May 1, 2017

What was learned from focus groups of people in Wisconsin and Michigan who voted for Obama and then didn't vote in 2016 or voted for Trump.

Greg Sargent reports (in The Washington Post):
A shockingly large percentage of these Obama-Trump voters said Democrats’ economic policies will favor the wealthy — twice the percentage that said the same about Trump. I was also permitted to view video of some focus group activity, which showed Obama-Trump voters offering sharp criticism of Democrats on the economy.... In one, Obama-Trump voters were asked what Democrats stand for today and gave answers such as these:

“The one percent.”

“The status quo.”

“They’re for the party. Themselves and the party.”... 

231 comments:

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Robert Cook said...

"Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? Not a war crime, but a 'liberation.' US invasion in response to an attack on our homeland? War crime! I get it, I get it."

Who said anything about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, or referred to is as a "liberation?" At least the Soviets had the sense to eventually leave when they saw they could not achieve whatever their goal was, and that they could not afford to continue pouring money into their efforts. We haven't half the sense they had.

As for the US invasion of Afghanistan being a response to an attack on our country--("homeland" has such a Nazi-ish feel to it, don't you think?)--Afghanistan did not invade our country, (or have anything to do with the 9/11 attacks).Those we pursued for the crime fled the country quickly, so why did we stay? Why are we still there? What is our purpose there? What constitutes "victory?" At this point, the only way we can ever declare we've "won" there is by killing everything there, including all non-human and non-animal life. It's pure insanity, and yes, an ongoing travesty and war crime.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Soviets had the sense to eventually leave when they saw they could not achieve whatever their goal was, and that they could not afford to continue pouring money into their efforts. We haven't half the sense they had.
Ever heard of Chechnya?

traditionalguy said...

Hillary lost because so many Dems hated her. That is why she could not get the black votes that Obama got, and the northern whites that were excited to prove they were not racist by voting for Obama suddenly had no motive to do that.

Drago said...

Cookie the well known conspiracy nut: "At least the Soviets had the sense to eventually leave when they saw they could not achieve whatever their goal was, and that they could not afford to continue pouring money into their efforts. We haven't half the sense they had"

LOL

Yeah, that's why your beloved soviets left.

Too funny.

It's just not as easy to rewrite history as it used to be. Leftists and "lifelong republicans" hardest hit.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Is Jelly "Booger" from Revenge of the Nerds?

Or is the guy from Shut Eye Booger?

BN said...

We are simple creatures. Why do we like two such charming pretty boys?

BN said...

Don't you know?

traditionalguy said...

Jackson wanted the USA to endure. Between Jackson at New Orleans, Houston in at San Jacinto, and Polk's Army in California and Mexico and up as far as Washington State, 2/3s of the USA was assembled from England, France and Spain by courage of Warrior leaders. Jackson was not about to let any elite faux aristocrats in Charleston or New Orleans get away with nullification, much less secession, on his watch.

DJT's remarks are 100 correct one more time.

cubanbob said...

3rdGradePB_GoodPerson said...
"Then finally eliminate the tax exempt status of non-profits."

Churches?

And how about gettin' rid of the tax benefit for folks who don't own their homes sans loans?"

Yes indeed. Tax the investment income of their endowments. You have a problem with that? And yes eliminate the mortgage exemption for new purchases going forward and let's also eliminate the tax exempt status (going forward) on muni bonds. You have a problem with any of this?

wildswan said...

There have been some articles describing how the Democrats abandoned the workers (Marxism) for intellectual fads (Marcuse). This is why the Dems disregard the problems created by globalism and by bad trade deals. (And why they insult the workers.) And to the extent that working people realize that Dems have no intention ever of doing anything to get them jobs they move away from that party. The part that is hard to understand is why the Dem party abandoned the workers's cause. It may be that a sort of belated recognition is sinking in among leftys that communism and socialism don't work. We think leftys should have realized this in 1989 but perhaps they have been realizing it slowly ever since then and this has hollowed out the Dem party without leading to any change in words or any new vision. And now the party has reached a crisis because a Republican is snatching the workers away. It's like "Dover Beach", the poem by Matthew Arnold.

