Frank Rich: "No Sympathy for the Hillbilly"

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I honestly think NSV is just a few steps away from declaring that suffrage should be taken away from those without property.

[Oakvale]

I can't help but perceive an exploitative fetishization of black/racial minority culture by the same "educated" white liberals who unironically use the term "white trash."

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Meanwhile, this is what the REPUBLICAN party is doing: http://www.voanews.com/a/white-house-budget-chief-defends-domestic-cuts/3770146.html

And when the economy crashes, at least you'll still be sitting atop your throne from where you can say "Oh, that's so sad! If only there was some way to stop this!" or at least you might if you had a shred of virtue within you to combine with your lesser abilities.

[Intell]

Either way, if the voices encouraging Democrats to simply ignore the interests of poor voters who have been un-enthused by the party over the past decade prevail, the consequences will be even uglier than what we are witnessing today. A party that decides that certain communities "deserve to die" because they are "negative assets" is a party that deserves to die itself.

It's ironic, because for all the faults of the Republican Party nowadays, I rarely hear them say stuff like this. It's mostly Democrats that are basically alienating places like West Virginia, Arkansas, rural Ohio, etc. that are struggling with this global economy with this talk of pulling away from coal and liquidating the mines.

I have to point out that the Democratic Party has changed dramatically. It used to be about protecting the working class. It's slipped away and has become a neoliberal party that is basically economically moderate and socially liberal, as most people realize. This is a deadly combination for the Appalachian and Midwestern states.

Good! 

And a party to which you shouldn't belong in.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Meanwhile, this is what the REPUBLICAN party is doing: http://www.voanews.com/a/white-house-budget-chief-defends-domestic-cuts/3770146.html

And when the economy crashes, at least you'll still be sitting atop your throne from where you can say "Oh, that's so sad! If only there was some way to stop this!" or at least you might if you had a shred of virtue within you.

The stock market has soared since Trump took office, actually.  But don't let the facts get in your way.

People who own capital are really not that smart and tend to think everyone has the same mindset has them. You are Exhibit A. While tax cuts are 'priced in' your type fail to recognize the effects of not having many poverty programs which are immediately spent on consumption and the broader implications of this. Repatriation will certainly have a positive effect but what other reduced tax policy with offsetting spending declines is a net positive? Amazing that investors are just this blind, but ain't that the way it always goes.

[Xing]

There is a lot of this attitude ("Anyone who disagrees with me a stupid racist sexist Nazi POS!") on the Democratic side, unfortunately. (Let's not pretend that there isn't a similar attitude on the right, but I digress...) This is not a productive attitude, and it's certainly not going to serve any of us well in the future. While it's true that many Trump supporters are not going to be convinced to turn against him, there are certainly some who could potentially be swayed. The type of argument presented in this article is what has pushed many people away from the Democratic Party. Also, maybe convincing people in rural America to pull the lever in the voting booth a certain way shouldn't be our end goal. Perhaps empathy should be about recognizing that we don't have to see each other as enemies, rather than just winning elections.

I think the problem with the quest for empathy is that people are so deeply obsessed with "whataboutism" that we can't actually acknowledge that there are many different problems. Any human being wants their problems focused on first rather than someone else's, that much seems logical. The issue is that a lot of people fail to comprehend (whether that's our own failure as a society for not instilling that form of critical thinking or something else) that there are multiple problems that multiple groups of people are dealing with and that all of these should be addressed, not just one at a time and not just in piecemeal. A black man still probably going to be more socioeconomically disadvantaged for example than the median white man, and would probably have the cops called on him more often than the so-called "hillbilly", but they both have economic problems that must be handled. But the challenge is making everyone understand that everyone else has their own issues to deal with that are very complex and that nobody's problems are relatively speaking more special than anyone else's would probably be the biggest hurdle toward any kind of empathy.

That's a good point, and it usually requires empathy for people to acknowledge that the problems others face are just as real as the problems they face themselves, so this issue can end up being kind of circular. Also, many people want a quick fix; they want someone to wave a magic wand and make their problems disappear with one simple piece of legislation. I'm not suggesting that trying to have empathy is going to instantly destroy all animosity that exists between various groups in this country, but if enough people can strive to be more empathetic, that might be a start.

[Reaganfan]

I think most white Americans bailed when the left got looney, and became obsessed with identity politics.

They began representing small segments of the population and calling the rest "deplorables".

[Hindsight was 2020]

I think most white Americans bailed when the left got looney, and became obsessed with identity politics.

They began representing small segments of the population and calling the rest "deplorables".

The only one obsessed with "identity politics" is the one who wants to ban a religion from coming here

[afleitch]

I think most white Americans bailed when the left got looney, and became obsessed with identity politics.

They began representing small segments of the population and calling the rest "deplorables".

The only one obsessed with "identity politics" is the one who wants to ban a religion from coming here

And people who are transgender from using the bathroom.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I think most white Americans bailed when the left got looney, and became obsessed with identity politics.

They began representing small segments of the population and calling the rest "deplorables".

The only one obsessed with "identity politics" is the one who wants to ban a religion from coming here

And people who are transgender from using the bathroom.

Excessive hyperbole alert.

[Tintrlvr]

Everyone realizes that diminished turnout among working class voters in urban areas also harmed HRC a great deal across the Rust Belt, right?

Gary, Indiana is 85% black, for instance. Yet swings in both turnout and vote share in cities like Gary and adjacent inner-ring suburbs played a significant role in moving states like Pennsylvania and Michigan away from Democrats. It wasn't just rural voters and it wasn't just whites.

Maybe this has been mentioned already, although I couldn't be bothered to read through most of this extremely depressing thread about an extremely bad thinkpiece.

Either way, if the voices encouraging Democrats to simply ignore the interests of poor voters who have been un-enthused by the party over the past decade prevail, the consequences will be even uglier than what we are witnessing today. A party that decides that certain communities "deserve to die" because they are "negative assets" is a party that deserves to die itself.

It's quite a leap from "ignore the interests of the poor" (which basically nobody left of center except possibly NSV is advocating, either on this forum or in the Democratic Party generally; Clinton talked about the poor constantly) to "ignore the interests of the white working class". Increasing the minimum wage, e.g., is widely viewed as a major Democratic Party plank to benefit the poor, but it won't do anything to win back "white working class" voters because those voters don't vote Republican on the basis of economic issues.

[Hindsight was 2020]

I think most white Americans bailed when the left got looney, and became obsessed with identity politics.

They began representing small segments of the population and calling the rest "deplorables".

The only one obsessed with "identity politics" is the one who wants to ban a religion from coming here

And people who are transgender from using the bathroom.

Excessive hyperbole alert.

But accusing the left of being "looney" an "obsessed with identity politics" isn't? Hypocrisy alert

[Antonio the Sixth]

"The State giveth" is a bizarre response to whatever NSV is on about but we are all by now familiar with macho bluster about 'parasites' and guillotines etc from forum leftists.

How kind of you to always stand up for poor upper-middle-class people oppressed by leftist bullies!

It must be the first (and hopefully last) time someone describes me as "macho".

[Deblano]

It is pretty funny how the various narratives being spun about the mysterious Midwest whites is very similar to competing colonial depictions of natives. Are they a vast tribe of aggressive unreasonable non-woke types who should be feared and despised? Are they a dying, noble breed more in touch than the effete observer? Do they merely need to be tamed and introduced to microbreweries and coding lessons so they can be brought into the brave world if the future?

I'd also add on with how there's a lot of "they need to stop being so entitled and just pull themselves up by their bootstraps" rhetoric from these people against rural folks like we see with the right wing and inner city minorities.