NYTs-
…stereotyping of Trump voters is not only illiberal, it falsely presumes Mr. Trump won because of his worst comments about women and minorities rather than despite them.
In fact, had those people who agreed that Mr. Trump lacked “a sense of decency” voted for Mrs. Clinton, she would have been elected the next president.
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump equally won over party loyalists. Yet about one in five voters did not have a favorable view of either candidate. These voters overwhelmingly backed Mr. Trump. Exit polls demonstrated that if voters who disapproved of both candidates had divided evenly between them, Mrs. Clinton would have won.
Several weeks before the election, a Quinnipiac University poll found that 51 percent of white working-class voters did not believe that Mr. Trump had a “sense of decency” and ranked Mrs. Clinton slightly higher on that quality.
But they were not voting on decency. Indeed, one-fifth of voters — more than 25 million Americans — said they “somewhat” disapproved of Mr. Trump’s treatment of women. Mr. Trump won three-quarters of these voters, despite their disapprobation.
Bluntly put, much of the white working class decided that Mr. Trump could be a jerk. Absent any other champion, they supported the jerk they thought was more on their side — that is, on the issues that most concerned them.
Despite being called a “Trump worshipper,” this was my opinion.
I still worry every day what Trump might “say.”
I’m not worried about what he will do, I just feel like he has the potential to say things that can make him look, personally, like a jerk.
I can live with that as long as we have this pact that the left-wing media no longer has any ratf**king ability. (All of their efforts to shame voters out of picking the better choice because Trump was a cornucopia of “ists and isms” went for naught. I love that.) I need this “jerk” to undo the bigger jerk’s 8 year reign.
Trump manages to control the news cycle of all the MSM with what he says and the things the MSM get most outraged over turn out to be common sense when looked at without the propaganda filter.
If you look at all the comments you think make Trump “look like a jerk”, look at what he actually said (not what the media reports) and compare them to any other president at any time, you’ll find Trump’s “jerk” factor to be no worse and probably far less egregious than anyone else’s.
Here’s an excellent article about the media’s distortions of Trump’s common sense comments: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-11-20/election-rejection-liberal-hatred-and-hypocrisy-rage-violence-due-biased-media
The left-wing media still has PLENTY ratf**king ability.
The only difference is that the American public could afford to ignore it…THIS TIME.
Come the next big “crisis” (e.g. economic crash), the willpower of many will crumble, and will become as susceptible as before, I suspect.
Human nature and all that stuff, being what it is….
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It’s hard to know what to make of such a NYT article: if they’re trying to scrape together a bit of credibility by pretending to appear “balanced,” or just pretending to suck up to the few Trump-supporting readers they may still have.
In either case, the NYT building will make a GREAT new Trump Tower Condo building!
I voted for the more competent person who wants to lower taxes, reduce the government, rebuild the military, and close the borders. Period.
The “New York Times”, come on people, how easy does it have to get to read through the underlying bullshit.
And the New York Times never elected Clinton, but not for lack of trying!
There are secondary reasons, but the main reason I voted for DJT is that his policy positions and general attitude anger and frighten people in the elite PTB that I am delighted to see angry and frightened. As Gingrich put it, he’s gonna kick over the table.
I was going to post a comment — the usual stuff about how the media lies (and of course the NYTs worse than most) and I was going to question the idea of whether Trump is a jerk, but Page’OTurner has it exactly right on most points.
However, it’s a poor argument to start with; to be an apologist for Trump’s jerkiness is assuming those who say he’s one are right to begin with. They’re not, as PO’T points out.
But I’m trying to understand, Fur, why you are so fearful of being a viewed as a “Trump Worshipper” and “worrying every day what Trump might ‘say'”. Every day grown up men and women go totally nuts over their favorite sports teams, even to the point of painting their faces team colors, wearing all the teamwear, head to toe; they fork over the big bucks, starting with game tickets but that’s just the beginning — there’s everything under the sun you can buy that touts your teams’ official logos, and it ain’t cheap. In this circle you’d be mocked as un-serious if you said it’s “only a game.” Well, but it is only a game! It’s not just “only” a game, it is precisely a game.
