Trump is being very cagey. He's got the Republican establishment in a bind. He came out with a list of conservatives he would appoint to the Supreme Court, but the establishment couldn't care less about abortion and the second amendment which are just loss leaders for them. Their true loyalty is big business. Now Trump is coming out against their pet cause--free trade agreements. No wonder Mitch McConnell looks like he's suffering from a bad case of indigestion these days.
3
Is it true that Trump is going to exploit his growing popularity with the white working class by developing Trump trailer parks? It would be a HUGE success, especially if the trailers were painted in his favor color, gold. Next he could sell them Trump wife beater shirts as well.
3
These white, working-class Democrats this article is talking about, how many actually have voted for Democratic candidates in past elections? How many of them voted for Barack Obama? They seem a lot like the so-called Reagan Democrats to me.
11
Great, let's let the uneducated elect our president and take over America!
Will the white, uneducated workers of America learn nothing from what is happening with Brexit? Will they vote for the fool first and then google "Who is Trump really?"
Will the white, uneducated workers of America learn nothing from what is happening with Brexit? Will they vote for the fool first and then google "Who is Trump really?"
2
Trump embarrasses the GOP because his overtly racist statements expose and damage their long time dog whistle methods.
Meanwhile, his full-throated support of social security and concern for the little guy should embarrass the Dems who seem to have forgotten the working guy. The Dems embrace capital almost as much as the GOP. Shareholder value above all else! Free trade with a mercantilist China! (Again mainly for shareholder gains)
Meanwhile, his full-throated support of social security and concern for the little guy should embarrass the Dems who seem to have forgotten the working guy. The Dems embrace capital almost as much as the GOP. Shareholder value above all else! Free trade with a mercantilist China! (Again mainly for shareholder gains)
3
Trump is a master marketer and salesman because he has an excellent sense of what people want. He is the republican nominee because he figured out what voters want. I suggest Hillary take a look at what Trump has figured out about what people want to improve her chances to win the election. Clearly many people reject the progressive point of view.
1
Often one asks "how" any educated individuals could ever bring themselves to vote for someone like Trump. The answer is fairly simple: they're not.
I'm a Democrat but in this case, Hamilton was right.
I'm a Democrat but in this case, Hamilton was right.
1
So the people who don't have the brains to compete in the knowledge economy want to be the ones who decide economic policy?
Sounds like a good plan.
Sounds like a good plan.
2
If anyone thinks conservative or quasi-conservative voters are going to vote Hillary, they are delusional. Much more likely they will stay home. But, New York will not go for Trump. Hillary isn't immoral. But she is amoral. When she speaks, she is unconcerned with whether or not she is telling the truth. It's sad, but look at her statements, for instance, on gay marriage. She will deny she was ever against it even though there is video evidence that she was squarely against it when running for Senate in New York. No one cares either way. Sad.
1
Why wouldn't Trump's arguments appeal equally well to black men? They have certainly lost a lot of jobs to illegal immigration and free trade. And I don't think they are very much attracted to Hillary Clinton and her team of well-off white women. Trump could do very well among all blue-collar men, not just whites.
8
In many ways, Trump's performance and racial pandering represents a culmination of the Southern strategy of the last several decades. (Consider, for example, his framing of Barack Obama as a foreign "other" who lies about his heritage and religion.) In other words, Trump's racist dog whistling is not a strong strategy to win over black voters.
9
Lol umm maybe trump playing footsie with the KKK on national television has something to do with it?
8
Because he goes on about Mexican rapists and banning all Muslims. Other minorities may reasonably wonder what he thinks of them.
1
There is plenty of work. We could employ all the techies that were rejected in favor of H1-B visa workers that are paid less. We can employ manufacturing workers and physical laborers. We can acquire a lot of patents because, guess what, workers create most of the patents (you have to sign your inventions away as a condition for employment). All this if we commit to infrastructure work.
Commenters here think in terms of white collar work - old typewriters and such, workers hopelessly behind. I was a computer programmer, then got a PhD in Biology. I also had a pilot's license and that's where I saw a bigger part of the world. I watched mechanics commenters here would look down on build airplanes that were mechanical works of art. I watched them invent new parts and duplicate others. I used to fly a homebuilt and put my life in the hands of the guy who built it. The workers being dismissed by commenters here are the workers behind the term "American ingenuity". One other thing about general aviation was that people of all classes and kinds and politics worked together and were very effective, more so than in the artificially competitive world of some of my IT jobs. A lab full of grad students and PhDs is also more collaborative and effective than in "high pressure" environments.
When people can make a living you don't see the anger we are seeing now. A country cannot have so many throw-away people. The status quo must change.
Commenters here think in terms of white collar work - old typewriters and such, workers hopelessly behind. I was a computer programmer, then got a PhD in Biology. I also had a pilot's license and that's where I saw a bigger part of the world. I watched mechanics commenters here would look down on build airplanes that were mechanical works of art. I watched them invent new parts and duplicate others. I used to fly a homebuilt and put my life in the hands of the guy who built it. The workers being dismissed by commenters here are the workers behind the term "American ingenuity". One other thing about general aviation was that people of all classes and kinds and politics worked together and were very effective, more so than in the artificially competitive world of some of my IT jobs. A lab full of grad students and PhDs is also more collaborative and effective than in "high pressure" environments.
When people can make a living you don't see the anger we are seeing now. A country cannot have so many throw-away people. The status quo must change.
17
When we're told that our jobs are being lost to cheap foreigners to save on costs - yet the prices go up anyway, we know the system is out of balance.
Something has to give! The same old politics cannot continue and the trend towards retail politicians needs to reverse.
Something has to give! The same old politics cannot continue and the trend towards retail politicians needs to reverse.
5
The difference between what the Donald says and what he obviously is, namely, a lying clown, is vast. I am a liberal and I agree with close to half of those statements, but I would never, ever, under any circumstances vote for a race-baiting, misanthropic carnival barker.
13
If Trumpism is valid, but Trump himself is not acceptable, I would expect a lot of other politicians to take up some of these policy points and run with them.
8
Will white working class voters really vote for a billionaire who doesn't pay his debts? Who declares bankruptcy multiple times, walking away with millions while his workers and stockholders suffer? He is basically trying to buy the presidency with his fortune. He has declared (last November) that he is against raising the minimum wage and even his recent reversal is to leave the issue to the states.
He refuses to release his tax records, and his con about Trump U is still going through its fraud trial. These workers are the very ones that Trump takes advantage of and has never once helped.
He refuses to release his tax records, and his con about Trump U is still going through its fraud trial. These workers are the very ones that Trump takes advantage of and has never once helped.
18
The message is more important than the messenger.
It's premature to assume that Donald Trump's supporters, largely consisting of angry white males, are joining a nascent political movement that will endure. The general election campaign won't officially begin until after the party conventions and a lot could happen over the next 4 months that will change voters minds.
This election for president pits the most qualified candidate for president against the most unfit and unprepared candidate in our history. Trump has no substance, no comprehensive policy positions, and no respect for our Constitution. He says we need to 'take our country back' and can't articulate what that means or who we're taking it back from.
The reality television host is good at tweeting, denigrating opponents and obfuscating facts. Plus he's skilled at telling tall tales that are so bombastic that I ponder why Donald Trump isn't a pulp novelist.
Trump will never be mistaken for having a great intellect, and he's not wed to a political school of thought or ideology (other than pandering). How can any voter switch their allegiance to a man with no principles?
Remember that Donald Trump says he's been to the promised land, and he intends to keep it for himself.
This election for president pits the most qualified candidate for president against the most unfit and unprepared candidate in our history. Trump has no substance, no comprehensive policy positions, and no respect for our Constitution. He says we need to 'take our country back' and can't articulate what that means or who we're taking it back from.
The reality television host is good at tweeting, denigrating opponents and obfuscating facts. Plus he's skilled at telling tall tales that are so bombastic that I ponder why Donald Trump isn't a pulp novelist.
Trump will never be mistaken for having a great intellect, and he's not wed to a political school of thought or ideology (other than pandering). How can any voter switch their allegiance to a man with no principles?
Remember that Donald Trump says he's been to the promised land, and he intends to keep it for himself.
15
Well duh, the Democrats are the party of Wall Street now and certainly with Clinton nobody can expect something different, so why should working people vote against their better interest? Hey Democrats and Hillary, you should not have taken all that WS money and given those speeches... which we still have not heard, because they are probably too incriminating. You can't have your cake snd eat it too!
17
HRC reportedly praised Goldman Sachs to the skies, telling them what a wonderful job they were doing re-capitalizing the economy. I'm not surprised she doesn't want to release those speeches.
6
Donald Trump is literally Wall Street. I just don't understand the complete blindness to what he represents. He will serve his voters as well as he served his students at Trump University or the investors in his numerous bankrupt endeavors.
When the con man has such a long history of being a con man, is it his fault or yours when you fall for the con?
When the con man has such a long history of being a con man, is it his fault or yours when you fall for the con?
6
Sure, Hillary got campaign donations from wall Street, but she was representing new York state. But the Republican party is the party of wall Street, and us big business and rich people and the venal elec. Where are the actions she took that helped wallstreet and hurt workers? There aren't any. Trump says he's on every side of issues so you can't figure out what he will do. But the Republican party has a clear history of wanting to end social security, block minimum wage increases and overtime changes that workers and Dems support.
2
Donald: ‘I lo-o-o-ove the undereducated’
Narcissist.
Narcissist.
16
There's a chart at WaPo that shows dramatically just how much the working class in Western countries have been messed over by globalization:
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingt...
Who, looking at this, can be in any way surprised that the working class is thoroughly disgusted with the status quo and those who represent it? If one wanted to push a group of people toward anger, to resent those who have been favored at their expense, and to seek any way out of their predicament, isn't this exactly what you would do to them? Why are they, unique among all human groups, expected to be saints?
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://img.washingt...
Who, looking at this, can be in any way surprised that the working class is thoroughly disgusted with the status quo and those who represent it? If one wanted to push a group of people toward anger, to resent those who have been favored at their expense, and to seek any way out of their predicament, isn't this exactly what you would do to them? Why are they, unique among all human groups, expected to be saints?
10
They aren't, but it is mainly automation that is killing jobs. Example, we make as much steel as we used to but with 1/3rd the people because of automation.
1
"Who, looking at this, can be in any way surprised that the working class is thoroughly disgusted with the status quo and those who represent it?"
Why would any working class person, particularly someone not from the evil Northeast, bastion of elitism, believe that an ultra-wealthy New Yorker, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, somehow represents something other than the status quo, and is genuinely dedicated to improving the lot of the common man?
Why would any working class person, particularly someone not from the evil Northeast, bastion of elitism, believe that an ultra-wealthy New Yorker, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, somehow represents something other than the status quo, and is genuinely dedicated to improving the lot of the common man?
3
No one expects the working class to be saints. But they should blame the party in power, that makes tax cuts for rich folks and wants more taxes from middle class. That would be Republicans.
2
One statistic to use is the percentage in each camp of those who like name plays. How often does one say, Hitlary, Klinton and so on? I would suspect that the Trump camp is full of this personality type but that is just my own limited spatial poll reinforced with Facebook and other website readings.
2
They have some very hilarious names for Trump too
Elsewhere in these comments, Stan Continople Brooklyn says (of Clinton's tech speech), "While it's wonderful that everyone will have 5G internet service, that hardy increases the employment prospects for the people addressed in this article. This is a consolation prize for those disenfranchised by globalization, like cheap socks from Walmart."
In one way, he's right; the consequence of free trade for people whose families worked in manufacturing has been the loss of their jobs making stuff that they now purchase cheaply from other nations; they traded cheap stuff here, lifting economies elsewhere, for their jobs. The part of a free global market that's missing here is those workers ability to trade with those other economies. And that requires the the technology to access markets; technology is required to respond nimbly to global markets.
American workers in rural areas haven't had the opportunity to participate in global markets because they don't have access to those markets, they're depending on regional markets, and it's not enough.
I live in Maine, where the southern coast has good broadband access, the northern woods does not; and the difference is telling. Dial-up will not connect a machine shop in Northern Maine to an engineer in Iceland. Maine does a lot of business with Iceland, the UK and Eurozone.
Without full-service cell-phone and data access, rural areas fall off the navigation and communication grid where their own products would be sold.
In one way, he's right; the consequence of free trade for people whose families worked in manufacturing has been the loss of their jobs making stuff that they now purchase cheaply from other nations; they traded cheap stuff here, lifting economies elsewhere, for their jobs. The part of a free global market that's missing here is those workers ability to trade with those other economies. And that requires the the technology to access markets; technology is required to respond nimbly to global markets.
American workers in rural areas haven't had the opportunity to participate in global markets because they don't have access to those markets, they're depending on regional markets, and it's not enough.
I live in Maine, where the southern coast has good broadband access, the northern woods does not; and the difference is telling. Dial-up will not connect a machine shop in Northern Maine to an engineer in Iceland. Maine does a lot of business with Iceland, the UK and Eurozone.
Without full-service cell-phone and data access, rural areas fall off the navigation and communication grid where their own products would be sold.
12
GOPers polishing turds. That's all I see in the GOP camp as they try to rationalize Trump.
18
There's the required daily "Over all" checked off.
Looking over the comments written by readers, I am struck by the ferocity and intensity of feelings. Not to be a NYT snob, but having lived away from NYC for 35 years, there seems to me to be more readers (in the fly over country) who do not read the Times than do. I say this having lived in 3 different sections and basically among an educated population. If Times readers are so intense, imagine how the rest of the country feels?
Donald and Bernie tapped into this- Elizabeth Warren seems to be pushing Hillary toward this for which I am glad. Any other candidate would be disastrous for the country. While I recognize the acuity of Trump and Bernie for tapping into this,
Hillary has the demeanor and experience to lead us through these troubling times.
By the way, Reince Preibus told one of the Sunday morning talk show hosts that the Republican platform will be what the Republicans have traditionally followed- I.e. taxes, immigration etc. He was VERY firm on that so it will be interesting to see how the convention plays out (especially since there seems to be a lack of speakers; and the RNC and Trump seem to be hamstringing the delegates sitting on the fence).
Donald and Bernie tapped into this- Elizabeth Warren seems to be pushing Hillary toward this for which I am glad. Any other candidate would be disastrous for the country. While I recognize the acuity of Trump and Bernie for tapping into this,
Hillary has the demeanor and experience to lead us through these troubling times.
By the way, Reince Preibus told one of the Sunday morning talk show hosts that the Republican platform will be what the Republicans have traditionally followed- I.e. taxes, immigration etc. He was VERY firm on that so it will be interesting to see how the convention plays out (especially since there seems to be a lack of speakers; and the RNC and Trump seem to be hamstringing the delegates sitting on the fence).
8
Dear Nate: So now, in relation to Trump, the exit polls are valid and you quote them as such? But not with Hillary and Bernie, when it showed fraud during the primaries. Interesting how you pick and chose the exit polls you trust.
9
Fear of financial market bedlam in the wake of Trump is real. But it only feels directly impactful to perhaps 20% of the country - those with savings and capital assets.
For the remaining 80%, the chance of a better-paying job has more promise of changing their lives for good. It's the same thing that drove the Brexit vote after all.
The longer Hillary waits to address this issue head-on, is the longer that Trump has to consolidate a base.
For the remaining 80%, the chance of a better-paying job has more promise of changing their lives for good. It's the same thing that drove the Brexit vote after all.
The longer Hillary waits to address this issue head-on, is the longer that Trump has to consolidate a base.
12
That's actually a very interesting point, if you are correct. The wealth that disappeared belonged to the rich people who voted remain. The poor people who voted leave didn't lose anything, and might benefit from lower housing prices, for example.
2
I think you make a great point that investments don't matter to much of the blue collar nation ,and I think we haven't taken good enough care of them in terms of insurance and retirement but also jobs growth has been slow. We could have benefited from more infrastructure spending during the post bush recession but most was blocked by the Republican Congress. But if I can vote for something that helps me (or at least I think so)but hurts the country, and prob doesn't really help anyone, you get the brexit vote.
1
Until Trump and Sanders spoke up, Clinton was either only dimly aware of or complacent about the economic currents roiling the United States—and the world. Whether or not you have complete confidence in the two’s solutions, it takes even more to believe that Clinton, who was oblivious or indifferent until five minutes ago, now has all the answers.
13
Yep. Still can't vote for Trump. He's too contradictory in the things he says and too consistently racially insensitive.
But he has a political nose. Lots of people reckon both parties have colluded for capital and against blue collar workers now for 35 years or so. The press accepts things like the primacy of "shareholder value" without much question. The bailouts crystallized the rigged nature of the economy. Goldman and Halluburton get lot of gov't help, but not workers in Ohio or the Carolinas when their jobs are offshored. They TEACH how to send jobs overseas in business school nowadays.
(Yeah the GOP has led this charge but it's deeply infected the Dems too)
But he has a political nose. Lots of people reckon both parties have colluded for capital and against blue collar workers now for 35 years or so. The press accepts things like the primacy of "shareholder value" without much question. The bailouts crystallized the rigged nature of the economy. Goldman and Halluburton get lot of gov't help, but not workers in Ohio or the Carolinas when their jobs are offshored. They TEACH how to send jobs overseas in business school nowadays.
(Yeah the GOP has led this charge but it's deeply infected the Dems too)
1
"Con"ald Trump's business M.O. involves scamming and conning weaker targets. Being a "Master of Debt" means cheating his suppliers out of what is owed. There is a saying in poker "when you can't spot the sucker at the table, you're the sucker". Trump supporters are ecstatic and they don't see the sucker at the table. Guess what, folks....
The Repulican elites hate Conald first because he is ripping the cover off their phony "reach out to the new demographics" line. Now he's proposing that corporate profits will finance millions of new $30/hr factory floor jobs when new trade "deals" make it much more expensive to bring in cheaply manufactured goods from overseas. Like that's really gonna happen. Who's the sucker at the table?
The Repulican elites hate Conald first because he is ripping the cover off their phony "reach out to the new demographics" line. Now he's proposing that corporate profits will finance millions of new $30/hr factory floor jobs when new trade "deals" make it much more expensive to bring in cheaply manufactured goods from overseas. Like that's really gonna happen. Who's the sucker at the table?
14
Haha. Well the new and improved president has a point. Prez trump is bringing back the jobs as the companies are coming back to Amerika as the costs of making goods f China had give up. Do trump Already had help with bringing back companies
This election really comes down to the many voters who are furious about economic and political systems that have failed them. The millions of people who have "necessarily" been left behind by globalized capitalism see an increasingly dismal and hopeless future. They also see a political system that will only make things worse, as politicians are bought and paid for by the beneficiaries of globalized capitalism.
Trump, ever the narcissistic opportunist huckster, has masterfully exploited that anger. He offers simplistic "solutions" that resonate with the visceral fears and bigotry of voters newly awakened to their hopeless reality. With his mental instability and lack of experience, voting for Trump may send a raging bull into the china shop. The result may be destruction and chaos, but angry voters may reasonably believe that's better than than the slow painful decline into destitution offered by the status quo.
Hillary unfortunately represents the status quo. She comes across as a typical politician who will advance the interests of her donors, and is incapable of sympathy with lesser mortals. It doesn't help that years of right-wing attacks have exacerbated unfavorable feelings about her.
We apparently have a choice between a career politician representing the status quo, and a demagogue who promises "greatness" and offers an outlet for impotent anger and frustration. That's why I fear many more voters will choose Trump's "Brexit" than will so admit to pollsters.
Trump, ever the narcissistic opportunist huckster, has masterfully exploited that anger. He offers simplistic "solutions" that resonate with the visceral fears and bigotry of voters newly awakened to their hopeless reality. With his mental instability and lack of experience, voting for Trump may send a raging bull into the china shop. The result may be destruction and chaos, but angry voters may reasonably believe that's better than than the slow painful decline into destitution offered by the status quo.
Hillary unfortunately represents the status quo. She comes across as a typical politician who will advance the interests of her donors, and is incapable of sympathy with lesser mortals. It doesn't help that years of right-wing attacks have exacerbated unfavorable feelings about her.
We apparently have a choice between a career politician representing the status quo, and a demagogue who promises "greatness" and offers an outlet for impotent anger and frustration. That's why I fear many more voters will choose Trump's "Brexit" than will so admit to pollsters.
16
The odds that the GOP will broadly morph into the party of white voters without a college degree are slim. They have real dilemmas to resolve -- and they may be irresolvable.
4
Anyone who votes for a candidate without seeing their Tax Returns is, simply put, an ignorant, or, better said, a low information voter.
15
Trump is doing something very smart and shrewd. His outlandish takes on the economy are a grab for the white middle class workers mentioned in this article. He knows the majority of Republicans will simply cast hate votes against Hillary no matter what he says. Yesterday it was mesmerizing that he and Bernie were saying the exact same thing to the media!!
Trump's view of the electorate is cynical at root and I hope he does not prevail. And, what an irony, Hillary is not insane but her stances put her squarely in the conservative camp when you step out of a tax-centric view of the universe.
Trump's view of the electorate is cynical at root and I hope he does not prevail. And, what an irony, Hillary is not insane but her stances put her squarely in the conservative camp when you step out of a tax-centric view of the universe.
7
As always, the biases of the pundits compromise their analyses. It is taken as a given that the uneducated support Trump, basically because he's an idiot. I happen to think that Trump is an idiot, but it's my guess that Clinton has as many uneducated supporters as Trump. She does well with blacks and Hispanics, who are substantially less educated than whites. And she has respectable poll numbers among uneducated white women. Partly, the pundits and pollsters don't like Trump, which is understandable. Partly, they are more dismissive of uneducated whites than uneducated minorities. You may side with Cohen because he tells you what you want to hear., But he way to beat Trump is surely not to underestimate him, and that's what Cohen is doing.
8
The polls are so close it is shocking. I think the polling demographics must be off. But maybe they aren't. So if these uneducated resentful people vote for their bigot and chief, he may very well win. When the cost of Walmart goods is quadrupled, when their sons and daughters are drafted for one of Trumps belligerent and hopeless wars against terror, when they find out that, hey, the jobs aren't coming back because you cannot force a multinational to employ people here. Then maybe they will finally learn their lesson, too late of course. And when their welfare, and disability and food stamps are cut. Too bad. Hey, they don't care if Muslim Americans or Mexican Americans or even American women will suffer, they are so filled with hate and resentment. If they vote in this racist fascist monster, then they deserve every ounce of hurt they get, tenfold.
12
Unfortunately, their foolishness will hurt us all.
2
The traditional white working class in the US and UK are not irrational to speak up and vote for those candidates who articulate their concerns and angst.
There is an assumption, reinforced at the most elite universities in the US and UK, that endlessly expanding free trade is a net good. See, they argue with graphs and equations, there is a direct correlation between free trade and a decline in poverty and an expanding global middle class.
Yet such studies do not capture the leveling out of entire agricultural or manufacturing sectors -such as has happened here in Colombia and all over Latin America -only to be replaced by large, foreign multinationals. When locally-produced goods are replaced by imports, and small farmers and merchants are marginalized and impoverished, opposition to free trade and globalization only grows.
Globalization and free trade, yes, to a point. Let small farmers, businesses and indigenous communities sell their products across the globe. But there is no symmetry between large multinationals and small farmers. The Colombian campesino and the Pennsylvania factory worker do not live in a world of abstract economic models.
Donald Trump may be a shallow bigot. But if the only alternative offered is biased heavily toward an insensitive global elite and a de-humanizing massification of the global economy, there will be more Brexits and Donald Trumps (and, from the other side, Sanders, Lulas, Chávezes and Correas).
