respectability” instead of being locked away in shame - where that kind of antisocial, regressive, selfish, mean-spirited piss-ant attitude deserves to be - and to STAY.

They love him for it. He made it okay to be “out ‘n’ proud about it. He made them feel justified and even righteous - especially when he “won.” Because that then, in effect, made it right.

The minute you hit the wide open countryside you are in Deepest Trumpistan.

I guess "small town" is a relative term.

why NO rational discussion is possible

also from western PA and the blind allegiance to IQ45 just drives me crazy!
Yesterday there was a post from NE Ohio that said a majority of those questioned thought it was OK for him to offer his own place for the G7.
W-T-F!!!!!!! He's reaching straight into YOUR pocket and taking whatever money you have left and putting it into his own - and he does this over and over and over again!

All of this only goes to prove that it is SO critical for us to be sure to GET OUT THE VOTE.
We've got the numbers - we just have to get them to show up and vote!

Because they KNOW this. They KNOW there are way more of us than there are of them.

All we EVER have to do is get up off our asses and VOTE when it’s time to do so.

That’s IT. That’s literally and simply and essentially IT!!! That’s literally all you ever have to do. Just get up off your asses and VOTE!

Our greater numbers will take care of the rest of it.

and at least half of the adults are trumpers.. idiots, racists, fools.. all of the above.

There are more huge Trump banners now than 2016.

they, like him, are mean-spirited selfish envious idiots. They admire Trump, when he shoots the bird at all conventions, because that's what they want to do everyday. If only they too could rob a bank or run a real-estate scam or launder Russian money. What a great guy that Trump is for doing what they only dream about. They are the dregs of society.

. . .Is impoverished in more ways than one.

There is no doubt that racism and xenophobia are a big part of the Trumpian subculture. What interests me is where the depths of those pathologies find their origin. Trump tapped the wellspring; but how did it get poisoned in the first place?

Fear.

It's companion: Ignorance.

The two together could be considered devastating for any country in a high enough dose, all reactions and evaluations aside.

They don't get it that a high school diploma these days at best will get them the lowest paying minimum wage job, back in the day they could finish high school and hire on to the local factory and live a solid middleclass life. They are afraid of the world that is moving past them, but they refuse to look at themselves as being the source of their problems.

hundreds of Rush knock-offs all on AM radio, 24/7/365. Pure propaganda that is lapped up, soaked in and totally brain-absorbed to the cellular level. Their frustration is clarified for them. It's the Demorats and 50 years of socialism, blah blah.

I heard Ari Melber and Michael Moore talking about this very thing last night in the aftermath of an airing of “Bowling for Columbine.”

Fear of “the other.” Those people who are different than you, don’t look like you, aren’t the same color as you, don’t worship the same as you, that sort of thing.

Fear that “the other” is taking over. They talked demographic changes, and how whites in America will soon no longer be the majority. That’s expected to happen within about 20-25 years.

Fear sends you to strange places and makes you want to think and do strange things.

Since Reconstruction, they have been subjected to "Librul" discrimination in favor of the black, and the brown, and the poor, and the queer...they finally have a leader who plays to those feelings. They see themselves as the "true and rightful" citizens of this country....

Seriously, I encounter this line of reasoning down here all the time. smh....

Many great replies to this OP. DU really needs a "like" button for replies....

. . .is one that I have read about before.

This begs the question: Why can't you move on from something that happened roughly 150 years ago?


That's the sort of question those people ask all the time about black people--maybe not to a person's face, but it gets asked around the dinner question when they are talking about the world and what is wrong with it--in their opinion.

Like their dear leader, every setback they suffer is someone else's fault.

Without doing a deep psychoanalysis on anyone, (which I'm not qualified to do, anyway), it seems to me that having a modicum of inner peace is needed to be open to new people and new ideas.

If there is no true restful place inside yourself, then everything strange threatens turmoil.

Initially reported blue, later reports said it flipped red.

Your experience on the ground is more accurate than my view from a distance, obviously. We're still blue in Allegheny, and I'm fighting against pro-tRump humps regularly. Even in the minority, they insist on everyone listening to their important political views.

there's NO WAY Toomey won in 2016!




Oh, just noticed: This is post 6666 for me - THE DEVIL, INDEED!

Repugs definitely pull some illegal and hinky moves around here, in elections. And all the rest of the time, too.

