You are speaking my language. I ran in 2018 and I have been saying the same things ever since. I intentionally knocked on the doors of my opponents every time, even knowing they wouldn’t vote for me, and it has profoundly shaped my worldview and my efforts ever since. I agree with almost everything you wrote (can’t even cite anything I disagree with, but leaving room lol).
This article both has and hasn’t aged well. It has in the sense that the premise about not listening to half the country did in fact cause the democrats to lose and lose big. It hasn’t aged well in the sense that the country is now seeing the waste, fraud, grift and utter immoral if not criminal actions that these formerly unaccountable agencies were a part of. USAID, HHS, etc., are now being exposed as kickbacks schemes, media manipulation payouts, etc. My opinion: the democrats don’t care about the people, they care about power. They have been using our tax dollars to profit off of, fund censorship operations via media, NGO and academic institutions and in some cases, covert operations both outside and inside the U.S. And I would bet we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
I support programs that are in America’s interest and vetted and audited to confirm the money is being spent on what it’s appropriated to be spend on.
I don’t support trillions of dollars being shoveled out the door with zero documentation where it went, millions and billions being sent to NGOs that then provide no accountability and politicians opening NGOs a week before a billion dollar appropriation happens.
First you said it’s CIA money then it’s worthwhile money for vital programs. So which is it? Or are they mixed together to obfuscate the real spending?
How do you know they are CIA covert operations? Are you saying that every ridiculous LGBTQ+ payment to Africa, every billion dollar NGO payout to Stacy Abrams and every payout to a migrant center that has zero visitors is justified?
Huge amounts of food aid for many millions of people around the world. This food all comes from American Farmers and is shipped on American ships. Programs to stop HIV in Africa which has saved over 20 million lives in last 20 years. Programs to stop spread of tuberculosis and other diseases. Programs to support democracy and to remove land mines. And on and on.
40 years voting blue and I voted Trump and Republican all the way down the ballot this year. You did such a good job pointing out the Democrats tendencies with regard to communication, willingness to listen and engage in good faith conversation etc. that I’m considering asking my wife to read your post. Along with many of my friends, she finds Trump’s victory appalling. In hindsight, my quitting the blue team was at least a five year process. Maybe it began with the sudden “miracle” of Biden in the primary. But I still voted for him… well, that was a mistake, but I have friends, who figured it out back when Bernie was cast aside in favor of Hillary. Alas, waking up is hard to do… But I am so grateful for everything I have gone through to arrive where I have. Also, it’s an incredible relief that the Democrats have been ousted and legacy media is collapsing in freefall. I could steal man, all of the arguments for the Democrats and against Trump, but my liberal friends, including my wife, could not have a conversation about my changing perspective, interpretation, and variance with their point of view, or even tolerate contradictory evidence. Rather, I was faced with individuals, becoming very destabilized, defensive, and even resorting to insults and name-calling. Now, I have learned a lot about how to navigate this minefield of, let’s say self protection by way of intellectual self-defense or idealism. Here’s the trick, we’ve all been subjected to what are essentially psychological warfare operations. The people of America have not just “become” polarized or divided. They have been induced to be so, to the point of literal intoxication, into a state very much, the same as hypnotized. I’m just one of the millions of former Democrats, who have left the plantation and cast my lot with team Trump himself a former Democrat, as are a Kennedy, Gabbard , Musk, and the list goes on.
So thank you for the column Mr. Warren. I suggest you follow your own advice, get curious and listen closely, with honesty and humility such that you can discover how incredibly wonderful of an opportunity may lay ahead for the country and how narrowly we escaped catastrophe… so far.
BTW you utterly mischaracterized the advertisement. Whatever you want to call the migrants some of them qualify as let’s say enemy combatants…
But it’s easier to deceive a man than to inform him that he has been deceived.
My husband, a lifelong conservative, took the opposite route of you on Election Day. He voted straight blue for the first time in his life as he feels so betrayed by the GOP's newly Trumpian values.
We both agree with this writer but we also love this country and democracy and weren't willing to give the keys to the kingdom to Trump and his newly empowered billionaire bullies. As we watch what's unfolding, we still believe we made the right choice. Character will always be the central pillar of leadership.
Thank you for the response. I can definitely understand that POV about what Trump did to the Republican Party. Character indeed and both Kamala and Trump reflect the character level disorders prevalent in our much disordered (long assaulted) population. We are in a political and information/cognitive warfare battle space and really All have suffered.
The conservatives have been asleep at the switch going along to get along if not just in on the grift for 30 years now, prattling talking points from voodoo economics of the 1980s. So I’m okay with the purge of the party so that team Trump can continue to drain the swamp… so far they’re on it. It would have been easier for me to have voted for Kennedy and Shanahan, but I’m hoping it has turned out better than that. It’s easy for me to fear that the Donald will by his functional intellectual qualities (Deficits) and narcissism get played by the powers that should not be and also that he’s already in their camp or under their thumb. Hopefully his need for approval will be oriented to we the people… It’s like I trust his heart more than his mind and for the time being maybe we need a bull in the China shop.
