Trump Is Making America So Goddamn Dumb

[FriendlyFire]

Honestly how many of the Deploreables actually believe what Trump says ? ...... wait dont answer that
Is there some connotative dissidence that prevents the majority of Republicans from drawing the right conclusions ? Like it was under G.W.Bush another unbelievably dumb president that was re-elected and it took Republicans to personally get it good and hard to make the obvious connection

The other conclusion is that The base after being subjected to decades of propaganda has been made ready for a con-man like Trump to exploit.
The Republican based has time and time again brought into the Republican message, and Republicans never seem to be able to deliver. Thus you have an increasingly angry base of disillusioned voters. Then comes Trump whom sees these problems and actually promises simple and easy solutions to complex problems.

Dont worry the tax cuts, deregulation, dismantling Obamacare and the trade wars are baked in, the damage cannot be mitigated at this stage no matter what Trump dose, and Republicans are going to get it gooder and harder then ever.

Trump Is Making America So Goddamn Dumb
If you listen to him, you might think California doesn't have enough water to properly fight its wildfires. Don't listen to him.

Donald Trump is on vacation this week at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, where "his staff have largely given up on futile efforts to supervise him, leaving the president's schedule open and unstructured," Axios reports. Trump is probably filling that time watching TV (especially TV starring Trump) and aimlessly scrolling through social media until he decides to tweet something himself. On Monday, that "something" was an inexplicable riff about California's wildfires:

Like a huge chunk of what Trump puts out into the world, these tweets have to be extensively unpacked for anyone to even begin to grasp what they're intended to convey. California firefighters say they have plenty of water. As for "must also tree clear," a wildfire expert told the New York Times that California has spent millions to reduce the risk of fires while the federal government hasn't done squat. The weirdest idea in here—that water is being diverted to the sea and away from fighting fires—is possibly a reference to the long-running conflict between farmers who want to use water for irrigation and environmentalists concerned about fish habitats—but there's no connection between that debate and the fires, unless you live under Trump's hair.

The problem is that Trump commands that trust while spouting off garbled right-wing talking points. As recently as last year, a poll found that 51 percent of Republicans thought Obama definitely or probably was born in Kenya, no doubt in large part thanks to Trump's spreading of that racist conspiracy theory. Given results like that, I have no doubt some of his supporters think the wildfires might be put out already if that no-good Democrat Jerry Brown would just stop sending water out to sea. They likely aren't all that worried about climate change, the larger catastrophe that's probably making these fires more common. Believing what Trump says very often serves to make you a less informed person. That may sound elitist, but there's no other succinct way to put it.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vbjpvm/trump-is-making-america-so-goddamn-dumb

 

[Berzerker]

Trump's a thumb in the eye of the political class from the working class.

 

[Gori the Grey]

What's the "political class"?
And how do these two classes bear on Trump's tweet about fighting fires in California?
How would the working class like to see fires fought differently than the political class would like to see them fought?

 

[danjuno]

>Trump
>Working class
Pick one.

 

[Berzerker]

What's the "political class"?
And how do these two classes bear on Trump's tweet about fighting fires in California?
How would the working class like to see fires fought differently than the political class would like to see them fought?

I was responding to FF's commentary, he didn't mention the fires. The political class in this context includes people on both the left and right, from the cultural elite to Wall St and the 'free traders'.

edit: I dont want to derail the thread if FF wants to talk about the fires, but I got the impression he wanted to know how people could support Trump.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Trump's a thumb in the eye of the political class from the working class.

Iam pretty sure that the working class / farmers have just set their own homes on fire
I guess they can take comfort in ending both the Bush and Clinton political dynasties (which in iteself is worthwhile, except they elected an even greater con-man into power instead of electing a FDR or a Linlcon which is what the country really needs)

I was responding to FF's commentary, he didn't mention the fires. The political class in this context includes people on both the left and right, from the cultural elite to Wall St and the 'free traders'.
edit: I dont want to derail the thread if FF wants to talk about the fires, but I got the impression he wanted to know how people could support Trump.

The hollowing out of Rual America is real, But Trump has sold a stupid dumb solution
Its like those old poor desperate Rual people whom have cancer and no healthcare, they sending all their money to televangelist promising miracle cures and wealth. All you have to do is believe and $end money.

 

[Berzerker]

well, Lincoln was a protectionist

 

[Broken_Erika]

well, Lincoln was a protectionist

Yeah but, that was a different time, back then you could get away with protectionism. Now globalization has gone so far that there's no going back without crashing and burning.

 

[Hygro]

Trump's a thumb in the eye of the political class from the working class. upper middle class suburbanites as the working class voted for Clinton.

Made an edit for accuracy.

 

[FriendlyFire]

well, Lincoln was a protectionist

This reminds me of the Confederate states that decided to start a TRADE WAR with Europe, and then all their cotton was soon rotting unsold in the open.


If Trump was an real protectionist, he would have carefully planned, with numerous contingencies and prepared the US economy for transition
Who knew protectionism would be so complicated ?

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Trump doesn't make his base crazy. They like him because they are already crazy.
The only people he's driving to insanity are "moderate liberals" who are now looking back at friggin George W. Bush and thinking "This guy actually wasn't that bad."