Many love him and it's because he's pissing off "the other."
Almost entirely white, living in a cultural/religious silo and no desire to learn about/explore other cultures or communities. Contempt and incredulity for anyone considered Godless (Jesus-less). Many are fear-driven authoritarian followers with absolutely no self-awareness or critical thinking skills.
AOC, Greta, and social democracy (despite the roadways used to go to work being examples of social democracy) are bad 'cause Rush and Shawn told them so. Any person of Hispanic background standing on the street corner - whether they be from Brazil or Cuba - is automatically "Mexican." A Hindu-owned/operated gas station is being run by "Muslims." The n-word used in public spaces.
In the last election only one in ten voted progressive. Frustrating.

I admire your courage.

I live among these people. My job depends on keeping my mouth shut. I must shamefully admit that I for the most part keep my head low.

We live in a red area - by and large decent people, but full on live in the cultural silo you note.

Just have to differentiate between their politics and everything else about them.

Some MAGATS are not bad people if the subject is something other than politics, California, Chicago or New York City. If one of the hot-button items somehow enter the conversation, they become frothing mouthed wild men and women.

Racism is a big part of the picture with them, but not all. I estimate is that 1 in every 5 White families here have an interracial person in it and when you meet MAGATS, they adore their relatives.

They are constantly ragging on California and Chicago. I’ve heard several of them comment about what a “shit hole” California is, and how people are leaving in droves. I try to refute such nonsense by telling them almost 40 million people must think it’s not that bad. They literally think that every city in California has hordes of homeless people taking dumps in the street.

For every person wanting to leave California, many multiples of 1 are dying to live there.

Homeless people seem to go where there are one of two things, nice weather or where society gives a shit about their plight. California scores high on both. Places like Boston and New York City and Seattle score high on the caring part, that is why each have a large number of homeless. One thing that I ask people that pan successful large cities is "If where you live is so great, why isn't as large as the places you hate?" That question always throws them into silence.

The other day I was unfortunate enough to catch a few minutes of Tucker Carlson (yecchh) and he was showing video of tent cities in California.

One thing I love to ask is “if conservative policies are so great, then why aren’t people flocking to Mississippi and Kentucky?” They have no answer for that one either 😆

not that you are trying to argue. Then all the ignorance, fear and hatred
come to the surface. Seems like many of them are in the cultural majority
of their nation, state, locale, but also are in or near the lower socio-economic
strata. They don't necessarily hate you, they just hate and you set them off.
Unfortunately, they are found all over the world.

How in God's name can Christians in a small town possibly LOVE a completely amoral New York con man who spews nothing but hate and lies??

They used to hate the "Nawth" and just about anything that was in or ever came out of it and NYC was the capital of it in their minds. But it turns out that small towns there are little different from small towns in the south.

Heard it every time we visited our relatives in Atlanta from south Florida. Had the most convoluted reasoning concerning the Civil War, whose loss they always talked about and framed in reverent terms. Had to go out to Grant Park and visit that, and I must say here: well done "Cyclorama" depicting The Battle of Atlanta in miniature like a model train layout.

... also the worst cause Americans ever fought for.

I've read a lot on the Civil War and visited many battlefields. I have an appreciation for the valor of those who fought on both sides, but zero sympathy for their cause or those who still cling to it.

And there is Trump crap going up around town. I have to drive past one house with a damn flagpole that has his Trump flag ABOVE the American flag.

But I’m sure he hates football players who kneel.

Unfortunately that law is seldom if ever enforced.

had the gall to elect a black president and then a (GASP!) women was running for president. These people IMO are shortsighted backwards think racists who can't see beyond their blinders and probably never will. Trump gives them the racist, misogynist, white supremacists view that everyone is plotting to take what you have away and they suck it up gladly.

Without all those years of dog whistles and Republican "governance" they would have had to work harder to be so resentful (and they are averse to work.)

Small town, KY here, and I've been debating putting a Biden sticker on my truck.

You still see the occasional Confederate flag here.....

I don't have to deal with and the stark reality of what we've been up against. It's disturbing to say the least.

I live in a VERY blue part of Colorado (though the next county over has a lot of R's because they love their guns.) In my town it's the Trumpers--and there are a few--who have to keep their heads down.

