All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[JCAll]

Neverthless, the driving factor of right wing nationalism is inexplicitly linked to economics.

The driving force or right-wing nationalism is just Hate. Even if everyone had every luxury in the world, it wouldn't matter if they couldn't spite the people they hate.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

All this talk about the economic downturn and crushing poverty spurring radicalism and homegrown terrorism is pure bullshit. Minorities are in equally bad shape economically, perhaps worse off, and yet, I haven't heard of Blacks or Latinos forming militias, marching in neo-Nazi rallies or plotting to kidnap governors. For right wing shitstains, WHITE right wing shitstains, it's all about hate, nothing more, nothing less.

[The no face guy]

The driving force or right-wing nationalism is just Hate. Even if everyone had every luxury in the world, it wouldn't matter if they couldn't spite the people they hate.

If the driving force of right wing nationalism was just hate, than Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, wouldn't have voted for an African American twice before voting for Trump.

It just took a demagogue with a "Make America Great Again" hat to come along and offer hope of a better future after decades of neglect. While Hillary was skipping over the Mid West, Trump was making a concerted effort to visit manufacturing plants in working class counties throughout the Pennsylvania and the Midwest.

[Tendrin]

If the driving force of right wing nationalism was just hate, than Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, wouldn't have voted for an African American twice before voting for Trump.

Racists voted for Obama. A lot of them, actually.

That said, the real reason those states flipped are: voter suppression, voter suppression, voter suppression and, last but not least, misogyny and white nationalism.

[The no face guy]

Racists voted for Obama. A lot of them, actually.

That said, the real reason those states flipped are: voter suppression, voter suppression, voter suppression and, last but not least, misogyny and white nationalism.

Trump won the mid west because he was able to flip three rust belt states, two which hadn't voted Republican since 1988, and and another since 1984, no easy feat.

All three of these states use to be manufacturing hubs with strong union representation, all of which have seen a steep decline of jobs with good paying wages.

[Tendrin]

Trump won the mid west because he was able to flip three rust belt states, two which hadn't voted Republican since 1988, and and another since 1984. All three of these states use to be manufacturing hubs with strong union representation, all of which have seen a steep decline of jobs with good paying wages.

Bear in mind: all three states involved had Republicans winning at the state level. The GOP had control of all three states until at least 2014, with only Pennsylvania swapping to the Democrats in the 2014 election. His combined vote tally of 'flipping' those states was 70,000 votes. Many, many, *many* more votes were suppressed in those states than elected him, by action and inaction on the part of the GOP to break down the fundamental workings of Democracy. You can ascribe it all to the decline of Unionization if you want, but 'the economy' is just something they say when they're voting for Whiteness.

[worstblogever]

Early voting trends in 13 of 14 new states doing this mail in thing for the first time are showing a 2-1 lean for Dems.

In the 27 early voting states so far, over 6M have voted. 1.4M registered Dems have voted compared ~653K Rs, a 2.1 turnout ratio for Dems.

We are staring at a historic Obama-level turnout.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-w...rly-voting?amp

While the thought was people turned out to vote for the first black president, I think there was a big "column B" that was "the Bush 43 administration was a goddamned disaster and the economy is going in the s***ter and fast".

I think this turnout is solely, "Trump is an insane white nationalist authoritarian nightmare who failed at stopping the spread of a pandemic... hell, he's actively spreading it personally", because nobody is liking Biden like they did Obama, but hey, when you're drowning and you see a functional life-preserver, you grab it so you don't drown.

All this talk about the economic downturn and crushing poverty spurring radicalism and homegrown terrorism is pure bullshit. Minorities are in equally bad shape economically, perhaps worse off, and yet, I haven't heard of Blacks or Latinos forming militias, marching in neo-Nazi rallies or plotting to kidnap governors. For right wing shitstains, WHITE right wing shitstains, it's all about hate, nothing more, nothing less.

