I guess all sane, rational people want to be able to expect the same thinking in others. In this current political administration of racism, no. The people he appealed to by and large have ALWAYS been about the way you describe them.

There's more votes to be had by exploiting the non-voting pool in the US than by trying to reach the stupid a-holes that vote GOPee Screw them.

but TPTB like the voting participation as low as possible.. and they have done a sound job of alienating a very large faction from ever getting involved (unfortunately)

That's our job. WE have to engage these non-voters. Our candidates and their positions need to motivate them. The non-voting pool is, dollar to vote, is the most cost efficient and "target rich" pool in our country. It's almost 90% of possible voters in mid-terms!

You are correct, TPTB do everything they can to stay in power. This is no surprise nor is it a new phenomenon. In spite of their efforts though, there are still a whole bunch of voters we can mobilize through good policies, dynamic candidates and pure elbow grease.

at the behest of TPTB.. I remember late in last years election cycle my wife mentioning how exhausted she was from it all - the negativity during the campaigns and just the plain ugliness.. and i said to here at the time, that is exactly what Trump is hoping for, exhausted and disengaged voters.. and look what ended up happening, the lack of voter turnout ended up helping him..

Your right, we have to get more people engaged.. unfortunately, with the corporate floodgates of $$$$ open it will be an uphill battle moving forward..

You hit a big problem on the head when you mentioned the media. The lack of professionalism is astounding. Cronkite and Reasoner would just plain freak out if they were here.

Listen to the Republican callers on C-SPANS 'Washington Journal' open phone lines.

It'll make you weep.

I had to stop listening.

I couldn't take the blatant stupidity and the downright evil of Trump supporters

and those who vote for Republicans.

It was stomach turning.

He has a kind of overconfidence -- the confidence of a schoolyard bully -- that reassures his supporters that he will take care of them. They're like kids who side with the bully to avoid being bullied themselves. Here is an article from a while back that's obliquely about this phenomenon:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/15/i-asked-psychologists-to-analyze-trump-supporters-this-is-what-i-learned/?utm_term=.b487c509ff79

Excerpt:

that article is fascinating - especially in hindsight..

It does make you wonder, though, where their breaking point is? Or are they all so delusional? Me, I vote for delusional.

Everybody neeeds it.

Family members not getting care.

A lot of it is racism and just being stupid.

A few funerals might do the trick.

They're that stupid.

And 99% (at minimum) of the Republican base will believe them. Because of course they will.

I think a few will learn.

The rest will die off.

It sounds horrible but true.

A lot of it is racism.

My sister is just like that.

She about 70 and in bad health.

We were not raised that way.

Our country was chaotic in 1968.

Our country was not chaotic in 2016, although Trump sure painted it that way.

Another difference between Trump and Nixon was: After Nixon won, he didn't have a cult following. My parents supported his policies and thought Watergate was a bit of a witchhunt. (Although they didn't follow all the legal aspects) My dad was career military and was really upset about the Pentagon papers being leaked.

Other than that, they moved on and were OK with Ford being appointed.


Trump is playing on a strange insecurity that I never knew was there.

For instance, I never knew that so many people felt so insecure about immigration.

None of the other Republicans ran on such an anti-immigration platform.
None of the other Republicans belittled handicapped people.
None of the other Republicans belittled John McCain.

"A deplorable will burn his own house down to the ground if it means that a liberal would choke on the smoke."

THAT is what we are dealing with. So fuck'em.

We do not convince them of anything no matter how much logic you show them. They are for all practical purposes "brain dead".
We just have to get out the vote and use our logic on the "rational".
We are indeed at war. Don't even attempt to appease the enemy.

The cult of 45 might never wake up because they have been so programmed they are mesmerized by him and his rhetoric.

Even if they get hurt they will still be with him. My hubby works with some guys who are chump supporters and now he no longer talks with them about politics because he thinks they are insane. He keeps his conversation to work and the weather and sports if he encounters them.

Decades of demonization of Democrats is not easily overcome.

I'm down to just one friend that votes Republican.

After Trump's election we agreed to stop talking about politics altogether.

As good natured a guy as he is, every argument he makes on policy was based on something categorically not true. Show him the facts and he brought up some other BS...

I couldn't take it anymore....beating my head against the wall.

We just assume since our ideas are correct and the facts are with us, there is nothing to sell, i.e. people already know. We could not be more wrong.

Republicans start out knowing what they are doing is helping the rich at the expense of the poor, so they know that not only do they have to really sell it, they have to lie about what they are doing, i.e. do a hard-sell con. Republicans, being from the world of big business, know how to market shit no one wants.

So while Republicans are spending billions flooding media and the internet with their hard-sell con, Dems are trying to take the high road with dry policy speeches no one listens to.

We need to push populist marketing of our policies: universal healthcare coverage, $15 minimum wage, family leave and overtime worker protections, environmental protections and green job worker retraining. And we need to do it via a slick, eye catching marketing campaign. People need to understand what we stand for, rather than letting the right wing define us.

The perpetually undecided (how could anyone possibly be undecided at this point) could be swayed in the next election, but it will take A LOT of effort and patience. These people are not brain surgeons by any means. Of course Ben Carson is and that hasn't helped his cognitive processes at all.

Very appropriate and TRUE!

http://johnpavlovitz.com/2017/05/26/no-white-friend-you-werent-embarrassed-by-barack-obama/

I've been saying that if we said kicking puppies is wrong, Trump and his fans would start kicking puppies. If we endorsed breathing air, they'd endorse pollution. If we say we like eating healthy, they'd deep fry it in saturated fat with a side of margarine. If we were for children playing in the parks, they'd burn the parks down. If we want clean water, they'd dump black tar in it. All because the pundits told them liberals and government were the devil. Fucking monsters.

