We Need To Talk About The Smart Stupid Person.

[Initech]

I'm not talking about your average under educated Trump voter, they're beyond saving. I'm talking about the educated Trump voters. The small business owners. The small and large business employees and managers. The medium sized businesses managers. The researchers. The travellers. The people with advanced degrees. Who vote republican because they got bit by the Fox News bug? I've known and seen lots of people morph from being once liberal into becoming liberal bashing Fox bots who think Obama is the devil because they watch too much Fox News and were convinced that we're the enemy. It's not the hardcore Trump fans we need to win over, they'll never join our side. But it's the people I mentioned that we need to have on our side. Which is why we need to take back the media. If we get equal footing in the media and start winning some converts, then maybe we can get these people back on our side. That's how you start flipping districts and winning people over.

[ProudLib72]

1. Agreed

I'm not sure how to achieve this, though. MSM is all about ratings that translate into $$$. And the way to get ratings is to sensationalize. Cold, hard facts are boring to the audience you mention.

A good statistic would be how many right wingers versus liberals watched the Comey testimony.

[ck4829]

2. Tell them that Alan Dershowitz and Ivanka Trump are the pseudo-liberals nobody should trust

Take apart easy to spread RW rhetoric... "I know it's not PC to ask this but where is the Trumpcare provision that eliminates the death panels?"

[Thomas Hurt]

3. While this is not something to ignore....you just need to get more

voters registered and to vote than last time. Huge number of people who are able to vote just don't care.

[lunasun]

4. Many are staunch republicans. Not sure they want to change thier outlook after all these years.

It may become easy to get people to turn away from trump but the whole Republican Party ideal is going to IMO be harder to do.

[Warpy]

5. The problem with the smart stupid person is that

s/he generally hasn't read anything but a magazine (if that) since they walked across the stage to collect the diploma certifying that s/he is a smart person. They are "informed" by TV. They get newspapers, local papers, and read sports sections and maybe do the crosswords; otherwise, they scan the headlines.

The small business owners want low taxes on their businesses and are suckers for the rhetoric that promises them but never delivers. A few got bit by the religion bug, especially when they had kids, so they know not to vote for anybody but the anti abortion party, even though that party never delivered much of anything there, either. Empty promises, I guess, are everything.

They're not exactly stupid, but they are ignorant of politics because they just aren't interested outside of major election years. Otherwise, they'd rather watch DWTS and sports and other entertainment because they work hard and are too tired to pay attention to something they don't particularly like.

The good news is that Orange Pustule is bad enough that he's forcing them to pay more attention than they'd like to.

[Initech]

6. I really hope this alt right nonsense is just a fad.

I hope it forces people to wake up to how much hate has become the new normal lately. And when kids are getting into the act, we definitely need to wake people up and get them out to vote.

Should we start calling them "Smart Ignorant Voters" instead? I remember reading a study a while back that said that Fox News viewers are actually less informed than those that read and seek out information about what's happening in the world around them. These are the people who I think need to be informed.

How many times have we seen it where there's a mass shooting, and the next day people show up in droves to gun shops to buy assault rifles as a way to say "fuck you" to liberals? How many times have we seen big corporations destroy the environment like what happened in the Gulf Of Mexico, and then the conservative government rolls back regulations on big businesses to allow them further pollute the environment? Or just yesterday when the conservative House voted to roll back Dodd Frank as another way of pissing off liberals? It's like they pride themselves on being assholes and it's time we stop this. I hope Trump is waking people up to how much they're being screwed.

[ck4829]

7. Maybe a tough love approach is best

Things like buying guns after a mass shooting IS privilege.

They think loss won't come for them, they think cuts will never come to their neck of the woods, and they think it will always be darker skinned people with funny religions will be the ones the government comes bursting into their homes in the middle of the night calling them a terrorist... never them.

My love is with my nephew who has a rare disease, the Muslim coworker in my circle who if you looked up "adorable" in the dictionary then you would see her picture, my other friends and family, and other "others". I'm tired of these righties.

We're coddling the alt-right types, maybe it's time to find ways to cut them off.

[Initech]

10. I agree.

I live in California, a state people love to bash for its' left leaning major cities like LA, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Fresno, and strong economy. But what they don't know is that California funds a lot of the states that don't have as strong of an economy. If California ever were to leave the union, those states would lose that money. But thanks to pundits, the clergy, and Fox News, the people have been convinced that anything liberal is the devil when it's quite the opposite. Perhaps cutting those states off would force them to rethink their lifestyle.

[hunter]

8. Television news needs to die. And I think it is.

Every cable subscriber is paying $3.00 to Fox News whether they watch it or not. That's one reason I won't pay for television; not cable, not satellite, not even broadcast. My television plays movies, commercial free, that's all it does.

Television news is inherently propaganda, left, center, or right.

The "left" in the U.S. is centrist, we are a center-right nation, maybe a third of U.S. Americans are fascists or easily swayed by fascist ideologies. My own personal politics are left of Democratic Underground, but I'm a practical voter who enthusiastically supported Obama and Hillary Clinton. I have little respect for third party leftists.

I think there's something about the human mind that sees television as more "real" than other much more reliable information sources. It's not. This unfortunate human maladaptation to visual stimuli is also why so much money is spent on political television advertising.

If you want to sway Fox News zombies, convince them to turn off the fucking television.

Much radio is also pernicious, but radio is a medium that is definitely dying. Younger people would rather listen to their own music and podcasts than suffer old farts ranting and religious freaks.

[Vinca]

9. A little while ago CNN interviewed a bunch of people in a coastal Virginia town who are losing

said town to the ocean at the rate of 16 feet a year. They make their living crabbing and most of them sound like they can form a sentence and count to ten. That said, 87% of them voted for Trump. They all agree they don't care what Trump thinks about climate change, they just want him to build a giant wall for them to keep the sea out. One guy said he loves Trump like a member of his family. What the hell has to happen to these people to make them realize they've been conned by the master con artist??? It just blows my mind.

[Awsi Dooger]

11. I'm afraid only a strong white male would have any impact

Pulling a few percent toward our side, if only briefly.

I know many small business owners as described in the OP. I have season tickets to Canes basketball games and sit next to several who fit the description. We arrive early and talk about one subject after another. White males in their 50s and early 60s. They are alums who blame Obamacare for everything, to the point of obsession. That's why I was hoping Hillary during the debates would emphasize the need to keep the great aspects of the bill while doing something to help small business owners. Maybe it wasn't possible. Trump would have blatantly lied without flinch or concern.

As a middle aged white male myself, who hears all the slant from conservative friends, I'm convinced that type will not vote for another black man and will always doubt and likely reject a woman. We badly need to fortify the governorship ranks and find some Bill Clinton types who can talk to those key segments without being immediately rejected.

There's been some talk here that the election was stolen so all the criticism of Hillary is invalid. Both can be true. We're knuckleheads if we ignore the white working class departure. Our lowered share of that block simply puts too much burden on other demographics...percentages that aren't logical or sustainable.

I don't care about the midlife crossover types, the ones who change ideology. There is always anecdotal evidence and tons of hype but overall it is not a major trend. Bottom line we need more newly registered young voters to self-describe as liberals. Just 2 or 3% more. Amazing cleanser. Right now we're at that 3/2 disadvantage of self-identified conservatives over liberals. That dictates outcomes and lends itself to self examination all over the place. If it moved to 5/4 as in 35%-28% then we own margin for error. It doesn't have to be equality.