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In reply to the discussion: So I'm in line at the grocery store, and the lady in front of me used Food stamps and the guy in [View all]DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)This is so refreshing! Understandably this board has been inundated by the 10,000 iterations of "we have to understand why we got the white working class angry at us and must trying to make amends or else we will lose every election forever! Now, let me be blunt. Yes, we do have to figure out why our message is not getting out to certain parts of the country. That is not a new issue, it has been an issue ever since Nixon did his "Southern strategy" that in effect turned a lot of the former union members against the Democratic Party. Yes we are still stunned from those "Reagan Democrats", or "independent voters that for some reason always vote Republican", or any of 1000 little iterations that we are very used to seeing.
However, we cannot forget one thing: a lot of these conservative voters like to bully. Let's be honest, America likes bullies, whether they are on the football field, the reality television shows, the board rooms, are comic books, or any number of ways. We can try to go ahead and be reasonable, but the fact is unless we show our opponents that we can and will land a left hook to their job to match the ones they are aiming below are belts and at our guts they will not respect us. Sadly, this, reasonableness is interpreted as weakness. Actually we know that the word they would use is not weakness but we cannot go ahead and use that sort of language here on DU, if nothing else because it would show a lot of racial, gender, intellectual slurs. Simply put, of only all the sudden run to the hills when they realize the people that they have bullied are not going to go ahead and take their crap anymore, yes they may go ahead and try to get verbally friends to teach that uppity person unless and. I have had times on this board where people have talked to me and said that they would "straighten me out", and these are supposed liberals. The Internet is like the phenomenon they used to call "beer muscles", were a lot of people who fancy themselves at war years start shaking their fist, even though anyone who actually saw the person behind the curtain would realize that they are anything but the alpha males they think they are. This is where we pulled the curtains away and make it clear that if people are going to feel emboldened by Mr. Trump to let their inner demons fly out of their mouth and vomit on our face that we will at the very least call them out for the weaklings they are and very possibly make them get a mop and bucket and clean up their mess. If they don't then they can be relegated to the second-class citizenship they rightfully deserve not one based on race creed or color but simply because they choose to enjoy ignorant behavior at other people's expense.
Some people some of them in Congress some of them in the checkout line are thinking that the way that they are going to get through these four years is by holding their mouth shut and ignoring people when they go ahead and papal antics. I have news for you, yes sometimes discretion is the better part of valor, but when you deal with an aggressive, vicious sort that has been told they will not feel and need repercussions for their actions, that does not help you. Even if you have placated them, compromised with them, flattered them, try to understand them, all that they are going to think is that you were weak and that they have a God-given right to abuse you, use you, and discard you. It sure as hell doesn't help that the churches, the networks, and yes clerks in the checkout line will be encouraging all of this. The enemy does not just want a piece of the pie, they want the pie, the bakery, and everything else, and when they get everything else, they're going to the plane that they are still not getting all they want, so we will try to find someone else to mess with. If we're lucky, their response will be "let's find a new person to make war with" because frankly the Chinese are not going to stand for that.