Confessions Of An Elitist: Why People Love Donald Trump So Much
Elitist: one who is an adherent of elitism: one whose attitudes and beliefs are biased in favor of a socially elite class of people. Merriam-Webster.
I lived on the East Coast in cities much of life. I got kicked out of two colleges I worked for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and CBS News, among the pinnacles of Fake News. My daughter went to Yale.
Im not into labels, but everyone else is, so I guess you could call me an elitist.
And this is the problem with labels left, right, elitist, bigot its so easy to forget that there is a person behind the label, we can just hate the label. Isnt that the other virus tearing the country apart?
For the past 15 years, Ive lived in rural communities in upstate New York. My understanding of the Donald Trump phenomenon has changed.
Ever since President Trump was elected, I began asking my neighbors and friends why they voted for him. And almost all of them voted for him.
Almost everyone I ever knew in the other world has asked me why Donald Trumps followers love him so much, and how can they stand him?
When I lived in Montclair, N.J., everyone hated George Bush. When I moved to Washington County, N.Y., everyone hated Barack Obama.
Where I live now, everyone loves Trump , and back where I came from, everyone hates him. Personally, I prefer a more nuanced way of looking at things.
I am neck-deep in Trump country, and happy here, I am treated better than ever.
They are not bigots they are not dumb.
We Must Get Through Covid
The United States COVID-19 response has been far more political than substantive. I was in South Korea when the pandemic started, and I was impressed with the swift action the South Korean government took to get things under control. The United States on the other hand, has been nothing but a partisan battle between Democrats and Republicans over who takes the threat more seriously, while in reality, very few take it seriously. We started with President Trump halting traffic from China, to which Democrats called him racist and said he was overreacting. Democrats criticised him for taking too much action, only to turn around and claim he wasnt taking enough action.
The pandemic is unprecedented for the United States in modern times. Other countries have dealt with SARS, the Avian Flu, Swine Flu and others, and so it was much easier for the general public in their countries to respond appropriately. The citizens of the United States responded like spoiled children. It still amazes me that people refuse to take simple precautions like wear a mask and wash their hands. Not to mention mass protests where thousands of people are standing immediately next to each other in large groups with few people wearing masks. They dont even realise their hypocrisy is staring them in the face.
How Rational Ignorance Shapes Our Politics
To understand why so many voted to re-elect Trump after four years of historic political turmoil featuring a failed pandemic response, a devastating economic shock and a crisis in racial justice its necessary to understand the forces that propelled him to victory in 2016.
In recent publications, Berkeley scholars have suggested that Trump won with an unconventional coalition of white working class and middle-class Americans who were motivated by resentment: The culture and economy gave them no recognition and no respect for their work. Their industries were changing, their jobs were shifting overseas or lost to automation. They perceive that Black, Latinx and Asian people, and immigrants, are advancing at their expense.
Trump supporters massed for a rally in Washington, D.C., days after Democrat Joe Biden emerged as the winner of the U.S. presidential race.
But some Berkeley scholars suggested that for many voters, support for Trump or any leader is a more passive choice that takes shape in a subrational sphere.
Gabriel Lenz, an expert in political psychology, is the author of Follow the Leader? How Voters Respond to Politicians Performance and Policies . He sees political opinion shaped by a force that is almost prosaic: an apathetic lack of awareness.
Gabriel Lenz, UC Berkeley political scientist
Lenz and other political scientists call it rational ignorance.
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No Dog In The Fight On Healthcare
Healthcare was a big issue for me in the last election, and this time it really isnt on my radar. I know President Trump still wants to change Obamacare, which I agree was a disaster, though I am not sure how much he will really be able to change at this point. Getting any changes through Congress will be a challenge. While I dont support Obamacare, I also dont support Trumpcare. Both are band-aids on a horribly broken healthcare system.
The solution to skyrocketing prices isnt to change who foots the bill, it is to reduce the prices through transparent pricing and open-market competition. If consumers are able to ask how much a procedure costs, they can shop around for the best price, thereby driving down prices as we have seen for example with laser eye surgery.
In the end, no one on either side of the aisle has put forth a plan that I can stand behind, so I really dont have a dog in the fight this time around.
Despite The State Of Our Politics Hope For America Is Rising And So Is Youths Faith In Their Fellow Americans
In the fall of 2017, only 31% of young Americans said they were hopeful about the future of America 67% were fearful. Nearly four years later, we find that 56% have hope. While the hopefulness of young whites has increased 11 points, from 35% to 46% — the changes in attitudes among young people of color are striking. Whereas only 18% of young Blacks had hope in 2017, today 72% are hopeful . In 2017, 29% of Hispanics called themselves hopeful, today that number is 69% .