There is an assumption, reinforced at the most elite universities in the US and UK, that endlessly expanding free trade is a net good. See, they argue with graphs and equations, there is a direct correlation between free trade and a decline in poverty and an expanding global middle class.
Yet such studies do not capture the leveling out of entire agricultural or manufacturing sectors -such as has happened here in Colombia and all over Latin America -only to be replaced by large, foreign multinationals. When locally-produced goods are replaced by imports, and small farmers and merchants are marginalized and impoverished, opposition to free trade and globalization only grows.
Globalization and free trade, yes, to a point. Let small farmers, businesses and indigenous communities sell their products across the globe. But there is no symmetry between large multinationals and small farmers. The Colombian campesino and the Pennsylvania factory worker do not live in a world of abstract economic models.
Donald Trump may be a shallow bigot. But if the only alternative offered is biased heavily toward an insensitive global elite and a de-humanizing massification of the global economy, there will be more Brexits and Donald Trumps (and, from the other side, Sanders, Lulas, Chávezes and Correas).
9
Trump is so well-known as an employer of every racial identity group that he could recreate the Reagan Democrats, especially since the Democratic Party has forsaken the union votes because environmentalists have so much more loose change in their pockets.
However, it will be tough for those conservatives who didn't get swept up by Trump already to hope he will shrink government waste and revitalize the Founders' view of the Constitution.
BUT then again, where would those voters go?
Even more, will Pres. Trump listen to the Party about putting Constitutional true believers into the court system?
However, it will be tough for those conservatives who didn't get swept up by Trump already to hope he will shrink government waste and revitalize the Founders' view of the Constitution.
BUT then again, where would those voters go?
Even more, will Pres. Trump listen to the Party about putting Constitutional true believers into the court system?
3
None of whom he pays.
If commenters here are so well-educated, they should be able to figure out:
Disenfranchised white Americans buy guns to make themselves feel potent. More and more are killing themselves with them. A sense of hopelessness and lost pride have not been assuaded with cheap China-made junk at Walmart. Heroin is on the rise. Every little rural town now has payday loan and pawn shops where mom-and-pop stores used to be.
Democrats need to get out of their smug urban bubble. Anyone who doesn't understand the appeal of Trump has their head in the sand. He's ingeniously packaged the position that Democrats have abandoned, he's Bernie in a macho form the rural disenfranchised can feel proud to support. Under-estimate Trump at your own peril.
And btw.......the arrogance, elitism and inhumanity of many NYTimes commenters turns me off, and I'm a college educated lifelong liberal.
Disenfranchised white Americans buy guns to make themselves feel potent. More and more are killing themselves with them. A sense of hopelessness and lost pride have not been assuaded with cheap China-made junk at Walmart. Heroin is on the rise. Every little rural town now has payday loan and pawn shops where mom-and-pop stores used to be.
Democrats need to get out of their smug urban bubble. Anyone who doesn't understand the appeal of Trump has their head in the sand. He's ingeniously packaged the position that Democrats have abandoned, he's Bernie in a macho form the rural disenfranchised can feel proud to support. Under-estimate Trump at your own peril.
And btw.......the arrogance, elitism and inhumanity of many NYTimes commenters turns me off, and I'm a college educated lifelong liberal.
14
Comment of the year
1
This is scary, and it's why Sanders needs to stop playing games and get behind Clinton now. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sanders-derangement-syndrome-liberal-tea-... With Brexit showing us what happens when young people don't get out, vote, and take a side, we should take nothing for granted this November. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/brexit-heralds-end-positive-era-possible-...
7
No, Clinton needs to appeal to we Sanders voters. Which she's NOT doing. I don't vote for Republicans and that's who she's emulating.
8
What is Republican about this?
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/
Why would the Republicans have been spending tens of millions of dollars over the years to attack Clinton ( including the Citizens United Case-- look it up) if she were a Republican?
https://www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/
Why would the Republicans have been spending tens of millions of dollars over the years to attack Clinton ( including the Citizens United Case-- look it up) if she were a Republican?
5
I didn't say she was a Republican. I say she will govern like one. Let's start with laws Bill passed (to whom she was closest advisor). Nafta, repeal of Glass-Stegall, welfare reform, to name a few.
She's all in for perpetual war in the Middle East and supports, without reservation, the right wing government of Israel. She supports incremental change on the minimum wage. She supports fracking. She is against campaign finance reform.
Of course Republicans fear her. They know she'll beat them. Yes, the party is against her, but those they serve, Wall Street and the multinational corporations are backing to the hilt.
They know that, just like Bill, she will serve them after the election.
Mark my words. TTP and TTIP will be signed into law. She will also sign the bill that Congress sends to her that will give a huge permanent tax break to corporations and lets them bring home huge, untaxed profits from off-shore.
The only saving grace is that Clinton is a social liberal and will uphold (some) civil liberties. However, like most affluent white people, they tend protect those that mostly protect people like them and forget about those for people not like them. If you want proof, look at Bill and Hillary's voting records.
She's all in for perpetual war in the Middle East and supports, without reservation, the right wing government of Israel. She supports incremental change on the minimum wage. She supports fracking. She is against campaign finance reform.
Of course Republicans fear her. They know she'll beat them. Yes, the party is against her, but those they serve, Wall Street and the multinational corporations are backing to the hilt.
They know that, just like Bill, she will serve them after the election.
Mark my words. TTP and TTIP will be signed into law. She will also sign the bill that Congress sends to her that will give a huge permanent tax break to corporations and lets them bring home huge, untaxed profits from off-shore.
The only saving grace is that Clinton is a social liberal and will uphold (some) civil liberties. However, like most affluent white people, they tend protect those that mostly protect people like them and forget about those for people not like them. If you want proof, look at Bill and Hillary's voting records.
2
As Ann Landers used to say, "even a stopped clock is right twice a day." Trump is a completely unqualified blowhard, a charlatan, and a snake oil salesman, and I wouldn't vote for him if he was the only one running, but I have to say that the very things that the Republicans loathe about him are the only things I agree with. He does call the Bush II White House on the fatal mistakes of Iraq and 9/11 (even if he can't keep that straight from the convenience store). And his social policies on morality and guns are generally more in line with mine, despite his racist and unacceptable attitudes on immigration and Islam. So if he can alter the Republican view point, then he hasn't been a total embarrassment to American politics. But please don't let him win!
9
If the current poll is accurate and the 2 are nearly neck-and-neck, then it would be best for Trump to simply stop talking to the press and thereby let HC fall into the trap of saying things in the media for the next month or 2.
Trump wont actually do that but the thought came to me that Trump has more to lose than HC every time he opens his mouth.
Trump wont actually do that but the thought came to me that Trump has more to lose than HC every time he opens his mouth.
6
If only Trump could do an Obama and just sit back & practice his smile and work on the putting.
2
"more white working-class voters than generally believed". Really?? This has been known for quite some time but rarely if ever acknowledged in the media. The huge turnout in the Republican primaries, (the unhappy working-class Dem not included there), and the crowds that Trump attracts say so. This socioeconomic class will be a big, if not the determining, factor In this election. A few more Monessen type speeches before the convention - just up the road in equally rusted Cleveland - and both guns will come out blazing. Should be an interesting few months to November - politically speaking.
5
"CNN has never aired one second of news coverage favorable to Donald Trump since CNN went on the air in the late 1970s."
If that's true, I have new respect for CNN. That a news outlet has had nothing good to say about a flamboyant, con man huckster whose sole lifetime interest has been promoting his brand, that is, himself, to the extent of having more than once posed as his own PR man to talk to media, is not a journalistic failure. It's journalistic integrity. Unfortunately, the claim about CNN and Trump is not true.
If that's true, I have new respect for CNN. That a news outlet has had nothing good to say about a flamboyant, con man huckster whose sole lifetime interest has been promoting his brand, that is, himself, to the extent of having more than once posed as his own PR man to talk to media, is not a journalistic failure. It's journalistic integrity. Unfortunately, the claim about CNN and Trump is not true.
7
So basically, the story here is that Trump appeals to white, lowly educated voters; I doubt anyone missed the dig. If the Times is hoping that this will humiliate anyone into not voting for him ("Are you stupid? Vote for Trump!"), I'd suggest that that has about as much effect as calling anyone who is white racist for practically any reason. After almost 8 years of Obama, the word is effectively dead and has little, if any, impact left.
For the record, I loathe Trump with a passion. The best the Trump cultists can say is, he's not as bad as Hillary. After 16 good to great GOP candidates, that's the line they're using to get Republicans to vote for him.
This must be what hell looks like.
For the record, I loathe Trump with a passion. The best the Trump cultists can say is, he's not as bad as Hillary. After 16 good to great GOP candidates, that's the line they're using to get Republicans to vote for him.
This must be what hell looks like.
8
In other words, she shoukd adopt Bernie Sanders' platform, but without the bigotry.
5
She can't adopt Sanders platform because she's invested in the swerve right that the Democratic Party made during the Clinton presidency. Try to imagine HRC saying the hollowing out of the middle class is in large part a consequence of pro corporate trade and tax policy so we should return to New Deal tax and regulation and take Eisenhower's warning about the military industrial complex seriously.
Sanders is no bigot, look at his Civil Rights record and his immigration policy, and who he supports and hires. He's being labeled a bigot because Democrats don't have a better answer to criticism. I'm a lifelong Democrat but this allergic reaction to New Deal Democrat Sanders is seriously disturbing. So is the demonization of the poor and uneducated after privatizing student loans and passing a bill to make that debt un-dischargeable in bankruptcy. (Let judges decide? No way! Give students information about loans? No way! Three strikes and you're out.)
It's no sin for Sanders to try to help the abandoned constituency of the Democratic Party, which includes less educated white workers. Education is the way to counter the utterly despicable condition of being uneducated. The GI Bill powered a mass exodus from poverty and ignorance. Sanders wants free State College tuition and would likely settle for cheap. It would be an investment in American workers. But Democrats cry "Free stuff!, the Horror!" like Republicans.
Sanders is no bigot, look at his Civil Rights record and his immigration policy, and who he supports and hires. He's being labeled a bigot because Democrats don't have a better answer to criticism. I'm a lifelong Democrat but this allergic reaction to New Deal Democrat Sanders is seriously disturbing. So is the demonization of the poor and uneducated after privatizing student loans and passing a bill to make that debt un-dischargeable in bankruptcy. (Let judges decide? No way! Give students information about loans? No way! Three strikes and you're out.)
It's no sin for Sanders to try to help the abandoned constituency of the Democratic Party, which includes less educated white workers. Education is the way to counter the utterly despicable condition of being uneducated. The GI Bill powered a mass exodus from poverty and ignorance. Sanders wants free State College tuition and would likely settle for cheap. It would be an investment in American workers. But Democrats cry "Free stuff!, the Horror!" like Republicans.
4
No. They don't cry "free stuff." However, Clinton understands that it can't be paid for with the current slow growth. Not to mention that the GOP House would never vote for it. The plans Sanders and Trump are proposing would cost trillions!
1
Saint999, I meant Trump's bigotry, not Sanders. My bad for not writing that sentence better.
If someone had Trump's platform, but was less offensive, they could probably win. His ideas about infrastructure are good for people of all races.
8
Most Americans do not have a clue about trade agreements and how they benefit the United States. They hear globalization from Trump and they don't want trade agreements. They hear immigration from Trump and they want a wall that Mexico will pay for. They hear Muslim from Trump and they, too, want them all banned from this country. His and their flat and shallow view of major geopolitical issues speaks to how stupid and easily manipulated the electorate has become whether Democrat or Republican. Trump now sits on top of the heap of offal the Republicans have constructed over the years with race baiting, conspiracy theories, homophobia, women hating policies, and economic theories that would make a lot of people richer and even more poorer. He is an establishment Republican.
6
You're right about that " flat and shallow...view" of the American electorate, we've been aware of that since... oh, I don't know...2008.
Has anyone noticed the buzz words in these Times articles ?
Trump supporters are the less educated whites.
Clinton supporters are the well educated voters.
Talk about nonsense, these buzz words should be recast as :
Trump supporters should be relabeled hard working everyday Americans.
Clintons supporters should be relabeled liberal socialists .
Trump supporters are the less educated whites.
Clinton supporters are the well educated voters.
Talk about nonsense, these buzz words should be recast as :
Trump supporters should be relabeled hard working everyday Americans.
Clintons supporters should be relabeled liberal socialists .
6
You can call Pennsylvania for Trump right now. He won it with his speech yesterday. I mean, read the speech. There is no possible reply Mrs. Clinton could make that would justify her candidacy.
8
If Hillary loses Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, Donald Trump is the next President of the United States.
Period.
Period.
4
I am surprised that Clinton still fails to grasp that Sanders's incredible success and popularity is a clear sign that her "stay the course" message isn't resonating with millions of voters. I don't believe for a minute that Trump will deliver on, or even remember, his campaign promises, but he is doing a better job of recognizing voters' fear, angry, and frustration. The Democrats can't point to the Dow and say look what we did for your 401K when too many people don't have 401Ks or cashed them in to put their kids through school. The catastrophic results of the Brexit referendum demonstrates that a threatened middle class will make drastic, even irrational, decisions. It would be in Clinton best interests to publicly offer Sanders a high-level position in her administration, perhaps even VP. If she doesn't capture the majority of Sanders's supporters, the frightening possibility of a President Trump could become a reality.
7
I wonder how honest voters will be with pollsters, especially white educated voters who now are favoring Clinton by a large margin. There are likely many educated voters who will not voice their support for Trump for fear of being ostracized by their peers. This could end up being one of those things we look back on when we ask after the election how the polls got it wrong.
8
What is important to know is: Were these less-educated, working class men supportive of Bernie Sanders and his pro-worker, anti-trade message? If so, the speculation about Elizabeth Warren as Sec. Clinton 's running mate makes a lot of sense. The Democrats need to more than win, but to win with a large enough margin to retake the Senate. Sen. Warren just may be the Trump slayer who can do it.
4
Except Clinton's Wall Street puppeteer donors have said they don't Warren as her running mate. Thus spake Wall Street, thus so it be.
6
I imagine Trump appeals most to older, non-college educated, white people. Globalization has been transitioning the US economy from manufacturing to service for many years. We've watched manufacturing leave the US for lower cost locations overseas for a while. This understandably must make people uncomfortable - especially people who were able to make a living from earlier US manufacturing - whether indirectly or directly. It is a bipartisan failure of leadership that so many people feel left behind as the global economy evolves but it is also a mistake to think that we can roll back the clock or isolate ourselves from the evolution and still be a world leader.
6
Manufacturing left the US was due to deregulation and tax policy that rewarded profiting from cheap labor and paying almost no tax on the profit. This was the result of leadership that favored campaign donors over voters (a very polite description).
We would be a much better world leader if we didn't govern mostly for the profit of our corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens in our country. Trade is good, but today's trade treaties aren't about trade, they are about maximizing corporate profit and disempowering governments from reducing it by passing environmental laws. Look up Phillip Morris vs Uruguay (for passing anti-smoking laws). Being opposed to such slime isn't isolationist.
We don't need to roll back the clock to make the world better. We need better priorities and statesman-like leaders.
We would be a much better world leader if we didn't govern mostly for the profit of our corporations at the expense of ordinary citizens in our country. Trade is good, but today's trade treaties aren't about trade, they are about maximizing corporate profit and disempowering governments from reducing it by passing environmental laws. Look up Phillip Morris vs Uruguay (for passing anti-smoking laws). Being opposed to such slime isn't isolationist.
We don't need to roll back the clock to make the world better. We need better priorities and statesman-like leaders.
8
Don't forget Sarah Palin's introducing Trump at his San Diego Campaign stop as "The Golden Wrecking Ball". For many voters, Trump is nothing but a protest vote. Not a choice for the best-suited candidate.
9
Nate, you usually do a good job of bringing to light new aspects and thoughts, but you must have been required to crank out 500 words on Trump by an editor.
There is no story here - Trump is leading among some voters, but not by enough. He may do better, he may not. Some democrats who support Trump are like republicans in some ways. He might capture them in November, but we won't know till November. Oh, and Hillary is leading, but she might not win. But then again, she might. Thanks for the update.
There is no story here - Trump is leading among some voters, but not by enough. He may do better, he may not. Some democrats who support Trump are like republicans in some ways. He might capture them in November, but we won't know till November. Oh, and Hillary is leading, but she might not win. But then again, she might. Thanks for the update.
9
Some mess we are in. Its the Arrogant Elite Hillary vs the Idiot Donald.
8
As I anticipated, the conservative establishment is warming to Hillary Clinton. Her sterling policy stances would make Karl Rove and the Koch brothers joyful.
Trump is the enemy of the ruling elite, instead favoring the lower and middle classes. He knows it, and you know it.
Trump is the enemy of the ruling elite, instead favoring the lower and middle classes. He knows it, and you know it.
14
Yes, but that doesn't mean bigotry and nihlism is the answer to a corrupt system.
If you want to blow up the system, get on board the movement to get money out of politics. Voting for Trump is like shooting yourself to cure a brain tumor.
If you want to blow up the system, get on board the movement to get money out of politics. Voting for Trump is like shooting yourself to cure a brain tumor.
4
Trump is appealing to voters, while all the other politicians, of both parties, are following the dictates of their important donors. His appeal is to the majority of people who, rightly, believe that Reaganism and neo-liberalism has replaced the New Deal with a raw deal.
8
The ultimate irony in this year's presidential campaign is that the rural, lower class, pretty much as a block, is identifying with an ultra-privileged, ultra-elitist New Yorker as the champion of its interests. Though not entirely different from the way this group has voted against its own interests by supporting the Republican party in recent history, the Trump phenomenon has taken it to a new and absurd level. It's a testament to both the manipulative skill of Trump, and the gullibility of people in general - though specifically when it comes to politics - that he has managed to pass himself off as a man of the people.
One need only look at the backpedaling by the "Leave" leaders that occurred, astonishingly, just the day after the Brexit vote, to understand how circumspect we need to be about every aspect of political campaigns. Because when it comes down to it, you can pretend to be someone you're not, you can mislead, you can outright lie, you can promise the moon, and there is simply no accountability. How much longer do we need to continue investing our hopes in posturing, pandering charlatans, with their ulterior motives and hidden agendas, (and I'm not talking exclusively about Trump), only to be sold down the river in the end, before we learn this vital lesson?
One need only look at the backpedaling by the "Leave" leaders that occurred, astonishingly, just the day after the Brexit vote, to understand how circumspect we need to be about every aspect of political campaigns. Because when it comes down to it, you can pretend to be someone you're not, you can mislead, you can outright lie, you can promise the moon, and there is simply no accountability. How much longer do we need to continue investing our hopes in posturing, pandering charlatans, with their ulterior motives and hidden agendas, (and I'm not talking exclusively about Trump), only to be sold down the river in the end, before we learn this vital lesson?
17
Working class voters are at the heart of our nation, but too often they are shortsighted or bigoted. Well educated voters are too often isolated or dismissive. Many times our goals differ. In this elections they shouldn't. We face the choice of a smart, hardworking, experienced and, in my opinion, trustable candidate and a tossed coin candidate with exactly the opposite characteristics. This should be a no brainer for both kinds of voters. Mrs. Clinton should work hard to convince the working class that she is not against them. That it would be in the best interest of the world, of the country and of their own communities to join her. And we need to work harder to do the same.
23
It should also be a no-brainer that calling ordinary Americans uneducated bigots propelled Donald Trump to landslide victories and has Donald Trump within the statistical margin of error of being elected the next President of the United States if the election were held today.
Maybe the Obama liberal elite are the "no-brainers" here.
Maybe the Obama liberal elite are the "no-brainers" here.
2
Yes, Trump is a disaster and yes, Hillary Clinton is smart, but hardly trustworthy? Unless you are trusting her to do as Wall Street bids.
I am tired of voting for the candidate that undermines the economic interests of most Americans. Bill Clinton, who Hillary served as a close advisor, passed many laws that have lead to the destruction of the middle class in this country. I have not heard anything from her that walks back that destruction. Only promises to the affluent that nothing is going to change.
That worries me because that's how Trump is going to appeal to those low-information voters.
Which is going to win? Trump's "Vote for me, I'll bring back your jobs" vs Clinton's "Get through engineering school and I'll forgive your student loan if you start up a tech business in a depressed area. Or if you're an immigrant with skilks, stay here permanently."
Yeah, it doesn't take a genius to see who those uneducated workers are going to vote for.
I am tired of voting for the candidate that undermines the economic interests of most Americans. Bill Clinton, who Hillary served as a close advisor, passed many laws that have lead to the destruction of the middle class in this country. I have not heard anything from her that walks back that destruction. Only promises to the affluent that nothing is going to change.
That worries me because that's how Trump is going to appeal to those low-information voters.
Which is going to win? Trump's "Vote for me, I'll bring back your jobs" vs Clinton's "Get through engineering school and I'll forgive your student loan if you start up a tech business in a depressed area. Or if you're an immigrant with skilks, stay here permanently."
Yeah, it doesn't take a genius to see who those uneducated workers are going to vote for.
5
More than half the country supports President Obama. So are you saying America is a majority liberal elite country?
1
Now you know why Mr. Hamilton believed in an aristocratic leadership.
2
The 2016 Presidential Election is about one thing.
Respect.
Barack Obama and his supporters, which includes the entire American news media, have never shown respect to any human being who has ever criticized or disagreed with Barack Obama. If you don't worship Obama 24/7, you are a racist, a bigot and an uneducated rube.
The American people are fed up with being treated like that.
Until an Obama liberal in the USA can show 1 second of respect for ordinary Americans, Trump will continue to rise. Just think about it. Not one Obama supporter in America has ever in any way, shape or form treated any human being that ever disagreed with Obama with respect. Ever.
What do you think people are going to do when you disrespect and insult them for 8 years? Go along with your routine for a 9th year?
All Obama and his supporters had to do was to simply say, yes there are Americans who do not agree with us politically. That doesn't mean you're racist. It doesn't mean you're uneducated. And we respect you.
Those words have never been said by an Obama liberal.
And its about to cost you the White House.
Respect.
Barack Obama and his supporters, which includes the entire American news media, have never shown respect to any human being who has ever criticized or disagreed with Barack Obama. If you don't worship Obama 24/7, you are a racist, a bigot and an uneducated rube.
The American people are fed up with being treated like that.
Until an Obama liberal in the USA can show 1 second of respect for ordinary Americans, Trump will continue to rise. Just think about it. Not one Obama supporter in America has ever in any way, shape or form treated any human being that ever disagreed with Obama with respect. Ever.
What do you think people are going to do when you disrespect and insult them for 8 years? Go along with your routine for a 9th year?
All Obama and his supporters had to do was to simply say, yes there are Americans who do not agree with us politically. That doesn't mean you're racist. It doesn't mean you're uneducated. And we respect you.
Those words have never been said by an Obama liberal.
And its about to cost you the White House.
6
Ok, so your vote for Donald Trump is about respect? Something incredibly telling that you can't sense the irony in this
2
How do you define, "respect?"
2
Who cares about the popular voting numbers? What are the electoral college counts (or predictions) please?
2
Not for this white working class Democrat. The guy is a sham.
5
This feels like "Throwback Thursday" to me.
Like the proverbial broken record, another Nate Cohn opus of "could nebulous granular overcooked, contextualized data set mean a Trump loss?"
Could global warming affect Trump's vote totals in battleground states?
What role will the Zika Virus play in Trump's chances in November?
