Another massively stupid aspect of the Clinton campaign...

[All Along The Watchtower]

(cross-posted from AAD):

College-educated, affluent white suburbanites are the most sorted of voters (and furthermore, the most likely to be "polarized") in regard to the two major parties. They are, for the most part, locked into their respective party. While this is especially true in states - or regions within states - that are either reliably conservative or reliably liberal, it's also increasingly true in the (relatively) "purple" states like Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and obviously Arizona (lol), as well as in the Rust Belt.

As for ethnic and racial minorities...well, hell will freeze over when the contemporary Republican Party wins a non-negligible number of black votes. Latinos are certainly growing as a part of the electorate but are (a) more concentrated in either solidly liberal states or, in the cases of Arizona and Texas, solidly conservative, with Florida really being the only "purple" state in which they play a critically significant role in the Democratic coalition and (b) are still significantly less likely to vote than blacks and whites. Same with Asians, except that they're even more concentrated in certain (liberal) states and cities.

Meanwhile, as all of us political demographics nerds are well aware, working class white voters - particularly in places like (surprise, surprise!) the Rust Belt - are among the most "elastic" of all demographics in American electoral politics. And they continue to play a critical role in deciding the results in said Rust Belt states - and hence, in deciding who the President of the United States will be, which every Clinton supporter (or at the very least, anti-Trump voter) was (*heavy sigh*) painfully reminded of this year.

And yet...the brilliant minds at the incredibly well organized, extraordinarily well-financed, and very "cutting-edge" 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign managed to miss all of this?! (or forget about it - maybe even deliberately...)

Utterly moronic.

[elcorazon]

perhaps they didn't realize how connected to identity politics all of these white working class voters were.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I think it was easy to believe that all the progress the country had made on things like gay rights over the last eight years meant the country was heading full-steam towards becoming a more progressive place. I know I was feeling like "history" was happening in an irreversible way with more and more people jumping on board.

Turns out we were wrong. We didn't want to believe that these working-class whites just didn't give a damn about the rights of their even more vulnerable neighbours. All the progress of the last few years was just incidental because these people had chosen to trust Barack Obama over the corporatist establishment figure Mitt Romney. So this election was definitely a sh-tty way to learn that progress and justice are not inevitable, but... it's a valuable lesson.

Most white people don't really care about the rights of those who have been Othered. It's not that they're against social progress and equality. They're just willing to look past a pretty large degree of hatred, bigotry, and discrimination if it means they can feel like they're being "heard." I think it's awful and inexcusable, but it is what it is, and I guess it's not AS BAD as outright bigotry. But they've still enabled it.

[Fuzzy Bear]

I think it was easy to believe that all the progress the country had made on things like gay rights over the last eight years meant the country was heading full-steam towards becoming a more progressive place. I know I was feeling like "history" was happening in an irreversible way with more and more people jumping on board.

Turns out we were wrong. We didn't want to believe that these working-class whites just didn't give a damn about the rights of their even more vulnerable neighbours. All the progress of the last few years was just incidental because these people had chosen to trust Barack Obama over the corporatist establishment figure Mitt Romney. So this election was definitely a sh-tty way to learn that progress and justice are not inevitable, but... it's a valuable lesson.

Most white people don't really care about the rights of those who have been Othered. It's not that they're against social progress and equality. They're just willing to look past a pretty large degree of hatred, bigotry, and discrimination if it means they can feel like they're being "heard." I think it's awful and inexcusable, but it is what it is, and I guess it's not AS BAD as outright bigotry. But they've still enabled it.

You're lecturing working Americans about the progress they made.  Isn't that a tad pretentious?  

I doubt you work for a living.  I doubt you have a family depending on you working.  Someday that may happen for you, but I doubt it's the case now.  And, yes, that is relevant.  I was as snotty as you toward folks I regarded as Archie Bunker types in my youth when I had no idea of the pressure one takes on when they support a family.

