to drop out of a cult by reprogramming them and getting them to see the benefits, internal and external, of thinking in another way.

Some voted for Obama. Some were always awful. The promise was a world where they had good, well paying jobs and a place in the world. There are not getting good paying jobs and it is about to get much worse with automation. They now have a place in a cult where they bond over thing other than shared humanity and love. That is not actualization. They are not happy which is why they scapegoat.

Some of these MAGAs were hippies. They have been cultivated for a long time.

Trump tapped into both those veins. Even Bernie has implied that we need to back off some on our march toward social justice and focus more on economic justice, a message that finds appeal with those that have economic anxiety, but are not fully onboard with full rights for women, LGBTQ people, racial and religious minorities.

It implies they have no capacity to love at all, that they are like a mass of evil demons, not individual complex, fully formed human beings, with beliefs and desires of their own.

There are a lot of reasons they may have voted for Trump. Some may have done so out of hate, but the Trump voters I know each have their own reasons. Most seem misguided in some way, I would only call two of them "haters" and even they do have positive feelings towards other humans.

A good number have felt for a while that the modern economy was screwing them. They are not left or right, just afraid without answers that they create themselves. Some bought into President Obama's message of hope and change, thinking their lives would get markedly better. President Obama largely delivered, but the mess that Bush II left and the corroding business foundation that Reagan/Bush I created and President Clinton was unable to fully reverse, created a situation out of the gate where President Obama could be only so successful at delivering for them. They saw robots taking more of their jobs and their college educated kids not getting jobs or working in deadend jobs. Then a lying carnival barker came along and those of them that voted on economic uncertainty swallowed his lies hook, sinker and line. Even the ones with economic anxiety as their base concern bought into the racist shit from Trump, because in their hearts, their troubles are due to "others" getting what they, mostly blue-collar Whites, deserved.

Mayor Pete is right, our candidates need to talk directly to and at those people and deprogram the ones that can be saved from tolerating the racist aspersions of Trump because he promised them a better life. It may not work, but trying is worthwhile as long as Democratic Party core principles of inclusion and economic justice are not compromised.

with strong economic anxiety as their reason for voting for him abandoned republicans and by association Trump in 2018. Whether we can harness them in 2020 depends upon several things, the economy and their job prospects being number one. I am somewhat concerned that in Midwest states where democrats gained a stronger hand (Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin) successful democratic policy there may help Trump if the local democrats are not keen to remind workers who actually helped them.

“You know what does that mean? It means ‘we’re going to stop the changes so you don’t have to change anything,’ and it’s not honest. You can't have an honest politics that revolves around the word ‘again.’ ”