I think it’s only right, then, that someone who champions and cheers on a guy who put his real, personal pursuit of happiness on the line in order to well and truly save what is left of a hell of lot more yardage than you’ll find on a football field, has not only the right but the obligation to do so. Yeah, that’s what I think. And sometimes I’ll even *courageously* wear my MAGA hat when I do it.
As to this business of buying into the “jerk” label, all I ever saw and heard was the unvarnished truth. It would be par for the course in this day and age if that is construed as being a jerk. It would. Since we’re admonished to “check our white privilege”, we should be checking our political correctness while we’re at it because some of us have vestiges of public education that are embarrassingly obvious.
That is not a safe path, Mr. Hat. If we forgive people for their public pronouncements and only hold them accountable for their later acts, soon we’ll be expected to hold people accountable for their acts regardless of their later public pronouncements. Then where will we be?
Trump has a very long way to go to have anything he says make him look like a bigger jerk than Obama.
As usual, the New York Times has it wrong. Trump was elected as a result of bigotry, but it was bigotry on the left that gave Trump the Presidency.
Leftists are egalitarians, which is a trait of bigotry, as well as traditional bigots. They believe they know what blacks want and need, which not only presupposes that these folks cannot think or act for themselves, but has resulted in 50 years of failed policies. They believe that white, middle class people, and particularly males, are uneducated rubes who are dangerous to “normal” values. They believe that women should adhere to leftist feminist values and not have the right to choose their own path in life. They believe that anyone who questions the science behind climate change is evil instead of curious or questioning. They are surprised that Latinos frequently disagree with their values. They pit special interest groups against each other for political gain.
I have spent many years living among liberals and leftists, and they are almost univerally egalitarian, condesending and insufferable. Trump is, rightfully so, proud that he is a billionaire, yet was able to connect with the common man and articulate positions compatible with their beliefs. Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, was unable to openly admit that she is filthy rich, openly contemptuous of middle America, and proposed to dictate how people should live and what they should believe.
You decide which one was the bigot, and if America rejected that bigotry.
I also am concerned with what Trump says, especially on that damned Twitter account of his. Remember when Kellyanne took his twitter phone away from him during the campaign, to keep him from shooting off at the mouth, and blowing off his own feet in process? I realize he now uses that to circumvent the MSM, and get his message out to the people. I only hope, like BFH, that he uses it wisely, as he is no longer just a candidate, no longer just a Big Apple inhabitant with what all that implies. He needs to realize now he is the President Elect, and what he says matters a great deal. You do not give your enemies truckloads of ammo to keep shooting at you, unless you are bathhouse barry. You lay seige to their supply lines and starve them to death.
I listened to damn near every word at every rally, every speech and every interview that Trump has spoken since he entered the race. Not once did I construe anything he said as coming out of the mouth of a jerk. But I’ll be damned, there sure were a lot of people that tried to convince me so.
@MAGA Trumper — I’d like to suggest, if I may, that you and others who are worried about Trump’s unfettered Tweeting that it needs to be looked at in a different light. You have it right that Trump uses that mode of communication in order to speak directly (to the people, to heads of state, etc.). The concern seems to spring from, as you wrote, “You do not give your enemies truckloads of ammo to keep shooting at you, unless you are bathhouse barry.” The way I see it (now) is who cares what our enemies say? Our enemies have never been able to defend their positions without resorting to lying about us and trying to convince others of our evil intentions. We’re “deplorable and irredeemable” people. Additionally, Trump is finally changing (and owning) “the rules”, making it possible for all of us to know what the heck is really going on in the world. It may not be pretty all the time, but he’s facing — and helping everyone face — the plain truth of things. When he tweeted that the Chinese should just keep our drone, for example, he was telling them and the world that what they did was plain theft (which underscored the Chinese method of ‘product development’) and they don’t hold any power to send us begging for it back. When he tweeted about Merkel’s complicity in Germany’s ISIS crisis, he only said out loud what sane people the world over are thinking. He is showing the kind of leadership the world needs for its many problems and he does it in 140 characters (or less). As Gingrich recently said, “It’s brilliant.”