These hard-working Americans you so disparage have (for the most part) families to support.  Even if they're divorced, they have child support.  And they have been economically screwed.  I can take you to a place in Jackson, OH, where the Meridian Automotive plant once was.  The jobs are now in Mexico and the lot now has a retail shopping center that may provide 10 jobs that could support a family, where there was once a plant where there were hundreds of such jobs.  These folks have moved on, but not to something better (for the most part).  And, yet, you want them to support the Goddess of NAFTA as opposed to someone whose trade policies might actually help THEIR situation.  

They are, by the way, well aware that the "Othered" folks have no more care for the lot of these hard working Americans than you say they have for the "Othered" folks.  The "Othered" folks don't care about the welfare of them, or their families; they care about their own welfare.  Let's not attach virtue to the "Othered" folks that don't apply.  The "Othered" folks are hardly more altruistic than the folks you disparage.

You're proof that the Clinton crowd hasn't learned a thing about the past election.

[Devout Centrist]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I'm getting cancer from these two paragraphs. The generalizations they contain and the amount of utter nonsense within is making it hard for me to breathe.

[Fuzzy Bear]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I'm getting cancer from these two paragraphs. The generalizations they contain and the amount of utter nonsense within is making it hard for me to breathe.

You'll forgive me.  Or maybe you won't.  But I'm sick and tired of the total lack of empathy for folks who have played by the rules, only to be screwed by Globalism, then be labeled as Deplorable in a general sort of way. 

The working class folks who have gotten the crap end of the Globalist stick aren't the type to play the victim.  But what they see in public policy is all the attention and concern and (most importantly) the resources going toward the folks who are willing to take the most militant victim posture.  And in Trump, they had a candidate who extended to THEM a degree of respect they hadn't experienced from the party and politicians who were living off what their grandfathers did for their grandfathers, while calling them "Deplorable".  The folks here who don't get this are folks who just flat out don't want to get this, because it would mandate greater introspection if they did.

[Young Conservative]

The Campaign of Secretary Clinton made a few crucial errors:
1. Taking for granted white working class angst.
2. Assuming they had it in the bag and running a low energy campaign.
3. Choosing a bland VP choice in an election where their opposition was anything but bland.
4. Sticking more to personal attacks instead of policy positions.
5. Acting as though they had to expand the map for Pure purpose of vanity. A 2 EV win results int eh same as a 300 EV win....

[Fuzzy Bear]

The Campaign of Secretary Clinton made a few crucial errors:
1. Taking for granted white working class angst.
2. Assuming they had it in the bag and running a low energy campaign.
3. Choosing a bland VP choice in an election where their opposition was anything but bland.
4. Sticking more to personal attacks instead of policy positions.
5. Acting as though they had to expand the map for Pure purpose of vanity. A 2 EV win results int eh same as a 300 EV win....

I've adjusted the quote to illustrate the percentage of blame each of these points involve.

[Pericles]

They bet that they would win so aimed for a landslide. They did not win. If they won a landslide it would have been a genius move. But their gamble failed badly.

[Fuzzy Bear]

They bet that they would win so aimed for a landslide. They did not win. If they won a landslide it would have been a genius move. But their gamble failed badly.

I'm not sure this is true.  The aiming for a landslide part, that is.

Given how inefficiently their support is spread out among the states, they needed a 50 state strategy and didn't know it.

[Shadows]

Dems need to throw out these Clinton hacks to save the party. You people are the real bunch deplorable.

Why the f*** should a white working class give a damn about an incredibly corrupt dishonest candidate who had no message for them when they are struggling to get by at 40/50K a year & seeing jobs being shipped out? Someone who is struggling to stay out of poverty & get a good job should vote for Hillary to protect gay rights & abortion rights?

They should care more about the progress of the country in Social issues & the language of Trump & not about the future of their children!

Well why don't you take responsibility for election Trump when you nominated a candidate who is unelectable, widely hated & has no message for the working class? You guys ELECTED Trump. If anything you people should apologize.

[Devout Centrist]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I'm getting cancer from these two paragraphs. The generalizations they contain and the amount of utter nonsense within is making it hard for me to breathe.