Thanks again, and I do appreciate your perspective and that of your husband. I believe what we are up against as a country and a people is much more progressed in terms of disorder and darkness than you may recognize. Try reading from Jeff Childers for a daily news take that’s honest and pro-Trump (so far so good with Jeff, but that’s just news and views we need to get out ahead vs. the reactionary or right hand of the Globalist CommuFascist takeover)
Also Elizabeth Nickson and James Kunstler for a much deeper take.
Faith not fear and in time things become clear.
Despite the fog of war and Iron Curtain global shroud of lies. (The vaults have been emptied, what else will they say to depositors?)
The rule of ego/ mind individually and collectively inevitably leads to destruction
We are threatened by the VERY few who hide and seek to divide (an Occultocracy) they need us to fight one another. It’s the only way they win.
I understand all the reasons people voted for Trump. I have spent much time trying to unpack them for my progressive friends who are horrified by his rise to power. I tell them that conservatives can have empathy too. I tell them that when I was a conservative, I still cared about vulnerable people in society and so too many of my conservative friends.
I think good and decent people project their best selves onto Trump. They see what's not there. He's using them and exploiting them. He will throw them under the bus in a New York minute at the same way he did with Mike Pence when he incited an insurrection and then mocked Pence would not go along with his lies.
I don't trust his heart because he shows me who he is. There's a breathtaking casual cruelty in the way he makes fun of the most vulnerable. The way he talks about immigrants has a real impact because less savory people feel sanctioned to be bullies.
I grew up with very wealthy people. I know this world well. Many of these men and women live in a world with no guardrails or moral compass and many genuinely think the most vulnerable are shoe leather. (Conservatives are more blunt about it, wealthy liberals hide they are condescension better.).
My daughter works at a religious non-profit as a mental health director for refugees. She's got a compassionate heart, but she's not an idealist. She works boots on the ground dealing with realities you and I couldn't imagine. Each time Trump goes on one of his lovely litanies about immigrant criminals and rapists, they field bomb threats and deal with Proud Boys stalking their offices. Her staff, who have incredibly high-pressure jobs, are now terrorized by bullies.
The central pillar of leadership is character and when you don't have it, the ripple effect can be devastating.
Google Nazis in Cincinnati. It hasn't been since the last Trump administration since they felt empowered to have a march in our neighborhoods. I hold Trump and his enablers responsible. Words have consequences.
Again, thank you for your gracious response. I've been eviscerated by both liberals and conservatives when I put forth a position (online liberals were brutal when I suggested I didn't think a mother should cancel her daughter for voting for Trump). It's refreshing to have someone remember there's a real human being on the other end.
"You people." As if we were a monolith. Oh dear ML, it feels nothing like losing or winning to me. I knew Trump would win the election. I knew many would feel vindicated which is understandable. I knew many would feel like a "winner" over a lot of "losers."
I know Trump supporters will never see it as an insurrection. It's the entire strategy of Trumpism and Trump himself well trained by Roy Cohn: always attack, deny everything, and always claim victory.
It's so appealing, isn't it? Of course it draws people in! They don't have to look in the mirror.
Core values are deeper than wins and losses. They're core values. They don't come and go based on winning or losing or who is in power. They are the ones you teach your kids about when "everyone is doing it, Mom." Breaking those values always look like winning to the world.
I’ve gotten to know and have seen and heard too much that leads me to believe that January 6 was exploited via paid political warfare by foot soldiers, the FBI in their political police role and certainly the absurd show trial of the so called hearings. Theatre of lies ad nauseum and the withholding and destruction of evidence
"I think good and decent people project their best selves onto Trump. They see what's not there. He's using them and exploiting them."
OTOH, I see someone whose policies, actually and substantially, respect my unalienable rights and treat me as an adult instead of as a victim or a villain for merely existing. That is not exploitation.
Securing those rights is the primary, legitimate mission of government and its monopoly on coercive force ... and about the limit of what that institution and its operatives can reliably manage.
Those who would replace him? Condescending busybodies who Know Better™, out to micromanage my life as though they are omniscient, infallible, and have a lock on the One True Way. People who want government to be the caregiver and problem-solver of first resort, even when it comes to individual-specific issues while they can't tell an individual apart from a statistic.
People who expect me to just "take one for the team" if their management makes things worse for me - and will remain silent as any trust I extend to them leads me away from taking the diligent steps to protect myself from life's shocks.
And, based upon what is being uncovered as we speak, using and exploiting the rest of us to advance their careers, their aspirations to elite status, and their Utopian dreams.
How is that paradigm "decent", with respect to the results as opposed to the intent?
Yes. They absolutely NEED to humanize Trump supporters. 100%. The Left claims to be empathetic while simultaneously destroying anyone of any race who doesn't believe in their precise, exact values. In 2017, after Clinton lost, they should have taken a long, hard, close look at why she failed. (Pretty obvious.) Instead they doubled and tripled-down on identity politics, which, we now know (and most of us could have predicted this back then) doesn't work. Dems have completely lost critical thinking skills. They have completely lost the ability to ask WHY so many people shifted over to Trump, including, my God, nearly 20% of Black men, not to mention Latinos and white women. You'd think this would sound the commonsense alarm bell. But no! And the scary thing is: It's still far from certain that they'll take the lesson even now. Leading Democrats continue to talk about Harris losing due to sexism. Sexism? Have you heard Harris open her mouth?
