How should we deal with the 62 million deplorables who voted for Donald Trump? This MSNBC Townhall in West Virginia is one way. Will it work?
Chris Hayes and Bernie Sanders went to the poorest county in West Virginia where they both allowed the bigotry and ignorance of the people there to go unchallenged trying to win them over in the hopes their pain will cause them to vote for Democrats.
They have a point that calling them out on their fake news, alternative facts, lies, ignorance and bigotry alienates about 30% of Americans. Who will crawl through wet fresh manure mixed with coal tailings to go vote for anyone other than a “do the right thing” politically incorrect, smartypants, libtard who think they are better than they.
This is personified by the working class white miner on the stage for the entire hour.
Above all I am a coal miner.
Above all I am a West Virginian.
Carbon Dioxide is good, trees eat it.
Yes I believe in a single payer health care system. [80% of the crowd applauds]
What to do?
Some years ago when Howard Dean was running for president his play was also to suck up to them using pickup trucks as the meme. Now it is Bernie Sanders doing the same, hey he’s good on guns. It’s a quandary. They both seem to be doing the right thing when it comes to moving the votes from there to here. But will it work?
From the top I believe it is well intended and perhaps wise. “Basket of deplorables” certainly did no good. But on the other hand for over a generation these people have been indoctrinated by talk radio, Fox News, their local right-wing newspapers and TV stations and their Republican politicians to become what and who they are today.
For them to reject the right-wing bubble they now live in is to admit they have been wrong all their lives, that everything they believe, who they are and their worldview has been a lie and a sham. Could you do that? I believe that the wait for that turnaround will be as long as the wait for Donald Trump to admit he is wrong about something.
I take no issue with Dean, Sanders, Hayes or those who do want to reach out, it is the right thing to do. But as we see from this last election, doing the right thing is an alien concept to these people. All that matters to them is what happens within the radius of what they can see from a mountain of coal tailings in their backyard. In fact doing the right thing is a good part of what makes them so angry, a big piece of political correctness they so abhor. All adding to the resentment they feel over liberals being better educated, smarter and more successful than they are.
So with all that said I think it best to have at them, to stand up to it, to say it is the wrong thing to do. To shame them.
For as I said when I began this 23 years ago. “They will not change, no amount of facts, data, truth, science, logic, reason or debate will change one hair on their chinny chin chins. So rather than beat your head against the wall in frustration, have fun getting your licks in at their expense and move on.”
So to sum up. Rather than playing the frog reaching out to the scorpion which we have been doing since January 21 1981, let us instead play to the growing demographics favoring Democrats, resist, and above all put everything we have in getting out the vote.