Here's what people actually care about, and by people I mean people who have done at least one decent thing in their lives (i.e. not Obama or his supporters):
We care about jobs. You know those things that vanished by the tens of millions during the Obama presidency.
We care about security. Obama's decision to grant amnesty to illegals and provide first class plane tickets for ISIS sleeper cells to enter the United States creates a little concern.
We care about competence. Like it or not, Obama was in the WH during Benghazi, the Arab Spring and the Bergdahl swap. Obama drew the red line. Hillary botched Benghazi. Obama created ISIS, which didn't exist until 2014 by his campaign related Mission Accomplished withdrawal in Iraq and neglect of what he called the JV team.
We are tired of the Obama status quo. Career politicians, political correctness a news media that never tells the truth? Those are things the average American are fed up with. Calling us stupid and uneducated just drives more people to Trump's side.
So keep it up liberal elite.
Like the proverbial broken record, another Nate Cohn opus of "could nebulous granular overcooked, contextualized data set mean a Trump loss?"
Could global warming affect Trump's vote totals in battleground states?
What role will the Zika Virus play in Trump's chances in November?
Here's what people actually care about, and by people I mean people who have done at least one decent thing in their lives (i.e. not Obama or his supporters):
We care about jobs. You know those things that vanished by the tens of millions during the Obama presidency.
We care about security. Obama's decision to grant amnesty to illegals and provide first class plane tickets for ISIS sleeper cells to enter the United States creates a little concern.
We care about competence. Like it or not, Obama was in the WH during Benghazi, the Arab Spring and the Bergdahl swap. Obama drew the red line. Hillary botched Benghazi. Obama created ISIS, which didn't exist until 2014 by his campaign related Mission Accomplished withdrawal in Iraq and neglect of what he called the JV team.
We are tired of the Obama status quo. Career politicians, political correctness a news media that never tells the truth? Those are things the average American are fed up with. Calling us stupid and uneducated just drives more people to Trump's side.
So keep it up liberal elite.
7
@ DC Barrister "We care about jobs. You know those things that vanished by the tens of millions during the Obama presidency." Fact! & correction: Jobs (blue collar factory jobs) began disappearing in vast numbers in the late 1960's/early 1970's. The Textile industry left the NE states for 'at will' employment states (southern), then to Central America & India. The US lost it's Garment & Home Textile manufacturing base rapidly as the 'trickle down" policies of the Reagan Presidency were implemented. Tariffs were rewritten to allow US Companies off shore production which was then shipped back into the US as 'raw unfinished goods'. ( witnessed as an employee of Burlington Industries, etc) The Steel Industry is another, Union busting was the Reagan Gov't policy! 'Do your homework with a clear eye & open mind. This middle class nightmare has been carefully developed & nurtured by the corporations, artfully conceived & executed by GE's then president & their 'shill' Ronald Reagan, via the GE Hour! This did not begin with President Obama! nor will it end until the electorate is better informed!
5
You make a great point.
Since I wasn't alive back then and can only observe what I've seen in my lifetime, it was my mistake to discuss the American jobs leaving during the Obama presidency because I was actually alive to see it happening. I stand corrected. From now on I will open my mind like Obama liberals and guess about things from a bygone era.
I tried to navigate through your land mines of excuses for Obama's failures and my eyes glossed over.
My odd belief as a Black lawyer in Washington DC is that the buck stops at your desk for your actions and what happens on your watch. I chose to focus on the precipitous decline in America during the Obama presidency because I foolishly thought Obama's failed presidency was relevant to the record numbers of voters who are angry about Obama's failed presidency and are voting for Trump.
Totally my fault. I am a big cause and effect guy. A bad habit learned from years of court trials, hearings and lawyering in the nation's capital.
Help me learn how to be an Obama liberal, existing on the fringes of reality and in the abstract.
Since I wasn't alive back then and can only observe what I've seen in my lifetime, it was my mistake to discuss the American jobs leaving during the Obama presidency because I was actually alive to see it happening. I stand corrected. From now on I will open my mind like Obama liberals and guess about things from a bygone era.
I tried to navigate through your land mines of excuses for Obama's failures and my eyes glossed over.
My odd belief as a Black lawyer in Washington DC is that the buck stops at your desk for your actions and what happens on your watch. I chose to focus on the precipitous decline in America during the Obama presidency because I foolishly thought Obama's failed presidency was relevant to the record numbers of voters who are angry about Obama's failed presidency and are voting for Trump.
Totally my fault. I am a big cause and effect guy. A bad habit learned from years of court trials, hearings and lawyering in the nation's capital.
Help me learn how to be an Obama liberal, existing on the fringes of reality and in the abstract.
2
Who knows! May USA will do what UK has already done. My sixth sense says Donald Trump is going to be the Next President of USA!
3
The U.S. has had bad Presidents before, but never one as remotely bad as the one Mr. Trump is promising to be.
He is crude, ignorant, arrogant, pompous and absurdly self-assured.
His ideal America is one that would end up looking like golf courses. gambling casinos, reality TV programs, Trump University and Trump steaks all rolled into one.
Make him President and Americans would be lowering for all time the moral and intellectual standards by which candidates for President have traditionally been judged.
Make him President and men like Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Truman would effectively be barred from seeking office in the future.
If Mr. Trump succeeds in becoming President, the result will be identical to the one that is now occurring in England as the result of the Brexit referendum, only a hundred times worse.
He is crude, ignorant, arrogant, pompous and absurdly self-assured.
His ideal America is one that would end up looking like golf courses. gambling casinos, reality TV programs, Trump University and Trump steaks all rolled into one.
Make him President and Americans would be lowering for all time the moral and intellectual standards by which candidates for President have traditionally been judged.
Make him President and men like Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Truman would effectively be barred from seeking office in the future.
If Mr. Trump succeeds in becoming President, the result will be identical to the one that is now occurring in England as the result of the Brexit referendum, only a hundred times worse.
9
"The U.S. has had bad Presidents before, but never one as remotely bad as the one Mr. Trump is promising to be."
For 33 million of my fellow African Americans, victimized by the Obama presidency, there's nowhere to go but up.
For 33 million of my fellow African Americans, victimized by the Obama presidency, there's nowhere to go but up.
3
I have had considerable differences with President Obama myself, But "nowhere to go but up" seems a bit too harsh to me.
2
Actually, James Buchanan was pretty bad. His actions-inactions--really, lead to the Civil War.
One can see paralllels here with Obama and Buchanan. If Obama had not tried to continually play patty-cake with Republicans throughout his presidency (like appointing Republicans to his cabinet, or regulatory boards so they would have majorities, or proposing Republican laws like the Affordable Care Act, which originally was a Republican idea) and instead stood up to Republicans and rallied the bully-pulpit and popular opinion against Republicans, maybe we wouldn't be in the pickle we're in now.
One can see paralllels here with Obama and Buchanan. If Obama had not tried to continually play patty-cake with Republicans throughout his presidency (like appointing Republicans to his cabinet, or regulatory boards so they would have majorities, or proposing Republican laws like the Affordable Care Act, which originally was a Republican idea) and instead stood up to Republicans and rallied the bully-pulpit and popular opinion against Republicans, maybe we wouldn't be in the pickle we're in now.
3
My analysis is simpler than Mr. Cohn's.
Whether it was the southern strategy, the silent majority, welfare queens, Willie Horton, the birthers (of which Trump is one), the 47%, etc., the GOP has consistently used race/racism as part of its appeal to white voters, and less-well- off white voters in particular. From election to election it just masquerades under different slogans and alleged "issues". But it's all the same thing.
What's different this year is that Trump is better at it than his predecessors.
Whether it was the southern strategy, the silent majority, welfare queens, Willie Horton, the birthers (of which Trump is one), the 47%, etc., the GOP has consistently used race/racism as part of its appeal to white voters, and less-well- off white voters in particular. From election to election it just masquerades under different slogans and alleged "issues". But it's all the same thing.
What's different this year is that Trump is better at it than his predecessors.
13
I'm replying to my own comment because I just read the NYT piece on the new Quinnipiac poll showing Clinton and Trump in a virtual tie.
From the article: "Quinnipiac's poll found 61 percent think that the campaign is increasing hatred and prejudice in the United States, and 67 percent of those who think that attribute it to the presumptive Republican nominee."
From the article: "Quinnipiac's poll found 61 percent think that the campaign is increasing hatred and prejudice in the United States, and 67 percent of those who think that attribute it to the presumptive Republican nominee."
4
No, the difference is that we have a black president who has been afraid to call out racist Republicans for their wild racism for fear of being accused of using the "race card".
Racist Republicans, ironically, have been emboldened by having a black president. He needs to step up and call out the bigotry. But all we hear is "reasoned" comments.
We need to hear "angry black man" for once. And then dare Trump say something racist, then.
But I won't hold my breath. Obama is too tired to fight for black people.
Racist Republicans, ironically, have been emboldened by having a black president. He needs to step up and call out the bigotry. But all we hear is "reasoned" comments.
We need to hear "angry black man" for once. And then dare Trump say something racist, then.
But I won't hold my breath. Obama is too tired to fight for black people.
5
I've been voting-age since 1996. I've never missed a primary or general election, and only missed a small handful of local referendums.
I'm mid-middle class with a good, stable, white-collar, unionized federal job. I have a bachelors degree and am finishing up a masters degree in the fall.
I typically lean slightly conservative in my political views, but don't ascribe to all the tenants of either party.
All that said, I am probably the least motivated or excited about this year's Presidential election than I have ever been before. I do not want Trump to be President. I do not want Clinton to be President. I dread the thought of going to the voting booth on Election Day this year. I could vote third party - some say it's just a wasted vote, but I don't believe it is. Until I become familiar with all of the minor candidates however, and find one closest in line with all of my views, they are all out of the question.
I'm mid-middle class with a good, stable, white-collar, unionized federal job. I have a bachelors degree and am finishing up a masters degree in the fall.
I typically lean slightly conservative in my political views, but don't ascribe to all the tenants of either party.
All that said, I am probably the least motivated or excited about this year's Presidential election than I have ever been before. I do not want Trump to be President. I do not want Clinton to be President. I dread the thought of going to the voting booth on Election Day this year. I could vote third party - some say it's just a wasted vote, but I don't believe it is. Until I become familiar with all of the minor candidates however, and find one closest in line with all of my views, they are all out of the question.
2
Hillary hasn't even spoken to the press for months. And every news outlet is a very thinly veiled advocate for her, which to me is pretty obvious and infuriating.
I really don't think people who are in the media and/or voted for Obama twice really grasp his appeal. At the very least, the campaign will be divisive and for the division in America today it is the Democrat's fault. Their identity politics, their use of racism, educational, and class insults (I'm a professional and well off, thank you) are beyond infuriating.
I really don't think people who are in the media and/or voted for Obama twice really grasp his appeal. At the very least, the campaign will be divisive and for the division in America today it is the Democrat's fault. Their identity politics, their use of racism, educational, and class insults (I'm a professional and well off, thank you) are beyond infuriating.
15
I don't agree with the supposition made by Mr. Cohn that Trump supporters are different than "typical" Republican voters. Trump supporters believe in lower taxes, fewer regulations and a smaller welfare state. They are anti-government and define freedom as being able to do what they want without government interference.
Trumps messaging is very "conservativesque" by blaming immigrants, free trade agreements and Chinese currency manipulation as reasons for ordinary people's stagnant wages and poor job security. He rarely puts the blame where it belongs - on wealth and income inequality.
Clinton is attacking Trump as being unqualified and unfit to lead the country and is hoping voter's fear of a Trump presidency is enough for her to slide by without taking a stand nor position that populists, progressives can embrace. This should be a golden opportunity to expose the Republican Party's phony prescriptions to restore economic health to all Americans, and to win critical down ballot elections. Engaging in a battle of the lesser of two evils is transparent negative campaigning which most voters are turned off by.
Personally, I give far more credit to progressive and liberal independent and Democratic voters than Mr. Cohn. They will not be duped into voting for a bombastic conservative who has become the standard bearer of more Republican lies and hypocrisy.
Democrats in particular better wake up - independents put country and personal welfare before loyalty to party!
Trumps messaging is very "conservativesque" by blaming immigrants, free trade agreements and Chinese currency manipulation as reasons for ordinary people's stagnant wages and poor job security. He rarely puts the blame where it belongs - on wealth and income inequality.
Clinton is attacking Trump as being unqualified and unfit to lead the country and is hoping voter's fear of a Trump presidency is enough for her to slide by without taking a stand nor position that populists, progressives can embrace. This should be a golden opportunity to expose the Republican Party's phony prescriptions to restore economic health to all Americans, and to win critical down ballot elections. Engaging in a battle of the lesser of two evils is transparent negative campaigning which most voters are turned off by.
Personally, I give far more credit to progressive and liberal independent and Democratic voters than Mr. Cohn. They will not be duped into voting for a bombastic conservative who has become the standard bearer of more Republican lies and hypocrisy.
Democrats in particular better wake up - independents put country and personal welfare before loyalty to party!
6
Let's stop papering over the ugly truth with "also factors." While it is true that Trump's rants against trade and the alliances that are the foundation of American global military strength do diverge from both sense and established Republican positions and that his yellow-peril China bashing appeals to working class whites, the primary basis of his crossover appeal is racism and xenophobia. And that represents no change at all. Republicans have been targeting under-educated, working class white Democrats with that since the passage of the Civil Rights Acts. Trump is just one of the dogs their whistles have called. Only as a racist dog himself, he doesn't whistle. He howls, and the pack follows.
13
You count Ms. Clinton's chickens too soon. Johnson and Stein will be on the ballot in November, and in polls that include them, it is Trump 39% to Clinton 38%. The problem with this is that when you show Ms. C. as clearly winning, ambivalent and hostile progressives will stay home, thinking they are not needed to defeat Trump.
BTW, I was wondering when calling her (the sexist) "Mrs." would make you trip up. Yesterday, you did in two articles. In the first you called Sen. Warren "Mrs." amid references to her as "Ms." In the second you rightfully called Clinton "Ms." I would have an easier time voting for HC if she and the Times stopped trying to reintroduce this sexist language.
BTW, I was wondering when calling her (the sexist) "Mrs." would make you trip up. Yesterday, you did in two articles. In the first you called Sen. Warren "Mrs." amid references to her as "Ms." In the second you rightfully called Clinton "Ms." I would have an easier time voting for HC if she and the Times stopped trying to reintroduce this sexist language.
4
Wrong- RCP still shows Clinton leading by 5%
in a four way race.
in a four way race.
I call Senator Warren the Faux Native American (which is correct).
1
Trump has good common sense, but he lacks the knowledge to apply it properly.
I cannot support him since I saw the picture of his son Donald Trump proudly displaying the bodies of a beautiful leopard and gazelle that he shot for SPORT.
When Donald Sr. talks about doing away with the EPA, those pictures come to mind. It's pure ignorance, as well as evidence of a closed off heart.
And yet I agree with much of what he has to say and am grateful for his saying it.
I cannot support him since I saw the picture of his son Donald Trump proudly displaying the bodies of a beautiful leopard and gazelle that he shot for SPORT.
When Donald Sr. talks about doing away with the EPA, those pictures come to mind. It's pure ignorance, as well as evidence of a closed off heart.
And yet I agree with much of what he has to say and am grateful for his saying it.
3
"Trump has good common sense..."
Wait. I think my brain just exploded.
So, apparently you care more about the animals his son slaughters than the human beings Trump pukes his racist and mysogynistic bile on. Swell.
Wait. I think my brain just exploded.
So, apparently you care more about the animals his son slaughters than the human beings Trump pukes his racist and mysogynistic bile on. Swell.
1
It's a fairly stark choice: a smug liar/cheater or a loud-mouthed blowhard. I'll take the blowhard.
11
The liar/cheat thing is a figment of your imagination. The blowhard, not so much. In fact, the blowhard lies continuously, and appears to cheat people who do work for him.
6
8 yrs of bush
8 yrs of obama
8 yrs of trump
goodbye, america
8 yrs of obama
8 yrs of trump
goodbye, america
5
You needed to start with Reagan.
4
When elites at newspapers like the NYTimes disparage Trump supporters as not "well-educated," that just reinforces his appeal among normal Americans.
I'm a "well-educated" voter in the top 0.5% income bracket, and I don't see anything wrong with equaling the playing field.
China gets to export whatever goods they want into the US, killing our manufacturing jobs, but companies like Google and Facebook are outright barred from operating in China? It doesn't take a "well-educated" elite to know that we are getting shafted in that deal.
I'm a "well-educated" voter in the top 0.5% income bracket, and I don't see anything wrong with equaling the playing field.
China gets to export whatever goods they want into the US, killing our manufacturing jobs, but companies like Google and Facebook are outright barred from operating in China? It doesn't take a "well-educated" elite to know that we are getting shafted in that deal.
15
I'm a Black lawyer in Washington DC, who met Obama in 2004 when I volunteered at the DNC in Boston. I became a registered Republican shortly after that meeting.
As a 13th generation African American, whose ancestors came to this country as slaves, I have too much respect for my race, my racial heritage and myself to support a biracial con artist who has done more to harm the Black Community in the last 8 years than he will ever do to help.
I have a degree in American History, and I've won more cases in the first 3 years of my career than Obama will win in his life. Yet because I respect myself too much to support Obama, and I am voting for Donald Trump, the liberal elite consider me uneducated.
Nate Cohn didn't attend Harvard University. I did.
Yet those of us who think for ourselves, love America and play by the rules are the uneducated ones?
Astounding.
As a 13th generation African American, whose ancestors came to this country as slaves, I have too much respect for my race, my racial heritage and myself to support a biracial con artist who has done more to harm the Black Community in the last 8 years than he will ever do to help.
I have a degree in American History, and I've won more cases in the first 3 years of my career than Obama will win in his life. Yet because I respect myself too much to support Obama, and I am voting for Donald Trump, the liberal elite consider me uneducated.
Nate Cohn didn't attend Harvard University. I did.
Yet those of us who think for ourselves, love America and play by the rules are the uneducated ones?
Astounding.
12
Sounds to me like you are voting against President Obama as opposed to voting for Trump.
If you think a fraud like Trump is gonna be able to negiote with China, or Republicans in Congress who make their biggest donations off of multinalional corporations that make billions from trade with China, then I have a nice wall I can sell to you. Real cheap.
You need to read the bazillion articles in the news that have exposed Trump for the massive fraud he is.
And how does a .05% person like you invest your money without investing in those multinational corporations? Go ahead, vote for Trump. You don't need that nose of yours. Cut it off! Show your face who's boss!
You need to read the bazillion articles in the news that have exposed Trump for the massive fraud he is.
And how does a .05% person like you invest your money without investing in those multinational corporations? Go ahead, vote for Trump. You don't need that nose of yours. Cut it off! Show your face who's boss!
2
Despite Nate Cohn's 13 month consecutive WRONG streak, the Trump campaign continues. The widely parroted "CNN" polls that show Hillary leading by a wide margin were conducted by a news organization that has never broadcast a second of favorable news coverage to Donald Trump in its 40 year history.
I think I need to repeat that.
CNN has never aired one second of news coverage favorable to Donald Trump since CNN went on the air in the late 1970s. A news channel that has never said or aired anything about Donald Trump that shows respect is not exactly a credible news source.
But I don't need to disparage the polls or the establishment news media that has exhausted all possible means to end the Trump campaign over the last 13 months. The thing speaks for itself.
But a quick visit to Real Clear Politics, which aggregates all the polls tells a different story. An even quicker visit to the NY Daily News tells a different story. Desperation is beginning to set in as the haymakers being thrown by Hillary, Obama and the news media are failing to keep Trump down.
I said this a year ago. If the 2016 Presidential Election comes down to namecalling, Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States. Until Obama liberals have the courage and integrity to admit the Obama presidency is a failure, ask voters for a second chance with Hillary and stop calling Trump supporters stupid, the slow but steady rise for Trump will continue.
I think I need to repeat that.
CNN has never aired one second of news coverage favorable to Donald Trump since CNN went on the air in the late 1970s. A news channel that has never said or aired anything about Donald Trump that shows respect is not exactly a credible news source.
But I don't need to disparage the polls or the establishment news media that has exhausted all possible means to end the Trump campaign over the last 13 months. The thing speaks for itself.
But a quick visit to Real Clear Politics, which aggregates all the polls tells a different story. An even quicker visit to the NY Daily News tells a different story. Desperation is beginning to set in as the haymakers being thrown by Hillary, Obama and the news media are failing to keep Trump down.
I said this a year ago. If the 2016 Presidential Election comes down to namecalling, Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States. Until Obama liberals have the courage and integrity to admit the Obama presidency is a failure, ask voters for a second chance with Hillary and stop calling Trump supporters stupid, the slow but steady rise for Trump will continue.
10
Um, Real Clear Politics shows Clinton comfortably ahead. Obama's popularity is well over 50%. Facts are stubborn things.
4
"CNN has never aired one second of news coverage favorable to Donald Trump since CNN went on the air in the late 1970s. A news channel that has never said or aired anything about Donald Trump that shows respect is not exactly a credible news source."
Maybe when Trump does something worthy of respect CNN will take note.
Maybe when Trump does something worthy of respect CNN will take note.
1
It's 12:05pm on June 29, 2016 here in Washington DC.
On the front page of Real Clear Politics website, the right hand corner of the home screen contains a national poll showing Hillary Clinton leading by +/- 2 points, 42% to 40%.
Facts may be stubborn, but apparently so is reading comprehension for Obama liberals.
On the front page of Real Clear Politics website, the right hand corner of the home screen contains a national poll showing Hillary Clinton leading by +/- 2 points, 42% to 40%.
Facts may be stubborn, but apparently so is reading comprehension for Obama liberals.
1
Mrs Clinton's strategy of compiling a rainbow coalition to win the Primaries has exposed the Party's negligence in conceding her the nomination. Her lurches to the Left to deflect Mr Sanders have placed her substantially further away from appealing to undoctrinaire white voters, i.e., all not registered as Republicans. She has such high "negatives" that we are seeing the price of the Party's permission: her negatives are disproportionately concentrated among undoctrinaire white voters. Still lacking a coherent message of being "for" being in government, except for her being in this office, we now hear she is about to reintroduce herself. Who remains, to notice?
3
Ah, the future … latest poll has Donny T & HRC neck & neck. What if he makes it? What would life be like in a Donny T White House? Playwright Dick Weber gives us an hilarious look T a Halloween there in the ribald romp AW, DONNY! Sharp-witted satire that leaves a lasting impression, unlike TV ads which evaporate after a few days. HRC's superPac Priorities USA should be bolder & more imaginative … or we may find ourselves stuck with Donny T.
2
Nate, you're right on the money. Trump could indeed engineer a win with this platform. I tihnk what will happen on election day is that the definition of "likely voter" will radically change - and that people that either never voted or do every 10 years will show up in droves to vote for Trump.
1
Mr Cohn has struck a chord with me.When people think of the working class they think of people who do manuel or assembly line work, but it also includes people with some college & even those with degrees.Industrial sales working people are also affected by trade deals that have reduced their markets, and are likely to cross over & vote for Trump, Mom & Pop shops that cater to the middle class , has seen their business go to the Walmart’s of the world & they are virtually extinct.These are the forgotten Democratic workers that may surprise the pundits.If they do not cross over to the Republicans, it will be because, they are progressive, & agnostic. They believe in the Separation of Church & State, Woman’s Choice, & equal rights for all tax paying citizens regardless of their sexual orientation.They are the fly in Trumps ointment, & the reason Trump is behind in the Polls.