We Dems generally think COVID was deadly and tragically killed a lot of people. If we didn’t think of you all as human, why would we have burned political capital on universal lockdowns trying to prevent you from getting that virus that we considered deadly? Do you see what I mean?
Right now, there’s a lot of arguing about USAID.
- Many Democrats are arguing against the abolition of the agency, citing how many of its programs help people in foreign countries who suffer and die from disease.
- Many Trump supporters argue that these foreigners are not our concern, and we shouldn’t be spending our resources on preventing foreigners from getting or dying from disease.
Imagine that there’s a person who doesn’t see those foreigners as human. Do you think they would agree more with the Democrats’ position or the Trump supporters’ position?
The lockdowns were a cynical ploy to destroy a strong economy and change the rules around elections to get Trump out of office. You know it, I know it, AOC knew it when she accidentally tweeted that that was the plan.
As far as your false dichotomy on USAID views, youre leaving out alot of other views. Others like me, who served as commissioned officers in Afghanistan alongside USAID and saw the harm they actually did to the people they are ostensibly helping. Getting USAID out of their countries is the best thing Americans can do for foreigners.
I think that it's been made clear that there were definitely good things accomplished through USAID.
The BIGGER problem is the unaddressed (up until now) and OVERWHELMING FRAUD that was going on within the Organization.
It might have started out as upright and legitimate but it's now PROVEN that IRRESPONSIBLE or outright NEFARIOUS Oversight has called its validity into question. And I would dare to say, rightly so.
I hate to agree with my angry Republican friends but Hillary destroyed the Dems. The belief we could never again need the votes of blue collar people started in earnest in 2016. Her election manifesto had a chapter on each identity group and had nothing for high school educated folks. The rot just got worse in the following two elections and now black and brown voters are leaving the Dems in droves. Sure Trump will screw up as he is scum but a lot of folks may simply not vote again.
How do you win elections with places like Florida, Texas and Ohio now 10-12 points under water ? It’s impossible.
I watched recently the outgoing DNC Chair reminding delegates how non binary and gender rules applied and I almost cried. It’s embarrassing. People have had enough.
Why can’t Dems stop Trump in Congress ? Because they have ceded so much power to the executive that Congress no longer knows how to do its job. How many Bills has AOC drafted in her time in office?
A laundry list of things for Democrats to keep and to dump if they ever want to win again nationwide.
Keep a woman’s right to choose for the first trimester. Dump abortion until birth unless the mother’s health is at risk.
Keep a concern for climate change and grow nuclear power. Dump intermittent, unreliable renewable energy.
Keep and develop new effective vaccines. Dump vaccine mandates.
Keep equality of opportunity for all. Dump equity of results based on discrimination against men, whites and Asians (aka D.E.I.).
Keep the protection of gay and lesbian rights. Dump men in women’s sports, private spaces and prisons. Oh, and mutilating children who might grow up to be gay.
Keep an opportunity for selective high value immigration. Dump sanctuary cities and open borders.
Keep helping the homeless find jobs and a place to live. Dump camping in cities and allowing open drug use.
Keep a concern for due process in criminal justice. Dump letting shoplifters and other petty thieves off the hook.
Do all of the above and they might find their way back to power.
This empathy problem is shown most of all in all the election postmortems based on the belief that perceived Democratic failures pushed voters into the arms of Trump. Implicit in this argument is the belief that deep down inside voters are naturally Democrats.
You people isolated the elderly from their children, made people die scared and alone, wouldn't let people have funerals. And the most you can say about your empathy problems is that you're condescending jerks? MAGA knew that in 2016. What it didn't know was the monstrousness that lurks within your dark hearts. You will never recover public trust from the lockdowns. The meanness, the vile sick behavior, the casual cruelty of you people is etched in the memory of Americans forever.
Can you explain what you believe that pro-lockdown people were trying to achieve? I’m not saying you have to agree—just try to articulate the opposite point of view from yours. Why do you think people who believed that COVID was deadly, contagious, and was going to kill a lot of people didn’t want to allow funeral gatherings or visits to old people?
Since I am not retarded, I lack the insight necessary to figure out why people that that a new Chinese variant of the common cold would kill them. Other than group think, and a tendency to be overly deferential to authority. In any event, I do not want to understand them; I want to figure out how to get them out of my life and ensure they never have power over me ever again.
And it was never theirs "to allow." Free men and women get to assess their own risks and choose whether or not to avoid crowds during cold and flu season. Only a slave thinks that others have the right to make that choice for them--and again I do not have the insight to develop a theory of mind for a mindless slave.
"... it was never theirs "to allow". Free men ... assess their own risks and choose ..."
Spot on. They will never understand as they are both authoritarian and subservient. They will never understand the ethics of the Bill of Rights or the sentiment that created it.
We can't argue with them, we can only defeat them.
Henry in the example is a soft Republican who voted for the Republican. All of the reasons he gave were Republican talking points that he used as justification for his choice. People do not vote for reasons. The use reasons to explain why they voted for whom they did.