You'll forgive me.  Or maybe you won't.  But I'm sick and tired of the total lack of empathy for folks who have played by the rules, only to be screwed by Globalism, then be labeled as Deplorable in a general sort of way. 

The working class folks who have gotten the crap end of the Globalist stick aren't the type to play the victim.  But what they see in public policy is all the attention and concern and (most importantly) the resources going toward the folks who are willing to take the most militant victim posture.  And in Trump, they had a candidate who extended to THEM a degree of respect they hadn't experienced from the party and politicians who were living off what their grandfathers did for their grandfathers, while calling them "Deplorable".  The folks here who don't get this are folks who just flat out don't want to get this, because it would mandate greater introspection if they did.

I disagree. What's screwed the white working class is a combination of union busting, failed promises, and government gridlock. Globalism isn't the enemy of the poor, if that were the case, you wouldn't be seeing the global poor rising out of poverty so quickly.

Stagnation in the west requires a different approach. The policies of Ford and Carter didn't end stagflation. Paul Volcker's Federal Reserve did. Populism will be just as ineffective as those two Presidents.

I understand your frustration, but attacking the symptoms isn't going to help.

[Shadows]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I'm getting cancer from these two paragraphs. The generalizations they contain and the amount of utter nonsense within is making it hard for me to breathe.

You'll forgive me.  Or maybe you won't.  But I'm sick and tired of the total lack of empathy for folks who have played by the rules, only to be screwed by Globalism, then be labeled as Deplorable in a general sort of way.  

The working class folks who have gotten the crap end of the Globalist stick aren't the type to play the victim.  But what they see in public policy is all the attention and concern and (most importantly) the resources going toward the folks who are willing to take the most militant victim posture.  And in Trump, they had a candidate who extended to THEM a degree of respect they hadn't experienced from the party and politicians who were living off what their grandfathers did for their grandfathers, while calling them "Deplorable".  The folks here who don't get this are folks who just flat out don't want to get this, because it would mandate greater introspection if they did.

I disagree. What's screwed the white working class is a combination of union busting, failed promises, and government gridlock. Globalism isn't the enemy of the poor, if that were the case, you wouldn't be seeing the global poor rising out of poverty so quickly.

Stagnation in the west requires a different approach. The policies of Ford and Carter didn't end stagflation. Paul Volcker's Federal Reserve did. Populism will be just as ineffective as those two Presidents.

I understand your frustration, but attacking the symptoms isn't going to help.

The rise of the poor globally is directly proportional to the fall of the working class in the rust belt.

Take the textile industry for example, the bed rock of Industrial Revolution in Britain & in the West, this is a very labor intensive industry which employs a lot of people. The jobs in this industry has gone down by half post NAFTA. Textile & apparel employment decreased sharply from 1,662,000 to around 750,000 between the period 1993 and 2007 (US Department of Labour - Bureau of Labour Statistics).

Similarly automobile industry is gone from the rust belt compared to what once was. Most labor intensive industries will relocate to other countries taking into account the cheap cost of labor.

I have a lot of research material on this topic. If you look at the history of global growth, tariffs were always there. Freaking Nissan, the auto company, couldn't sell their cars to Europe because of tariffs. South Korea's miracle growth story was fueled by tariffs, import quota, etc. I am not justifying the same - I am saying there is no empirical evidence to prove that free trade lifts all boats or helps poor workers.

And another key aspect is that Non-College educated blue collar workers get a 10% premium in Mfg jobs compared to Service jobs as per current data available. Thus, this has been incredibly harder on the industrial workers  - Unions have also declined & have no low bargaining power now that any corporation can threaten to move jobs to Mexico!

The only silver lining is the considerable growth of Service sector jobs (even accounting for outsourcing of some jobs) but that is not enough to make up for all Mfg jobs lost & in the future people would need  college education to get better wages (with more decline in Mfg). Now tell me how is that possible with huge cost of college?

Mfg workers have got massively screwed in the last 20-30 years - Perhaps since the 1980 odd when Reagan started the Most favored nation status to China which Congress had to pass annually then !

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

hell will freeze over when the contemporary Republican Party wins a non-negligible number of black votes.