The sea of faith in socialism
Was once, at the full, and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a red banner unfurled.
But now they only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Oh Democrats, let us be true
To our Trump Derangement Syndrome at least!
For the world unMarxed yet globalized,
Which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams,
So many-gendered, so gentle, so creative and new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Michael K said...

"Afghanistan did not invade our country, (or have anything to do with the 9/11 attacks"

Robert, you are in interesting case. You sometimes sound intelligent. Far left wing, but intelligent.

Then you say this. Who let the al Qeada set up training camps and supply the logistics for them ?

The tooth fairy ?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Inga said, "Trump is s a sharp guy, if he says Jackson was angry about the civil war before the Civil War started, who are we to question Trump?"

That's not what he said, idiot. There's a whole thread about it below.

Why don't you read it - and learn a little history?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Inga said...
Well, if Trump says Jackson had a big heart, who are we to question him?"

Goodness, the Democrats don't like the first Democrat president much these days. I remember JFK's buttboy Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. loved him.

In a few more decades, they'll probably be crapping on FDR too. Those Japanese internment camps...

Milwaukie guy said...

Perhaps Trump is referring the the Nullification Crisis when Jackson threatened to invade South Carolina and settle certain "states rights." But that would imply that in some loose way Trump knows U.S. history, unlike some idiots here.

Drago said...

exiled: "In a few more decades, they'll probably be crapping on FDR too. Those Japanese internment camps..."

Oh no. You can forget that. The lefties will simply assign responsibility for that "unpleasantness" to some republican who was hanging around during that time.

Or better yet, the Russians!

James K said...

the northern whites that were excited to prove they were not racist by voting for Obama suddenly had no motive to do that.

Hillary's entire campaign was predicated on those same people getting excited to prove they were not sexist either by voting for her. It turned out they were more excited to prove they couldn't be suckered a second time.

Kirk Parker said...

Birkel,

But they DO hold the levers of power--sometimes directly, sometimes by financing those who do. And they wish to harm me and mine by, among other things, abolishing and criminalizing our ability to engage in effective personal self-defense.

No, I wish them all the civil ill that can possibly befall them.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Hey, Wildswan,
I recognized Dover Beach (but you mangled the meter).

I wonder why PB&J hasn't responded to my 8:41?
I have a liberal arts degree, because that is what the state offered at my local college (it's a teaching/nursing college), but I took all the math and economics I could.
One thing I learned is that it is really hard, in a free market, to make a nickel. You can only make your costs (including "entrepreneurial talent" as a cost, since you can sell that). The theory for businesses is that you trade profits for growth early on, and hope that you get large enough so that economy of scale gives you a competitive advantage before your investors get cold feet and pull out. For that to work, its all unpredictable circumstances, luck, salesmanship, and "animal spirits" (aka "greed"). Exhibit A: Jeff Bezos.
Of course, you can take the "Dark Path" and seek to control the market place by using the magic of government to exclude competition or mandate that people buy your product. Than you can charge cost + rent, e.g., you can make more than costs.
I knew a guy in the Bay Area back in the 80s. He was a sharp cookie. He had a physics degree and setup a business calibrating the xray machines at dentists' offices. He invented a little fire extinguisher that you could hang inside a Christmas tree. It would go off if the tree caught fire. It cost about as much as a Christmas tree costs to manufacture, though, so he was spending money lobbying the legislature of the Great State of California to require one extinguisher to be sold with every Christmas tree. That is grade-A rent seeking. I never heard if it worked out for him. The last time I talked to him he was trying to get a gyrocopter so he could do more work by avoiding the Bay Area traffic.
I had hoped PB&J would share his most excellent business experience with us -- give something back, if you will -- but so far he has been silent.
FYI, I am not a business person. I am a workin' man. I like to get a check every week or two, so I made a bee-line towards a profession that pays people a lot of money (but not millionaire money. I do tech work).

Rick said...

Inga said... [hush]​[hide comment]

Trump is s a sharp guy, if he says Jackson was angry about the civil war before the Civil War started, who are we to question Trump?


The identifiably stupid are those who conclude this is what Trump said.

Rick said...

Drago said...
["In a few more decades, they'll probably be crapping on FDR too. Those Japanese internment camps..."]

Oh no. You can forget that. The lefties will simply assign responsibility for that "unpleasantness" to some republican who was hanging around during that time.