Regrettably, right-wing news media is doing worse than "both sides"ing it. Except they don't call white supremacist militia members domestic terrorists, they hail them as "patriots". What they do, though, is pretend the real problem is mythical rioting Antifa and BlackLivesMatter protests... when they're literally catching the former destroying property and claiming it was done by the latter. The whole thing is a fictional narrative at this point. And can we expect better of Fox News who have a primetime lineup of Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham? All of whom have been noted for spreading white nationalist rhetoric on live TV? We can't.

The narrative needs to be brought back to the truth-tellers. And, go figure, white nationalists are f***ing monsters who lie and pretend people of color are doing all the crime and terror, when it's them. It's almost always them.

I say this as someone who has white privilege... if there is one lesson that this continent is founded upon, it's that bad things happen when you just take white people at their word. From the first arrivals from Europe, that's the story of the Americas.

[The no face guy]

Bear in mind: all three states involved had Republicans winning at the state level. The GOP had control of all three states until at least 2014, with only Pennsylvania swapping to the Democrats in the 2014 election. His combined vote tally of 'flipping' those states was 70,000 votes. Many, many, *many* more votes were suppressed in those states than elected him, by action and inaction on the part of the GOP to break down the fundamental workings of Democracy. You can ascribe it all to the decline of Unionization if you want, but 'the economy' is just something they say when they're voting for Whiteness.

Republican voter suppression played a role, no doubt in that, but the idea that the white working class turned around and voted for Trump in the mid west because the majority are inherently racist is insulting, and it doesn't really help to bring them back into the fold.

The two major states where demographic change and xenophobia were a driving force (Florida & Nevada) Trump lost one. Why? Because Nevada has strong organized unions that played a key part in Trump's defeat.

[Tendrin]

Republican voter suppression played a role, no doubt in that, but the idea that the white working class turned around and voted for Trump in the mid west because the majority are inherently racist is insulting, and it doesn't really help to bring them back into the fold.

It's not 'insulting'. America is a deeply racist country, and Whiteness is a thing. Bringing them back into the fold doesn't mean ignoring it. Ignoring it and pandering to it is how we got a new deal that excluded blacks. And don't put words in my mouth. I didn't suggest anyone was 'inherently' anything, but the reason a majority of white men vote for Trump isn't because they don't have 'good jobs'. The cohort he ran away with was white men, and they were voting for White Maleness. We know this from being repeatedly told this over and over and over again.

The two major states where demographic change and xenophobia were a driving force (Florida & Nevada) Trump lost one. Why? Because Nevada has strong organized unions that played a key part in Trump's defeat.

Nevada has been deep blue for a while. It was never likely Trump was going to win a state where he couldn't run up his margins on the backs of affluent white voters and rural voters.

[The no face guy]

It's not 'insulting'. America is a deeply racist country, and Whiteness is a thing. Bringing them back into the fold doesn't mean ignoring it. Ignoring it and pandering to it is how we got a new deal that excluded blacks. And don't put words in my mouth. I didn't suggest anyone was 'inherently' anything, but the reason a majority of white men vote for Trump isn't because they don't have 'good jobs'. The cohort he ran away with was white men, and they were voting for White Maleness. We know this from being repeatedly told this over and over and over again.

Nevada has been deep blue for a while. It was never likely Trump was going to win a state where he couldn't run up his margins on the backs of affluent white voters and rural voters.

If your going to state that white working class men in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, who have largely voted Democrat their whole lives, turned around and voted for Trump because they identified with his whiteness, than I'm going to need some statistical evidence.

Nevada went blue because it has a growing Hispanic population that is recharging union representation throughout the country, and is particularly well mobilized in Nevada. They played a key role in Trump's defeat.