Looking at turnout numbers, I'll just note that it looks like the Clinton campaign ignored black communities to a pretty large degree as well, and they didn't come out for her. Black people might not have voted Republican, but failing to pay attention to their concerns did have a negative consequence.






Also yeah, globalism sucks and Dems need to re-integrate the WCWs that are predisposed to vote for them but didn't vote at all this time.

I generally don't call anyone but Moderate Heroes that seriously benefit from the status quo deplorable, but that's just because I'm too nice.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

I think it was easy to believe that all the progress the country had made on things like gay rights over the last eight years meant the country was heading full-steam towards becoming a more progressive place. I know I was feeling like "history" was happening in an irreversible way with more and more people jumping on board.

Turns out we were wrong. We didn't want to believe that these working-class whites just didn't give a damn about the rights of their even more vulnerable neighbours. All the progress of the last few years was just incidental because these people had chosen to trust Barack Obama over the corporatist establishment figure Mitt Romney. So this election was definitely a sh-tty way to learn that progress and justice are not inevitable, but... it's a valuable lesson.

Most white people don't really care about the rights of those who have been Othered. It's not that they're against social progress and equality. They're just willing to look past a pretty large degree of hatred, bigotry, and discrimination if it means they can feel like they're being "heard." I think it's awful and inexcusable, but it is what it is, and I guess it's not AS BAD as outright bigotry. But they've still enabled it.

You're lecturing working Americans about the progress they made.  Isn't that a tad pretentious?  

I doubt you work for a living.  I doubt you have a family depending on you working.  Someday that may happen for you, but I doubt it's the case now.  And, yes, that is relevant.  I was as snotty as you toward folks I regarded as Archie Bunker types in my youth when I had no idea of the pressure one takes on when they support a family.

These hard-working Americans you so disparage have (for the most part) families to support.  Even if they're divorced, they have child support.  And they have been economically screwed.  I can take you to a place in Jackson, OH, where the Meridian Automotive plant once was.  The jobs are now in Mexico and the lot now has a retail shopping center that may provide 10 jobs that could support a family, where there was once a plant where there were hundreds of such jobs.  These folks have moved on, but not to something better (for the most part).  And, yet, you want them to support the Goddess of NAFTA as opposed to someone whose trade policies might actually help THEIR situation.  

They are, by the way, well aware that the "Othered" folks have no more care for the lot of these hard working Americans than you say they have for the "Othered" folks.  The "Othered" folks don't care about the welfare of them, or their families; they care about their own welfare.  Let's not attach virtue to the "Othered" folks that don't apply.  The "Othered" folks are hardly more altruistic than the folks you disparage.

You're proof that the Clinton crowd hasn't learned a thing about the past election.

Re-read my post and try again. I disparage the white working-class often, but I did not do so here. Unless you think it's disparaging to point out that they ultimately decided it was okay to vote for a bigot, even though they cast their ballots for reasons unrelated to their own degree of bigotry. And if so, I would respectfully ask what fantasy you're living in, because it's pretty clear that Donald Trump has said and done some pretty bigoted things. I would also add that this is an incredibly big concession for me to make, because it represents my attempt to at least give these voters the benefit of the doubt and concede that bigotry was not the motivating factor behind their decision to support Trump. Not everything has to be an argument, boo.

Anyhow, what I am explaining is why I think progressives did not see this loss coming and why the mistake was made. We assumed that the swing voters of the Rust Belt cared about the progress America had made with regards to social justice, and that it was the inevitable march forward to the right side of history. I'm not saying they should feel like they've seen progress personally (although the job numbers should speak for themselves). I'm saying the country did turn corners on things like gay rights. Turns out, though, that these Obama '12/Trump '16 voters didn't really give a sh-t about equal rights one way or the other. But Democrats were not really open to the possibility of the firewall falling because we thought the progressive march forward could only gain steam, not crumble away.