You know who else told them that?

The devils, themselves. The ones who inhabit pulpits every Sunday.

And then hopefully when all the right wing clergy gets caught, then maybe we'll be free.

but is that about an actual law?

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday abruptly removed inspection reports and other information from its website about the treatment of animals at thousands of research laboratories, zoos, dog breeding operations and other facilities.

In a statement, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service cited court rulings and privacy laws for the decision, which it said was the result of a “comprehensive review” that took place over the past year. It said the removed documents, which also included records of enforcement actions against violators of the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act, would now be accessible only via Freedom of Information Act Requests. Those can take years to be approved.

...

Members of the public could also use the department’s online database to search for information about dog breeders, as could pet stores. Seven states currently require pet stores to source puppies from breeders with clean USDA inspection reports, according to the Humane Society of the United States — a requirement that could now be impossible to meet.

Animal welfare organizations quickly condemned the removal of the information, which they called unexpected and said would allow animal abuse to go unchecked."

But the animals can GTFO the planet too! Including 46,000 wild horses they can't wait to slaughter

They will flood your carpets every time. Do not let them into the house! And those that are inside, put them out!

even when they benefit from them. My mom says "everything" went wrong after the Great Society programs were implemented, even though she wouldn't want to let go of her own Medicare, come hell or high water. She's just been brainwashed by the Fox TV and right wing radio propaganda blaring in her house and car every waking moment. The unhidden subtext is that the Great Society programs suck because non-whites can benefit, too. Liberals think a rising tide lifts all boats. Nutcase right wingers (all remaining Republicans, now) see only a zero sum game. If non-whites benefit, whites lose.

These people are convinced that anything reported in the NY Times or the Washington Post is liberal propaganda and they completely disregard it in favor of the actual propaganda that they receive on social media or Fox. They've been brainwished into willfully ignoring fact checked reality.

I don't understand how this ever stops. The fact that the right's disinformation is now enmeshed with Russian state intelligence is shocking, but maybe a logical outcome.

They are the ones who will be hurt most by drumpfcare. Let them eat their cake and choke on it, or maybe a few of them will get the hint that they've been had when their cost explodes 850%. Those are the ones we can talk to, once they've arrived at that point. The rest of them, pfft.

well financed.

If we wanted to find out how many of those people could actually be brought back to sanity, we'd need to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, strictly enforce net neutrality, and go out ten or more years.

As it is, we'll have to risk a civil war, because they are brainwashed, heavily armed and full of hate.

Roll over them.

stumble though their days, ready to lash out at anyone who crosses them, or changes lanes in front of 'em, or suggests that the monster they voted for is ruining their "beloved" country, embarrassing them on the global stage, and really doesn't give two shits about his job, his staff, his supporters, or "America"

They've been had.

We've all been had.

Sad

Can you imagine if the WTC attack occurred under a Democratic president? We'd never hear the end of it. Republicans allowed us to be attacked and then convinced people that they were strong on national security.

Republicans caused the worst recession since the Great Depression, yet they convinced people that they were the job creators.

Democrats need to learn how to get their message out.

That is the big question.

Its like wrestling with an eel. How do you open the eyes of the willfully blind?

As someone up thread suggested, we could ignore them and concentrate on the non-voters. But that is not enough IMO. Because you may get more people voting, but not a significant number. There are just those that, as long as the sky is not literally falling, will not pay attention to politics at all.

Another point is that there is a rot effect, much like a bad apple in a basket (of deplorables). By ignoring them, and just conceding them that ground, their influence on others balancing on the edge of the basket is still strong.

No, there must be a way to, if not swaying them with facts and shame, sway them with arguments that speak to them in their simplistic dialect and philosophy. Even if just to cause enough doubt in their minds to stay home and not vote. Of course easier said than done. They already are impervious to many traditional conservative faux pas that were listed by others. Whether those on the fiscal management train, or those on the religious piety train.

So what will bring him down in stature for the deplorables? Find out he has a gay lover? Find out he is a secret Satanist? Find proof he murdered someone? That he's a drug addict? Maybe evidence that he molested Ivanka, or another underage girl? Non of these seem possible right now. Maybe just find an audio or video proving he's not the he-man they think he is. He is already a whiny baby and that seems ok to them though. I am just throwing out thoughts here. I am somewhat stumped as to how deplorable he has to be in order to counter that hero worship.

MY POLITICS ARE BETTER THAN YOURS.

And the politically correct are going to be more fucking pissed off about me using the term "pussies" rather than being pissed off as to why you are being such a fucking pussy.

Look, they fucking hate us, they fucking despise us. Yet I see comments that we need to work on messaging, we need to figure out how to change them.

How fucking stupid is that? In 2008 their policies crashed the economy, then the "Maverick" picked a grade a fucking BITCH for VP (Offended? Tough fucking shit, Sarah Palin is a first class, grade A fucking BITCH! As tRump is a first class, grade A fucking DICK!)

They weren't offended by her, any logical, moral human being would be offended by Palin.

They claimed Obama was the worst President ever, then had a cluster fuck of a Primary season, where the TOP THREE VOTE GETTERS WERE FUCKING ASSHOLES. and it was in reverse order, the biggest asshole won.

We have NO FUCKING REASON to work with them, NO FUCKING REASON to understand them, and GOD DAMN IT, QUIT the LAME ASS MEME. They are hate filled, ignorant mother fuckers. EACH AND EVERYONE OF THEM. They will take down Western Democracies unless people stand the fuck up and call them out for what they are. And we aren't going to hug it out with these assholes, so seriously, those of you stating how we need to improve, FUCK THAT!

That is ALL they care about.