4
Ultraliberal, I'm not sure they will vote for Trump OR Clinton. I'm afraid those progressives will stay home or vote third party. That's the real fly.
However, as many Republicans will be voting Libertarian this year.
It's going to be a wild ride. Hope we don't all get thrown off and our necks broken (Trump).
However, as many Republicans will be voting Libertarian this year.
It's going to be a wild ride. Hope we don't all get thrown off and our necks broken (Trump).
2
Always interesting to read the comments.
An amazing amount of disdain and snobbery by people comfortable with four-syllable words toward the less fortunate. Also an amazing amount of victim blaming and out-and-out bigotry toward people because they are poor (and especially if they are white and most especially if they are male). Rarely empathy let alone being willing to share.
You all say you care about social justice. Yet you are bashing people who have been left behind. You have been lucky. You all benefited from free trade. You all benefited from your technological savvy. You all benefited from cheap, illegal, foreign workers who you treat like slaves. You have a lot to lose. You have fat 401(k)s and IRA and flats in Park Slope and houses in the Hamptons. The people whom you trash and bash have almost nothing left to lose. You should be afraid. Very afraid.
You have sowed the wind and you shall reap the whirlwind.
An amazing amount of disdain and snobbery by people comfortable with four-syllable words toward the less fortunate. Also an amazing amount of victim blaming and out-and-out bigotry toward people because they are poor (and especially if they are white and most especially if they are male). Rarely empathy let alone being willing to share.
You all say you care about social justice. Yet you are bashing people who have been left behind. You have been lucky. You all benefited from free trade. You all benefited from your technological savvy. You all benefited from cheap, illegal, foreign workers who you treat like slaves. You have a lot to lose. You have fat 401(k)s and IRA and flats in Park Slope and houses in the Hamptons. The people whom you trash and bash have almost nothing left to lose. You should be afraid. Very afraid.
You have sowed the wind and you shall reap the whirlwind.
13
Sadly, Frank is right. I am a liberal who is extremely frustrated by the language I hear and read being directed at people who are listening to, approving of, and perhaps voting for Donald Trump. The message from Hillary Clinton should not be that Donald Trump is incapable of being president; the message should focus on what she is planning to do to help those who have been the losers in the high-tech, free trade world. Free trade and a high tech economy benefits society as a whole, but decimates the opportunities available to many in the manufacturing and low tech service sectors. These people are also Americans, be they middle-class, lower-class, white or black or brown, highly educated or not, male or female....
8
Frank America has hated the poor and uneducated since the country was formed
2
Well said. Perhaps they claim to care about social justice to hide their bigotry.
1
Trump may be winning with the uneducated, white, middle-class voters because he is saying what they want to hear. He wasn't laid out ONE plan besides building the wall, which is mathematically impossible. He's bluster. He's never had to debate ANYONE on the issues. "We're going to do amazing things," "You won't believe what we're gonna do," "People are going to blown away by what we're going to do," aren't policies.
He's a mile wide and an inch thick.
He's a mile wide and an inch thick.
4
Bull pukkey. Nobody with a brain thinks reducing taxes is going to solve any problems we have. Leave taxes on the middle the same and raise raise, raise taxes on every individual who makes more than 2 million a year.
5
News flash: many members of the left, especially in academia, are also against "free" trade and aspects of globalization (i.e. Neo-colonialism). Check out some Mignolo. It's ain't just those uneducated whites, at whom the Times loves to sneer, who oppose the well-oiled machine of the 1%.
Still, Trump is certainly not the answer. Best to go with crooked Hillary--she may have some surprises up her sleeve (and while Bernie offered a message of hope, he was a one-trick pony).
Still, Trump is certainly not the answer. Best to go with crooked Hillary--she may have some surprises up her sleeve (and while Bernie offered a message of hope, he was a one-trick pony).
4
Wanderer: That is true.
The difference is that well-educated people, and those in academia, do NOT see Trump as a solution to the problem of "free trade". We see him for the scam-artist and con-man that he is.
I, personally, have grave doubts about the efficacy of free trade deals such as NAFTA and TPP. But NO DOUBTS that I have would lead me to participating in the destruction of American values and democracy by voting for the fascist Trump!!!
The difference is that well-educated people, and those in academia, do NOT see Trump as a solution to the problem of "free trade". We see him for the scam-artist and con-man that he is.
I, personally, have grave doubts about the efficacy of free trade deals such as NAFTA and TPP. But NO DOUBTS that I have would lead me to participating in the destruction of American values and democracy by voting for the fascist Trump!!!
2
give me a break. tell me which groups of people who voted for Obama are now going to vote for Trump. if large #s of these people don't exist, then the only way trump can wins is by historic low turnout. If people voted based on their opinions on issues, then obamacare would be a national favorite. Higher taxes on the rich would be a done deal, gun control would be easy legislation.
3
Good point. It is impossible to imagine many (if any) Obama supporters who will vote for Mr. Trump.
All the statistical data I have reviewed shows that Trump's supporters are Republican voters. People who have always voted Republican, and always will. They voted for Dole, Bush, McCain, and Romney, and will now vote for Trump. have seen NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that Trump is pulling in statistically significant numbers from any other Demographic.
It's all going to come down to turnout ... as it always does.
All the statistical data I have reviewed shows that Trump's supporters are Republican voters. People who have always voted Republican, and always will. They voted for Dole, Bush, McCain, and Romney, and will now vote for Trump. have seen NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER that Trump is pulling in statistically significant numbers from any other Demographic.
It's all going to come down to turnout ... as it always does.
Yet another Times story with percentages but no hard numbers. So no context. If Trump wins 90% of a voting segment that is onlu 15% of the population . . . . And can only capture 30% of the groups who comprise 85% of the population -- do the math, he loses.
Old white men and uneducated white men are already a MINORITY of the electorate. So let him have ALL of them -- if he can't do well with women, ethnic minorities, young, educated, who cares?
That's why numbers matter -- unless reporter is trying to create a sense of a horse race.
Old white men and uneducated white men are already a MINORITY of the electorate. So let him have ALL of them -- if he can't do well with women, ethnic minorities, young, educated, who cares?
That's why numbers matter -- unless reporter is trying to create a sense of a horse race.
3
To me, the point of the article, unstated though it be, is that we may see a realignment in the bases of both the Democratic and Republican Parties similar to that which resulted from the Republicans' "southern strategy" set forth in 1968.
2
Do you realize your statement is a combination of racism, sexism, and ageism all in one? You've probably set a record.
The Media has got this all wrong. The best thing Trump can do is Not change and let the Republican Party continue to crumble. The people who vote for him have no use for the Party. It's Trump vs the Democrats and that is to his advantage. Especially, when the Dem's candidate's popularity (or lack of it) is equal to his. Unless disaster hits Trump or Hillary, this race will remain close to the end and be decided by independents.....not Republicans.
2
Trump will eat these poor people alive if given a chance.
6
Considering the amount of wealth he has made by preying on the poor, that is undoubtedly true!
And, like the abused wife who keeps returning to her abusive husband (until he kills her), so too do the poor Americans return to the Republicans, who don't for one second slow down in their mission of keeping those people as poor as possible. All the better to take advantage of them, of course.
And, like the abused wife who keeps returning to her abusive husband (until he kills her), so too do the poor Americans return to the Republicans, who don't for one second slow down in their mission of keeping those people as poor as possible. All the better to take advantage of them, of course.
3
Absolutely. There are all kinds of articles laying out how his businesses have defrauded people out of their money.
There will be ads in the coming months that will feature these people. I think that's what's going to sink this red-wigged buffoon.
There will be ads in the coming months that will feature these people. I think that's what's going to sink this red-wigged buffoon.
2
Hate to say it but the worst thing about Brexit is Trump. Trump? Trump.
The Brexit vote will further the sense of being 'right' and sticking it to the establishment and greatly embolden the Trumpites. Lackadaisical and 1%er old pols (incl her highness Hillary) and their parties (Labour and our Donkeys) are so ripe for comeuppance (even from a lunatic, in fact just like a lunatic, named Trump).
Read today's Quinnipiac poll results, here we go America!!!
God save the queen!!!!!
The Brexit vote will further the sense of being 'right' and sticking it to the establishment and greatly embolden the Trumpites. Lackadaisical and 1%er old pols (incl her highness Hillary) and their parties (Labour and our Donkeys) are so ripe for comeuppance (even from a lunatic, in fact just like a lunatic, named Trump).
Read today's Quinnipiac poll results, here we go America!!!
God save the queen!!!!!
1
Hillary is in trouble.
My white working class sister and her husband, both from long lines of union household Democrats going back generations in Pennsylvania, both college educated, changed their registration to vote for Trump.
The canaries in the coal mine...
The media focusses on this or that supposed 'gaff' by Trump and imagines that the latest outrage will finally sink him. Wrong over and over during the primaries, they simply cannot get it. The gaffs actually STRENGTHEN Trump. his supporters, and I know quite a few, see it as plain speaking, and the outrage of the media elites as laughable and proof that he is effective.
Hillary is the living embodiment of the neoliberal, austerity, free trade, prison-state, financialized, trickle-down, Wall Street system that has grown up and taken over this country in the last thirty years.
HIllary cannot shake the reality of her past support for prisons, three strikes, ending 'welfare as we know it', and everything she so resoundingly supported in Bill's 8 years of center right rule.
She lately has started quacking a somewhat more liberal line, throwing in comments and ideas she picked up from Bernie, but we all know where her heart lies.
Wall Street.
My white working class sister and her husband, both from long lines of union household Democrats going back generations in Pennsylvania, both college educated, changed their registration to vote for Trump.
The canaries in the coal mine...
The media focusses on this or that supposed 'gaff' by Trump and imagines that the latest outrage will finally sink him. Wrong over and over during the primaries, they simply cannot get it. The gaffs actually STRENGTHEN Trump. his supporters, and I know quite a few, see it as plain speaking, and the outrage of the media elites as laughable and proof that he is effective.
Hillary is the living embodiment of the neoliberal, austerity, free trade, prison-state, financialized, trickle-down, Wall Street system that has grown up and taken over this country in the last thirty years.
HIllary cannot shake the reality of her past support for prisons, three strikes, ending 'welfare as we know it', and everything she so resoundingly supported in Bill's 8 years of center right rule.
She lately has started quacking a somewhat more liberal line, throwing in comments and ideas she picked up from Bernie, but we all know where her heart lies.
Wall Street.
15
A simplistic message that he has no intention nor ability to carry through, as well as a "message" that leaves out the core part of the Republican agenda - legislating via a conservative Supreme Court - that WOULD eviscerate everything these poor blue collar Trump supporters cherish. Good luck, folks. The old conservative bait-and-switch is still functioning in its full glory.
6
You got that right. These poor fools will be the first one Trump throws under the bus: https://vimeo.com/153723787
1
The democrats will pay a price for their identity politics by pushing more and more whites to the republicans. The democrat party simply does not represent white folk.
5
Are you implying the Republicans don't practice identity politics.
2
The statistics clearly point to the growing economic distance between the college degree have and have nots. This is true in the US and as we just saw, in Britain too. In the internet age being connected is not just a web based phenomena it is a life-style issue. It would not be a surprise if Drump wins a clear majority of the non-college folk. It is also the same crowd that don't look at their own short comings and are more willing to blame the "foreigners" amongst us. Yeah, it is always "their" fault! If the turn-out for this election falls short, especially with the college and young crowd, it would be "huuggee disaster".
2
This is why Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, who have connected with these voters over the past 24 years, among other Democrats will be key surrogates during the general campaign.
In any event, over the past few weeks, Nate Cohn has focused on white voters, and why these voters could be instrumental in vaulting Trump to victory. However, Cohn has given no attention as to how Hispanic voters might vote, including the rapidly growing Puerto Rican population in and around Orlando, Florida. Trump is unlikely to have a path to 270 electoral votes that does not go through Florida.
Hispanic voters could also provide problematic for Trump in the West, as could Native American voters in the Plains states and West, and Mormon voters throughout the Western U.S. Nor has Cohn fully considered how the electorate might break along educational lines, in which Trump's gains among working class whites produces a significant shift among higher-turnover, college-educated voters.
Until Cohn has put some thought into how these voters are reacting to Trump's campaign, he is only confirming that Trump has a narrow path to victory that requires him to outperform Mitt Romney among whites.
In any event, over the past few weeks, Nate Cohn has focused on white voters, and why these voters could be instrumental in vaulting Trump to victory. However, Cohn has given no attention as to how Hispanic voters might vote, including the rapidly growing Puerto Rican population in and around Orlando, Florida. Trump is unlikely to have a path to 270 electoral votes that does not go through Florida.
Hispanic voters could also provide problematic for Trump in the West, as could Native American voters in the Plains states and West, and Mormon voters throughout the Western U.S. Nor has Cohn fully considered how the electorate might break along educational lines, in which Trump's gains among working class whites produces a significant shift among higher-turnover, college-educated voters.
Until Cohn has put some thought into how these voters are reacting to Trump's campaign, he is only confirming that Trump has a narrow path to victory that requires him to outperform Mitt Romney among whites.
4
Is Trumpery Trump that clever? Alternating between being an isolationist ant-immigration demagogue and a "Presidential candidate" actually enlarges his base; one day he keeps his disaffected voting base at home by appealing to their issues and on any other day (moment) by donning a more thoughtful cloak he teases those who want dearly to vote Republican to come to him. Vague policy statements also keep his people at home; a supporter or potential supporter can easily find reassurance that Trump is his/her champion by choosing to embed a specific issue into a broad vague policy basket. Clinton better beware.
3
NO! Dangerous Donnie never says anything of substance. Never.
1
we need to show that support for trump is similar to those who support the group 'anonymous'. they just want chaos
5
Anonymous isn't about chaos. It's about government accountability. Something Republicans, and sadly Democrats, seem allergic to.
2
It will be interesting to see how the Republicans respond to a party being populated by new voters looking for democratic solutions to the problems brought on by the very party they now inhabit.
8
I'm a white working class retiree who isn't fooled into thinking that Trump is in this for anyone but himself.He proved this at his Scotland golf course when as markets and British Pound were plunging,wiping out trillions of dollars of wealth,he said this was good because more tourists would come to his golf course.Will Trump start "cracking down on China " by no importing his products from there ?
9
What should he have been doing instead? He has no authority to change political situations in any country... pragmatism led to a remark that would probably turn out to be true. As a businessman he needs to be aware of and take advantage of such situations.
HRC not only is the biggest liar I have seen in politics but is, by all facts, culpable in the deaths of 4 AMERICANS in Benghazi. How anyone can support this individual is beyond me.
6
You know if you would watch something other than Faux News and good old Rush - you might find out you are completely wrong due to a lack of factual reporting.
A 7 million dollar Republican witch hunt says you are wrong.
4
As a liar Trump beats Clinton by a mile! All that finger raised in the air means is: which way is the opinion going today? (Obviously he didn't remember what he said the day before and he's checking the wind.)
3
Globalization and technological "progress" inevitably are creating not just a "China price" but a global wage. That is bad news with no upside, and no politician ever thrived on bad news with no upside. So the legitimate politicians shun our greatest issue (other than destruction of the planet), and the Bouffant Buffoon steps into the vacuum.
9
Oh please white working class people in many States have always voted against their interests. If they and those Reagan Democrats vote for Trump they will not be doing anything new.
10
There's something different about now versus thirty years ago, Reagan was the establishment...Trump is not. Regardless of how the left portrays the working class as dumb, stupid or worse, if Trump gains a large segment along with independents he might win.
2
I don't know where people get the idea that Republicans are anti-immigration.
Texas is filled with "conservatives" who have the kept the border open and porous so they can import and then exploit cheap labor. Taxpayers get stuck with the increased costs of social services to the illegal immigrants who will put up with just about anything.
This duplicity is why voters have dumped all of the usual Republican suspects. who failed to represent the wishes of voters to stop the human trafficking.
Texas is filled with "conservatives" who have the kept the border open and porous so they can import and then exploit cheap labor. Taxpayers get stuck with the increased costs of social services to the illegal immigrants who will put up with just about anything.
This duplicity is why voters have dumped all of the usual Republican suspects. who failed to represent the wishes of voters to stop the human trafficking.
11
Please address any age splits in this shift. Is it older white working class voters (in which case it is unlikely to be the new long term trend), younger white working class voters, or all? Thanks
2
Sorry Nate. Trump has squeezed every ounce out of the white working class male resent-everything vote he is going to get. Those numbers won't budge. I'll expect you to check back in a month with a follow-up story saying, Ooops, nothing's changed. Hillary is below 50% because of right-wing bashing that actually pre-dates Whitewater. Great that Trump won Rust Belt working class males in the primary. They are GOP registered. This is the general, where Rust Belt Democrats vote Democrat.
6
Interesting to see Nate giving a strong impression of some e who admires trump.i guess the NYT doesn't want to be banned by Herr Drumpf ..like the Washington post.Suck up
1
Wait until they start running ads featuring the people Trump has duped through the years. Things often change after the conventions.
2
I recall in one of the primary voter interviews, a woman saying something like: "Nobody much cared about us 'till Trump". Whether Mr Trump wins or not, his startling campaign has made a lot of politicians keenly aware that a lot of folks feel their government is not about them, just the rich and the poor. That awakening alone could change the way we run things, whether he is in the white house or one of his towers.
18
Trump's candidacy is a phenomena and will have lasting affect on voter allegiances or major philosophic changes in party dogma. That said, Trumpism will spur the republican party to move away from the Buckley-Goldwater neo-conservatism that has been all the rage since the mid 1960s. Lehman Brothers collapse and the resulting financial crises killed that movement, though it's corpse has been hanging around congress and stinking up everything even remotely resembling effective government for the better part of the last decade. After all the central pillar of the neoconservatives was as Ronald Reagan was so found of saying "government is the problem, free market capitalism is the solution", financial collapse and government bailouts laid waste to that.
10
From your lips to voters fingers in November.
1
That's assuming anything he says is true or can be accomplished. Or, that he even has the skills to negotiate something like that. In business, Trump has proven that he doesn't care about win-win outcomes, which are essential to good international policy. For him, it's only important that HE wins, himself, and in so doing he eviscerates his opponents, rivals and even partners. He takes pleasure from crushing others under his boot. That is not how to negotiate international treaties. He does not comprehend the notion of compromise or of leaving the other side's dignity intact. He's a cruel bully and would be a disaster in any public office.
10
This coming presidential election would be a laughable but for Hillary Clinton being the democratic nominee and next president. I am a democrat who remembers the 2000 election. President Clinton ( and Hillary standing by her man) through his foolish behavior and denials of same pushed democrats like myself into the republican column. I was angry and I regret voting for George Bush.
I caution democrats not to vote angry. England just voted angry and shot themselves in the foot. Old Brits voted to leave the EU by 70+%. Young people voted just the opposite. The young people have to live with their parents mistake.
I caution democrats not to vote angry. England just voted angry and shot themselves in the foot. Old Brits voted to leave the EU by 70+%. Young people voted just the opposite. The young people have to live with their parents mistake.
4
I was in the UK when the Brexit vote was declared, and I said "Trump's gonna win."
I'm back now, and say it again.
People everywhere are really, really tired of being jerked around by the Establishment telling them the sky's gonna fall if they don't fall obediently in line to vote for the Establishment's preferred choice, wherever and whatever.
Do I like Trump? No. But I loathe Hillary. Loathe her. I am a woman of mature years and progressive inclinations, and Bernie can conciliate all he wants to and Warren can pant after the VP slot all she wants to, and they ain't gonna make me stop loathing Hillary.
I do have integrity, even when it comes to political choices. And I have plenty of company. And considering where all the smart people have gotten us, year after year, I seriously doubt that Trump can do worse. After all, the Laotians are still paying for JKF's judgment skills.
I'm still planning to write in Sanders, though if he conciliates any more, I may just vote for Stein.
I'm back now, and say it again.
People everywhere are really, really tired of being jerked around by the Establishment telling them the sky's gonna fall if they don't fall obediently in line to vote for the Establishment's preferred choice, wherever and whatever.
Do I like Trump? No. But I loathe Hillary. Loathe her. I am a woman of mature years and progressive inclinations, and Bernie can conciliate all he wants to and Warren can pant after the VP slot all she wants to, and they ain't gonna make me stop loathing Hillary.
I do have integrity, even when it comes to political choices. And I have plenty of company. And considering where all the smart people have gotten us, year after year, I seriously doubt that Trump can do worse. After all, the Laotians are still paying for JKF's judgment skills.
I'm still planning to write in Sanders, though if he conciliates any more, I may just vote for Stein.
23
There are not many folks left of me but I have seen your attitude for all my adult life. This is the attitude of a destructive mindset that exists in the political left.
"If they don't believe us then let the country descend to Hell. Only then will Americans wake up. You have to destroy a country to save it."
No way, not buying into that pipe dream.
"If they don't believe us then let the country descend to Hell. Only then will Americans wake up. You have to destroy a country to save it."
No way, not buying into that pipe dream.
2
I feel yer pain, sister.
My anger only grows with each snide comment by Clinton supporters, who seem more intent on winning than actually listening to the concerns of voters.
The Clinton campaign is so insulated from the voices screaming at them, I'm afraid they will just "pivot" even further right. Merely showing up at pre-staged campaign stops with Elizabth Warren is not enough to overcome the very real perception that Clinton is bought and paid for by worker-soul-crushing multinational corporations.
If she wants to win my vote--and votes of uneducated white workers!--she needs to pivot LEFT!
My anger only grows with each snide comment by Clinton supporters, who seem more intent on winning than actually listening to the concerns of voters.
The Clinton campaign is so insulated from the voices screaming at them, I'm afraid they will just "pivot" even further right. Merely showing up at pre-staged campaign stops with Elizabth Warren is not enough to overcome the very real perception that Clinton is bought and paid for by worker-soul-crushing multinational corporations.
If she wants to win my vote--and votes of uneducated white workers!--she needs to pivot LEFT!
2
Jack: If the political left had any guts at all, they'd vote positively for who they want rather than negatively in fear of who they don't.
We could elect Sanders. We could elect Stein. Who's stopping us? Dauntless Debbie?
Don't blame me and my kind for your and your kind's failure of nerve.
We could elect Sanders. We could elect Stein. Who's stopping us? Dauntless Debbie?
Don't blame me and my kind for your and your kind's failure of nerve.
2
I am reminded of a line from Lord of the Rings, "The Ents will awaken and find that they are strong." BrExit has given the powerless left-behinds in the global economy a renewed sense that they are, in fact, strong enough to derail the European project, and perhaps the same thing will happen here in America. Their power is only to destroy, but to those who have been forgotten and left out too long, perhaps the schadenfreude of destroying the benefits that have accrued to others is enough. Global capitalism has had too many casualties to ignore or blame on the victims, and the current system's lassez faire approach to keeping them whole has not worked. Take a drive through rural North/South Carolina or a host of other burned out districts that never recovered from the total loss of the Textile industry to NAFTA, or the Steel industry to Japan, or the manufacturing sector to China. Perhaps working class America's romance with America's two party system is finally coming to an end. Perhaps their message is, "A pox on both your houses."
19
Many of my employees wondered why all the textile executives (excepting Roger Milliken) supported NAFTA. I knew and made sure those that asked knew. Off shoring of cut and sew was already in place, up next was our major manufacturing plants, if they could pass NAFTA. Ross Perot was 100% right, you have to give him credit for telling the truth.