It's the same with the Democrat from New York who repeated a Democratic talking point.
The fact is most voters are Republicans, either soft ones like Henry or consistent ones. When a Republican is president they will vote for him or his sucessor if thinks are ok. If a Democrat is in office they will vote for him *only* and only if things are good. They will *not* vote for Democratic successor no matter how good things are.
You want people like Henry to vote for Democrats?
1. run when a Republican is in office and times are bad.
2. Fix the bad times and have good times when you run for reelection.
3. During your 8 years in office create tangible improvements for folks like Henry.
This is what FDR and the New Dealers did. Do this and you will get folks like Henry voting for you for as long as you deliver.
Republicans don't have to deliver anything to regular people because they are the default choice for the Henry's of the world.
This probably is just a reflection of most folks' conservatism.
Josh Slocum has written a rebuttal. I would love it if you came and discuss with him and those who follow his stack, over at Disaffected Newsletter.
I read your post with interest, and some of it resonated. All the same, I think Josh makes some really good points. Basically, you come across (to me) as saying "we gotta listen to those hideous nasty people if we want to win elections" in between the lines. Hah.
"Donald Trump is still a narcissistic bully who has little regard for liberal democracy."
Yes, but he is also an avatar of something much greater than himself. And could you stop carrying on as though you owned democracy? Your side has gone totalitarian, as far as I can see.
Maybe I am wrong. But... well, prove your mettle and come to Disaffected. Maybe we'll all learn something new.
Thanks for reading, Erin, and happy Thanksgiving. I think Josh may have missed the point of the post, although I agree with your comment that Trump is an avatar for something greater.
The point was to say that Democratic leaders need to treat Trump voters with respect by actually listening to their legitimate interests. And to stop casually condemning them as bad people. That’s why I used Henry as an example - he is a wonderful man who also happens to support Trump.
The point is not to try to convince Democratic leaders that Trump is actually a kind and loving man. Not only do I not think that’s the case, it’s beside the point. The goal of the post is to say that Dems should listen to the legitimate interests of Trump voters *even if Dems fundamentally disagree with Trump, the man*
Yes, I agree. There is hardly anyone who actually likes Trump as a person.
But it's easy to exhort others to listen and talk to the other side. I was wondering if you will *actually* do that in person, on substack, for example with Josh and his followers. (Well, maybe not easy. The wokesters do not appreciate that at all. :-)
In other words, will you walk the talk?
Delighted you responded! Happy winter holiday season to you too.
Social media full of people I know begging anyone who isn’t hard left to unfriend them. No attempt to understand, rather than disavow. I’m white, middle aged and have wife and kids. Since DEI ate my career prospects and sent me to the back of the jobs line my wife has borne witness to the damage done as she has had to take on work because my pathetic wage can no longer support us comfortably. I grew up working class, achieved middle and am now working class again thanks to an erosion in my standard of living I blame mostly on unfettered immigration and Derogatory actions towards my kind.
But mostly, I despair of the white privileged people who cheer this on. Every single one was already wealthy and is insulated from the consequences of their political choices in a way I and my family are not. I don’t blame immigrants themselves for wanting as much of the pie as they can get, but in time even those people will feel the same rug pull I do because capitalism doesn’t give a fuck about feelings.
Democrats are the party of a narcissistic elite. Sure, Trump’s a narcissist too, but he’s not a patch on Obama and the Harris level of delusion. I actually have no dog in the fight as I’m Australian, but I do know that this cult of unempathetic people who want people like me dead is an enemy. Maybe I should preemptively unfriend them first before I get unmasked, tarred and feathered online.
Excellent article! A thoughtful articulation of failed narratives and perspectives! The story about Henry was truly on point. I also resonate with your light introduction of moral frameworks. In my substack, the Common Sense Papers, I have about 9 political essays on the need for a moral compass in society.
Articles like this , 'This is why democrats keep losing etc.' always gives me the underlying impression of "if Dems would just tack more to the right i.e the center they'd get more votes'
The democrats have largely done that starting with Bill Clinton in the 90s. The result? He we are with an authoritarian GOP that controls all three branches of government. The Democrats need to go back to their pre 1990s FDR working class roots and quit the centrist nonsense.
You are speaking my language. I ran in 2018 and I have been saying the same things ever since. I intentionally knocked on the doors of my opponents every time, even knowing they wouldn’t vote for me, and it has profoundly shaped my worldview and my efforts ever since. I agree with almost everything you wrote (can’t even cite anything I disagree with, but leaving room lol).
This article both has and hasn’t aged well. It has in the sense that the premise about not listening to half the country did in fact cause the democrats to lose and lose big. It hasn’t aged well in the sense that the country is now seeing the waste, fraud, grift and utter immoral if not criminal actions that these formerly unaccountable agencies were a part of. USAID, HHS, etc., are now being exposed as kickbacks schemes, media manipulation payouts, etc. My opinion: the democrats don’t care about the people, they care about power. They have been using our tax dollars to profit off of, fund censorship operations via media, NGO and academic institutions and in some cases, covert operations both outside and inside the U.S. And I would bet we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.
