Yeah, me neither.
From a long-form essay at AlterNet:
An Insider's View: The Dark Rigidity of Fundamentalist Rural AmericaIn deep-red white America, the white Christian God is king....What I understand is that rural, Christian, white Americans are entrenched in fundamentalist belief systems; don’t trust people outside their tribe; have been force-fed a diet of misinformation and lies for decades; are unwilling to understand their own situations; and truly believe whites are superior to all races. No amount of understanding is going to change these things or what they believe. No amount of niceties will get them to be introspective. No economic policy put forth by someone outside their tribe is going to be listened to no matter how beneficial it would be for them. I understand rural, Christian, white America all too well. I understand their fears are based on myths and lies. I understand they feel left behind by a world they don’t understand and don’t really care to. They are willing to vote against their own interest if they can be convinced it will make sure minorities are harmed more. Their Christian beliefs and morals are truly only extended to fellow white Christians. They are the problem with progress and always will be, because their belief systems are constructed against it.
The problem isn’t a lack of understanding by coastal elites. The problem is a lack of understanding of why rural, Christian, white America believes, votes, behaves the ways it does by rural, Christian, white America.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, Mr. Matthew Dowd appears to have spent the last of his Peace Dividend on some truly outstanding medical-grade kush and is taking his leisure in his basement command center, inventing a human history adorably devoid of conflict in which Lincoln-the-Uniter never waged a massive and bloody civil war and the the Allies liberate Europe from the Nazis with nothing but "Love Trumps Hate" bumper stickers and flowers in their hair...
Because if you're going to Monte Cassino
You're gonna meet
Some gentle people there...
Says one of the chief architects of George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign.War will never bring peace, division will never unify us, kindness isn't weakness, arrogance isn't strength, hope isn't a dream, love wins.— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) December 27, 2016
Which is what makes Matthew Dowd such a perfect Beltway stooge. Because despite being so entirely full of shit that you'd think it would start coming out his ears Play-Doh Fun Factory-style, he stays caught up with whatever the Beltway party line is hour-by-day and follows it to the letter:
we need to make distinction between Trump fans and Trump voters. His fans won't listen. Many of his voters worry about him as President.— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) December 27, 2016
8 comments:
"we need to make the distinction between those who who are fascists and those who abide fascism for personal ambition," said the hairsplitting ratfucker.
I'd read that AlterNet article before, but I read through it again. Depressing. Before the election I said we were going to get a count on how many irredeemable assholes we have in this country. More than I thought. By a long shot.
Exactly whom are you referring to as "we" Matty boy? "We" need to make distinction between having health insurance and dying...
-Doug in Oakland
Another important addendum ( I think) regarding the flyover country "White Working Class" is:
Most of "Real America" has been hemorrhaging its best and brightest for the last 25 years. I think one significant factor is the unacknowledged mass internal migration of the college educated, and skilled workers that has occurred since 1990.
My own Midwestern hometown's newspaper has run many stories of the generational phenomena of kids going to college and never "returning home."
The phenomena is similar to the brain drain seen in third-world nations dissolve into authoritarian, fundamentalist rule. And like those situations, economic opportunity is a large part of it, but its isn't the only reason people chose to escape as soon as they can.
Dowd might as well basically deny knowing George W Bush. I follow his twitter feed and anytime somebody brings up his time with W he just says he's an independent now lalalala. He did his damage,got paid big bucks for it and heres a big FU.
@trgahan: Chicken or egg?
They don't want to come back because they've positively 'reprogrammed' themselves and no longer believe or espouse the the narrow-minded beliefs of their hometown, or their hometown no longer really wants them there because they don't believe or espouse the provincially predominant narrow-minded beliefs? I mean, it's essentially the same thing but once you're out in the big wide world who wants to willingly go back to that?
I'm big city, was born big city though was schooled in the suburbs many years ago, spent some growing up years there but moved back immediately in my late teens and then never left. Some of the best & brightest people I've ever known & loved are from the suburbs & small town nowheresvilles who NEVER want to go back. We're a diverse bunch, and sometimes it seems that that's exactly why they hate us. Regardless of our college degrees, humor, taste, and biz acumen (and I'm degree-less, ha!)
- lifeat45rpm
@trgahan: Chicken or egg?
They don't want to come back because they've positively 'reprogrammed' themselves and no longer believe or espouse the the narrow-minded beliefs of their hometown, or their hometown no longer really wants them there because they don't believe or espouse the provincially predominant narrow-minded beliefs? I mean, it's essentially the same thing but once you're out in the big wide world who wants to willingly go back to that?
I'm big city, was born big city though was schooled in the suburbs many years ago, spent some growing up years there but moved back immediately in my late teens and then never left. Some of the best & brightest people I've ever known & loved are from the suburbs & small town nowheresvilles who NEVER want to go back. We're a diverse bunch, and sometimes it seems that that's exactly why they hate us. Regardless of our college degrees, humor, taste, and biz acumen (and I'm degree-less, ha!)
- lifeat45rpm
All the information was "out there" for more than a year. Sure there was an enormous amount of fluffing Il Douche for ratings. But take your pick of disqualifiers: racism, misogyny, fraud, child rape, bald face lies, xenophobia, treason. Everybody that voted for this reptile had all the facts dumped on their laps. So, they are so stupid that they wanted to play in traffic or they embraced the above atrocities.
As for the bullshit about elites. Call them what they really are, informed and correct. Again, this mythical group wasn't really elites, they were people desperately trying to stop you from making an epic mistake. One that will take decades to repair...if that ever happens. To borrow a cliched title, A Confederacy of Dunces.
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