[worstblogever]

On this date in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, "Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day" published profiles of the U.S. House Representative from Wisconsin's 6th Congressional District, Glenn Grothman, a man whose record on women’s issues as a state legislator is bad enough that he didn’t just vote against emergency contraception for rape victims so that they couldn’t avoid get pregnant, he has publicly gone on record to say that women who seek it out are “trained” to say they were raped so they could get the morning after pill. He also has spent a lot of time badmouthing Planned Parenthood, calling the organization “racist” at times, and at others accusing them of allowing pregnant women to have sex-selective abortions, and arguing against funding them because "as a guy" he didn't think their services would do HIM any good. Grothman would also like to cancel Martin Luther King Day, called Kwanzaa “a fake holiday for black people”, and while he’s at it, has tried cancelling the weekend for workers. Grothman has pledged to cut all government assistance from others because "it's a bribe to not work hard" and has encouraged his constituents to scrutinize people using food stamps in public to determine if they are "genuinely poor". Rounding out his delightful personality is his support for the anti-gay laws Uganda pushed forth, where the punishment for being gay is death, and that he feels the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling should not be honored because it would be disrespectful to the American Soldiers who gave their lives fighting for their deeply held religious beliefs in the Civil War (because that makes sense). Back in 2012, Grothman claimed that President Obama and Sen. Tammy Baldwin only won office in 2012 because of widespread voter fraud, so voting record in Wisconsin supported repeated measures on Voter ID In two consecurtive presidential elections now, Grothman straight up predicted Republican presidential candidate would have a better chance of winning Wisconsin because the Voter ID law was put into place, straight up admitting in April of 2016 that it would help stop Hillary Clinton (and sadly, he was proven correct).

Glenn Grothman has managed to weigh in on more issues in ways that we can only describe as inexplicably d***ish. In March of 2017, he went on a rant against college Pell Grants, arguing that they shouldn’t be funded because they, we s*** you not, “discourage marriages”. Don’t think about why attendance in college might discourage someone from settling down with a spouse too hard, because there is no statistic or logic behind Grothman’s stupid argument. But he was far from done… as the Supreme Court will be making a ruling in the Gill v. Whitford case, which is aimed at overturning an outrageous level of gerrymandering that was set up in Wisconsin several years back. And yet, Glenn Grothman is challenging that the Supreme Court shouldn’t have the authority to do that.

“I’m not sure there should be any restrictions whatsoever, because I don’t think it is the court’s business to draw lines. There are many rules right now — that the courts have laid out — that if you want your redistricting map approved you have to meet.”

Now, Grothman has made various insensitive racial comments through the years, and since we last updated his profile, he was asked about his feelings about Donald Trump’s “s***hole countries” remarks, and Grothman responded that it really wasn’t as offensive as things other presidents have done, like just for example, the time that Barack Obama met with the Reverend Al Sharpton:

“The past president brought Al Sharpton into the White House something like 80 times. That was kind of stunning to me, but nobody ever made a big ruckus out of it.”

Yes, Grothman just equated meeting with a civil rights leader with disparaging the entire African continent and Haiti as a “s***hole”. Making it worse? His comments came, of on all days… Martin Luther King Day.

Glenn Grothman withered in front of a town hall back in his home district in April 2017, and when faced with outrage over an attempted “Repeal and Replace” plan for the Affordable Care Act, straight up lied to his constituents and claimed that it would still cover pre-existing conditions (See Above, it didn’t). He was also his usually abrasively conservative self, acknowledging he supports a highly expensive but almost certainly ineffective border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, lying by claiming that Planned Parenthood is the "biggest abortion provider in the country," and took time to s*** on the country's welfare system, falsely claiming that it "discourages" work and marriage.

[worstblogever]

Glenn Grothman was re-elected to a third term in 2018 with 55% of the vote. Do you think he has a large swath of partisan votes that he’s made? You bet your ass he has:

• January 22nd, 2019: Grothman votes against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
• January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Grothman voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
• January 27th, 2019: Glenn Grothman votes against HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attack Grothman our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
• February 28th, 2019: Glenn Grothman votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
• March 14th, 2019: Rep. Grothman votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
• April 4th, 2019: Glenn Grothman is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
• May 17th, 2019: Grothman votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
• June 4th, 2019: Rep. Grothman votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
• July 16th, 2019: Glenn Grothman votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
• December 3rd, 2019: Rep. Grothman votes against a resolution to disallow Russia from re-entering the G7 and makes it the G8 until it leaves Ukraine.
• December 18th, 2019: Grothman ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
• May 15th, 2020: Grothman votes against the HEROES Act, to further support the healthcare industry and citizens affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Grothman has been doing the political calculus and seems to think that eliminating all of the social safety net for all Americans isn’t a winning formula for him, so instead, he’s specifically attacking the social safety net that’s available for immigrants, who he has also been demonizing in discussions about the U.S./Mexico border. He's always had a white nationalist bent in who he makes the targets of his rhetoric, so this stance tracks with his overall brand of being an ***hole.