I support programs that are in America’s interest and vetted and audited to confirm the money is being spent on what it’s appropriated to be spend on.
I don’t support trillions of dollars being shoveled out the door with zero documentation where it went, millions and billions being sent to NGOs that then provide no accountability and politicians opening NGOs a week before a billion dollar appropriation happens.
First you said it’s CIA money then it’s worthwhile money for vital programs. So which is it? Or are they mixed together to obfuscate the real spending?
What kickback schemes? Media manipulation? Are you against the CIA do covert operations? That is mostly what they do.
How do you know they are CIA covert operations? Are you saying that every ridiculous LGBTQ+ payment to Africa, every billion dollar NGO payout to Stacy Abrams and every payout to a migrant center that has zero visitors is justified?
No, not every. And Stacy Abrams was barely involved in that MGO and the money was for a good cause. Most of what U SAID did was for a good cause.
Good cause…hahahahahahahahahaha
Huge amounts of food aid for many millions of people around the world. This food all comes from American Farmers and is shipped on American ships. Programs to stop HIV in Africa which has saved over 20 million lives in last 20 years. Programs to stop spread of tuberculosis and other diseases. Programs to support democracy and to remove land mines. And on and on.
It’s criminal that this post hasn’t gotten more traction.
40 years voting blue and I voted Trump and Republican all the way down the ballot this year. You did such a good job pointing out the Democrats tendencies with regard to communication, willingness to listen and engage in good faith conversation etc. that I’m considering asking my wife to read your post. Along with many of my friends, she finds Trump’s victory appalling. In hindsight, my quitting the blue team was at least a five year process. Maybe it began with the sudden “miracle” of Biden in the primary. But I still voted for him… well, that was a mistake, but I have friends, who figured it out back when Bernie was cast aside in favor of Hillary. Alas, waking up is hard to do… But I am so grateful for everything I have gone through to arrive where I have. Also, it’s an incredible relief that the Democrats have been ousted and legacy media is collapsing in freefall. I could steal man, all of the arguments for the Democrats and against Trump, but my liberal friends, including my wife, could not have a conversation about my changing perspective, interpretation, and variance with their point of view, or even tolerate contradictory evidence. Rather, I was faced with individuals, becoming very destabilized, defensive, and even resorting to insults and name-calling. Now, I have learned a lot about how to navigate this minefield of, let’s say self protection by way of intellectual self-defense or idealism. Here’s the trick, we’ve all been subjected to what are essentially psychological warfare operations. The people of America have not just “become” polarized or divided. They have been induced to be so, to the point of literal intoxication, into a state very much, the same as hypnotized. I’m just one of the millions of former Democrats, who have left the plantation and cast my lot with team Trump himself a former Democrat, as are a Kennedy, Gabbard , Musk, and the list goes on.
So thank you for the column Mr. Warren. I suggest you follow your own advice, get curious and listen closely, with honesty and humility such that you can discover how incredibly wonderful of an opportunity may lay ahead for the country and how narrowly we escaped catastrophe… so far.
BTW you utterly mischaracterized the advertisement. Whatever you want to call the migrants some of them qualify as let’s say enemy combatants…
But it’s easier to deceive a man than to inform him that he has been deceived.
Never mind??
My husband, a lifelong conservative, took the opposite route of you on Election Day. He voted straight blue for the first time in his life as he feels so betrayed by the GOP's newly Trumpian values.
We both agree with this writer but we also love this country and democracy and weren't willing to give the keys to the kingdom to Trump and his newly empowered billionaire bullies. As we watch what's unfolding, we still believe we made the right choice. Character will always be the central pillar of leadership.
Thank you for the response. I can definitely understand that POV about what Trump did to the Republican Party. Character indeed and both Kamala and Trump reflect the character level disorders prevalent in our much disordered (long assaulted) population. We are in a political and information/cognitive warfare battle space and really All have suffered.
The conservatives have been asleep at the switch going along to get along if not just in on the grift for 30 years now, prattling talking points from voodoo economics of the 1980s. So I’m okay with the purge of the party so that team Trump can continue to drain the swamp… so far they’re on it. It would have been easier for me to have voted for Kennedy and Shanahan, but I’m hoping it has turned out better than that. It’s easy for me to fear that the Donald will by his functional intellectual qualities (Deficits) and narcissism get played by the powers that should not be and also that he’s already in their camp or under their thumb. Hopefully his need for approval will be oriented to we the people… It’s like I trust his heart more than his mind and for the time being maybe we need a bull in the China shop.
Thanks again, and I do appreciate your perspective and that of your husband. I believe what we are up against as a country and a people is much more progressed in terms of disorder and darkness than you may recognize. Try reading from Jeff Childers for a daily news take that’s honest and pro-Trump (so far so good with Jeff, but that’s just news and views we need to get out ahead vs. the reactionary or right hand of the Globalist CommuFascist takeover)
Also Elizabeth Nickson and James Kunstler for a much deeper take.
Faith not fear and in time things become clear.
Despite the fog of war and Iron Curtain global shroud of lies. (The vaults have been emptied, what else will they say to depositors?)
The rule of ego/ mind individually and collectively inevitably leads to destruction
We are threatened by the VERY few who hide and seek to divide (an Occultocracy) they need us to fight one another. It’s the only way they win.
