… by a member of the coastal elite.
On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., we had lunch with a highly educated highly paid person who expressed hatred of Donald Trump and the kind of people who would vote for him. She has a law degree and works for a government agency managing a team of attorneys who process “civil rights complaints” against the agency. What constitutes a civil rights complaint? “It is almost always an employee suing the agency for race, sex, or some other kind of discrimination,” she explained. “I don’t do any of the litigation myself, but only manage the attorneys who do. It isn’t fulfilling or meaningful, but it lets me attend all of my kids’ school events.”
One thing that she hated about Trump was his withdrawal from the Paris agreement (the same Wikipedia article notes that none of the big countries that have agreed to the agreement have actually delivered on their pledges). She described her own practice of trying to reuse plastic wrap and belief that if everyone did that it would result in a significant reduction in fossil fuel use and CO2 emissions. (She lives in the suburbs and drives everywhere in a private gasoline-powered vehicle, consistent with “study finds climate change skeptics are more likely to behave in eco-friendly ways than those who are highly concerned about the issue”.)
She was yet more passionate on the subject of immigration. Trump was obstructing her ability to hire immigrants, e.g., to maintain her suburban yard. “They’re doing jobs that Americans won’t do,” she pointed out.
Her lobbyist husband had dangerous libertarian tendencies that she had tolerated thus far. However, she believed that he would vote for Donald Trump if Elizabeth Warren were to be nominated by the Democrats. “I would have to divorce him,” she noted seriously and without mentioning that the well-being of her two young children was being factored into her decision.
(As the lower earning spouse, she would likely come out as the winner of the winner-take-all contest set up by Maryland family law, so divorce for her would mean little change in spending power and she’d have significant blocks of time completely free for Tindering among the righteous while the Warren-resisting father cared for the children.)
I tried to gently point out that a lot of the people who voted for Democrats happened to be those who benefited from a larger government. Thus, they might be said to be voting their pocketbook just as they accused Trump voters of doing. She replied that, when voting, she thought only of her children and the future of the planet rather than herself.
After the lunch party broke up, a fellow attendee (also a senior government worker and a voter for Democrats) and I discussed this woman’s perspective. We agreed that she simply did not like having to share the U.S. with the kind of fellow citizen who would vote for Donald Trump. Her beef was not actually with Trump, whom she agreed is merely doing what he promised to do, but rather with her fellow citizens who were and are Trump supporters.
> “They’re doing jobs that Americans won’t do,”
… for the wages she’s willing to pay. How many Americans would do her gardening if she paid $50/hr?
> did not like having to share the U.S. with the kind of fellow citizen who would vote for Donald Trump.
… so in America anti-democratic people identify as democrats? What a country!
We agreed that she simply did not like having to share the U.S. with the kind of fellow citizen who would vote for Donald Trump.
You offer no evidence for this assertion. However, the divorce comment does show that she’d rather not share her life with a Trump voter.
Her beef was not actually with Trump, whom she agreed is merely doing what he promised to do, but rather with her fellow citizens who were and are Trump supporters.
This point may be somewhat valid, but it’s uninteresting and a distraction. It would make more sense to say that she and many other Americans (recall that Trump lost the popular vote) disagree with certain policies currently taking effect.
TDS afflicts coastal elites strongly. I was talking to a college instructor after the election of Trump and he said that he and his family were scared for their lives because they are Jewish.
Of course nothing happened. He made sure to tell me what a terrible person I was for merely suggesting that Trump was a fairly centrist candidate that posed no threat.
My advice for those with TDS is to simply read “The America We Deserve” by Donald Trump. None have taken me up, but if they did at least they might have a book with horrible Trump quotes? What they would find is a book completely at odds with the current story in the news. It is so at odds, the news seemed to only quote it during the first campaign when they wanted to suggest he was not conservative enough…
The Jewish issue is close to comical since Trump has been the best US president for Israel since Harry Truman, has a Jewish daughter, Jewish grand kids, etc.