Still a good part of the industry hung on until the early 2000's. We modernized and had the best and fastest equipment in the industry but competing against slave labor and unfettered access (dumping) to our markets sealed our fate. We heard all the drivel about those high tech jobs that never materialized. You don't replace a company with 25,000 jobs with 2,000 new jobs (that eventually went to India).
These millions of people had good paying jobs. In example my lower skilled employees made over $12.00 an hour..some as much as $20.00 per hour. We were very profitable before NAFTA, but given the choice any business is going to take advantage of trade deals,
That was in 1995. They had full company paid benefits, health and dental insurance, and a pension. These hard working folks owned homes, had new cars, boats, and enjoyed a modest but secure life.
It all ended with NAFTA.
Anyone that thinks Clinton will do anything for the same people her husband threw under the bus is delusional. Hillary is out for Hillary. Donald may be as well, but I and a lot of other middle class people are willing to roll the dice.
Still a good part of the industry hung on until the early 2000's. We modernized and had the best and fastest equipment in the industry but competing against slave labor and unfettered access (dumping) to our markets sealed our fate. We heard all the drivel about those high tech jobs that never materialized. You don't replace a company with 25,000 jobs with 2,000 new jobs (that eventually went to India).
These millions of people had good paying jobs. In example my lower skilled employees made over $12.00 an hour..some as much as $20.00 per hour. We were very profitable before NAFTA, but given the choice any business is going to take advantage of trade deals,
That was in 1995. They had full company paid benefits, health and dental insurance, and a pension. These hard working folks owned homes, had new cars, boats, and enjoyed a modest but secure life.
It all ended with NAFTA.
Anyone that thinks Clinton will do anything for the same people her husband threw under the bus is delusional. Hillary is out for Hillary. Donald may be as well, but I and a lot of other middle class people are willing to roll the dice.
3
They chased the car in England and caught it. Now they realize they have no thumbs to operate it. I don't mind changing the landscape, but I demand to know just what the hell is going to be built in place of what you tear down. Don't tell me we are going to build XYZ unless you tell me how it will be paid for. No true fiscal conservative can buy what Trump is selling because we don't know what "it" is. "Leave" voters said, "Let's get out, it will be better." Now every one of the "Trumpish" leaders are walking back every single promise and not one has a plan - not one. That's what I want - change for the sake of change with no plan. How does that help the textile industry in North Carolina? And by the way, how many jobs in the Research Triangle, technology centers and medical field have been created that never existed before? Enough to offset the losses in textiles? The day on working one manufacturing or production job your entire life in one industry left in 1974 or thereabouts. Retraining a workforce is something I would think NC politicians would want to invest in. Do they? Do the displaced and fired workers have the ability to get retraining? If not, why not? It makes conservative fiscal sense.
2
Jerry, at least Clinton will maintain the status quo. Are you willing to put the fate of tge country in the hands of a guy that has literally defrauded hundreds, declared bankruptcy numerous times, claims he's a billionaire but is afraid to release his tax return (probably because it would expose another lie)?
A guy that lies over and over? You are wiliing to put the fate of this country in his hands because...?
I don't like Clinton either. But I'll hold back my wretch and vote for her. Meanwhile, I'll work to pass an amendment to the Constitution to get money out of politics. That's far more constructive than voting for an idiot like Trump.
A guy that lies over and over? You are wiliing to put the fate of this country in his hands because...?
I don't like Clinton either. But I'll hold back my wretch and vote for her. Meanwhile, I'll work to pass an amendment to the Constitution to get money out of politics. That's far more constructive than voting for an idiot like Trump.
3
The Donald took a page from Bill Clinton's first election strategy: Steal some of your enemy's positions. Surprise, surprise ... Hillary (sorry Ms. Clinton).
2
What this article fails to point out is that Trump will loose support among white uneducated working class because of his opposition to a minimum wage.
3
If any working class voter wants to vote for this man...by all means....vote against your own interests.
7
Lets's take the premise at face value. What does it mean for all the other Republican (or Democrat) candidates in the myriad of other contests? Or, is the Presidential contest one in its own bubble?
3
Now you're startin' to scare me. The about face of the two parties since Nixon's strategic moves, with Democrats going for the young urban professionals and the Republicans going for the working uneducated southerners, appears to be playing out in extremist fashion--both parties go as far as they can until it's no longer working. The Republicans seem to be doubling down and still have some play left. Let's hope the Democrats are wiser and show some respect for the working people of this country.
7
Trump wears his bankruptcies with more pride than soldier does a Purple Heart. The former achieved his "awards" intentionally and with malice aforethought; the latter wishes his body was still whole.
Bankrupt is a near-perfect metaphor for Trump the man. Everything about him --his morals in particular-- is bankrupt. He will not change if he is President.
Bankrupt is a near-perfect metaphor for Trump the man. Everything about him --his morals in particular-- is bankrupt. He will not change if he is President.
12
Democrats have made a major blunder in their support for all of these trade pacts, without any consideration for worker displacement. It is a mistake which has led to White, uneducated, and traditionally Democratic-leaning workers supporting Donald Trump. Some may call these workers "racist" or "fickle," but the real blame lies with our fixation on "free-trade" which can do no harm. According to the textbook definition, shut-downs (or reorganizations) that result from moving operations to another country represent an "efficient" reallocation of resources--and any unemployment or misery that may have resulted from this will be short-lived, because the displaced will find work elsewhere. Well, the displaced have not found work elsewhere (which is hard to do when you are 55 or older), and these persistent problems have not disappeared. Trade pacts have resulted in "races to the bottom" insofar as labor markets are concerned.
31
All of which was obvious from the very start to anyone who didn't drink the Kool-Aide. That's thirty-five years ago.
Enough, already!
Enough, already!
3
What's the point of "bringing back jobs" to manufacturing (and many claim it's not possible, anyway) if you're anti-union?
Unions are what keep wages higher, working hours reasonable, and jobs somewhat more secure. Unions work to counter arbitrary firing and cost-cutting layoffs. They're not perfect organizations, but where they exist, the working class has it better. Right-to-work states may attract a lot of employers, but what's the good of having employers who aren't loyal to employees and who treat people like expendable burdens, rather than valuable assets? You still don't have better wages, work conditions, benefits, or job security.
What's needed: more unions in white collar and service industry jobs. Germany has unions for nearly every profession and its economy does well for employees. Unionizing gives employees some bargaining power. Any individual who's ever gone up against a more powerful employer discovers how far the scales are tipped against him or her.
Trump is outspokenly anti-union. We've all seen business leaders make big promises to communities in exchange for right-to-work concessions and then watched them pull out the rug from under our feet and walk away with cash-stuffed pockets. We all know about Trump's disloyalty and selfishness. What makes us think he's going to change and suddenly begin acting in the interests of others? He's never done it before. He HAS made empty promises before to many, many naive people who mistakenly trusted him.
Unions are what keep wages higher, working hours reasonable, and jobs somewhat more secure. Unions work to counter arbitrary firing and cost-cutting layoffs. They're not perfect organizations, but where they exist, the working class has it better. Right-to-work states may attract a lot of employers, but what's the good of having employers who aren't loyal to employees and who treat people like expendable burdens, rather than valuable assets? You still don't have better wages, work conditions, benefits, or job security.
What's needed: more unions in white collar and service industry jobs. Germany has unions for nearly every profession and its economy does well for employees. Unionizing gives employees some bargaining power. Any individual who's ever gone up against a more powerful employer discovers how far the scales are tipped against him or her.
Trump is outspokenly anti-union. We've all seen business leaders make big promises to communities in exchange for right-to-work concessions and then watched them pull out the rug from under our feet and walk away with cash-stuffed pockets. We all know about Trump's disloyalty and selfishness. What makes us think he's going to change and suddenly begin acting in the interests of others? He's never done it before. He HAS made empty promises before to many, many naive people who mistakenly trusted him.
21
it isnt possible
its too late
youve been had
its too late
youve been had
Unions are not needed when labor is scarce. In effect, the Union we have as US citizens is what Trump is advocating -- a giant step compared to the way the labor market operates today. Hugely more progressive than what Democrats and Unions envision -- which has been dying anyway.
Trump will not unify the United States. He is a divisive force and he depends on the principle of divide and conquer. There are many people who do not agree with Trump and will have nothing to do with him. Anyone who believes that people will unite behind Trump to support his xenophobic approach toward the world is not perceiving the big picture.
2
This countries slide started with the election of Reagan.
17
started w your illegal invasion of vietnam, based on a lie
does that sound familiar ?
it should
does that sound familiar ?
it should
1
Imagine that. If you could have had your way DC, in 1980 America would have chosen 4 more years of Jimmy Carter's incompetence.
Many Americans view China's leaders as tough and clever negotiators. American leaders on the other hand are perceived as text book Ivy League liberals who are weak. As a result China became an economic power house from our money, while we drudge along at 2% growth.
8
your govt allowed th entire offshoring of american manufacturing and th loss of millions of jobs wo any penalty
thats how it happened
there was no negotiating involved - you were sold out and now its too late to do anything about it
thats how it happened
there was no negotiating involved - you were sold out and now its too late to do anything about it
2
China became an economic powerhouse because it modernized its cities and infrastructure starting 50 years after we did, and for far many more people. Give them the credit they deserve. No need to find anti-American intents there.
1
The original promise was that the new middle class in China, billions of them, would DEMAND American products. We were all supposed to get rich selling them Veg-O-Matics and white wall tires.
To understand this better, read the book "Coming Apart" by Charles Murray.
1
Trump will utter/spout/say anything to get elected. There are no red lines, ideological or ethical for him and the coterie (let us not call it a campaign) around him.
The GOP will tolerate any and all of this as well from the GOP nominee, for today’s GOP has no red lines, ideological or ethical, either.
The GOP will tolerate any and all of this as well from the GOP nominee, for today’s GOP has no red lines, ideological or ethical, either.
5
Ditto for Hillary and the "New" Democrats.
4
"Trump will utter/spout/say anything to get elected. "
And so will HRC and virtually any other politician with the possible exception of Bernie.
And so will HRC and virtually any other politician with the possible exception of Bernie.
4
After the NY Times' biased reporting those year, topped off with stealth editing to a complimentary piece on Bernie, I've pretty much written off its ability to wrote a fair, objective piece on the election. (Remember? "promising not just a few stars here and there, but the moon and a good part of the sun..." Where is the new Public Editor, btw?)
Which makes me question whether the election will be the Clinton cakewalk that Nate here predicts.
From what I've seen, in head to head polls, Clinton crushes Trump, yes. But when you add in the other candidates who are running (not mentioned in this article), suddenly the race is neck and neck.
Apparently there are lots of people who will vote for anyone but Trump, but that need not be Clinton.
Maybe, rather than denigrating the white working class (especially men) as uneducated morons, as can be seen in many of the comments here, the Democrats might want to pivot to appealing to them.
It wouldn't be that hard.
For example, instead of pushing a higher minimum wage to benefit women, minorities, and working families (the usual Democratic holy trinity), Democrats could support it because it will benefit all working men and women.
See? No policy change and also no exclusion of the white male working class-- one of the largest voting demographics BTW.
But who am I? Just another white guy, so don't mind me-- I'll be over here in the corner, checking my privilege...
Which makes me question whether the election will be the Clinton cakewalk that Nate here predicts.
From what I've seen, in head to head polls, Clinton crushes Trump, yes. But when you add in the other candidates who are running (not mentioned in this article), suddenly the race is neck and neck.
Apparently there are lots of people who will vote for anyone but Trump, but that need not be Clinton.
Maybe, rather than denigrating the white working class (especially men) as uneducated morons, as can be seen in many of the comments here, the Democrats might want to pivot to appealing to them.
It wouldn't be that hard.
For example, instead of pushing a higher minimum wage to benefit women, minorities, and working families (the usual Democratic holy trinity), Democrats could support it because it will benefit all working men and women.
See? No policy change and also no exclusion of the white male working class-- one of the largest voting demographics BTW.
But who am I? Just another white guy, so don't mind me-- I'll be over here in the corner, checking my privilege...
11
The more the democrats push for a higher minimum wage, the greater the incentive for companies to replace increasingly more expensive no-skill / low-skill workers with increasingly less expensive and more efficient automation. The end result will be increased unemployment for unskilled workers.
2
We're heading there anyway and no politician will be able to prevent that. The real issue is which candidates will be able to come up with long-term goals for sustaining the entire country when masses of people will be out of work.
Will we get into another war in order to occupy unemployed young people? WW II took us out of the Depression by killing hundreds of thousands, who no longer had to be given jobs. It created jobs for those who survived. The fact that women will now be forced to register for the draft is an ominous sign that someone in government is considering bringing back the military draft. If the draft is reinstated, can a major war be expected?
We could also continue to maintain a dysfunctional healthcare system so that more of the surplus population (as Scrooge called the poor and unemployed) will die faster.
These are possible ways of dealing with a large population of unemployed people. But do we really want to be that kind of a country? The wealthy claim that they can't pay any more taxes, nor can they afford to feed them, educate them, or employ them, so ... what? Kill them off and hope no one notices?
Traditional ways of dealing with unemployment will not work any more. The economy is moving away from being able to support a large population. We need politicians with visions for the future and a sense of what will be good for the entire country, and not just a few.
Will we get into another war in order to occupy unemployed young people? WW II took us out of the Depression by killing hundreds of thousands, who no longer had to be given jobs. It created jobs for those who survived. The fact that women will now be forced to register for the draft is an ominous sign that someone in government is considering bringing back the military draft. If the draft is reinstated, can a major war be expected?
We could also continue to maintain a dysfunctional healthcare system so that more of the surplus population (as Scrooge called the poor and unemployed) will die faster.
These are possible ways of dealing with a large population of unemployed people. But do we really want to be that kind of a country? The wealthy claim that they can't pay any more taxes, nor can they afford to feed them, educate them, or employ them, so ... what? Kill them off and hope no one notices?
Traditional ways of dealing with unemployment will not work any more. The economy is moving away from being able to support a large population. We need politicians with visions for the future and a sense of what will be good for the entire country, and not just a few.
3
I know many educated people (including myself) who have been called by polling. None of us reveal our candidate.
9
The campaign for the White House has just started, Hillary Clinton has a political past filled with hypocrisy and questionable actions which will be publicized by the Trump campaign. Hillary's Big Bad Wolf political tactics of personal attack in place of campaigning on the DNC platform will become boring well before November.
5
It is amazing that there are people who believe Trump. He is after all the person who says one thing while he does another. He is against outsourcing but Trump products are made in China. He is for the working class person but does not want to pay them for the work they have done for him. He applauds down turns in economic reality for America so that he can buy real estate cheaply or for Britain so that he can bring more people to his resort. Taking his word is a little like taking the word of a stereotypical used car salesman..but beware when you drive the car off the lot and it fails to make it down the street. What is really tragic about this election is that those working class people who really do need an opportunity to reset their lives, will believe the used car salesman Trump, and will discover just as those who followed Boris Johnson into leaving the EU are discovering that life is not better for them but worse.
37
"Hillary Clinton has a political past filled with hypocrisy and questionable actions which will be publicized by the Trump campaign."
The Clintons have been attacked and vilified by the Republicans non-stop since Bill was the governor of Arkansas in the 80s. Attacking Hillary Clinton is nothing new to older voters who have been along on the ride for decades. There's nothing for the Trump campaign to "publicize" about the Clintons that voters likely to turn up at the polls haven't heard before.
The Clintons have been attacked and vilified by the Republicans non-stop since Bill was the governor of Arkansas in the 80s. Attacking Hillary Clinton is nothing new to older voters who have been along on the ride for decades. There's nothing for the Trump campaign to "publicize" about the Clintons that voters likely to turn up at the polls haven't heard before.
4
Don the Con has a lot of snake oil for sale, and some Americans are buying it. He made clear what is important to him when he left the campaign to try to get publicity for his failing golf course in Scotland. Don is for Don. He has a tax plan for the rich, but claims to be for the little guy. He is against free trade, but all his products are made outside the US. He uses undocumented workers to build his hotels, but he is tough on immigration. He hires foreign workers to work in his resorts, but he claims to be for the American worker. When he uses American workers, he tries to cheat them and makes them sue him to get paid. He projects his weaknesses on his rivals. Elizabeth Warren is a racist, but he isn't. He claims Hillary is "crooked", but he's not. He lies even when the truth is better. He says things one day and then denies he said them the next. Hopefully, more people will not buy his snake oil than do.
9
Mitch McConnell is probably suffering acid indigestion right now.
2
Hillary has two choices - go left or go center.
Going center means that she keeps the big donors and the 1%. It also may mean that we get President Bad Hair.
Going left is her only option. From the left she can address the concerns of the working class, and keep the rest of the Democratic coalition.
Going center means that she keeps the big donors and the 1%. It also may mean that we get President Bad Hair.
Going left is her only option. From the left she can address the concerns of the working class, and keep the rest of the Democratic coalition.
28
We need someone like Franklin D. Roosevelt, with a platform that addresses the issues that matter to the vast majority of people and that is a positive one. Trump certainly is not of that caliber, and I doubt Clinton can rise to the occasion.
1
Trump's promises to white working class voters is like Trump University on macroeconomic steroids.
3
The only thing Trump will deliver to the working class is a post-election sucker punch.
5
Donald Trump is a congenital liar who will say anything to get elected. The New York Times has an obligation to temper its reporting of Trump and not validate his lies by presenting them as considered policy.
8
"Donald Trump is a congenital liar who will say anything to get elected"
You can say the exact same thing about the Clintons, both of them, or about all politicians in general.
You can say the exact same thing about the Clintons, both of them, or about all politicians in general.
2
And Hillary Clinton is pure and honest?
If the working class whites vote republican Trump should win. This seems to be the thesis put forth by the author. However, women and minorities will have a lot to say about this election. Hispanic citizens are registering to vote in droves that they may vote against Donald Trump. I remember years ago when David Duke ran for the US Senate in Louisiana and well over 90 percent of black citizens registered to vote in order to stop him a they did. Maybe women, blacks, and Hispanics will step up to the plate and do the same this coming November.
5
"Maybe women, blacks, and Hispanics will step up to the plate and do the same this coming November."
Yes, they will rescue the country.
Yes, they will rescue the country.
1
Donald Trump has been responsible for more blue-collar trade & union jobs than any candidate in recent history. So-called intellectuals, who are analyzing the race, will ignore this at their own peril. However, we working people know that Hillary is really in the back pocket of Wall Street and doesn't really care about us. As Joe Biden once said, "It's a three letter word J-O-B-S."
5
From his record, it just seems that he eventually neglects to pay for the services rendered by those blue collar and union workers.
2
So Trump is running as a liberal democrat and Hillary is running as a center right republican. How odd.
11
I attended Trump's rally in Ohio yesterday. I am not a Trump supporter. The people at the rally were not uneducated or stupid as it was held on a college campus. Everyone was orderly. Trump did best with the Bernie Sander's type rhetoric, such as scrapping TPP and fighting the power of multinational corporations. He made a bid for nonwhite voters, though there were none that I saw in the audience, by stating Americans will come first, regardless of color. I thought he seemed a little tired and meandering, more an old man than a Hitler style demagogue.
9
"I thought he seemed a little tired and meandering, more an old man than a Hitler style demagogue."
Cognitive decline? Not that he was all that cognitive to begin with.
Cognitive decline? Not that he was all that cognitive to begin with.
The term "white working-class voters" was used about ten times in this short article. This newspaper frequently laments the racial divisions in our country. But at the same time it revels in them.
Is this our mantra? white working-class voters, white working-class voters, white working-class voters, white working-class voters.
These are economic and trade issues. They affect all races. You're not helping anyone get beyond racial divisions when you conflate and exploit them given any opportunity.
Is this our mantra? white working-class voters, white working-class voters, white working-class voters, white working-class voters.
These are economic and trade issues. They affect all races. You're not helping anyone get beyond racial divisions when you conflate and exploit them given any opportunity.
13
The new Q poll is interesting.
White voters favor Trump 47%-34% while Hispanic voters favor Clinton 50%-33%.
Flip it and Trump has basically as much support from Hispanics as Clinton does from whites. Given his rhetoric, that should give Clinton pause.
White voters favor Trump 47%-34% while Hispanic voters favor Clinton 50%-33%.
Flip it and Trump has basically as much support from Hispanics as Clinton does from whites. Given his rhetoric, that should give Clinton pause.
3
Gee, the adjective "working-class" is used 9 times, and "less-educated" or the equivalent 6 times, to describe Trump supporters. You sound like Limbaugh with his constant refrain that Democrats are "low information voters." You need to assert to your readers 15 times, in what is supposed to be a news article, that Trump voters are stupid? It's the NYT Bernie Sanders treatment, reworked for the general election.
13
Been offering similar thoughts for quite some time in this commentariat.
Donald Trump saw and harnessed early the sense of dispossession by working-class Americans, while ALL the other candidates except Bernie Sanders just went along as if this were 2004. Bernie, of course, was pretending that it was 1968. Or maybe 1936. Needless to say, the survivors appear to be the guy who got it on one side and the one who knew it wasn’t 1968 on the other – but Hillary is about as establishment as anyone could be, and the people generally are asking party establishment elites on BOTH sides “what have you done for me LATELY, Tonto?”
The tide of history has seemed for quite some time to be moving away from old assumptions about protected classes to a globalized view of general redistribution; yet the economic interests of hundreds of millions are affected by that movement and we’d be foolish to think that there wouldn’t be a reaction. That reaction is Brexit as avatar of a likely slew of copy-cat maneuvers throughout Europe, Marine Le Pen, Boris Johnson … and Donald Trump.
He’s electable, by Republicans AND Democrats. If elected, he likely wouldn’t be bounded by the ideological assumptions of parties but seek common-sense approaches to common-sense solutions for America. Hillary would plod, at a lower risk-level but with FAR less chance of securing important objectives. He's the high-risk, high-value candidate; while she is low-risk, low-value.
Trump 2016: Embrace the Horror.
Donald Trump saw and harnessed early the sense of dispossession by working-class Americans, while ALL the other candidates except Bernie Sanders just went along as if this were 2004. Bernie, of course, was pretending that it was 1968. Or maybe 1936. Needless to say, the survivors appear to be the guy who got it on one side and the one who knew it wasn’t 1968 on the other – but Hillary is about as establishment as anyone could be, and the people generally are asking party establishment elites on BOTH sides “what have you done for me LATELY, Tonto?”
The tide of history has seemed for quite some time to be moving away from old assumptions about protected classes to a globalized view of general redistribution; yet the economic interests of hundreds of millions are affected by that movement and we’d be foolish to think that there wouldn’t be a reaction. That reaction is Brexit as avatar of a likely slew of copy-cat maneuvers throughout Europe, Marine Le Pen, Boris Johnson … and Donald Trump.
He’s electable, by Republicans AND Democrats. If elected, he likely wouldn’t be bounded by the ideological assumptions of parties but seek common-sense approaches to common-sense solutions for America. Hillary would plod, at a lower risk-level but with FAR less chance of securing important objectives. He's the high-risk, high-value candidate; while she is low-risk, low-value.
Trump 2016: Embrace the Horror.
9
Thank you, no. As thoroughly as republicans have managed to destroy our democracy and with the able assistance of democrats who sit on their hands, I didn't serve my country to vote for a shyster and miscreant.
Embrace your own horror.
Embrace your own horror.
29
Marc:
You know that I only write these comments to afford our persons in uniform (or bureaucratic pinstripe) an opportunity to write NYT "pick"ed responses.
You know that I only write these comments to afford our persons in uniform (or bureaucratic pinstripe) an opportunity to write NYT "pick"ed responses.