Yet The Truth will Out
The future is bright.
The opportunity (or crisis) is:
fire or light ?
Nothing new under the sun.
The choice is ours.
Each one
And all
United we stand
Divided they make their haul
What a gracious response. Thank you.
I understand all the reasons people voted for Trump. I have spent much time trying to unpack them for my progressive friends who are horrified by his rise to power. I tell them that conservatives can have empathy too. I tell them that when I was a conservative, I still cared about vulnerable people in society and so too many of my conservative friends.
I think good and decent people project their best selves onto Trump. They see what's not there. He's using them and exploiting them. He will throw them under the bus in a New York minute at the same way he did with Mike Pence when he incited an insurrection and then mocked Pence would not go along with his lies.
I don't trust his heart because he shows me who he is. There's a breathtaking casual cruelty in the way he makes fun of the most vulnerable. The way he talks about immigrants has a real impact because less savory people feel sanctioned to be bullies.
I grew up with very wealthy people. I know this world well. Many of these men and women live in a world with no guardrails or moral compass and many genuinely think the most vulnerable are shoe leather. (Conservatives are more blunt about it, wealthy liberals hide they are condescension better.).
My daughter works at a religious non-profit as a mental health director for refugees. She's got a compassionate heart, but she's not an idealist. She works boots on the ground dealing with realities you and I couldn't imagine. Each time Trump goes on one of his lovely litanies about immigrant criminals and rapists, they field bomb threats and deal with Proud Boys stalking their offices. Her staff, who have incredibly high-pressure jobs, are now terrorized by bullies.
The central pillar of leadership is character and when you don't have it, the ripple effect can be devastating.
Google Nazis in Cincinnati. It hasn't been since the last Trump administration since they felt empowered to have a march in our neighborhoods. I hold Trump and his enablers responsible. Words have consequences.
Again, thank you for your gracious response. I've been eviscerated by both liberals and conservatives when I put forth a position (online liberals were brutal when I suggested I didn't think a mother should cancel her daughter for voting for Trump). It's refreshing to have someone remember there's a real human being on the other end.
Insurrection. Lol. This is why you people lose. Every time you talk about January 6th another Trump voter is born! Never stop.
"You people." As if we were a monolith. Oh dear ML, it feels nothing like losing or winning to me. I knew Trump would win the election. I knew many would feel vindicated which is understandable. I knew many would feel like a "winner" over a lot of "losers."
I know Trump supporters will never see it as an insurrection. It's the entire strategy of Trumpism and Trump himself well trained by Roy Cohn: always attack, deny everything, and always claim victory.
It's so appealing, isn't it? Of course it draws people in! They don't have to look in the mirror.
Core values are deeper than wins and losses. They're core values. They don't come and go based on winning or losing or who is in power. They are the ones you teach your kids about when "everyone is doing it, Mom." Breaking those values always look like winning to the world.
I’ve gotten to know and have seen and heard too much that leads me to believe that January 6 was exploited via paid political warfare by foot soldiers, the FBI in their political police role and certainly the absurd show trial of the so called hearings. Theatre of lies ad nauseum and the withholding and destruction of evidence
"I think good and decent people project their best selves onto Trump. They see what's not there. He's using them and exploiting them."
OTOH, I see someone whose policies, actually and substantially, respect my unalienable rights and treat me as an adult instead of as a victim or a villain for merely existing. That is not exploitation.
Securing those rights is the primary, legitimate mission of government and its monopoly on coercive force ... and about the limit of what that institution and its operatives can reliably manage.
Those who would replace him? Condescending busybodies who Know Better™, out to micromanage my life as though they are omniscient, infallible, and have a lock on the One True Way. People who want government to be the caregiver and problem-solver of first resort, even when it comes to individual-specific issues while they can't tell an individual apart from a statistic.
People who expect me to just "take one for the team" if their management makes things worse for me - and will remain silent as any trust I extend to them leads me away from taking the diligent steps to protect myself from life's shocks.
And, based upon what is being uncovered as we speak, using and exploiting the rest of us to advance their careers, their aspirations to elite status, and their Utopian dreams.
How is that paradigm "decent", with respect to the results as opposed to the intent?
Are you pleased with the dismantling of our Federal Government? Guess we don't need it anymore.
Yes. They absolutely NEED to humanize Trump supporters. 100%. The Left claims to be empathetic while simultaneously destroying anyone of any race who doesn't believe in their precise, exact values. In 2017, after Clinton lost, they should have taken a long, hard, close look at why she failed. (Pretty obvious.) Instead they doubled and tripled-down on identity politics, which, we now know (and most of us could have predicted this back then) doesn't work. Dems have completely lost critical thinking skills. They have completely lost the ability to ask WHY so many people shifted over to Trump, including, my God, nearly 20% of Black men, not to mention Latinos and white women. You'd think this would sound the commonsense alarm bell. But no! And the scary thing is: It's still far from certain that they'll take the lesson even now. Leading Democrats continue to talk about Harris losing due to sexism. Sexism? Have you heard Harris open her mouth?