We were wrong, because it turns out that these people were never voting for the march forward that we thought they were voting for, even when they did vote Democrat. It was only ever about their own insecurities. Which yes—is how it seems anyone ever votes. We were naïve and took for granted the fact that different branding was needed to connect with those types (she did actually have solid policies for the white working class whether you care to admit it or not).

The election just sears a little more because of all the things they were willing to look past in Donald Trump to cater to their insecurities with their vote. And why they were willing to do so is the million-dollar, realistically unanswerable question.

[Shameless Lefty Hack]

Re-read my post and try again. I disparage the white working-class often, but I did not do so here. Unless you think it's disparaging to point out that they ultimately decided it was okay to vote for a bigot, even though they cast their ballots for reasons unrelated to their own degree of bigotry.

I voted for an authoritarian elitist with a laughably hawkish foreign policy even though I am none of those things.

Would you hold me responsible for American casualties in a hypothetical Syrian war in the Clinton administration?

[Shadows]

How delusional can people be?

"It is okay to vote for a bigot"  -  Voting against bigotry is the privilege of the rich. The poor vote to earn decent wages & have a decent life


"Progressives assumed that Swing state rust belt voters cared more about social issues" - No they didn't. People have to incredibly stupid to even believe that. Any default Dem candidate by default is strong on social issues, you don't need Clinton for that. People cared about the economy in every major poll that was available

"Voters didn't give a sh** about gay rights" - Some of them do, but they care more about their lives than gay rights. And if they cared about gay rights they would have voted en mass for Sanders over Clinton in a landslide victory.

"We were naive etc" - Not everyone of us. You guys were delusional, we were shouting after every debate & rally that Clinton should talk about infra n minimum wage etc. It is a matter of shame that Trump outflanked Clinton in Trade & talked about infra spending etc much more (core Dem point)

It is weird how much blame is placed on a rust belt voter for voting for Trump when there is no question mark on how pathetic of a candidate Clinton was.

I mean you're argument for winning is Gay Rights? Seriously??

These kind of posts are self-explanatory why Clinton lost - She literally had no positive economic message at a time the economy was the most important topic in almost every single poll !

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Re-read my post and try again. I disparage the white working-class often, but I did not do so here. Unless you think it's disparaging to point out that they ultimately decided it was okay to vote for a bigot, even though they cast their ballots for reasons unrelated to their own degree of bigotry.

I voted for an authoritarian elitist with a laughably hawkish foreign policy even though I am none of those things.

Would you hold me responsible for American casualties in a hypothetical Syrian war in the Clinton administration?

When you vote for a candidate, you enable that candidate's agenda because your vote is what helps put them in power. Is this news to you?

The difference is, it's hard to see how things like sexual assault, denying apartments to black people, and playing coy with the KKK could have any reasonable defense. On the other hand, there is plenty room for reasonable justifications in the hypothetical situation of an unfortunate war with Syria.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

How delusional can people be?

"It is okay to vote for a bigot"  -  Voting against bigotry is the privilege of the rich. The poor vote to earn decent wages & have a decent life


"Progressives assumed that Swing state rust belt voters cared more about social issues" - No they didn't. People have to incredibly stupid to even believe that. Any default Dem candidate by default is strong on social issues, you don't need Clinton for that. People cared about the economy in every major poll that was available

"Voters didn't give a sh** about gay rights" - Some of them do, but they care more about their lives than gay rights. And if they cared about gay rights they would have voted en mass for Sanders over Clinton in a landslide victory.

"We were naive etc" - Not everyone of us. You guys were delusional, we were shouting after every debate & rally that Clinton should talk about infra n minimum wage etc. It is a matter of shame that Trump outflanked Clinton in Trade & talked about infra spending etc much more (core Dem point)

It is weird how much blame is placed on a rust belt voter for voting for Trump when there is no question mark on how pathetic of a candidate Clinton was.

I mean you're argument for winning is Gay Rights? Seriously??

These kind of posts are self-explanatory why Clinton lost - She literally had no positive economic message at a time the economy was the most important topic in almost every single poll !