2
Sorry, Richard, he's got you. Bad faith is bad faith. It's your bad faith I'm (we're) talking about. Think about it--you and bad faith in the same room--it's stifling.
1
When will the "uneducated" voters now supporting Trump realize that he is a phony who can't deliver what he promises? He says whatever comes to mind, and his, too, is a very uneducated mind. The world is too complex and dangerous to trust the presidency of the U.S. to this clown.
9
Are you talking about the same uneducated voters like the ones backing an old worn out criminal who should be behind bars but that the media will put in the white house instead? THOSE uneducated voters?
1
You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time. PT Barnum said there is a sucker born every minute. Some folks will always believe his drivel.
What you don't get is that Trump voters understand that he is a terrible vessel for their concerns, but they want him as a way to blow things up anyway.
1
Trump is all surface appeal. Run something up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it. If enough salute it, he runs with the idea.
Identifying broken parts of the system is easy. Figuring out how to fix the parts in a timely and cost effective manner is more difficult. And figuring how to pay for it is even harder. Trump may have identified the broken parts but has no workable ideas as to how to fix them.
And any meaningful solution will require the aid of Congress. With the current Republican majority ruling the rest - good luck! The fact that Trump chose to run as a Republican tells a lot about the depth of his understanding of the problems and their solutions.
PS. Why anyone would trust such a bad businessman to renegotiate anything is beyond me.
Identifying broken parts of the system is easy. Figuring out how to fix the parts in a timely and cost effective manner is more difficult. And figuring how to pay for it is even harder. Trump may have identified the broken parts but has no workable ideas as to how to fix them.
And any meaningful solution will require the aid of Congress. With the current Republican majority ruling the rest - good luck! The fact that Trump chose to run as a Republican tells a lot about the depth of his understanding of the problems and their solutions.
PS. Why anyone would trust such a bad businessman to renegotiate anything is beyond me.
10
The idea of labeling a whole class of voters as "less educated" is perhaps factually correct but still condescending and a bit off the mark. I went to college, my older brother did not. This caused the existing riff between us to grow larger. Yet, I assumed that he, too, had been "going to college" in the sense of learning through life experiences that I would never have.
It would be more correct to call working class voters without college degrees people with less formal education. That doesn't mean they are uneducated. Some are, some aren't, but those who are just don't have a certificate to prove it. (We are almost at the point, particularly in the Ph.D. corridor of Philadelphia to Richmond, where someone without an advanced degree is labeled "less educated".)
What matters is how people make their living. The fear that personal economics would dictate how people vote goes all the way back to America's founding and raging debates at the Constitutional Convention about the dangers seen by some in democracy. As it turns out, they were right: we check our wallets and vote accordingly most of the time.
Trump can certainly appeal to the ignorant and uninformed by making vague promises he can't keep to tilt the world back in favor of jobs and prosperity for white working class voters. He is doing the same thing he did with his various business enterprises, calling himself wonderful and promoting dreams that are likely to turn to dust...or bankruptcy.
It would be more correct to call working class voters without college degrees people with less formal education. That doesn't mean they are uneducated. Some are, some aren't, but those who are just don't have a certificate to prove it. (We are almost at the point, particularly in the Ph.D. corridor of Philadelphia to Richmond, where someone without an advanced degree is labeled "less educated".)
What matters is how people make their living. The fear that personal economics would dictate how people vote goes all the way back to America's founding and raging debates at the Constitutional Convention about the dangers seen by some in democracy. As it turns out, they were right: we check our wallets and vote accordingly most of the time.
Trump can certainly appeal to the ignorant and uninformed by making vague promises he can't keep to tilt the world back in favor of jobs and prosperity for white working class voters. He is doing the same thing he did with his various business enterprises, calling himself wonderful and promoting dreams that are likely to turn to dust...or bankruptcy.
13
Well put. I think Mr. Cohn is more comfortable staying away from the human side of politics and much more at home with numbers side.
2
What is "globalization" if not worldwide survival of the fittest capitalism ever in search of cheaper labor forces oversea where they can avoid labor laws in this country, increase profits for stockholders, and use their newfound cheaper labor overseas to lower wages, salaries, and benefits for Americans - now commonly referred to, as in this article, as the "uneducated white working class?" Did the proponents and planners of this new world orgy of greed think that those who have been denied a higher educational opportunities were also too stupid, working class bumpkins, to catch on to their little game? If so, I have some news for them: people who have been denied opportunities and now live increasingly in trailer parks or subsidized housing, or who have had to move back in with mom and dad, were born intelligent human beings who can think - just like those with a college education.
It is not the "ignorant masses" these masters of the universe need to fear. It is the intelligent human beings who have been denied opportunities by them who are finally catching on to their nefarious schemes to make themselves rich and everyone else poor. And BTW, skin color really doesn't matter when it comes to survival.
It is not the "ignorant masses" these masters of the universe need to fear. It is the intelligent human beings who have been denied opportunities by them who are finally catching on to their nefarious schemes to make themselves rich and everyone else poor. And BTW, skin color really doesn't matter when it comes to survival.
24
The white working class I was born into has been suckered for my adult life!
Starting with 'Tricky Dick' he of the Southern Strategy & Secret Plan for the Vietnam war in 1968 & 1972.
Next Ronald Reagan in 1980 & 1984 with his 'Morning in America', who began the decline in well paying Working Class jobs, deception in foreign affairs, i.e. Latin America & Iran & Lebanon with death of many servicemen; massive tax cut for the rich with crumbs for the poor & working class.
Next George II Bush in 2000 & 2004 with his 2 wars in the Middle East PLUS
2 tax cuts for the Rich--esp. Wall St. during wartime! & having Chinese money fund the huge deficits by sending working class jobs to China. This due to the Supreme Court selecting George II in the Florida debacle, thanks to brother Jeb-the FL Governor.
Now in 2016, we have Donald Trump promoting an updated version of misleading promises; any doubt see the graph in another NYTimes article on the decline of manufacturing jobs. Will our people never learn?
Starting with 'Tricky Dick' he of the Southern Strategy & Secret Plan for the Vietnam war in 1968 & 1972.
Next Ronald Reagan in 1980 & 1984 with his 'Morning in America', who began the decline in well paying Working Class jobs, deception in foreign affairs, i.e. Latin America & Iran & Lebanon with death of many servicemen; massive tax cut for the rich with crumbs for the poor & working class.
Next George II Bush in 2000 & 2004 with his 2 wars in the Middle East PLUS
2 tax cuts for the Rich--esp. Wall St. during wartime! & having Chinese money fund the huge deficits by sending working class jobs to China. This due to the Supreme Court selecting George II in the Florida debacle, thanks to brother Jeb-the FL Governor.
Now in 2016, we have Donald Trump promoting an updated version of misleading promises; any doubt see the graph in another NYTimes article on the decline of manufacturing jobs. Will our people never learn?
4
It seems that this is overcompensation by Nate Cohn over his too-quick dismissal of Trump's chances in the Republican primaries. Before making facile conclusions that Trump is redrawing voter allegiances in the Rust Belt, a data analyst needs to look critically at some relevant factors, such as (1) how many voters in those white working-class areas who voted for Trump in GOP primaries had been registered Democrats in the recent past (or ever); (2) how much change in voter registration from Democrat to Republican was actually evident in those primaries; and (3) how much of Hillary Clinton's smaller-than-expected Rust Belt leads are attributable to the continued reluctance of Bernie Sanders voters (most of whom are younger Democratic-leaning independents) rather than Donald Trump-supporting middle-aged and older registered Democrats. Modeling Trump's effect on the sizeable African-American electorates in the Rust Belt would also help, as his racially tinged campaign seems calculated to keep black voters as engaged on behalf of the Democrats (both in vote percentage and participation) at the same levels as it did for Barack Obama's historic candidacy.
7
It's not perfect, but manufacturing should be subsidized by the government. If farms can be subsidized then manufacturers can also, and it's the same principle. The benefit would be felt everywhere because suppliers in the U.S would be helped along with engineers and designers.
The rust belt is not coming back but like those smaller boutique steel mills or even car manufactures, specific items can be made here at a profit even with higher wages.
The rust belt is not coming back but like those smaller boutique steel mills or even car manufactures, specific items can be made here at a profit even with higher wages.
28
Trade pacts prohibit the government from doing that.
1
An East Coast, affluent-professional-class Democratic Party that feels the pain of specific minorities is a tough sell out here. Sanders had a lot of appeal here, Clinton not so much. Clinton did not do well in the Democratic caucuses in this most progressive Midwestern state. Even so, the Twin Cities and Rochester should give Clinton a win in Minnesota.
But she will have short coattails outstate. I am concerned that she will lose the race for one or two of our Democratic incumbent red-district Representatives, and she could tank Democratic challengers in one or two more red districts. She is like fingernails on a blackboard in the blue collar Iron Range.
Maybe Clinton's very smart strategists can engineer a victory for her without places like this, but she would face Speaker Ryan and a Republican House in January.
But she will have short coattails outstate. I am concerned that she will lose the race for one or two of our Democratic incumbent red-district Representatives, and she could tank Democratic challengers in one or two more red districts. She is like fingernails on a blackboard in the blue collar Iron Range.
Maybe Clinton's very smart strategists can engineer a victory for her without places like this, but she would face Speaker Ryan and a Republican House in January.
11
"But she will have short coattails outstate. I am concerned that she will lose the race for one or two of our Democratic incumbent red-district Representatives, and she could tank Democratic challengers in one or two more red districts. She is like fingernails on a blackboard in the blue collar Iron Range."
If voters are so foolish that they would reject a candidate because she is like "fingernails on a blackboard" they are fools indeed. However, Clinton will get the female vote. Trump repels women of all races, ages and political affiliations.
If voters are so foolish that they would reject a candidate because she is like "fingernails on a blackboard" they are fools indeed. However, Clinton will get the female vote. Trump repels women of all races, ages and political affiliations.
1
SUCH a tough sell that age already has huuuuuuge majorities among African-Americans, Hispanics, working women, young voters . . . . .
Sanders did not carry one state that wasn't heavily white (when there were real primaries open to all, rather than selective caucuses).
GOP are desperate b/c all Trump can get is white men who are either old or uneducated and that's not a voting bloc to build on.
Sanders did not carry one state that wasn't heavily white (when there were real primaries open to all, rather than selective caucuses).
GOP are desperate b/c all Trump can get is white men who are either old or uneducated and that's not a voting bloc to build on.
1
All speculation is based on the erroneous assumption that the future will look like the recent past in terms of how the global economy will grow, how geopolitics will function and how the peoples of the world view their future. Neither Trump nor Clinton can be considered great thinkers nor do they have anyone around them who is a visionary strategist (especially Trump who seems to be surrounded by gorillas and ballerinas). What is clear is that when afraid, voters turn to the strongman which makes this election very interesting to watch. What's a shame is that the Republicans could have had a guy like General Petreaus at the top of the ticket if not for the hypocritical puritanism that runs through the Washington establishment. Personally I am out of patience with both candidates for not addressing climate change which is the 1000 lb. elephant in the room. Can you imagine Trump trying to negotiate a deal with the Chinese after all the demonizing. Fuggedaboutit!
8
"surrounded by gorillas and ballerinas"
...Brilliant!
...Brilliant!
1
Maybe it is my profession, but I think the "issues" disaffected "White" (and other) Trump voters are responding to are internal and cannot be addressed by any policy paper on trade, taxation or similar issues. Shame is a very powerful emotion. Shame based on one's personal misdeeds or harm caused to others can be positive leading to a change in outlook and behavior. But most often shame is not based on personal misconduct but on a sense of worthlessness, of being "less than" based on factors beyond one's control (race, wealth, etc.). This kind of shame is corrosive and counterproductive. Trump hits that "hot button" every time he calls one another human being a "loser". It stings and for many it hits home at a very deep level.
Look at the map where Trump is a hero: the "empty states", the rural areas, the old "rust belt" cities that have yet to reinvent themselves. These are places where churches, fraternal groups, sports teams and neighborhood civic associations have been replaced by Walmart, bad mass media and heroin and meth. People want to throw off their internal shame of being "loser".
Bernie gets that in a positive way. Trump also gets that is a manipulative way.
Look at the map where Trump is a hero: the "empty states", the rural areas, the old "rust belt" cities that have yet to reinvent themselves. These are places where churches, fraternal groups, sports teams and neighborhood civic associations have been replaced by Walmart, bad mass media and heroin and meth. People want to throw off their internal shame of being "loser".
Bernie gets that in a positive way. Trump also gets that is a manipulative way.
23
"Bernie gets that in a positive way. Trump also gets that is a manipulative way."
Bernie did a poor job of reaching working-class white voters. His campaign was mostly, white college-educated men. And sadly, don't discount anti-semitism on the part of working-class white people.
Bernie did a poor job of reaching working-class white voters. His campaign was mostly, white college-educated men. And sadly, don't discount anti-semitism on the part of working-class white people.
Well put, Fr. Bill, with refreshing insight and compassion. You should have gotten a NYT Pick for your comment.
White, rural, disaffected people collect guns to feel potent. According to a recent NYT article, increasing number are killing themselves with them. Heroin on the rise. You drive through little rural towns.....more and more you see payday loan and pawn shops. No way would these people vote for a liberal Democrat, but Trump packages a similar message with an identity that appeals to them.
White, rural, disaffected people collect guns to feel potent. According to a recent NYT article, increasing number are killing themselves with them. Heroin on the rise. You drive through little rural towns.....more and more you see payday loan and pawn shops. No way would these people vote for a liberal Democrat, but Trump packages a similar message with an identity that appeals to them.
2
This 'problem' would be neatly solved if Democrats nominate Bernie Sanders. I understand that is not going to happen. But I just want to stress that if we go by the polls, Sanders still keep the vote of educated whites, he still keeps the minority vote, and he does not lose the white working class vote against Trump: he beats Trump more surely than Clinton does. On top of that, the millennials, the demographics that is the hardest to bring to the voting place, they might sit out the election, or vote for Jill Stein, if DNC does not swallow more of Bern agenda in Philadelphia. True, Trump is a fascist, but fear mongering won't work well in this case. I don't think contemporary Americans really have a comprehension of fascism to fear it. It may be as acceptable to them as socialism nowadays. I think the Brexit vote should be an eye-opener to the establishment Democrats, that they need to take seriously the dissatisfaction of majority voters with their lot, with what they perceive they have lost through globalization. The uneducated still outnumber the educated. And they will until we adopt Bernie's free college plan. The math is clear. If DNC leadership continues to behave like that anger is simply not there (and just recently they voted down all of the Bern agenda), their candidate may lose in November, and the US may plunge in a disarray we now see in UK.
12
Bernie Sanders achieved his electoral successes the old-fashioned way - by widespread advertising, not just on the Internet but also TV, mail and door-to-door canvassing. I know, because I saw it first-hand in a battleground state. The kind of money that Sanders raised in the primaries is a pipe dream for a Green Party candidate, especially one without a national profile of the kind that Ralph Nader once enjoyed. The people who will vote for Jill Stein in November are the same ones would have voted for her last November, before they ever heard of Bernie Sanders. The voters who went out for Sanders in the primaries will vote for Clinton, or perhaps not vote at all.
5
Nope, life long Dem voter here, voting for Stein in the fall.
"Sanders still keep the vote of educated whites, he still keeps the minority vote, and he does not lose the white working class vote against Trump: he beats Trump more surely than Clinton does."
Sanders never had the minority vote; there's a chance they may not show up to vote for Sanders. And no politician of any persuasion can count on younger voters to show up on election day. And he's had it easy so far, if he were the nominee the Republican attack machine would destroy him in a second.
Sanders never had the minority vote; there's a chance they may not show up to vote for Sanders. And no politician of any persuasion can count on younger voters to show up on election day. And he's had it easy so far, if he were the nominee the Republican attack machine would destroy him in a second.
1
Trump's first political grab was with the birther movement, followed by the build the wall and ban all Muslims memes. This is racism and xenophobia. It's the core of his appeal. It's been embraced by his simple minded followers as the answer to all their problems. No amount of shaming will stop him or his racist acolytes. He's playing them for the fools they are. He hasn't the faintest idea of how to "make America great again". His crackpot ideas will destroy the economy, particularly for the middle and lower class whites who love his racism and simplistic ideas. Trump is a card carrying member of the privileged global capitalist class. He's brilliant at gaming the system to benefit himself and cheating everyone else. He couldn't care less about the economic desperation of "poorly educated". But the truth makes no difference to the pathetically ignorant white racists who are his supporters. We will all pay a huge price if he's elected, but his supporters will take the biggest hit of all. We will be like Venezuela.
16
Don't believe the polls, don't believe the corporate media. A lot of people who are going to vote for Trump are keeping quiet as are democrats who say they will vote for Hillary but won't. The democrats are in big trouble with Hillary as their presumptive leader. Triangulation and "the third way" are responsible for the world wide mess we are all in today. She has no new ideas and cannot connect to the middle class and millennials except with fear. The democrats are running the exact campaign that the "Remain" forces ran. If Hillary is the nominee, she is going to lose.
45
Actually, live voter polls routinely show Trump doing better than automated ones. So it seems there is no reluctance of voters to tell a human pollster that they will vote for Trump. He is losing in the polls because he is perceived by a majority of the voters as an incoherent, racist buffoon and huckster without any understanding of the challenges faced by this country, even if those voters are otherwise unhappy with globalization, triangulation and the decline of the middle class.
8
You just keep repeating your fantasy to yourself if it calms your anxiety.
You sound exactly like the Romney people four years ago. They just knew people were just sayin' they were for Obama but they really were gonna VOTE for Mitt.
Not quite. Every Hillary supporter I encounter while wearing a T-shirt that says I'm with her -- from cabbies to fellow biz travelers, from waitresses to kids on a campus, from people on the street in Ohio cities to guy on a deseeted train platforms -- are loud and proud and excited. 'ME TOO" is the response, with a salute or fist bump, some hopping uo and down from the college kids --palpable energy and excitement.
You anti's have NO idea the depth of commitment to her. Remember, she was almost the nomineee in 2008 and we're all still with her, plus many more who are afraid of Trump, the hater.
You sound exactly like the Romney people four years ago. They just knew people were just sayin' they were for Obama but they really were gonna VOTE for Mitt.
Not quite. Every Hillary supporter I encounter while wearing a T-shirt that says I'm with her -- from cabbies to fellow biz travelers, from waitresses to kids on a campus, from people on the street in Ohio cities to guy on a deseeted train platforms -- are loud and proud and excited. 'ME TOO" is the response, with a salute or fist bump, some hopping uo and down from the college kids --palpable energy and excitement.
You anti's have NO idea the depth of commitment to her. Remember, she was almost the nomineee in 2008 and we're all still with her, plus many more who are afraid of Trump, the hater.
3
Thanks. You know this because you have talked to a few people?
It should be noted that in past years when we were so concerned about how Japanese exports would effect the U.S. economy and the sale of goods manufactured in the U.S., the Japanese used their own capital to create their own facilities where they manufactured the automobiles, televisions sets, computers etc. that they made and then exported for sale abroad. Consequently, trade agreements were made with those consideration in mind. However, globalization has changed all that today. What Apple does is a good example of what has become the norm. Apple has its own -- not Chinese owned-- manufacturing facilities in China, where products are made with cheap labor and under unsafe -- sweat shop like-- conditions. The end result is a product that cost about $40 to make, but is exported and sold in the U.S. for $800 or more. This is but one example of what is happening now -- at the same scale-- with respect to the manufactured of other goods exported from China and other countries to the U.S. and elsewhere. Trade agreements are now negotiated and approved by government hacks to promote/preserve/maintain such economic inequities, as well as to even provide multinational corporation huge tax breaks to further "pour salt on this festering wound". When will the public and their "leaders" wake up to the fact that this is un-American. Companies that do business this way do not deserve tax breaks so that their obscene profits can be repatriated.
38
The one possible problem with this theory is that global trade is starting to stagnate. Companies are starting to build their factories closer to home because they have recognized their vulnerabilities of building in other countries due to fires, explosions, thefts, terrorism, and extortion. So it may be that Trump's positions against immigration and globalization may be fighting against trends that are receding.
14
If you are a proponent of the status quo, you could not hope for a better race than Hillary v. Donald. While the 17 ousted Republicans were all horrible, several would have given Hillary a tougher race according to the polls. But Donald offers the perfect distraction for Hillary whose main campaign theme is, "NOT TRUMP!"
She is right. The Manhattan billionaire offers as many solutions to what ails his legion of supporters as Colonel Sanders does to factory farm raised chickens. At the same time, he provides the perfect distraction to the special interests backing Hillary's campaign.
If I were a neocon I would be very excited about Hillary because her supporters used to reject neocon foreign policy. The mention of Kissinger's name used to draw scorn and disgust, but now that it has come out Hillary and Henry are buddies, the faithful must go along. And calling a Democrat a "Hawk" used to be a negative, but even this Paper's April article describing her as one does not diminish her support. As for special interest money corrupting politicians, not any more, as Hillary supporters rush to defend her taking tens of millions from every special interest imaginable.
The Bipartisan acceptance of the status quo moving further to the right is complete because--you know--"NOT TRUMP!!!"
And the losers in all of this. The People whose needs and desires will continue to subordinate to those of the special interests.
She is right. The Manhattan billionaire offers as many solutions to what ails his legion of supporters as Colonel Sanders does to factory farm raised chickens. At the same time, he provides the perfect distraction to the special interests backing Hillary's campaign.
If I were a neocon I would be very excited about Hillary because her supporters used to reject neocon foreign policy. The mention of Kissinger's name used to draw scorn and disgust, but now that it has come out Hillary and Henry are buddies, the faithful must go along. And calling a Democrat a "Hawk" used to be a negative, but even this Paper's April article describing her as one does not diminish her support. As for special interest money corrupting politicians, not any more, as Hillary supporters rush to defend her taking tens of millions from every special interest imaginable.
The Bipartisan acceptance of the status quo moving further to the right is complete because--you know--"NOT TRUMP!!!"
And the losers in all of this. The People whose needs and desires will continue to subordinate to those of the special interests.
22
I still say it's not a wild conspiracy to speculate that Clinton is behind Trump. He is a paid entertainer and the Clintons have always played dirty politics.
I'll only be satisfied that they aren't behind him until he's elected.
At which point I'll shoot myself. (Kidding.) (Maybe.).
I'll only be satisfied that they aren't behind him until he's elected.
At which point I'll shoot myself. (Kidding.) (Maybe.).
"[T]he new divide" in 21st-century politics is not "over globalization and multiculturalism." The new divide is over responsible globalization and responsible multiculturalism. And our political leaders have utterly failed to pursue these issues responsibly since the 1970s. Why? International corporate and Wall Street financial interests sought to and did make obscene profits from cheap labor overseas and from immigration laws that allowed cheap labor to also flow into our nation. Yes, money is the mother's milk of politics and lots of money from "the elite," as it often does, hijacked responsible public policy. If Clinton wants to keep Trump out of the White House, I strongly suggest she adopt the following responsible position on immigration:
Propose a "merit based test" that allows an applicant to enter the U. S. only if (i) they will contribute to our nation's economy, (ii) will not take a job away from an American, and (iii) demonstrate their personal practices and lifestyle embrace our nation's core values and principles--tolerance and respect for individual civil liberties including free speech and gender equality. That change protects our open society and the economic interests of all Americans - not just employers looking to profit from a flood of cheap labor.
