1) Make America Great Again really translates to "Make America Feared Again." Many Americans want foreign nations to bow before us - to be part of a nation that dictates terms to others.

2) America never got its pound of flesh. WWII ended with Germany in ruins and Nagasaki and Hiroshima exploding in mushroom clouds. Many Americans want that same sense of revenge for 9-11, the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and a host of other real and perceived sleights. These sleights are not attributed to the non-state or state actors that perpetrated them; they are laid at the feet of Islam.

3) Many Americans became incensed when options were added to ATM's and call centers to press a number for Spanish. They felt they were losing their nation.

4) In works such as Bucky Covington's "A Different World" or Tom Purcell's "Misadventures of a 70s Childhood", we see a generation of 50 and 60+ somethings yearning for the halcyon days when there was no crime, we drank from hoses, there were no bike helmets, there were no participation medals, there was no political correctness, etc. It's like Main Street in "Disneyland" -- their memory filters out the bad things from those times, and they remember an America that never really existed.

while a wet cloth is held over their faces, for all I care.

I grew up in the 60s and 70s. I'm glad that we now have better laws. Nobody took anything away from them.

Bunch of spoiled whiny crybabies.

Regardless of why the deplorables voted the way they did, your 4 points are awful examples of ugly Americans. Why not list the talking points of why white supremacists hate black people? do we have to come together with them, come to a consensus? Whatever their snowflake feelings are, they're wrong, and are pushing an evil agenda. There's no middle ground.

even though it never really existed.

congress, governorships and state legislatures are chock full of asshat majority conservatives.

This country has increasingly been bending over to republican ass hatery for all of my adult life - over three decades.

They're the ones who started this nonsense with talk radio.

Even if propagandists like Limbaugh didn't have the ratings, they still propped him up with money.

So it's more like 28-30 percent of the country are "deplorable." Assuming of course some of those who didn't vote would've cast their ballots for Twitler.

people want to think this country is split 50/50, but it isn't.

It is 1/3 of us dealing in actual reality.
1/3 of of us who are full out living in the alternative reality.

The problem is the other 1/3 which has been breaking more and more to conservative bullshit, either by voting that way, or just not showing up. People don't get this, but they what the people don't vote are saying is they are willing to accept it.

There were two choices - competent and decent leadership with hillary or chaos with DJT. It was clear as day. Anyone who did not vote Hillary was either full on board with the chaos or making a conscious decision to accept it.

And, that does not even get congress, state legislatures and governorships.

This country was full of jackass republicans at all levels of government long before November 8th.

And, let's be honest, the majority of right-wing nut jobs are white folks. Minorities (when they show up) have almost always voted for Democrats or progressive initiatives. There's something (or many things maybe) that attracts lots of white people to right-wing politics.

That the 1/3 enable the right wing 1/3.

I have a HS friend who melts down constantly on me on Facebook.

He wants to think that he is some "independent" because he posts some light hearted jabs at right wingers very now and again. But, his screeds on LIBERALS are so visceral and emotive.

I call him out and he melts down.

He is like a lot of the people "in the middle." They don't agree with most of the right the right wing does, BUT, there is always one or a couple of things that the right wing pushes that they tie into and then it becomes about the evil liberal boogyman, and while they want to fancy themselves as "non-partisan" they deride the left, push the false equivilencies and EVERY time they do the bullshit "they are both the same" is when Rs do their crazy shit and they point at something the Ds do to excuse it.

nm

People want to fool themselves.

1/3 of us deal in reality.
1/3 live in the alternative reality and complete lost causes.

The "middle" 1/3 is the problem.

It has been plain as day what republicans want to do, gut SS and Medicare, how the openly attack voting rights, etc. for decades now, and these people that don't vote or vote other parties are clearly willing to accept republican jack assery.

THAT is the problem.

what lies underneath that flame is the issue ...

It's hard to quantify these things but hard core Deplorables are nowhere near 50% of the population.

1/3 deplorable; 1/3 on the left; and 1/3 in the middle/doesn't give a damn.

out there in front.

And owns him. The more we repeat this truth, the better our chance of peeling off support for them in 2017(NJ) and 2018.