By a margin of nearly three-to-one, we found that youth agreed with the sentiment, Americans with different political views from me still want whats best for the country — in total, 50% agreed, 18% disagreed, and 31% were recorded as neutral. In a hopeful sign, no significant difference was recorded between Democrats and Republicans .
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I Think Trump Will Respect The Result
I dont think there is any risk of Trump trying to retain power illegitimately. My father disagrees with me, but I dont see a scenario where that plays out that way. So many people would rise up. That would be a complete burning of the constitution.
I do think the result is likely to be close, and could come down to the Supreme Court. I wouldnt look on that as an illegitimate win thats how the constitution says it should work.
I do have concerns about the integrity of the vote itself, though. Im pro-absentee ballots, but clearly the US postal service isnt equipped for a mass mail-in system. Its 2020, how do we not have a better online system in place? I do think its possible to make the vote workable, if we prioritise letting high-risk groups and those in COVID-19 hotspots vote by mail. But I dont have any confidence that this will be done in a sensible way.
The Miseducation Of Donald Trump Voters
If my Dad were alive todayand fifty years youngerI suspect he’d be a Trump voter.
My father got a high school education, enlisted in the Army, and fought in the South Pacific during World War II. After the war, he was hired by American Airlines, the only company whose paychecks he would ever cash. In forty-plus years on the job, he went from working as a mechanic to flying transcontinental routes as a flight engineer .
He earned enough to move his family from Yonkers to Long Island, with its affordable houses and good schools. His own father had been an immigrant pick-and-shovel man. My Dad did him one better by following the playbook common to men of his moment and mindset: learn a trade, work hard, play by the rules, and things will work out. On the day he dropped me off at college , he was still badgering me to learn TV repair, plumbing, or heating and air conditioning. College was fine, but its benefits seemed nebulous to Depression-era guys like Dad. It wouldn’t hurt, he insisted, to have “a skill to fall back on.”
Yet none did. Now, at last, there’s an emerging, rueful understanding that possibly Trump’s support is not a function of racism, bigotry, and xenophobia. “It is tempting for the rest of us to turn away in dismay,” observed William Galston in the Wall Street Journal. “We should resist that temptation, because underlying the harsh words are real problems that extend well beyond our shores.”
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Why Some Voters Really Hate Donald Trump
Here are 5 lessons to take away.
Recent surveys suggest that people who do not like Donald Trump as United States president find nothing at all to like.
But, like him or not, Trump has shown us a great deal in his short time on the political stage. For that, we should be grateful. After all, expressing gratitude is the polite and civilized thing to do.
So, how much do we owe Trump? As a U.S.-born linguist, an expert in Caucasian languages and politics, and someone who advised the Bill Clinton White House on Russia at various points in my career, please let me count the ways.
Lesson No. 1 : Disdain for tradition
Trump has shown us that the precedents and traditions surrounding the office of the presidency, and the competition to attain that office, are not enough to bring about respect and compliance by the occupant of the White House. Trump paradoxically seems to despise the traditions of the very office he sought.
Specifically, he has taught us that income tax returns of candidates and nominees must be revealed by law, not by custom. Trump has good reason to flout this tradition, the least of which is being under audit.
Thats because his returns will probably show that his real estate empire was bailed out in 2008 by Russian banks, and that the Russian mafia has allegedly laundered millions through his holdings by buying his condos for above asking price.
Lesson No. 2: Flaws in electoral system
Lesson No. 3: Style vs. substance
Lesson No. 4: Medical fitness to lead
Joey Fratino 20 Junior At The University Of Colorado Boulder
I think I got my drivers license on the day Trump got elected. I was really involved in politics in high school. My friend and I started a young conservatives club. Im more of a conventional, economics-focused Republican, so I was kind of upset when Trump won the Republican primary. But since he was better than Hillary Clinton, and with a Supreme Court vacancy that year, I supported him in the 2016 election.
For those 3½ years before COVID, I think he presided over an excellent economy. But his character has not lived up to my expectations. I thought he would grow into that position over time, but he never did. I dont think he had a good personality for the job. If a foreign leader didnt do something he wanted, he viewed it as a personal attack. To be the worlds superpower, you have to have countries know theyre able to depend on you and trust you.
I dont have on my résumé that Im the president of the College Republicans club because it got so partisan in this country. I got invited to this event where Nikki Haley was speaking in Colorado. The next day, I was in the Denver Post, in the background of a picture. recognized me in the picture, and then made fun of me. And I was trying to keep it down-low.
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