Propose a "merit based test" that allows an applicant to enter the U. S. only if (i) they will contribute to our nation's economy, (ii) will not take a job away from an American, and (iii) demonstrate their personal practices and lifestyle embrace our nation's core values and principles--tolerance and respect for individual civil liberties including free speech and gender equality. That change protects our open society and the economic interests of all Americans - not just employers looking to profit from a flood of cheap labor.
32
We should grant automatic citizenship to anyone with an MD or STEM field PhD, and not allow anyone over 18 who does not have at least a high school education to become a citizen.
1
I would tweak (ii) : will not take a job away from an American by working off the books or for less than minimum wage.
Add (iv) : will not claim any social services benefits.
Currently, places like WalMart pay employees such pittances that their workers must go on welfare in order to make ends meet. (Hillary was on the WalMart board).
That WalMart employees held a food drive for other WalMart employees says it all.
I bet the billionaire heirs didn't even donate a single can of tuna.
Add (iv) : will not claim any social services benefits.
Currently, places like WalMart pay employees such pittances that their workers must go on welfare in order to make ends meet. (Hillary was on the WalMart board).
That WalMart employees held a food drive for other WalMart employees says it all.
I bet the billionaire heirs didn't even donate a single can of tuna.
1
I was with you until your immigration policy. My recommend to immigrants is "stay in your own country and fix it."
1
Ironically, this election, even more than in 2008, is about race. The reason? Because someone who has never held public office and doesn't "need" to win in the same manner as most politicians is willing to blatantly play the "race card" -- the "white race card." The other irony? And, this is from someone who grew up in a traditional, blue-color, union white household. This Fat Cat who has very probably never paid his fair share of taxes while the middle class; his lenders; and his workers have heavily subsidized the growth of his empire, is holding himself out as the champion of the very people he has exploited his entire life and who will be most hurt by his policies. Bernie Sanders has one thing right. Tax the Fat Cats like Donald Trump and use the revenue to repair our infrastructure, invest in clean energy technology, and equip the next generation with the tools they need to compete and win in the global economy.
95
" This Fat Cat who has very probably never paid his fair share of taxes"
And just who determines what a "fair share" of taxes is? For the government-worshiping progressives probably 110% of income, as in some of the Scandinavian countries, would undoubtedly be fair, but nobody is under any obligation to pay $1 more than they legally have to after taking advantage of every possible tax loophole, indeed to not do so would be plain stupid.
And just who determines what a "fair share" of taxes is? For the government-worshiping progressives probably 110% of income, as in some of the Scandinavian countries, would undoubtedly be fair, but nobody is under any obligation to pay $1 more than they legally have to after taking advantage of every possible tax loophole, indeed to not do so would be plain stupid.
6
Because this Fat Cat refuses to show us his tax returns, he may pay less taxes proportionately than you or I. Now, that may not bother you, but it does me.
3
Whay is wrong with being pro-government? There are people out there who seem to think that everything that government does is evil, when that is patently false. The biggest evil we see today is unregulated business marching across the globe, devouring everything it sees. Swallowing resources, lives, sucking money out of every crevice, impoverishing ordinary citizens in every country, and producing a handful of extremely obese fat cats who cannibalize all competitors. Government is the only thing capable of stopping the corporate rape and murder of our planet. It is elected to represent the people. It's our job to participate in protecting ourselves through electing a good representational government. I would be proud to have a strong government that will stand up to out-of-control Frankensteinian corporations and put them back into a smaller, well-regulated business sector where they belong.
3
Loathsome as he is, it would be unwise, as some commenters here are inclined, to sell Trump short. He's a master at playing on resentments. And some of those resentments are well founded and reasonable. The Democrats would be wise to get Bernie aboard as quickly as possible. He can speak to these people in a way that is more authentic than the way the party elites are inclined to. The common man desperately needs a spokesman. Who that is will determine our fate.
53
This article neglects the fact that the voting patterns of white women and men have diverged over the years. Single, widowed, or divorced, white working-class women tend to vote Democratic and they are at least a third to half of all the white, female non-college educated population. Trump's misogyny is the icing on the cake in terms of alienating these important voters, who are more likely to show up at the polls than the men. Married white women who may have voted Republican in the past will vote for Clinton because of Trump's repulsive behavior.
13
If working-class white people were so upset about loss of jobs, then they would have mobilized in the 1970s and 1980s when US plants started closing and heading overseas. West Virginia, for example, had forty years to switch to a tourist economy but decided to wallow in ignorance, blame, and drugs. Only later did they decide that immigrants and the black president were responsible for their plight. Newsflash. Narcissist Trump is filling your heads with nonsense because that's what narcissists do. A Trump presidency will just give working-class whites license to tell me to go back to Africa. No more, no less. And actually I think that's all they really want anyway.
42
"If working-class white people were so upset about loss of jobs, then they would have mobilized in the 1970s and 1980s when US plants started closing and heading overseas."
Working-class whites were to busy being angry at blacks because of the passage of the Civil Rights Act to be able to look after their own best interests. This was the era of the Regan Democrats.
Working-class whites were to busy being angry at blacks because of the passage of the Civil Rights Act to be able to look after their own best interests. This was the era of the Regan Democrats.
3
Alternatively, they were fooled once.
Bernie Sanders has kept insisting how important it is to consider the interests of the poor and less-educated, to represent them rather than just mock and belittle them. He has warned that their votes will be lost in November. The response has been to shoot the messenger, attempt to shame him for not (Warren-style) embracing of Clinton, smiling, and waving to the crowds, thereby only further and further alienating the people he sincerely cares about.
49
Who is mocking and belittling the poor? Check out Hillary Clinton's campaign plans and I think that you will see that she and the Democrat party are the best hope for the poor.
3
Bernie & Progressive followers goal currently is to influence the Democratic platform at the convention. The embrace can follow AFTER the party is united by further adopting the progressive agenda espoused by 40% of Dems - that still support Sanders.
1
"Bernie Sanders has kept insisting how important it is to consider the interests of the poor and less-educated, to represent them rather than just mock and belittle them."
Sanders himself did a poor job of connecting with these voters.
Sanders himself did a poor job of connecting with these voters.
1
Meanwhile, there are a number of well educated, whites, who look at both candidates and cringe. Both parties are about to nominate two very flawed people for the presidential election. We, the people have to choose the better of two very bad evils. One a liar and the other a fearmonger. Both have more baggage than the airlines fly in a year.
Trying to make an intelligent choice is not what either party wants. In a country of 320 million people, coming up with by far two of the worse examples of people fro president, says a lot about the failure of our government institutions.
Fortunately, there are alternatives. Jill Stein and Gary Johnson. At least these two appeal to all levels of the population. But, the oligarchy does not want thinking people in office; they want people they can control. If we are stuck, with that choice, than Trump wins, because Clinton is already tied with puppet strings. And Trump, will not be controlled by anyone.
Trying to make an intelligent choice is not what either party wants. In a country of 320 million people, coming up with by far two of the worse examples of people fro president, says a lot about the failure of our government institutions.
Fortunately, there are alternatives. Jill Stein and Gary Johnson. At least these two appeal to all levels of the population. But, the oligarchy does not want thinking people in office; they want people they can control. If we are stuck, with that choice, than Trump wins, because Clinton is already tied with puppet strings. And Trump, will not be controlled by anyone.
17
Both are liars. I don't understand why people so often portray Hillary as a liar without mentioning that Trump lies even more.
1
The notion that Trump's somehow not just another rich jerk who'll dance on whatever strings capitalism and his desires to look important happen to come up with is absolutely hilarious.
2
"Fortunately, there are alternatives. Jill Stein and Gary Johnson. At least these two appeal to all levels of the population. But, the oligarchy does not want thinking people in office; they want people they can control."
A vote for these candidates is a vote for Trump. This isn't Europe. Like Bernie Sanders, these candidates are incapable of connecting with the non-white and female base of the Democratic party. It has nothing to do with the "oligarchy."
A vote for these candidates is a vote for Trump. This isn't Europe. Like Bernie Sanders, these candidates are incapable of connecting with the non-white and female base of the Democratic party. It has nothing to do with the "oligarchy."
1
Donald J. Trump is the spokesman for the every (white) man? That's almost as laughable as appointing Bernie Sanders the lead proponent for all the billionaires.
Trump is the beneficiary of a family real estate company started by his father Fred, ran more than a few businesses into the ground, but was ultimately able to hang onto his fortune, at the expense of his creditors (many of them the same people for which he now purports to fight), living high above 5th Ave. in Manhattan, knows as much about the woe of the common man as do the Koch brothers. In fact, they probably have more in common.
If Donald J. Trump were to be elected POTUS, he would be the most unqualified, uninformed, and most vain people ever elected to the Office of President. Much like some of Leave voters after the Brexit referendum, it would be four plus year hangover, depending what of his ill conceived ideas he actually implements. And that's one that no amount of Advil and Vitamin Water will cure.
Trump is the beneficiary of a family real estate company started by his father Fred, ran more than a few businesses into the ground, but was ultimately able to hang onto his fortune, at the expense of his creditors (many of them the same people for which he now purports to fight), living high above 5th Ave. in Manhattan, knows as much about the woe of the common man as do the Koch brothers. In fact, they probably have more in common.
If Donald J. Trump were to be elected POTUS, he would be the most unqualified, uninformed, and most vain people ever elected to the Office of President. Much like some of Leave voters after the Brexit referendum, it would be four plus year hangover, depending what of his ill conceived ideas he actually implements. And that's one that no amount of Advil and Vitamin Water will cure.
17
While the thought of a President Trump fills me with dread, I am pleased that he has refused to fall in step with traditional GOP party platforms. To hold this diverse country to only two political positions as espoused by party elite is ridiculous. Obviously Mr. Trump's positions are mostly outrageous without basis in fact and often off the cuff, but they are barely less ridiculous than many of the GOP's entrenched positions on issues like abortion, global warming, gun control, and tax-cuts for corporations and the 1% as effective economic stimulus. We need more "outside the beltway" opinions in politics. Trump is not who I would have picked, nor will I vote for him, but I am at least appreciating some discourse that he and Mr. Sanders brought to this election cycle.
8
Trump has already put out his economic plan which includes huge tax cuts for the wealthy. Policy experts estimate that his plan would add 14 trillion dollars to the national debt. The idea that he got out of bed today suddenly transformed into an economic populist is pure fantasy. His positions change with the weather, he’ll say whatever pollsters tell him to say. His words, his short on detail promises mean nothing, but his actions in business speak volumes. He’s been a poster child for globalization, manufacturing all of his countless Trump merchandise in China and making extensive use of the H1B Visa program to use foreign workers in his companies rather than American workers. Trump is no populist, he hasn’t magically transformed into Bernie Sanders. His own campaign organization is poorly run, understaffed, and lousy at fundraising. With or without a teleprompter, Trump’s words aren’t worth the red, “made in China”, ‘Make America Great Again” hat that they are written on.
14
These are the voters who have been hurt worst by trade with low-wage countries and massive immigration from the third world. And both parties have abandoned them.
The Democrats focused on civil rights and programs that benefit the poor and low-income working people -- laudable causes. But they joined the Republicans in dropping the ball on globalization and finance industry regulation, with catastrophic effects.
The Republicans, meanwhile, encouraged this group to vote against their own interests by fostering resentment against the poor, but were even worse than the Democrats on free trade and no better on immigration, and their economic policies basically consisted of cutting taxes for the rich.
What I find chilling is that in the absence of establishment concern for this core group of Americans, the country may fall into the hands of a demagogue like Trump. This has happened again and again in history. Clinton is more vulnerable than the current polls suggest -- remember Reagan's landslide, and look at Brexit.
(Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders, who polls say is much more popular and has much lower negatives than either Clinton or Trump, lost the primary. Am I the only one who thinks that there's something very broken here?)
The Democrats focused on civil rights and programs that benefit the poor and low-income working people -- laudable causes. But they joined the Republicans in dropping the ball on globalization and finance industry regulation, with catastrophic effects.
The Republicans, meanwhile, encouraged this group to vote against their own interests by fostering resentment against the poor, but were even worse than the Democrats on free trade and no better on immigration, and their economic policies basically consisted of cutting taxes for the rich.
What I find chilling is that in the absence of establishment concern for this core group of Americans, the country may fall into the hands of a demagogue like Trump. This has happened again and again in history. Clinton is more vulnerable than the current polls suggest -- remember Reagan's landslide, and look at Brexit.
(Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders, who polls say is much more popular and has much lower negatives than either Clinton or Trump, lost the primary. Am I the only one who thinks that there's something very broken here?)
39
@Josh Hill--You are not the only one who thinks there is something very broken. The fact the neocons and neoliberals are flocking to Hillary shows you how far to the right our Country has moved. There used to be a day when being in a mutual admiration club with Kissinger disqualified you as a Democrat, but no more. Hillary is described by this very paper as a "Hawk," yet her supporters don't care. Hillary is endorsed by Bush's former Treasury Sec Paulson. and no one notices. Special interests donate tens of millions through speaking fees, the Foundation and campaign, and suddenly special interest money has no influence on politics. The Democrats have suspended reality and what they supposedly stood for.
What is scariest about Donald is what he is doing to the Democratic party. He is giving it cover to move further to the right because any criticism of Hillary is portrayed as an endorsement of Donald. Of course that is a Con, but supporters are too naive to see it.
Bipartisan acceptance of neocon foreign policy, neoliberal economic policy and special interest campaign funding is very scary. The fact the parties are about to nominate the most unfavored candidates in history shows you the People are smart in their opinions. It is the parties who refuse to listen forcing the status quo down the throats of the masses.
Depressing and dangerous.
What is scariest about Donald is what he is doing to the Democratic party. He is giving it cover to move further to the right because any criticism of Hillary is portrayed as an endorsement of Donald. Of course that is a Con, but supporters are too naive to see it.
Bipartisan acceptance of neocon foreign policy, neoliberal economic policy and special interest campaign funding is very scary. The fact the parties are about to nominate the most unfavored candidates in history shows you the People are smart in their opinions. It is the parties who refuse to listen forcing the status quo down the throats of the masses.
Depressing and dangerous.
25
"(Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders, who polls say is much more popular and has much lower negatives than either Clinton or Trump, lost the primary. Am I the only one who thinks that there's something very broken here?)"
Luckily for him, the Democrats went easy on Bernie, who's very thin-skinned. The Republican attack machine would destroy him in a minute. That's why they wanted him be the nominee.
Luckily for him, the Democrats went easy on Bernie, who's very thin-skinned. The Republican attack machine would destroy him in a minute. That's why they wanted him be the nominee.
2
It would help if people thought about this a little more & hot out there & VOTED. The low voter turnout in this country continues to amaze me.
1
Donald Trump is a lousy businessman who is only good at convincing others to either assume his debts or believe that his "celebrity" will make them money. He the last person anyone with a brain should want assuming control of a national economy.
Trump is also pitching a humongous supply-side tax cut, like the failed tax cuts that we have had before - a tax cut that even honest Republicans must admit will only exponentially expand the size of our national debt.
There are ways to restructure the tax code to make manufacturing in America more favorable, while still collecting the same amount of revenue. Donald Trump is not proposing one of these.
This is not the way that you build a national economy for all.
Trump needs to show us his taxes, so we can get a better sense of how successful he really is. My guess is that he's been lying about that as well.
Trump is also pitching a humongous supply-side tax cut, like the failed tax cuts that we have had before - a tax cut that even honest Republicans must admit will only exponentially expand the size of our national debt.
There are ways to restructure the tax code to make manufacturing in America more favorable, while still collecting the same amount of revenue. Donald Trump is not proposing one of these.
This is not the way that you build a national economy for all.
Trump needs to show us his taxes, so we can get a better sense of how successful he really is. My guess is that he's been lying about that as well.
14
As white, working-class Democrats turn their attention to this Republican creature, it would be wise for them to consider it will be and has been their lives most ruined by him, and it will be their children tragically sent away to die in wars resulting from his promise of a "very violent" plans in the Middle East and elsewhere.
15
Most people who are paying attention to the campaign would say that as irresponsible as Trump is, it is neocon Hillary who wants to engage in endless war and is the real threat to send your kids off to fight in them.
3
This is only a logical result of a two party system in which neither party acts on behalf of those who voted that party's members in place. Those straying feel just as betrayed by the right establishment as they do by the DNC rolling out a presumptive candidate and ramming it down the already betrayed's throats then compounding it by taking out their fringe candidate. In doing so, they all but showed rightfully betrayed voters the door.
This is not rocket science. The stats are stark and quite easy to understand. Those who are comfortable and demand those who are not to shut up and put up are finally being stood up to. The comfortable don't, won't and possibly can't hear the now really really LOUD cries of millions who are really fighting for their lives.
Their deafness to such massive pain and suffering has caused this. It will not stop until this deafness, feigned, selective, radio, whatever has been cured.
It really is that simple. Don't believe me, visit Britan.
This is not rocket science. The stats are stark and quite easy to understand. Those who are comfortable and demand those who are not to shut up and put up are finally being stood up to. The comfortable don't, won't and possibly can't hear the now really really LOUD cries of millions who are really fighting for their lives.
Their deafness to such massive pain and suffering has caused this. It will not stop until this deafness, feigned, selective, radio, whatever has been cured.
It really is that simple. Don't believe me, visit Britan.
18
I think this article sells white working-class Democratics short. I believe that there are a significant number of people in our party with less education and/or less income who are not stupid and mean enough to follow Mr. Trump over the abyss into his facist, racist vision of a walled-off America. They, along with educated voters in general, women in general, and people of color will hopefully help up save ourselves from a Trumpian States of America. If not, they deserve what we all will get.
14
It is Donald Trump who is avoiding the key to solve wealth inequality: Tax Rate. During the last 30 years, the international trade benefit high tech manufacturing industry and high-end service industries (financial service, consulting, health care etc.) while shrink traditional manufacturing industries since China can make the similar product with lower cost. But anyone who learned economics will know the trade benefit America as a whole. It's just the cost and benefit are put on different group of people. The correct way to address the problem is to use tax and redistribution to reduce the income gap between these to group, and increase the competitiveness of traditional industries by upgrading technologies. It's unrealistic and misleading to try to let workers return to the old factories by isolating from the world.
13
What has really put the USA at a disadvantage is the $22,000 per capital cost of government regulation. Now some of that is needed, but like 20%, there has been an explosion of new local, state and federal regulations, tens of thousands of them. Small and mid sized businesses, where manufacturing growth comes from, can't keep up with them on top of competing in a global market.
Add on top of that really stupid health care policies and management on the part of our government and costs in the USA are out of line. The big dollars available to address the income inequality issue are in a massive reduction in regulations and creating a competitive health care system in this country.
Add on top of that really stupid health care policies and management on the part of our government and costs in the USA are out of line. The big dollars available to address the income inequality issue are in a massive reduction in regulations and creating a competitive health care system in this country.
3
"What has really put the USA at a disadvantage is the $22,000 per capital cost of government regulation."
But useless government regulations are the lifeblood of the parasitic, self-serving, over paid and underworked bureaucratic vermin that infest all levels of government. If the number of such bureaucrats was cut in half, or even more, the world would be a much better place.
But useless government regulations are the lifeblood of the parasitic, self-serving, over paid and underworked bureaucratic vermin that infest all levels of government. If the number of such bureaucrats was cut in half, or even more, the world would be a much better place.
3
Tony, I like your comment.
1
I don't want to live in any country where their politicians are supposed to appeal to the least educated and most bigoted segment of the population in order to win elections.
Thank goodness here in Canada the most liberal politician won in a landslide last year. and his popular appeal remains undiminished 6 months into office after accepting tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. Why is Canada so different from most western democracies?
Thank goodness here in Canada the most liberal politician won in a landslide last year. and his popular appeal remains undiminished 6 months into office after accepting tens of thousands of Syrian refugees. Why is Canada so different from most western democracies?
68
Because you are a smaller more homogeneous society. Certainly there are minorities but they are not nearly as divissive as those in the US. Because of this, Canada is able to make political progress that is almost unthinkable here. Our health care debate and abortion are almost perfect examples. Abortion in Canada has been legal and widely available since 1969. Canada adopted the metric system in the early 70's. Not gonna happen in the US and don't get me started on guns.
6
Canada is very different from the US for many reasons, and one thing that comes immediately to mind is that Canada did not fight a revolution to gain it's "freedom" from England. In the US, we are stuck in the mythology of our revolution and are taught that we fought for and earned our independence, and so are somehow special and better than other countries. Discouraged from being appropriately humble and self-critical, we resist change and self improvement. I wish we had not fought a revolution, but instead had evolved into a distinct country in the way Canada did. We might treat our own citizens better, and we might have the freedoms that Canadian citizens have, such as more equal access to healthcare, education, safety from violence and access to the middle class... in other words, be a more normal and sane country.
1
"I don't want to live in any country where their politicians are supposed to appeal to the least educated and most bigoted segment of the population in order to win elections. "
The answer then is there ought to be voting restriction laws that require the voter to pass intelligence tests and morality tests. Too many people, who are not qualified to vote, are currently voting. We cannot have a real democracy if we let everybody participate.
The answer then is there ought to be voting restriction laws that require the voter to pass intelligence tests and morality tests. Too many people, who are not qualified to vote, are currently voting. We cannot have a real democracy if we let everybody participate.
We don't make or use mechanical typewriters and printers and banking machines and our bumpers are now plastic and not steel. There have been revolutions in products and materials. Plastic injection molding supplanted die-cast metal and digital plate-making has replaced hot lead. The Linotype machine is gone.
The library reference indexes are no longer paper cards in wooden cases. No clerk writes out an invoice in an auto parts store or at Macy's. The REA is gone -- the Railway Express Agency. Longshoremen no longer unload ships using great nets and cranes. The great network of street-level rails, box cars and factory-door sidings are gone from every rust belt city.
Replacement parts on you car come as assemblies. We don't adjust the valves or replace the ignition points or brake shoes on our cars. We don't have carburetors on our engines except if it's a lawn mower or trimmer.
The factories that made all of this old stuff are gone. In their place are new devices that blend whole new mixes of technologies. Most are made using electronics and precision manufacturing processes.
The old factories became obsolete along with their R&D and engineering personnel. New kinds of value-add moved in. Value-add became distributed -- the parts come from everywhere and are not made just in one plant as with old typewriters.
It has been a hundred years of invention and obsolescence.
Your Donald Trump is just clueless when it comes to understanding these changes in manufacturing.
The library reference indexes are no longer paper cards in wooden cases. No clerk writes out an invoice in an auto parts store or at Macy's. The REA is gone -- the Railway Express Agency. Longshoremen no longer unload ships using great nets and cranes. The great network of street-level rails, box cars and factory-door sidings are gone from every rust belt city.
Replacement parts on you car come as assemblies. We don't adjust the valves or replace the ignition points or brake shoes on our cars. We don't have carburetors on our engines except if it's a lawn mower or trimmer.
The factories that made all of this old stuff are gone. In their place are new devices that blend whole new mixes of technologies. Most are made using electronics and precision manufacturing processes.
The old factories became obsolete along with their R&D and engineering personnel. New kinds of value-add moved in. Value-add became distributed -- the parts come from everywhere and are not made just in one plant as with old typewriters.
It has been a hundred years of invention and obsolescence.
Your Donald Trump is just clueless when it comes to understanding these changes in manufacturing.
104
You're right of course. But what then explains the elite-cozy duopoly parties allowing the top 1% to aggregate to itself the majority of profit/income from the obvious manufacturing sophistications and supply chain improvements? The wealth held by the top rentier class has steadily increased during the same time the middle classes (and lower) have experienced stagnant or falling income and wealth accumulation. Trump's no savior but he has tapped into a real situation nonetheless.