Or better yet, the Russians!


Democrats don't blame the Russians for their own sins they blame America. When it comes to sins they believe what's yours is yours, but what's mine is ours.

Curious George said...

"Lewis Wetzel said...
Y'know, Inga, I don't think that it works to your advantage to describe the people that beat your candidate in the election as stupid. I mean, what does that make you? You lost to a stupid guy.
I've watched this routine before. Ford, Reagan, G.W. Bush . . .
Or are you in the "Clever Jews put Trump where he is" camp?"

Well, not Ford.

Karen of Texas said...

Democrats bank on the fact that their base is pissed at the filthy 1% while they struggle to put food on the table and not fall farther behind. Newer car? Forget it. Vacation? Not happening. Home improvement? Patch it and hope it holds. The list goes on. Stir up class envy. It works. The rich aren't paying their fair share!!

Perhaps it may be that their working class base finally saw in Trump someone who is rich but is willing to try to do something that might let working stiffs actually not fall deeper into the hole. They don't care that the rich might get richer. They just want to climb out of the hole.

In other words, the rich can get richer. Bully on them. But I can enjoy my middle class life, too. Food on the table. Bills getting paid. House improved. Visit another state - or country! And I can save enough so I actually can retire instead of working until I drop dead. Might not be rich - but I don't care. The Democrat party counts on the envy. It's not fair that someone is rich. Well I don't care. I just want to enjoy my little slice of this life. Family. Friends. Decent house. Food on the table. Life can be good without being rich, too.

furious_a said...

Will thought it would be better for the Party, to purge itself of Trumpism with a colossal electoral loss

Defeat is Victory
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

IOW, for the thought-leaders like Will, influence peddlers like Kristol and the Campaign-Consulting millionaires like Wilson and Mair to cling bitterly to their phony-baloney meal tickets. Trump showed them for the charlatans they are and stepped on their air hoses good and hard.

furious_a said...

Will thought it would be better for the Party, to purge itself of Trumpism with a colossal electoral loss.

Speaking of like-minded drivel, one would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh at what is happening to Bret Stephens over at NYT.

furious_a said...

"Mich and Wis were big targets of the Russian propaganda program."

"Da, da, tvarischtchi, is Russia where have technology make Clinton not campaign Wisconsin."

furious_a said...

Andrew Jackson died in 1845, 16 years before the war began,

The Nullification Crisis occurred in 1832...while Ol'Hick'ry was still president.

Robert Cook said...

"Who let the al Qeada set up training camps and supply the logistics for them?"

How do you know the Taliban government provided logistics for Al Qaeda? How do you even know they had any idea that 9/11 was going to occur?

The planning for 9/11 took place in many locations around the world, including in America, but not necessarily at all in Afghanistan. At least some of the funding for 9/11 was provided by our then and current close allies, the Saudis. There's more overt justification to have invaded Saudi Arabia than Afghanistan. All that aside, our invasion of Afghanistan was illegal because there was no UN Security Council vote to approve such action. Like it or not, absent any knowledge that Afghanistan was involved in attacking the U.S. on 9/11, this violates international and US law.

Robert Cook said...

"Perhaps it may be that their working class base finally saw in Trump someone who is rich but is willing to try to do something that might let working stiffs actually not fall deeper into the hole."

This is what they saw. However, as have so many before them, the voters will find they have been duped by a con man, that what they saw is not what they got.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"This is what they saw. However, as have so many before them, the voters will find they have been duped by a con man, that what they saw is not what they got"

Every politician ever. Sometimes it's more important who isn't in the office than who is. I can't think of a single presidential race where this has been more true than in 2016.

Kyzer SoSay said...

Y'all realize PB&J is probably in his mommy's basement right now, right? For someone so obtuse and frankly ignorant to be claiming he runs businesses gives me a hearty laugh, and then a distinct feeling of pity for his poor, poor soul.

Bad Lieutenant said...

I think PBJ's shtick is that he's a boiler room guy...


Boiler room (business) ... In business, the term boiler room refers to an outbound call center selling questionable investments by telephone. It typically refers to a room where salesmen work using unfair, dishonest sales tactics, sometimes selling penny stocks, private placements or committing outright stock fraud.


and proud of it!

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