If I were religious I'd say to the OP and others here that "You're doing God's work." But I guess the work they're really doing is on behalf of the intelligent people of the world.

It always baffles me that poor, ignorant people can't see that the orange menace is only out for their money. They are the turnips that the asshole-in-chief is squeezing every drop of blood from.

was found in a city college near me. As well as a racist incident I witnessed many months ago.

I wonder if your town has good policing. In mine, we worked really hard to get them to change and they have. I've only had 2 experiences of driving while black since the big change and realize those were times when I was leaving and entering city limits.

"But I guess the work they're really doing is on behalf of the intelligent people of the world." Absolutely, we started small, grew and would not back down. It's amazing to me and I'm so grateful that this town is blue now. And it's a welcoming sight to see a once diverse population slowing increasing with more diversity. We were not run out but changed the system a little with just the power of our voices.

Coming from fear-driven, ignorant people, (willfully or otherwise) that kind of name calling are as meaningful as school-yard taunts, which may be the intellectual and emotional level of arrest we are dealing with overall.

A trillion dollar "tax break" is a BILLION times a thousand dollars. So 45's thievery is not merely a million times worse, but many tens or even hundreds of millions.

both very educated women and even went to his inauguration!!!!!! I just don’t get it.

That's like "Jews for Hitler" or "Black people who love the KKK" or something.

He's trying to unseat Joaquin Castro.

He doesn't have a chance, but he's upset the gay community.

And he's a Trumper too.

at first I thought it was that they despised Hillary, nope, they LOVE tRump.

Basically outside of Lexington and Louisville that would be most communities here.

Not to mention right-wing radio stations, often owned by private equity firms. The profits of those radio stations are less important than the propaganda, which instead pays dividends to them at the voting booths.

rightwing propaganda outlets. Years of hearing that all their troubles are because of people of color or "big guvment".

as we used to see in old Western movies. Yet, they will go to their graves all the time blaming the Democrats for all their self-induced failings.

I kid you not....................

of old, ethic (Italian, German, Polish, Irish, etc) white people. New Castle, for ex, is chock full of conservative Italian-Americans.

any challenge to it - boycotting, protesting the universities and pro teams it depends on, and showing how the russians have been using it for the last decade, will discredit the talk radio gods and the dittoheads that influence the apathetic and too-busy secondary audiences

imo heavily redacted parts of the mueller report involve talk radio and dems need to get it out

Profits of those stations aren't as important to their owners -- e.g., very wealthy private equity firms -- as the messaging.

It would be idiotic for those radio stations to regularly insult and turn away so many potential listeners who have different political views than their far-right propaganda... unless the owners don't really care about them as direct sources of profit.

iHeartMedia filed for bankruptcy recently, and they're still plugging away with their crap.

Edit: Smear campaigns against the actual owners might be more helpful.

onto those stations who won't say they support trump and global warming denial and racism when asked.

the ad industry wants the ears all those very loud stations reach. all americans have to do is let the ad industry know if they don't start applying actual market demand to RW talk they're going to lose a lot of clients. they need to be forced into asking clients if they REALLY support trump.

that would be easy to get started. artificial intelligence changes everything - it's now very easy, fast, and cheap to transcribe radio shows and list advertisers with little listening required.

it makes stoprush x 100 inevitable and when the ad industry realizes that it will have to finally apply market demand and that 95-5 monopoly will fall apart. the ad industry will force stations to alter programming if they want ads.

those universities need to be protested in support of impeachment and to show GOP senators limbaugh and sons aren't going to be able to destroy them anymore. i just heard a UNM ad for diversity on the limbaugh show from albuquerque! KOA denver just moved limbaugh to another lesser station and it is possible that pressure came from the uni of colorado (re football), which was getting pressure for years, though not very organized or visible/searchable.

for the RW to completely subsidize those big stations will cost too much and finally make it look like the propaganda operation it is.

They won't ever learn until they have been completely ruined, and even then I am not so sure.

Look at the farmers bitching about the trade war - they're pissed - and gonna' vote for him again.

Getting their vote with the least offensive reflection on their idle is the problem and goal.

Maybe worse.

rump and his popularity among some segments of the population, but that remember this, a firm proportion went to HRC too, so don't be overwhelmed by the so called rump support numbers. Day by day, sometimes literally hour by hour, former voters of his see his reckless and clearly self dealing in full view of all, and change their support of rump. Where I am at, every time rump's name is mentioned, all I see is head shaking and perhaps a comment regarding his suitability to govern anything, let alone the Country. I see this response in almost all of the people I talked to.