Too late. Trump supporters remember the lockdowns. We know you dont think of us as human.
Let’s parse out your logic for a second.
We Dems generally think COVID was deadly and tragically killed a lot of people. If we didn’t think of you all as human, why would we have burned political capital on universal lockdowns trying to prevent you from getting that virus that we considered deadly? Do you see what I mean?
Right now, there’s a lot of arguing about USAID.
- Many Democrats are arguing against the abolition of the agency, citing how many of its programs help people in foreign countries who suffer and die from disease.
- Many Trump supporters argue that these foreigners are not our concern, and we shouldn’t be spending our resources on preventing foreigners from getting or dying from disease.
Imagine that there’s a person who doesn’t see those foreigners as human. Do you think they would agree more with the Democrats’ position or the Trump supporters’ position?
The lockdowns were a cynical ploy to destroy a strong economy and change the rules around elections to get Trump out of office. You know it, I know it, AOC knew it when she accidentally tweeted that that was the plan.
As far as your false dichotomy on USAID views, youre leaving out alot of other views. Others like me, who served as commissioned officers in Afghanistan alongside USAID and saw the harm they actually did to the people they are ostensibly helping. Getting USAID out of their countries is the best thing Americans can do for foreigners.
If that’s what lockdowns were for, then what did other countries around the world lock down for?
And why did Trump support the initial lockdown? (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2433019/the-two-damning-reasons-trump-supported-lockdowns/)
Where did AOC tweet that?
I’m not saying that everything USAID did was good. Do you think everything USAID did was bad?
It is not the job of free men to educate you slave. You are not entitled to my thoughts on anything.
Lol
I think that it's been made clear that there were definitely good things accomplished through USAID.
The BIGGER problem is the unaddressed (up until now) and OVERWHELMING FRAUD that was going on within the Organization.
It might have started out as upright and legitimate but it's now PROVEN that IRRESPONSIBLE or outright NEFARIOUS Oversight has called its validity into question. And I would dare to say, rightly so.
I appreciate your acknowledgements of the good aspects of USAID. I’m open to paring down legitimate fraud or waste. What was the fraud?
Name one of the good things.
I hate to agree with my angry Republican friends but Hillary destroyed the Dems. The belief we could never again need the votes of blue collar people started in earnest in 2016. Her election manifesto had a chapter on each identity group and had nothing for high school educated folks. The rot just got worse in the following two elections and now black and brown voters are leaving the Dems in droves. Sure Trump will screw up as he is scum but a lot of folks may simply not vote again.
How do you win elections with places like Florida, Texas and Ohio now 10-12 points under water ? It’s impossible.
I watched recently the outgoing DNC Chair reminding delegates how non binary and gender rules applied and I almost cried. It’s embarrassing. People have had enough.
Why can’t Dems stop Trump in Congress ? Because they have ceded so much power to the executive that Congress no longer knows how to do its job. How many Bills has AOC drafted in her time in office?
We are pathetic
You need to admit trans is nonsense and you embarrassed yourselves publicly in front of the world.
A laundry list of things for Democrats to keep and to dump if they ever want to win again nationwide.
Keep a woman’s right to choose for the first trimester. Dump abortion until birth unless the mother’s health is at risk.
Keep a concern for climate change and grow nuclear power. Dump intermittent, unreliable renewable energy.
Keep and develop new effective vaccines. Dump vaccine mandates.
Keep equality of opportunity for all. Dump equity of results based on discrimination against men, whites and Asians (aka D.E.I.).
Keep the protection of gay and lesbian rights. Dump men in women’s sports, private spaces and prisons. Oh, and mutilating children who might grow up to be gay.
Keep an opportunity for selective high value immigration. Dump sanctuary cities and open borders.
Keep helping the homeless find jobs and a place to live. Dump camping in cities and allowing open drug use.
Keep a concern for due process in criminal justice. Dump letting shoplifters and other petty thieves off the hook.
Do all of the above and they might find their way back to power.
This empathy problem is shown most of all in all the election postmortems based on the belief that perceived Democratic failures pushed voters into the arms of Trump. Implicit in this argument is the belief that deep down inside voters are naturally Democrats.
You people isolated the elderly from their children, made people die scared and alone, wouldn't let people have funerals. And the most you can say about your empathy problems is that you're condescending jerks? MAGA knew that in 2016. What it didn't know was the monstrousness that lurks within your dark hearts. You will never recover public trust from the lockdowns. The meanness, the vile sick behavior, the casual cruelty of you people is etched in the memory of Americans forever.
Can you explain what you believe that pro-lockdown people were trying to achieve? I’m not saying you have to agree—just try to articulate the opposite point of view from yours. Why do you think people who believed that COVID was deadly, contagious, and was going to kill a lot of people didn’t want to allow funeral gatherings or visits to old people?
Since I am not retarded, I lack the insight necessary to figure out why people that that a new Chinese variant of the common cold would kill them. Other than group think, and a tendency to be overly deferential to authority. In any event, I do not want to understand them; I want to figure out how to get them out of my life and ensure they never have power over me ever again.