12
It's surprising in the era of ever more scientific polling and sophisticated algorithms of demographic analysis that we still find the term "working class", which evokes a society and economy long past (we also still hear "blue collar" and "white collar"). In this article "working class" seems to be a synonym for "less-educated", which presumably means people without a college degree. Nevertheless, the use of such outdated terminology seems to expose the gap of ignorance that divides the analysts from the subjects of their analysis.
27
Yes, and many Trump supporters are well educated workers, that can see the politicians are running this country based on the 1%er interests, not ours. No matter what the political posturing or party affiliation, little has been done to support the majority of Americans for many years now. Our wages have not gone up and yet we are not supposed to notice that our politicians and their friends become incredibly rich while in office. It is wishful thinking to categorize Trump supporters as lower class poorly educated whites. While Trump may not be the right answer, he does send a wake up call to the "democracy" we call home.
10
Thank you! "Working class" belongs in 19th century England, not here, not now.
1
OK, so what term do we use? Because, less-educated does not accurately describe workers. But working-class does.
1
The saddest Trump moment is when he stood in front of hundreds of out of work coal miners in West Virginia and promised to reopen the underground mines that had been closed because they were no longer profitable or safe. He didnt bother to tell them that they are out of work because natural gas is now less expensive and cleaner than coal. Or that mining techniques have changed and it no longer takes hundreds of men underground to harvest a coal seam...now they just remove the overburden from above to get at it and it takes tens rather than hundreds of miners to run the machines.
Although not as appealing as Trumps empty promises, Clintons plans for job training and education make alot more sense.
Those mines will never reopen.. not now...not ever.
Although not as appealing as Trumps empty promises, Clintons plans for job training and education make alot more sense.
Those mines will never reopen.. not now...not ever.
159
Don't bet on it.
1
The White Working Class may not really be a monolithic group that is against international Trade. Here in South Western Ohio, the closing of auto plants from the 1980s to 2000s have been a major reason for the decline of economic well being of this, many of whom migrated from Appalachian States and from the South when manufacturing boomed in the early 1900s. Even so, the attitude of Ohioans and Kentuckians toward NAFTA and trade with China may well be very different from "White and Black working class" living in MI and WI because Ohio and KY, for example, has managed to grow jobs for this group by attracting foreign automakers to build plants there ( Toyota, Honda) and Chinese firms have invested or bought out auto related manufacturing facilities and continue production ( e.g. Delphi). In fact, a major reason behind the resurgence of GM is its success in the Chinese auto market, which is rapidly becoming the fastest growing segment of the World auto market. The solution to helping these older White and nonwhite male workers that were in manufacturing is to find ways to diversify the production and employment base of these communities by bringing in new employers, couple with retraining and other program.
Mr. Trump is likely to find a more sympathetic audience in the Eastern part of the State and in smaller communities that may only have one or two large employers .
Mr. Trump is likely to find a more sympathetic audience in the Eastern part of the State and in smaller communities that may only have one or two large employers .
12
If Trump can stay focused he will be extremely competitive. For example, there is no tech shortage in the US. That is a hoax, The tech workers training their lower wage foreign born replacements are all potential voters as are the tech graduates who can not get jobs because the tech companies hire the foreign born for less. Hillary had a speech that was written by the billionaire high tech entrepreneurs to enrich themselves at our own workers expense. Union construction workers sit at home while the companies with an illegal alien workforce can bid lower on projects and they get the work. It is this way right on down the line. Trump will have the whole establishment against him so it will be work. Apple will not support him because he will not give them cheap foreign labor. Wall Street will not because he expects them to pay taxes like everyone else. Companies like GE that make billions in profit but do not pay a cent in taxes will not support him. The whole system is rigged and the Clintons helped to make it so. A former Clinton operative described their election strategy. They will avoid issues and put every cent into smearing the other candidate to make him appear unfit. The corruption of the Clintons will continue the downward slide of the middle class. Black youth will continue to have record unemployment. Food stamp recipients will increase in number. The middle class will continue to shrink and through all this the Clintons will become even wealthier.
39
Well said!
Trump tells voters that he's gonna get their jobs in the air conditioning plants back. He says it forcefully, repeatedly, with authority, and with a plan--by increasing tariffs and renegotiating trade deals. Clinton says... something, I'm not really sure... It doesn't take a political scientist to figure out how the bloc of displaced factory workers is going to vote.
Unfortunately, Trump's plan is ludicrous and untenable. Those air conditioning plant jobs are gone, and they are not coming back. It is the hard, harsh reality of a changing global economy that will not go back to the past no matter how many political rallies we stage.
The only workable plan is to train workers and develop industry in the areas that are going to be economic drivers for the future. Perhaps making robots for the air-conditioning plants in Mexico, or computer systems to control those robots or manage the inventory. Or perhaps advanced battery technology, or drone design and manufacture, or aerospace, or medical technology, or IT security, or finance and banking. Let's quit whining about Wall Street hurting Main Street and work to keep the United States as the finance powerhouse of the world.
Of course, that doesn't boil down to a pithy tweet or a 20 second sound bite on FoxNews, so it has no political punch. The Brexit just proved punchy ads and false promises will win over the cold, hard truth.
Unfortunately, Trump's plan is ludicrous and untenable. Those air conditioning plant jobs are gone, and they are not coming back. It is the hard, harsh reality of a changing global economy that will not go back to the past no matter how many political rallies we stage.
The only workable plan is to train workers and develop industry in the areas that are going to be economic drivers for the future. Perhaps making robots for the air-conditioning plants in Mexico, or computer systems to control those robots or manage the inventory. Or perhaps advanced battery technology, or drone design and manufacture, or aerospace, or medical technology, or IT security, or finance and banking. Let's quit whining about Wall Street hurting Main Street and work to keep the United States as the finance powerhouse of the world.
Of course, that doesn't boil down to a pithy tweet or a 20 second sound bite on FoxNews, so it has no political punch. The Brexit just proved punchy ads and false promises will win over the cold, hard truth.
77
There is a strong correlation between a significant increase in financial strain and depression. Depressed men act out.
Your blatant disregard of the hardship suffered by factory workers who lost due to no fault of their own substantial income that once enabled those men and women to achieve a comfortable middle-class life style does not offer solutions to their plight. No good employment opportunities for themselves and their children who attend internationally sub standard public and private schools. The inability to send qualified children to college. Lost homes. The stigma of impoverishment. Millions and millions of citizens written off. There simply never were and never will be a sufficient quality of IT and related jobs to replace the millions and millions of very good paying jobs lost to globalization.
It is sheer prejudice that suggests we can't choose provide a guaranteed national wage paid for from profits garnered from those few have profited so mightily on the backs of millions of people they've thrown out of work. And it flies in the face of reality to suggest that capitalists can't choose to utilize human beings rather than robots to do needed work. Automation is not a necessary choice. We must legislate and implement employment policies and procedures that benefit workers. Its time to share profits equitably. That's what it will take to end this cultural crisis.
Your blatant disregard of the hardship suffered by factory workers who lost due to no fault of their own substantial income that once enabled those men and women to achieve a comfortable middle-class life style does not offer solutions to their plight. No good employment opportunities for themselves and their children who attend internationally sub standard public and private schools. The inability to send qualified children to college. Lost homes. The stigma of impoverishment. Millions and millions of citizens written off. There simply never were and never will be a sufficient quality of IT and related jobs to replace the millions and millions of very good paying jobs lost to globalization.
It is sheer prejudice that suggests we can't choose provide a guaranteed national wage paid for from profits garnered from those few have profited so mightily on the backs of millions of people they've thrown out of work. And it flies in the face of reality to suggest that capitalists can't choose to utilize human beings rather than robots to do needed work. Automation is not a necessary choice. We must legislate and implement employment policies and procedures that benefit workers. Its time to share profits equitably. That's what it will take to end this cultural crisis.
13
I am thinking along the lines of Vince on this one. In the past, blue collar jobs that went away due to technology were mostly replaced by new jobs to support that and other technology. I see robotics taking one entry level job away after another. Now Dominos makes pizza with robots and Amazon wants to replace delivery drivers with autoonomous drones. The folks who would have taken these entry level jobs are not likely to be going right into aerospace design. I am concerned that if this trend continues, we will reach a point where these companies no longer have enough people who can afford to purchase their products and down comes the house of cards.
5
Making robots? That's the equivalent of tech workers training their own replacements.
Donald Trump leading among the "uneducated" makes us wonder, doesn't it?
Including his lead in uneducated Democrats?
It is the Republicans who will not budge on lowering interest rates on college loans, making college unaffordable for many, and then continued debt. It is the Republicans, such as Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who has defunded our public schools K-12, and our University of Wisconsin system. It is Republicans who are forcing us taxpayers to pay for voucher schools, including parochial religious schools. It is Republicans who pass legislation to prevent those voucher schools from having to prove publicly how those parochial schools are doing scholastically. It is Republicans who have put restrictions on community referendums, and thus preventing the ability to gain local money to make school improvements because of those defunded school budgets.
Ah, those sly Republicans. Dumb down, and maybe even those uneducated Democrats will join the ranks and vote Republican! Their mindset - just keep 'em dumb. Too bad it seems to be working.
Including his lead in uneducated Democrats?
It is the Republicans who will not budge on lowering interest rates on college loans, making college unaffordable for many, and then continued debt. It is the Republicans, such as Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who has defunded our public schools K-12, and our University of Wisconsin system. It is Republicans who are forcing us taxpayers to pay for voucher schools, including parochial religious schools. It is Republicans who pass legislation to prevent those voucher schools from having to prove publicly how those parochial schools are doing scholastically. It is Republicans who have put restrictions on community referendums, and thus preventing the ability to gain local money to make school improvements because of those defunded school budgets.
Ah, those sly Republicans. Dumb down, and maybe even those uneducated Democrats will join the ranks and vote Republican! Their mindset - just keep 'em dumb. Too bad it seems to be working.
139
Not a Trump fan, but I hope "enlightened" democrats will stop being so mean spirited because you may have more education than other citizens who did not have the opportunities you may have had nor have earned lots of degrees.
I would say that compassion, empathy, generosity are qualities to which one should aspire.
Hillary supporters can not seem to let go of the hate; they call Sanders supporters Sandinistas and tell us to fall in line in the same sentence.
If working class white people choose to support Trump, so be it.
It is called choice; choice over ones mind and body; vote your choice.
This from an old black woman who still supports Sanders and who will never fall in line for Trump or Clinton.
Let the candidate who gets the most votes determine the Supreme Court; I do not care who wins at this point.
I would say that compassion, empathy, generosity are qualities to which one should aspire.
Hillary supporters can not seem to let go of the hate; they call Sanders supporters Sandinistas and tell us to fall in line in the same sentence.
If working class white people choose to support Trump, so be it.
It is called choice; choice over ones mind and body; vote your choice.
This from an old black woman who still supports Sanders and who will never fall in line for Trump or Clinton.
Let the candidate who gets the most votes determine the Supreme Court; I do not care who wins at this point.
7
The cost of a college education these days is absurd. If I was graduating today HS, I'm not sure I'd even go. You think simply lowering the interest rate on government-guaranteed student loans is a solution?
Those dumb voters will ALWAYS react badly to elitists labels, like uh, dumb? The more we call them dumb, the more they'll vote against liberal candidates.
Why is the Republican message full of lies more successful that the truth? With all their dumbness, they are successfully outsmarting liberals.
Why is the Republican message full of lies more successful that the truth? With all their dumbness, they are successfully outsmarting liberals.
1
If I remember my politics 101 course in college, the ultimate decider in Presidential elections is turnout. Among the many factors that influence turnout are education, age, urban/rural, and race. Trump surely is leading among the less educated working class whites -- heretofore among the least likely to vote. By contrast, among the most reliable voters are those with college degrees and higher, of either party. Therefore, turnout of these two demographics will probably be a crucial factor in the fall.
But, and it's a major but, turnout by women will almost certainly swamp the male vote, and it is with women that Trump's blatant misogyny will be most telling. The number of Republican women who switch to Clinton, methinks, will determine who ends up in the White Houss.
But, and it's a major but, turnout by women will almost certainly swamp the male vote, and it is with women that Trump's blatant misogyny will be most telling. The number of Republican women who switch to Clinton, methinks, will determine who ends up in the White Houss.
36
Clinton just released a tech plan which was essentially dictated by her Silicon Valley funders.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2016/06/28/clinton-tech-pla...
While it's wonderful that everyone will have 5G internet service, that hardy increases the employment prospects for the people addressed in this article. This is a consolation prize for those disenfranchised by globalization, like cheap socks from Walmart. As Bernie Sanders said in his op-ed yesterday, the Democrats better wake up, though I wouldn't hold my breath.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2016/06/28/clinton-tech-pla...
While it's wonderful that everyone will have 5G internet service, that hardy increases the employment prospects for the people addressed in this article. This is a consolation prize for those disenfranchised by globalization, like cheap socks from Walmart. As Bernie Sanders said in his op-ed yesterday, the Democrats better wake up, though I wouldn't hold my breath.
66
It does increase employment prospects, for H1Bs and workers in Asia.
9
Actually, high-speed broadband does increase the employment prospects for people addressed in this article. It means that the small manufacturer can compete in the global market, finding the niches where its services are needed. Without that access, that same business is dependent on it's regional market, where they still compete against foreign manufacturers.
5
Trump's campaign has "appeal...?" Unfortunately, only to the poorly informed and under-educated. Anyone who finds a consistent policy message in Trump is drowning in wishful thinking. He's got attitude, and appeals to the same kind of people who, in England, voted to leave the EU. (The votes summed up across the rest of the UK gave a majority to the "remain" campaign.)
This is not to say that the English voters who swallowed the lies of Farage and BoJo don't have a genuine yearning. They just haven't articulated it. Consider that soccer hooligans were among the "leave" voters--not alienated because they were never included. They were typical working class Tories whose self-image depended on empire superiority, an image burnished by Thatcher in the “glory” days of the Falklands War. Consider that Archie Bunker was modeled on an English character, Alf Garnet, who made Archie look like a bleeding-heart liberal. Garnett was the typical empire-loyalist who wallowed in the forerunners of Murdoch rags, and spouted hate at everyone including his wife (Silly Moo!).
Analysis of the Brexit vote continues. But Democrats who want to prevent a POTUS Trump from packing the SCOTUS with clones of Scalia had better get their own analytical brains in gear. “Take our country back” is not just a slogan, it is a spreading malignancy that threatens to make the Tea Party look like a temper tantrum.
This is not to say that the English voters who swallowed the lies of Farage and BoJo don't have a genuine yearning. They just haven't articulated it. Consider that soccer hooligans were among the "leave" voters--not alienated because they were never included. They were typical working class Tories whose self-image depended on empire superiority, an image burnished by Thatcher in the “glory” days of the Falklands War. Consider that Archie Bunker was modeled on an English character, Alf Garnet, who made Archie look like a bleeding-heart liberal. Garnett was the typical empire-loyalist who wallowed in the forerunners of Murdoch rags, and spouted hate at everyone including his wife (Silly Moo!).
Analysis of the Brexit vote continues. But Democrats who want to prevent a POTUS Trump from packing the SCOTUS with clones of Scalia had better get their own analytical brains in gear. “Take our country back” is not just a slogan, it is a spreading malignancy that threatens to make the Tea Party look like a temper tantrum.
150
Unfortunately, this is precisely the kind of attitude that gave us Trump in the first place -- the assumption that no, those working class Archie Bunkers couldn't possibly have real concerns. I used to feel that way myself. But the truth is I think a lot more complicated.
12
Even the "poorly informed and uneducated" deserve a job. Tony Blair, a very well informed and educated Brit is looking at unemployment in the near future. But let's be honest, he was really quite ignorant wasn't he?
The trouble is that the poorly informed and uneducated vote and their votes count just the same as a Harvard grad, with a law degree. Here in the U.S. we have plenty of Southern states that would return us to slavery. Democracy, only rarely works, but what is the alternative?
Fear is a powerful motivator, and without smart people articulating an alternative to fear based logic, we are stuck with voters making the wrong decisions. Even educated middle aged men have very limited choices in todays job market should they find themselves cut loose.
The trouble is that the poorly informed and uneducated vote and their votes count just the same as a Harvard grad, with a law degree. Here in the U.S. we have plenty of Southern states that would return us to slavery. Democracy, only rarely works, but what is the alternative?
Fear is a powerful motivator, and without smart people articulating an alternative to fear based logic, we are stuck with voters making the wrong decisions. Even educated middle aged men have very limited choices in todays job market should they find themselves cut loose.
5
Peter: "Democracy, only rarely works, but what is the alternative?" Education is essential but has been sold short by America for centuries. "Book larnin'" has its limits, but who can understand the modern world anyway? The old truths hold: a house built on sand can't hold, especially when the storms come.
The working class is being sold a bill of goods by both parties. But Trump is a better salesman.
67
They sell different things, as this report makes clear. The two political parties are about free flow of goods and people simply because they make them better off; Mr. Trump is about stemming the flow, an idea that suddenly sells better because more people are alienated by the free flow of goods and people. Ride the tide, or go against it. Everyone is free to choose.
...if what you wanna buy is going to fall apart as soon as you leave the showroom.
2
Apparently Trump learned nothing from the market reactions to Brexit. This is only a sampling of what the financial markets will do if he's elected and pursues his agenda of tariffs and immigration restrictions. For a supposedly a savvy businessman he shows no long term thinking or really any plans other than his election desires.
He acts as if China and other nations had a diabolical plan to take jobs away from American workers. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Starting from the end of WWII, it was US companies that have pursued cheap labor overseas. They have closed factories and have become importers of less expensively produced good. They will claim that it is the name of increased profits that our free market economy and stock holders demand and there is some truth to that. Just because a company has increased profits doesn't mean that they build factories or hire workers. Just another fact that the Republican trickle down economics doesn't work either.
The world economy is very intricate and complicated. Apparently too complicated for Mr. Trump and his followers that they would soon discover, like the Brits, that the simple feel good reactionary plans will have serious repercussions if he were to be elected President of the USA.
He acts as if China and other nations had a diabolical plan to take jobs away from American workers. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Starting from the end of WWII, it was US companies that have pursued cheap labor overseas. They have closed factories and have become importers of less expensively produced good. They will claim that it is the name of increased profits that our free market economy and stock holders demand and there is some truth to that. Just because a company has increased profits doesn't mean that they build factories or hire workers. Just another fact that the Republican trickle down economics doesn't work either.
The world economy is very intricate and complicated. Apparently too complicated for Mr. Trump and his followers that they would soon discover, like the Brits, that the simple feel good reactionary plans will have serious repercussions if he were to be elected President of the USA.
96
Actually, the Chinese and other Asian countries are delighted to take American jobs and have done anything and everything in their power to do so, sometimes even ignoring international agreements, by for example dumping rare earths so that alternative sources went out of business and then limiting the supply outside China, forcing countries to manufacture there.
As to companies, I know some manufacturers and for the most part it isn't a question of not wanting to manufacture products here -- it's that they *can't* because they can't compete against low-wage countries without environmental or worker safety regulations.
Globalization has been a disaster. Trump's plan might well trigger a trade war and a depression, but whether that's worse than the long-term effects of globaliation with low wage countries is questionable.
As to companies, I know some manufacturers and for the most part it isn't a question of not wanting to manufacture products here -- it's that they *can't* because they can't compete against low-wage countries without environmental or worker safety regulations.
Globalization has been a disaster. Trump's plan might well trigger a trade war and a depression, but whether that's worse than the long-term effects of globaliation with low wage countries is questionable.
14
Hmm. In the days immediately before the vote the DJIA was around 17,800. Right now it is at 17,400 (so down about 2.25%) and equity futures are indicating a strong open. US Treasury yields are lower. Not great for savers, but good for anyone buying a home, car etc. US dollar has rallied against major currencies, making exports more expensive but imports cheaper. So good and bad there. Emerging Markets have been softer but only modestly. So where is the duress in the financial markets you seem so concerned about?
4
You lack faith VMG, but that's ok, you'll come around when you experience the reality. Market reactions are just that, market reactions, I'm still paying the same price for gas, a little less actually, the sky did not fall, Trump has dispelled the elitist meme of that creates Fear to Dream. Trump is Making America Great Again by returning the American Dream to the people.
The rest of your post was just opinion...
The rest of your post was just opinion...
1
There are a lot of African Americans left behind by the global economy.
Millions of them worked in our factories where work has been outsourced by elites.
They too may like what they hear from Trump. Just because their skin is dark dose not mean they are ok being stuck in poverty for generations.
Millions of them worked in our factories where work has been outsourced by elites.
They too may like what they hear from Trump. Just because their skin is dark dose not mean they are ok being stuck in poverty for generations.
66
not likely. polling has AA people against trump by over 90%. wishful thinking
3
"They too may like what they hear from Trump. Just because their skin is dark dose not mean they are ok being stuck in poverty for generations."
Yes, but Trump has foolishly burned his bridges with these voters. As has the rest of the Republican party.
Yes, but Trump has foolishly burned his bridges with these voters. As has the rest of the Republican party.
2
Hope they like lots of racism too
1
Trump is the “reality show” candidate, pandering to the emotional fears and prejudices of the masses. If Clinton is to change the dynamic she must hang her hat on a strong program of infrastructure/job/1% issue. Trump is part of the 1%. His construction history is filled with bankruptcies. By the way Where’s Chelsie?
15
Chelsie is most likely at home with her new baby boy. It's only been 2 weeks or so since she gave birth.
Hillary is part of the 1% too.
1
And Clinton isn't part of the 1%?
As for Chelsea, she is probably in the multi, multi million-dollar penthouse where she lives, married to her Goldman Sachs husband.
A little objectivity...
As for Chelsea, she is probably in the multi, multi million-dollar penthouse where she lives, married to her Goldman Sachs husband.
A little objectivity...
2
"I love the poorly educated!", said Trump a few months ago. Now we see what he was getting at.
The question is whether these men want to be treated with respect and dignity, or be pandered to by a demagogue who tries to attract them by mimicking their speech patterns and hyping their grievances.
I think Trump misunderstands the American heart.
The question is whether these men want to be treated with respect and dignity, or be pandered to by a demagogue who tries to attract them by mimicking their speech patterns and hyping their grievances.
I think Trump misunderstands the American heart.
43
From everything I see and learn here on the ground here in "flyover" country, neither party represents the interests of the "white working class" voter that fits your profile. This Presidential election is purely identity politics. A prelude to what will become the norm for many years to come. At least until the nation is so fractured that a viable third party will emerge. Nothing much will change either on the economic front. We will become poorer, except for the top 5%. The Federal Reserve will keep interest rates near zero for a long time and the government will publish data to keep the pitch forks away. Heck, even rock n roll may die. Hopefully, not here in Cleveland.
53
I could not disagree more Mark, I think you (and others) are seriously underrating Trump. If you do not understand yet that the people are unwilling to accept Hillary's foibles, follies and more of the same, I fear November's election result might hit you (and others) hard.
Or, maybe elitism breeds willful blindness?!
BTW: I am elite, not just into elitism or trying to become elite, I am actually elite. I am better than most people, I am more something and another, just better I guess, you either have it, or your don't ;-)
May we bear witness to the end of elitism.
Or, maybe elitism breeds willful blindness?!
BTW: I am elite, not just into elitism or trying to become elite, I am actually elite. I am better than most people, I am more something and another, just better I guess, you either have it, or your don't ;-)
May we bear witness to the end of elitism.
1