Of course, the big campaign issue in 2020 is Covid-19, and on that, Grothman almost certainly didn’t do himself any favors, turning up maskless at the Wisconsin GOP convention in July, and while speaking, going into a savage coughing fit that sent respiratory droplets into the crowd. He insisted he was never sick, and it was just “a dry throat”, but with all the other evidence turning up right now, the more likely thing is that he just doesn’t care if he spreads Covid-19 or any other disease to anyone else.

Looking to take advantage of Glenn Grothman’s rampant ignorance and intolerance in a few weeks is former Democratic Wisconsin State Senator Jessica King, and in 2020, the +8 Republican lean of Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District is not impossible for her to overcome.

[Tendrin]

If your going to state that white working class men in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, who have largely voted Democrat their whole lives, turned around and voted for Trump because they identified with his whiteness, than I'm going to need some statistical evidence.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...y-2018-midterm

https://psmag.com/news/new-study-con...crats-to-trump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...pported-trump/

And the list goes on. That's without even getting into your assertion about 'white working class men' who 'largely voted Democrats'.

[The no face guy]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...y-2018-midterm

https://psmag.com/news/new-study-con...crats-to-trump

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...pported-trump/

And the list goes on. That's without even getting into your assertion about 'white working class men' who 'largely voted Democrats'.

It is an interesting article Tendrin, and I have stated that the decline of union representation and wage stagnation is not the only reason for the rise in right wing nationalism, Trump's entire electoral campaign runs on high octane xenophobia afterall.

That being said the article also states...

"There is little doubt that the white working class has been hit particularly hard by structural economic changes (Gest 2016). Today there are three times as many white-collar workers as manual workers and wages are stagnant for those without a college education (Teixeira and Abramowitz 2008). In this sense, manufacturing decline may be disproportionately felt among the white working class (Meyerson 2015). In addition, the upward mobility and union protections that defined the working classÂ’s support for Democrats throughout the middle of the20th century is no longer a reality

Thus, despite the large body of work showing that racial and immigration attitudes play a central role in recent voting trends, we cannot discount the possibility that white individuals who switched votes in 2016, particularly white working class voters, did so because they were economically marginalized. "

Racism has always, and always will be inexplicitly linked to economics, marginalizing one group in favour of an other, has always been an unfortunate side effect of pitting people in competition for a limited number of high quality paying jobs. The way to counter that is through union solidarity.

[Username taken]

It is an interesting article Tendrin, and I have stated that the decline of union representation and wage stagnation is not the only reason for the rise in right wing nationalism, Trump's entire electoral campaign runs on high octane xenophobia afterall.

That being said the article also states...

"There is little doubt that the white working class has been hit particularly hard by structural economic changes (Gest 2016). Today there are three times as many white-collar workers as manual workers and wages are stagnant for those without a college education (Teixeira and Abramowitz 2008). In this sense, manufacturing decline may be disproportionately felt among the white working class (Meyerson 2015). In addition, the upward mobility and union protections that defined the working classÂ’s support for Democrats throughout the middle of the20th century is no longer a reality

Thus, despite the large body of work showing that racial and immigration attitudes play a central role in recent voting trends, we cannot discount the possibility that white individuals who switched votes in 2016, particularly white working class voters, did so because they were economically marginalized. "

Racism has always, and always will be inexplicitly linked to economics, marginalizing one group in favour of your other, has always been an unfortunate side effect of pitting people in competition for a limited number of high quality paying jobs. The way to counter that is through union solidarity.

Then how do u explain the upper class whites that are racist?

Like Donald Trump and a whole lot of upper class people that are extremely racist?