That book appears to be 20 years old. It’s unclear what the value in reading it would be. Trump’s been president for nearly three years. Americans can observe his actions for themselves. It’s the standard Republican pro-business, pro-rich guy agenda.
Vince: Trump has been a standard Republican president?!? If so, why are there hysterical doomsday headlines regarding Trump on a daily basis? How can we be in a national emergency if Trump is like Eisenhower?
The party has changed a lot since Eisenhower. The standard GOP president since Reagan would have been a more apt description.
The advice to read books falls on deaf ears. Those with the TDS do not read: they do not know how and they rather feel an urge to write. Writing–not reading–is where the real action is!
And why would a true progressive read anything other than the Little Red Book.? https://www.amazon.com/Quotations-Chairman-Mao-Tse-Tung/dp/097931190X
“The standard GOP president since Reagan would have been a more apt description.”
That doesn’t leave a lot of leeway. In other words, a Bush. Except, I guess, Trump tries to make peace rather than war and is not an NWO globalist. So maybe not much like each other after all.
Jack, kind of you to conflate “the Jewsh issue” with the state of Israel. Allows for conveniently ignoring his support for domestic white power organisations and movements. Look no further than the appointment of Stephen Miller.
Also I’d say that Trump unilaterally breaking off the non-proliferation treaty with Iran is not doing Israel any favours.
Obama always says if you like your Trump Derangement Syndrome you can keep it!
I live in a coastal city and ride a bike and don’t love that Trump pulled out of the Paris Accord. I don’t feel like you represented all of us faithfully with your generalization from a single data point.
I have no idea how well countries were complying with the Paris accords, but Trump didn’t pull us out because it was toothless, he pulled us out because for some reason he’s decided to deny the science behind global warming. Oil lobby or standard republican platfom, I’m not sure. Either way, he’s damaging the ability to cooperate on a global issue that requires some amount of faith by all parties if we’re going to head off some very dangerous waters.
Re: global warming science, what is being reported (runaway temperatures, crisis!) is not what is actually being measured (little or no warming). 82% of NOAA’s measuring stations were found to be improperly sited near urban heat sources (eg: air conditioners, asphalt), so a “climate reference network” (USCRN) of pristine sensors was built. The USCRN says the US has actually cooled over the last 12 years (long enough to be statistically significant), yet NOAA continues to include data from improper sites to report there is warming (urban heat sources, not climate change?). Tony Heller’s youtube channel has many other examples of data tampering and cherry-picking.
I believe the reasons Trump decided to leave the Paris Agreement had nothing to do with either science of climate or his scientific views (does he have any?) It totally make sense for the coastal elites to detest Trump, but for a different reason.
The way I see it, the US departure from the Paris Agreement was a middle finger to the established world order. His hordes had just sacked the capital of the enemy empire. It is Trump’s shield nailed to the gates of Tsargrad: see http://allart.biz/photos/image/Oleg_shield.html . Well yes, if you ask any educated liberal, it must be the Russian influence–and the Jewish too (cf, the Rus Khaganate).
The coastal elites should be worried: historically, a new world order has meant a change in elites and the slaughter of the old ones.
Since USA quickly turns into a replica of late USSR, it’s helpful to learn terminology Russians have developed for the realities of woke life. The phrase of the day commonly used by Russians to describe likes of the aforementioned lady is “тупая пизда” (toopaya pizdah).
Does it mean what Google Translate says it is?
Russian cussing is notorious for its expressiveness (and often very nuanced and non-obvious to non-native speakers meanings: compare, for example хуёво (meaning very bad) vs охуенно (meaning very good) vs пиздец (meaning very bad) vs пиздато (very good again). I doubt automated translation is capable of parsing the actual meaning – this is like a language within the language, based on few word roots, but with highly idiomatic usage, complicated even more by the artful use of complex Russian grammar and nuances conveyed by word ordering. In the case I noted this idiom refers to a rather specific kind of women who are apt to be vocal about their opnions on subjects about which they know or understand next to nothing. The crass word in this case is used mostly as a gender signifier and for added emphasis, and not for its literal meaning.