And it was never theirs "to allow." Free men and women get to assess their own risks and choose whether or not to avoid crowds during cold and flu season. Only a slave thinks that others have the right to make that choice for them--and again I do not have the insight to develop a theory of mind for a mindless slave.
"... it was never theirs "to allow". Free men ... assess their own risks and choose ..."
Spot on. They will never understand as they are both authoritarian and subservient. They will never understand the ethics of the Bill of Rights or the sentiment that created it.
We can't argue with them, we can only defeat them.
I meant the "ethos" of the Bill of Rights.
Henry in the example is a soft Republican who voted for the Republican. All of the reasons he gave were Republican talking points that he used as justification for his choice. People do not vote for reasons. The use reasons to explain why they voted for whom they did.
It's the same with the Democrat from New York who repeated a Democratic talking point.
The fact is most voters are Republicans, either soft ones like Henry or consistent ones. When a Republican is president they will vote for him or his sucessor if thinks are ok. If a Democrat is in office they will vote for him *only* and only if things are good. They will *not* vote for Democratic successor no matter how good things are.
You want people like Henry to vote for Democrats?
1. run when a Republican is in office and times are bad.
2. Fix the bad times and have good times when you run for reelection.
3. During your 8 years in office create tangible improvements for folks like Henry.
This is what FDR and the New Dealers did. Do this and you will get folks like Henry voting for you for as long as you deliver.
Republicans don't have to deliver anything to regular people because they are the default choice for the Henry's of the world.
This probably is just a reflection of most folks' conservatism.
Josh Slocum has written a rebuttal. I would love it if you came and discuss with him and those who follow his stack, over at Disaffected Newsletter.
I read your post with interest, and some of it resonated. All the same, I think Josh makes some really good points. Basically, you come across (to me) as saying "we gotta listen to those hideous nasty people if we want to win elections" in between the lines. Hah.
"Donald Trump is still a narcissistic bully who has little regard for liberal democracy."
Yes, but he is also an avatar of something much greater than himself. And could you stop carrying on as though you owned democracy? Your side has gone totalitarian, as far as I can see.
Maybe I am wrong. But... well, prove your mettle and come to Disaffected. Maybe we'll all learn something new.
No interest?
Thanks for reading, Erin, and happy Thanksgiving. I think Josh may have missed the point of the post, although I agree with your comment that Trump is an avatar for something greater.
The point was to say that Democratic leaders need to treat Trump voters with respect by actually listening to their legitimate interests. And to stop casually condemning them as bad people. That’s why I used Henry as an example - he is a wonderful man who also happens to support Trump.
The point is not to try to convince Democratic leaders that Trump is actually a kind and loving man. Not only do I not think that’s the case, it’s beside the point. The goal of the post is to say that Dems should listen to the legitimate interests of Trump voters *even if Dems fundamentally disagree with Trump, the man*
Let Henry know: Donald Trump and his kleptocratic sidekick, Elon Musk, said Americans will experience pain (while they increase their wealth).
Yes, I agree. There is hardly anyone who actually likes Trump as a person.
But it's easy to exhort others to listen and talk to the other side. I was wondering if you will *actually* do that in person, on substack, for example with Josh and his followers. (Well, maybe not easy. The wokesters do not appreciate that at all. :-)
In other words, will you walk the talk?
Delighted you responded! Happy winter holiday season to you too.
And I'll add: we all need the practice. It's not an easy task.
I don't mean to single you out, in that sense.
Social media full of people I know begging anyone who isn’t hard left to unfriend them. No attempt to understand, rather than disavow. I’m white, middle aged and have wife and kids. Since DEI ate my career prospects and sent me to the back of the jobs line my wife has borne witness to the damage done as she has had to take on work because my pathetic wage can no longer support us comfortably. I grew up working class, achieved middle and am now working class again thanks to an erosion in my standard of living I blame mostly on unfettered immigration and Derogatory actions towards my kind.
But mostly, I despair of the white privileged people who cheer this on. Every single one was already wealthy and is insulated from the consequences of their political choices in a way I and my family are not. I don’t blame immigrants themselves for wanting as much of the pie as they can get, but in time even those people will feel the same rug pull I do because capitalism doesn’t give a fuck about feelings.
Democrats are the party of a narcissistic elite. Sure, Trump’s a narcissist too, but he’s not a patch on Obama and the Harris level of delusion. I actually have no dog in the fight as I’m Australian, but I do know that this cult of unempathetic people who want people like me dead is an enemy. Maybe I should preemptively unfriend them first before I get unmasked, tarred and feathered online.
Excellent article! A thoughtful articulation of failed narratives and perspectives! The story about Henry was truly on point. I also resonate with your light introduction of moral frameworks. In my substack, the Common Sense Papers, I have about 9 political essays on the need for a moral compass in society.
Great work! And great substack name.
Articles like this , 'This is why democrats keep losing etc.' always gives me the underlying impression of "if Dems would just tack more to the right i.e the center they'd get more votes'
The democrats have largely done that starting with Bill Clinton in the 90s. The result? He we are with an authoritarian GOP that controls all three branches of government. The Democrats need to go back to their pre 1990s FDR working class roots and quit the centrist nonsense.
I love this piece. Well thought out and honestly something I've been saying for awhile. Bravo.