Opinion Of People Who Say Trump Won Because Of A “Whitelash”

[Alben Barkley]

Ignorant out of touch gullible morons

Sounds like you just perfectly described yourself and anyone else who thinks this was NOT a major reason Trump won.

It’s not even an issue for debate. It is an objective fact. Studies have repeatedly shown how heavily tied racial resentment was and is to Trump support. If you think otherwise, you are not just ignorant, you are outright wrong. Period.

So maybe tone down the smug superiority factor a bit until you learn what the f—k you’re talking about.

[Alben Barkley]

White people who twice voted for Obama put Trump in the White House. To call it a whitelash is very ignorant, (not to mention, Blacks and Hispanics voting for Trump more than Romney). It was a backlash against globalism, the status quo, and a corupt political establishment, all of which Hillary represented.

To deny the inherent racism that Trump represents is to be worse than ignorant; it is to be WILLFULLY ignorant. You have to have your head buried deep in the sand. The man launched his political career on racist birtherism, then doubled down on racism (some dogwhistled, some blatant — “globalism” itself is a xenophobic dogwhistle by the way) at every turn. Believe it or not, it is possible to vote for Obama and still be racist or just incredibly ignorant (possibly racist against Hispanics/Muslim immigrants more than just black people too) so the fact that Obama-Trump voters existed doesn‘t mean anything. This “reasoning” is as shallow as “I have a black friend, so I can’t be racist.” Basically the entire Trump platform boils down to: “Vote for me or ‘they’ will take your jobs, rape your women, drug your children, take over the country and outnumber ‘you.’” And that inherently racist rhetoric appealed to angry whites who turned to him in backlash, including outright white nationalists like David Duke and other “very fine people.” They sure as f—k heard what his real message was. Trump won because he fired these people up and the turnout for other groups was depressed due to Obama not being on the ballot and yes, Hillary not being a great candidate. It was still just enough to win, but it nonetheless was enough. And we wouldn’t have seen such swings in predominantly white states if Trump’s white identity message (which again was what his whole message, “globalism” and all, boiled down to) hadn’t resonated so well with them. Again, studies have demonstrated this incontrovertibly.

[Alben Barkley]

There are some people in this country who voted for Trump specifically because of his racism/sexism/xenophobia etc., and that segment of the population is what I consider "too far gone." On the other hand, there are others who voted for him because he promoted economic populism on the campaign trail, and that segment of the population is certainly persuadable. Democrats should focus more on the latter group and not on the former group, and given how close the 2016 election was, just a minor swing among the latter group could have tipped the election the other way. So people who say that Trump won because of a "Whitelash" are focusing too much on things beyond the Democrats' control and not enough on things within their control.

If you’re willing to vote for a candidate running on the most blatantly white supremacist platform since George Wallace (who by the way also had supporters who claimed to vote for him because of “economic populism”), you are “too far gone” almost no matter what if you ask me. At the very least, it shows you’re willing to overlook some truly repugnant s—t just to stick it to the “establishment” and vote for policies that are mostly wrong and stupid anyway. (Also maybe even against your own interests — “killing my healthcare to own the libs.”)

I have zero sympathy for anyone who voted for Trump for any reason. ZERO. You’re either bigoted, extremely ignorant, or both. There are no exceptions to that rule. Oh I’ll take the votes of the ones who regret it now or just voted for him last time because he was an “outsider” or some stupid s—t. But I still have no sympathy for them. And in the long run, the Democratic Party is better off ditching the “economically anxious” anyway so we don’t have to worry about voters flocking to the next far right populist demagogue. The sooner the realignment from the rust belt to the sun belt takes hold, the better.