Looking past your assholery, you are basically agreeing with me. I'm not saying the argument is "gay rights." I invoked gay rights because it was one clear example of the country moving forward. We assumed the the move forward represented an overall rejection of the GOP message and that the new majority rested with the Democrats... and that it would be very hard to "stop the train." I am saying as clearly as I can that WE WERE WRONG, so I'm not sure why people like you are getting so f-cking defensive.

Also, the quotes you are using are not even direct quotes from my posts. Not sure what that's about.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

I do think part of the democratic problem is that they took progressivism too far, and the country finally said "ENOUGH!".

- They told us that we had to let people into a bathroom of a gender not their own simply because they woke up and suddenly felt like it - no transgender surgery or official paperwork required.

- They told us that partial-birth abortion was a good thing.

- They told us we had to get rid of the hyde amendment - something the country supports by a wide margin.

- They told us that freedom of religion didn't exist in the public sphere, and that we shouldn't even say "Merry Christmas!" in public.

- They legalized SSM through unelected judges.

- Hillary said that the republican party was the political enemy she was most proud of making.

- Hillary compared the pro-life movement to terrorist groups.

- They told us to simply ignore the fact that Hillary endangered the country by using a private email server

- They told us to not consider ISIS to be an Islamic organization.

- They told us that a majority of people who didn't support Hillary were deplorable individuals.

- They told us to completely ignore the fact that our border with mexico is not secure.

- They told us to value political correctness.

- And they told us to ignore the fact that our entitlement programs are about to become extinct, or only offered the solution of raising the payroll tax cap, which will pass congress on the proverbial 12th of Never.

[Young Conservative]

I do think part of the democratic problem is that they took progressivism too far, and the country finally said "ENOUGH!".

- They told us that we had to let people into a bathroom of a gender not their own simply because they woke up and suddenly felt like it - no transgender surgery or official paperwork required.

- They told us that partial-birth abortion was a good thing.

- They told us we had to get rid of the hyde amendment - something the country supports by a wide margin.

- They told us that freedom of religion didn't exist in the public sphere, and that we shouldn't even say "Merry Christmas!" in public.

- They legalized SSM through unelected judges.

- Hillary said that the republican party was the political enemy she was most proud of making.

- Hillary compared the pro-life movement to terrorist groups.

- They told us to simply ignore the fact that Hillary endangered the country by using a private email server

- They told us to not consider ISIS to be an Islamic organization.

- They told us that a majority of people who didn't support Hillary were deplorable individuals.

- They told us to completely ignore the fact that our border with mexico is not secure.

- They told us to value political correctness.

- And they told us to ignore the fact that our entitlement programs are about to become extinct, or only offered the solution of raising the payroll tax cap, which will pass congress on the proverbial 12th of Never.

Really, this was all part of them becoming completely tone deaf to a huge chunk of the country, especially in the family values, working class Midwest and south.

[Pericles]

I do think part of the democratic problem is that they took progressivism too far, and the country finally said "ENOUGH!".

- They told us that we had to let people into a bathroom of a gender not their own simply because they woke up and suddenly felt like it - no transgender surgery or official paperwork required.

- They told us that partial-birth abortion was a good thing.

- They told us we had to get rid of the hyde amendment - something the country supports by a wide margin.

- They told us that freedom of religion didn't exist in the public sphere, and that we shouldn't even say "Merry Christmas!" in public.

- They legalized SSM through unelected judges.

- Hillary said that the republican party was the political enemy she was most proud of making.

- Hillary compared the pro-life movement to terrorist groups.

- They told us to simply ignore the fact that Hillary endangered the country by using a private email server

- They told us to not consider ISIS to be an Islamic organization.

- They told us that a majority of people who didn't support Hillary were deplorable individuals.

- They told us to completely ignore the fact that our border with mexico is not secure.

- They told us to value political correctness.

- And they told us to ignore the fact that our entitlement programs are about to become extinct, or only offered the solution of raising the payroll tax cap, which will pass congress on the proverbial 12th of Never.

Really, this was all part of them becoming completely tone deaf to a huge chunk of the country, especially in the family values, working class Midwest and south.