I am not afraid to speak out against this bully and idiot. And I am not afraid of the punks and bullies that seem to hang around rump's disgusting rallies. A hate fest is what I call rump's campaign rallies and people should be ashamed to participate in these events, for they mock fellow Americans, neighbors, the disabled, and whom ever happens to be the unlucky victim at that particular point in time. rump is supposed to be uniting the Country but he obviously approaching everything he does based upon how it benefits he and his cronies properties. I will always speak out against this BS (pardon the language), it isn't how decent conversations get started on various issue(s) and resolved.

I don't see Trump signs, but I live in a fairly blue area.

We have an ordinance that permits signs only within 90 days of an election. This also applies to state highways and interstates.

I imagine I will see Trump signs next summer....

(Also Trump supporters around here probably won't be putting up signs. There were the Beto signs, then came the Cruz signs, but I think in 2020 Republicans will put up signs for local races)

It was nothing but woods, dirt roads, and about three houses in the neighborhood.

But the address on the mail said "Falls Church, Virginia." Today, it is no longer dirt roads and woods, and my old neighborhood (if you can call it that) of dirt roads is now "Washington Suburbs," though it is still miles from the center of Falls Church, which is still no booming metropolis.

I haven't lived there since I was a teenager, so I did a quick check on how things were leaning. What I came up with was this:

"Falls Church city County, VA is Moderately liberal. In Falls Church city County, VA 75.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 17.1% voted Republican, and the remaining 7.9% voted Independent.

"Falls Church city county voted Democratic in the previous five Presidential elections.
In the last Presidential election, Falls Church city county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 75.0% to 17.1% "

There is yet hope.

The town and surrounding township I live in has a population of a little over 200. I wouldn't qualify the town you live in as being small but it's all relative I guess. Otherwise a very good OP and I rec it.

a correlation?

as you know. Resist

should take your shopping dollars elsewhere.

It may be inconvenient, almost impossible, but the dollar gets their attention when nothing else will.

As a last ditch effort, shop on line. It will help the postal service, at least. The point is to get their attention.

Also, as I said in another thread, SHUN THEM. CUT 'EM LOOSE. As their circle shrinks, they may start asking why.

Good luck.

I remember driving up from southwestern Washington County to visit him on Sundays as a teen.

It was a dying town then (1977) as well.

I keep telling folks that SW PA is more racist than almost anywhere else I've ever been. I was in the Air Force for 24 years, I have been A LOT of places. So Of course Trump is popular

If for no other reason than he makes us N****r loving liberals mad

Lifelong SW PA resident here, grew up in a steel town that lost its mill.

The racism in these parts goes back over 100 years when blacks were brought up from the south to work in the mines and mills as scabs when the unions went on strike, and the hatred in these parts became generational after that.

Greene County and Fayette County in SW PA were always bad for racist activity, but Trump's devilry brought the worst out in everybody everywhere else. When he siegs, those deplorable mofos around here heil.

Is so spot on.

"Paris of the Appalachians" is a fucking lie. Although to be as fair as I can be (which is not very, I have a deep anger about home) Pittsburgh itself and a few college towns in the region are not the MOST racist places ever - they are just really racist

What is sad about the situation in your town is that the people he and his rich buddies are taking the most from are these very people who will support him 'til the bitter end.

Sad but true.

and both New Castle and Uniontown struck me as stagnant, depressing places back then. So no, it's not NAFTA.

And they'll do the same. A born and bread conservative is loyal to his party. No matter who it is. You could put a monkey named coco in trump's place and as long as it is a conservative republican supported by rush limpbaugh and foxnews, they will support it too and will defend the monkey if you say anything against it. The monkey never has to speak a word of english and they will run to the polls and vote for it. In other words, they're loyal to the party, not trump!! This is why the RNC is fighting so hard to keep the other republicans from running against trump. The RNC does not want your small town to get confused and be forced to choose between trump and the other republican candidates. Because then, they will definitely choose the other candidate!!

It is always somebody else's fault if Trump screws something up.

It's actually really sad that they cannot use the possibility that what is being reported is true, and what does that mean if true, for the country, and their well being.