Thank you!
We outnumber them 10 to 1, don’t be scared, the wrecking ball is about to swing.
Even lunatic liberals like this woman will be shocked when they learn Pelosi and Biden and all their idols have been stealing US foreign aid for themselves. (See Ukraine among other places)
The level of corruption by our ruling class, that has been going on for forty years, is staggering and will be exposed very soon.
The Coastal Elites need to get to a hillclimb every so often so that everyone can get to know each other better.
Don’t overthink it. Trump is a pathological liar who also happens to be a smug asshole and shady businessman.
You do know Trump has been an FBI asset for forty years? No?
You do know Comey is a good guy?
You do know the Mueller investigation was set up to trap the swamp and mostly corrupt Democrats under the guise of “Get Trump”?
You do know the Democratic Party is killing itself because the rank and file Dems are just now realizing they have been lied to by Pelosi, Feinstein etc,- the biggest crooks on the planet?
Trump has been his own worst enemy, consistently and with great relish and total commitment, since the day he was elected. If he had taken some very modest advice from a number of people who truly cared for his Presidency, who wanted him to succeed, he would have 60%+ approval ratings right now. The number and magnitude of his unforced errors, self-immolations and terrible lapses of judgment can only be laid at his feet. He cannot take advice – of any kind, even from people who want to save him. He has put everyone in a terrible position with no way out.
The real tragedy of Trump’s Presidency is that the United States is facing a coordinated, dangerous, absolutely mortal threat from the Chinese, Russians, North Korea, Iran, and many others. The problems are just beginning. 2020 may be the end of this country as we have known it throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. You’ve seen firsthand recently what enormous strides China has made. In Massachusetts we can’t even get the Orange Line to run, we have to bus people to their jobs. The country is falling apart, and our enemies know we’re weak, they know we’re torn apart, and they know we’re almost out of options. The Left is going to win, and it’s going to be awful. John Bolton is aware of the danger. There are a handful of others, and Trump could have turned this situation to his advantage on so many occasions, but instead he has squandered every bit of good will, good advice and counsel, and he is just not plugged in to the danger we are in.
“without mentioning that the well-being of her two young children was being factored into her decision”
Not wanting your kids to be raised by someone immoral enough to vote for Trump sounds like she did factor that in? Did you ask any follow-up questions on this point, or just waited until she left and then make giant assumptions?
This is such a great example of Trump-hatred. At the end of the US civil war, men who had actually been in armed rebellion against the US were, on surrender, permitted to keep their personal firearms. Today, if you vote for the wrong candidate in a lawful election, the haters don’t want you even to keep your children!
Palmo: Let’s say you have a moral objection to abortion. If your partner is pro-choice and has an abortion, would you stay in a marriage to them?
This is about personal freedom and making decisions based on morality, not hatred.
baz, I gather from your reply that you regard voting for Trump as morally equivalent to killing a human being who is your own flesh and blood. Thanks for helping make my point.
baz: Suing the husband might actually be worse from the point of view of shielding them from the moral corruption into which nearly 50 percent of Americans have fallen. Right now whenever the father says something related to his libertarian beliefs, e.g., “If it costs the government $3.5 billion to build a mile of subway tunnel maybe that is a good argument for shrinking the government,” the virtuous mother can correct this blasphemy on the spot. If she sues him, she’ll have every other week or weekend free for Tinder frolicking, but the father will have an opportunity to poison the children’s minds during these time periods. He might say “I think Trump has been doing a pretty good job,” or “It made sense to cut corporate tax rates to roughly the same level as in Europe” and the mother won’t be around to correct these false statements.
Palmo: sorry, I didn’t realise analogies would be beyond your comprehension.
Conservatives have no sense of humor? True!
That’s why we support gun ownership: just to make sure some people won’t make jokes that are way too clever.
Next question, please! (reloading…)