One of the reasons I voted for Trump was for what he said and how he said it. He said things he knew would send the leftist media into a frenzy, and they fell for it every time. He played them like a fiddle, and the harder the media hacks tried to smear him for his non PC language, the more support he got. Trump was and is a giant middle finger to the MSM, the political establishment, Obama, and leftism. I don’t think he would have won if he had been more reserved and politically correct.
“I also am concerned with what Trump says, especially on that damned Twitter account of his.”
I can understand that. I have a friend like Trump. LMAO. But a solid person all around and this person does not suffer for it because of their general attitude outside of the snarkiness, etc.
Remember, no matter what Trump does / says, the unhinged left will be on his ass like he just set fire to a warehouse full of kittens. So they don’t matter.
Also, I seem to remember a lot of us being upset about how our candidates don’t fight back, whether it’s a minute or a large charge thrown their way. We prayed and we demanded those candidates be someone with balls, someone who would point fingers back. Someone who’d call them liars, say 0bma’s middle name without wetting themselves, some who would talk about the media’s mamas! Remember?
Weeelll… Be careful what you ask for, I guess. LOL. 😉
I think everyone, myself included, has the ability to say stupid things. But I’m not the president. And I don’t mean this as a “the president should have more decorum” comment.
Screw decorum. I’m talking bout having a sense of proportion.
Whereas Trump taking to twitter and slamming any perceived enemies, no matter how low on the ladder they resided, was looked upon as an asset for people looking to have a fighter in their corner, I don’t think it will serve him well going forward when he is the leader of the free world and he’s on twitter talking about some forgettable crunt on the View.
Sorry, I think I’m right about this.
I think if he continues to do that, post election, it will make him look like a jerk.
Do I care if he looks like a jerk?
Ya, I don’t want to have to be talking about that. I want to focus on righting this ship. It takes a lot of effort and focus to do that.
Yeah, that’s true. He doesn’t need to be talking about whoopi goldberg’s eyebrowless forehead, but once his twitter account says POTUS, that’s going to change. I hope. LOL.
I don’t care if he looks, or sounds, like a jerk to some people sometimes. If he gets the job done, he doesn’t have to be perfect for me. So far he has and made me laugh along the way. Being perfect is over rated, believe me 🙂
And I forgot to add- Is he a ‘douche bag’? Yeah, okay. But a fun douchebag. lol. Better to have a jovial upbeat pro-America guy than a lying, anti- American, evil, POS daddy issues douchebag like 0bama or hillary.
The left has been large and in charge and THEY set the tone. It’s the age of the loud and boisterous, guys.
Nothing less would have gotten us a Republican president. Fight fire with fire. This election, the loud, boisterous, fun douchebag was the bat to the left’s knees, chests and back of the necks. And I’m okay with it. lol.
OK I’m like Colombo here. Jus one more thing…
It’s the Left’s own fault they got Trump. HA!
OK, bye.
BFH: SOMEBODY has to expose Whoopi Goldberg as an idiot. Maybe someday that job won’t fall exclusively to Trump. Lord knows Barbara Walters won’t.
And Rosie O’Donnell is a pig.
The media has no problem with Obama denigrating entire swaths of the US population. Is it only because he doesn’t mention specific people by name?
@AbigailAdams – I agree with you. The hue and cry over Trump’s twitter account is the left’s effort to silence him. They – and their media hand jobbers – want all communication, information, story shading to come THRU THEM.
Trump has let it be known that won’t happen and he makes sure people subscribe to and keep reading his twitter feed by giving them click bait just like the propagandists he’s up against.
Trump learned the media’s ways during his divorce from Ivana in New York in the ’80’s. He’s better at it than they are now.
For every clickbait “jerk” comment, he provides 20 that expose the swamp dwelling elite and their motives.
@Fur — Okay, I can’t pass up the chance to play devil’s advocate and it’s an interesting subject you’ve chosen, too.