>Trump
>Working class
Pick one.

He's tacky, loud and antiintellectual.
He has !working class appeal" because apart from the golf he doesn't behave like a rich rich person, he behaves like the sitcom version of an uneducated slob who just won the lottery. At least on the surface. He probably never had a job where he had a boss, and I wouldn't be surprised if he never drove his own car or bought his own groceries or cooked his own meal.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I think President Trump is nothing but the product of fear. Mostly fear to globalisation and racial fear, but also fear to anyone apparently smarter than oneself. So they switched on TV and voted for the whiter and dumbest thing they found there.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

The other conclusion is that The base after being subjected to decades of propaganda has been made ready for a con-man like Trump to exploit.

That's the one. For years the Republicans have been spouting a ridiculous, over the top narrative as advertising slogans to win election campaigns.

Now they got someone buying the claim that yeah, Gillette actually is the best thing a man can get. Lets get everyone Gillettes and solve all our problems.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

I wouldn't really expect Vice to know, but the water tweet is very prescient to southern California farmers and a subject that is very important to the California conservative base. It seems nonsensical and it sort of is but it also touches a topic lots of rural conservatives in the state are mad about, even if the actual policy regarding smelt and water diversion is so insignificant compared to what agriculture uses yearly. The fire part is stupid and has nothing to do with it but people in the area will understand what he's talking about.

 

[EgonSpengler]

The other conclusion is that The base after being subjected to decades of propaganda has been made ready for a con-man like Trump to exploit.

That's the one. For years the Republicans have been spouting a ridiculous, over the top narrative as advertising slogans to win election campaigns.

Now they got someone buying the claim that yeah, Gillette actually is the best thing a man can get. Lets get everyone Gillettes and solve all our problems.

Yup. Trump has done almost none of the "leg work." American conservatives have been pitching knuckleballs in the dirt for at least 40 years, and people keep swinging at them. Reagan is as far back as my own memory goes, and of course he's been all but sanctified since he died.

Story Time: Shortly after the 2016 election, a radio show was taking calls from listeners, and asked Trump voters who were willing to talk about it. A woman called, I think she said she was a nurse in the Upper Midwest. She said she had voted for Obama, and she liked him, she thought he was a good man and had done some good things in office, but she felt we needed a change. She felt we needed a businessman in office, and she thought that providing corporations with tax breaks would help the economy. She described "Trickle-Down Economics" almost verbatim, although she never used that phrase. She had obviously swallowed 40 years of Republican bathwater. Of course this is just one woman's story, but I can't help thinking that she represents millions of working people across the country who've been sold a bill of goods for at least a couple of generations.

 

[sophie]

The Republican Party learned a long time ago that the narrative which gets out first is the narrative which runs. It's better to get your spin out early and stick to it than to waste time fretting over being precisely correct. The Democrat platform should align closely with working class values, but the Democratic leadership just is and historically has been awful at selling that message quickly and digestibly. This is why Obama was so successful in 2008.

 

[Farm Boy]

Made an edit for accuracy.

But that breaks the culture war over if the less wealthy Trump voters are underdogs you'd like back in the fold or if they're *******. Actually, the breakdown on that roughly correlates with (inter)nationality. Huh. Weird, eh?

 

[timtofly]

Yup. Trump has done almost none of the "leg work." American conservatives have been pitching knuckleballs in the dirt for at least 40 years, and people keep swinging at them. Reagan is as far back as my own memory goes, and of course he's been all but sanctified since he died.

Story Time: Shortly after the 2016 election, a radio show was taking calls from listeners, and asked Trump voters who were willing to talk about it. A woman called, I think she said she was a nurse in the Upper Midwest. She said she had voted for Obama, and she liked him, she thought he was a good man and had done some good things in office, but she felt we needed a change. She felt we needed a businessman in office, and she thought that providing corporations with tax breaks would help the economy. She described "Trickle-Down Economics" almost verbatim, although she never used that phrase. She had obviously swallowed 40 years of Republican bathwater. Of course this is just one woman's story, but I can't help thinking that she represents millions of working people across the country who've been sold a bill of goods for at least a couple of generations.

Cutting corporate taxes will not work if you are going for a more socialist economy, and socialist will always gripe, just like free market types will always gripe the government is taking all the capital for social good. Welfare is just as fickle a trickle down economic. It is just coming from the government that seems cold and distant instead of one's local job provider.

 

[Lexicus]

The Republican Party learned a long time ago that the narrative which gets out first is the narrative which runs. It's better to get your spin out early and stick to it than to waste time fretting over being precisely correct. The Democrat platform should align closely with working class values, but the Democratic leadership just is and historically has been awful at selling that message quickly and digestibly. This is why Obama was so successful in 2008.

Democrats lose basically because they are still trying to earnestly explain why their policies are good for the country. Republicans are light-years ahead of this. The Democrats are barely figuring out framing, but Republicans have understood for decades that you don't need strong arguments or facts if you prepare the ground properly with framing.

 

[Old Hippy]

What's the "political class"?
And how do these two classes bear on Trump's tweet about fighting fires in California?
How would the working class like to see fires fought differently than the political class would like to see them fought?

the working class would like to fight the fires by back burning using "the political class" as fuel