If family values mattered one iota Donald Trump would not be the President-Elect.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The Hillary campaign lost for a lot of reasons, but SSM? LOL, she never supported it until 58% of Americans supported it!

[Fuzzy Bear]

I think it was easy to believe that all the progress the country had made on things like gay rights over the last eight years meant the country was heading full-steam towards becoming a more progressive place. I know I was feeling like "history" was happening in an irreversible way with more and more people jumping on board.

Turns out we were wrong. We didn't want to believe that these working-class whites just didn't give a damn about the rights of their even more vulnerable neighbours. All the progress of the last few years was just incidental because these people had chosen to trust Barack Obama over the corporatist establishment figure Mitt Romney. So this election was definitely a sh-tty way to learn that progress and justice are not inevitable, but... it's a valuable lesson.

Most white people don't really care about the rights of those who have been Othered. It's not that they're against social progress and equality. They're just willing to look past a pretty large degree of hatred, bigotry, and discrimination if it means they can feel like they're being "heard." I think it's awful and inexcusable, but it is what it is, and I guess it's not AS BAD as outright bigotry. But they've still enabled it.

You're lecturing working Americans about the progress they made.  Isn't that a tad pretentious?  

I doubt you work for a living.  I doubt you have a family depending on you working.  Someday that may happen for you, but I doubt it's the case now.  And, yes, that is relevant.  I was as snotty as you toward folks I regarded as Archie Bunker types in my youth when I had no idea of the pressure one takes on when they support a family.

These hard-working Americans you so disparage have (for the most part) families to support.  Even if they're divorced, they have child support.  And they have been economically screwed.  I can take you to a place in Jackson, OH, where the Meridian Automotive plant once was.  The jobs are now in Mexico and the lot now has a retail shopping center that may provide 10 jobs that could support a family, where there was once a plant where there were hundreds of such jobs.  These folks have moved on, but not to something better (for the most part).  And, yet, you want them to support the Goddess of NAFTA as opposed to someone whose trade policies might actually help THEIR situation.  

They are, by the way, well aware that the "Othered" folks have no more care for the lot of these hard working Americans than you say they have for the "Othered" folks.  The "Othered" folks don't care about the welfare of them, or their families; they care about their own welfare.  Let's not attach virtue to the "Othered" folks that don't apply.  The "Othered" folks are hardly more altruistic than the folks you disparage.

You're proof that the Clinton crowd hasn't learned a thing about the past election.

Re-read my post and try again. I disparage the white working-class often, but I did not do so here. Unless you think it's disparaging to point out that they ultimately decided it was okay to vote for a bigot, even though they cast their ballots for reasons unrelated to their own degree of bigotry. And if so, I would respectfully ask what fantasy you're living in, because it's pretty clear that Donald Trump has said and done some pretty bigoted things. I would also add that this is an incredibly big concession for me to make, because it represents my attempt to at least give these voters the benefit of the doubt and concede that bigotry was not the motivating factor behind their decision to support Trump. Not everything has to be an argument, boo.

Anyhow, what I am explaining is why I think progressives did not see this loss coming and why the mistake was made. We assumed that the swing voters of the Rust Belt cared about the progress America had made with regards to social justice, and that it was the inevitable march forward to the right side of history. I'm not saying they should feel like they've seen progress personally (although the job numbers should speak for themselves). I'm saying the country did turn corners on things like gay rights. Turns out, though, that these Obama '12/Trump '16 voters didn't really give a sh-t about equal rights one way or the other. But Democrats were not really open to the possibility of the firewall falling because we thought the progressive march forward could only gain steam, not crumble away.

We were wrong, because it turns out that these people were never voting for the march forward that we thought they were voting for, even when they did vote Democrat. It was only ever about their own insecurities. Which yes—is how it seems anyone ever votes. We were naïve and took for granted the fact that different branding was needed to connect with those types (she did actually have solid policies for the white working class whether you care to admit it or not).

The election just sears a little more because of all the things they were willing to look past in Donald Trump to cater to their insecurities with their vote. And why they were willing to do so is the million-dollar, realistically unanswerable question.