1. Trump is being described as the first “Citizen President” and because of that he is increasingly endeared by those that brung him for his frank tweets on all kinds of subjects. His personal approval rating went up 11 points since October and now sits at 51% “favorable.” That’s pretty big for someone the Left describes as a bad person. So, who is really annoyed at his tweeting, the Left?
2. People love that he punches back on anyone who takes the first swing. The days of mannerly, but wholly ineffective, RINOs taking it on the chin are over.
3. What is the point in taking the likes of Whoopi Goldberg seriously all this time — in the interest of keeping a finger on the pulse of popular culture and politics — if we can’t counter-attack the things she says. Why be so upset over people saying “Whoopi who?” as a way to dismiss these idiots but then hogtie the only person who can squash her like a bug with a single sentence?
@PO’T — Exactly right. Can’t wait for his first State of the Union address!
PO’T, AA,
I see your points. What I don’t get is why you would care that I worry that he might say stupid things on his Twitter feed, or that he might say something jerky?
He has that potential. You can’t deny that.
And I’m in no way softening on support, or faith, or hope. I say right in the original post that I do not fear anything Trump will DO (meaning policy, or “starting a nuclear war!!”)
I felt this way about Trump all along and I never wavered, especially once it was clear that enough people weren’t supporting Cruz, and that Cruz didn’t have the “it” factor,
(Sorry, folks. You don’t just point at the most conservative guy in the room, put him on the ticket and magically they become president. It takes more than that, and Cruz didn’t have it.)
I am just looking forward to posting about positive Trump policy, the undoing of Obama, the march rightward, the recruitment of former left-wing voters who have been shown the power of capitalism done right, etc.
I really, really, really don’t want to see him typing angrily with his thumbs about something Perez Hilton says.
I’m not sure why this comment of mine bothers you. You can’t tell me that this shouldn’t be a concern of mine. The best you can do is say ‘I told you so” after his administration is over.
One last clarification.
Yes, we loved Trump’s spunk and moxie when he took it to the people on Twitter because it showed a fighter, and that’s what we needed.
But when you recruit an attack dog to go after rats because it showed promise when he liked chasing butterflies, when the dog is finally on the job you want him to forget about the butterflies.
I think he’s easily baited by the butterflies.
“bad Trump tweet” = jerk
IS OLD-SCHOOL THINKING
Think – instead – that each tweet is a
NAIL IN THE COFFIN
of the MSM and old-style of political media communication.
THEY lose.
WE win.
Latest Trump tweet the left is up in arms about:”The United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad”
It’s about time someone in a position to change things owned up to it. That he can do it in 140 characters is to be commended.
I supported and continue to support DJT. I sense the underlying concern, if you can call it that, is the difference between being the boss on a TV show like the Apprentice, also head of a business empire, and being the President. I credit Trump with having mega common sense, and trust he will adapt and be the most effective President thus far in our 240 yrs as a nation. It is oversimplification, I know, to speak of TV series vs reality. But often, what is unsaid is what is relevant.
I recall one thing that was an issue for Dwight D Eisenhower was when elected President, he expected orders to be carried out like when he was General of the Armies. There were subtle differences. Trump will adapt, and realize what he has now is far greater than head of his business empire. I hold a good feeling about our new President.
@Fur — I guess it’s how you look at it. You worry about him being a jerk (I think I got that part right) and I don’t think he’s a jerk. I think just the opposite. I know the Left thinks he a jerk because they’re the Left and they like to control what we all think is good and bad. It’s not even that I ignore his “jerk-y” tweets or other statements. I don’t even see them — and don’t believe they’re there. Like you, I don’t want to see him tweeting to Perez Hilton and the like, but if she said something stupid like attack conservative values then, yes, fire away. In fact I think it’s more appropriate for Trump to bash the stupid Progressives than Sean Spicer, for example. I don’t think Trump is dum-dum enough to just get in a pissing match over trivial junk.
One last point, too: To your point on butterflies, our culture is so saturated with Leftist thought and bias that nothing from them seems like butterflies anymore; it’s all big stuff. And even if we could characterize it as trivial it seems that’s how we got here in the first place — letting all the small stuff slide (death by a 1000 cuts). Trump’s got high energy, I think he can go after all of it, big and small.