Given that I am an Obama 2012 voter, perhaps there are things I would have had to look past to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. 

Make no mistake.  Hillary was targeting me and my family when she stated that half of Trump's supporters are "deplorables".  Why wouldn't she be referring to me and my wife?  Because we're non-racist Fundamentalist Christians?  I doubt it; the comments of the Clintonistas on e-mails show their views of Biblical Christians and conservative Catholics. 

Or maybe I'm in the half of Trump supporters that aren't "deplorable", but just idiots, misguided fools who can't find the bathroom without a keeper and need assistance in dropping the coin in the pay toilet.  As if I'm confused as to why I'm supporting Trump.  I'm told I'm voting against my own interest.  So let me ask you just how stupid I really am.

Trump advocates "school choice".  Clinton is a Public School Over All candidate.  My 11 year old ADHD son went through 5th grade in public school, doing worse each year, being subjected to progressive bullying each year.  A kid in 3rd grade beat him to a pulp, but got to stay in school the entire year.  The school gave this kid another chance.  A 5th grader who's 5-8 got into it with my son, who was 4-8 and 60 lbs max at the time; they BOTH were sent to the office.  Another kid beat him to a pulp where I had to take him to the ER; he was so traumatized he hasn't named the attacker to this day.  In each case, the public school gave me platitudes, but no protection.

Now, I have my son in a private, religious school.  I can afford this on a voucher.  These vouchers, however, are things the Clintonistas (and many of their supporters ) want to end, and their flunkies have lawsuits going to make that happen.  They (and people like you, I believe) view it as a blow against "religion" and "intolerance".  I see is as having to take a special needs kid out of a safe educational environment, where he is learning, and place him in the Blackboard Jungle 2.0 where he is neither physically nor emotionally safe.  If I have to work 3 jobs instead of 2 to keep him in his current school setting, so be it.  He only gets to be a kid once.  But I don't see how the public school system will keep him safe in 10th grade if they couldn't do it in 2nd or 3rd.

You go on about people being "othered".  The educational system that liberals have wrought in America have "othered" my son into the ground.  I'm doing what I need to do to give him as much of a chance as I can with what I've got, but Hillary Clinton doesn't give a crap about his chances in life if the remedy is not in the interest of unionized school teachers and liberal secular educators, folks who support her in droves.

This is real life.  Not theory.  Your candidate wants to make my son's life worse.  She certainly doesn't care if it gets better.  You'll forgive me if I found her pontifications about "children" to be offensive.  When you deal with this; when something like this causes you to lie awake in bed at night at age 59 and think about how many hours in the day you can work for his betterment, then you can lecture me, and folks in the WWC that you find deplorable who are often struggling with similar issues, about enlightened solutions to their plights.

Multiply me by thousands and then tell me why your "extraordinary woman" lost.

[Devout Centrist]

I do think part of the democratic problem is that they took progressivism too far, and the country finally said "ENOUGH!".

- They told us that we had to let people into a bathroom of a gender not their own simply because they woke up and suddenly felt like it - no transgender surgery or official paperwork required.

- They told us that partial-birth abortion was a good thing.

- They told us we had to get rid of the hyde amendment - something the country supports by a wide margin.

- They told us that freedom of religion didn't exist in the public sphere, and that we shouldn't even say "Merry Christmas!" in public.

- They legalized SSM through unelected judges.

- Hillary said that the republican party was the political enemy she was most proud of making.

- Hillary compared the pro-life movement to terrorist groups.

- They told us to simply ignore the fact that Hillary endangered the country by using a private email server

- They told us to not consider ISIS to be an Islamic organization.

- They told us that a majority of people who didn't support Hillary were deplorable individuals.

- They told us to completely ignore the fact that our border with mexico is not secure.

- They told us to value political correctness.

- And they told us to ignore the fact that our entitlement programs are about to become extinct, or only offered the solution of raising the payroll tax cap, which will pass congress on the proverbial 12th of Never.

This and the Trump voters repent! post are both insufferable nonsense meant to piss off people to increase your own 'moderate hero, FF ' status.