We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Photo is the famous Magnolia Bakery, where we bought organic, naturally-sweetened gluten-free incredibly-delicious cupcakes for the whole hiking crew yesterday afternoon
Highly effective. It never fails for weight loss, except for the bosses who always seem to be fat.
Humans will work hard for themselves, their families, and their friends. Somewhat less for their tribe. Further out, not so much. It's human nature. Warfare is in a different category entirely.
None of us, no voter or official or institution, has yet to fully assimilate the fact that Donald Trump is president, that this unpopular and unpredictable man holds what has become the primary office of our constitutional system. He certainly doesn't make our jobs any easier: It is hard to read or watch his recent interviews without holding one's head in one's hands. And yet there he is. His daily presence is an accusation, a rebuke, an admonishment, a reminder that the country we thought we lived in might not have actually existed. The shocks of deindustrialization and the financial crisis, of unchecked immigration, multiculturalism, and the transgender revolution, of digital and social media, of inconclusive decades-long wars, of rampant heroin addiction seem to have made large parts of the country unrecognizable to those of us living in coastal cities and their affluent suburbs. Is our country really this divided, our politics this polarized, and our culture this degraded? Was 2016 not a fluke but a warning? What of?
No one wants to answer that last question; no one knows the answer.
Continetti is trying to make too much out of it. Not enough people liked or trusted Hillary. Biden could have won and he is loony too.
If you were a visitor from a distant solar system come to our nation or even a time traveler from our own nineteenth century, I submit you would be perplexed. This Trump person (being?) doesn't seem to be all that different from many leaders who have come before him. I mean, what has he done exactly? Enforced some immigration laws that were enacted by the Congress over several administrations? Tried to fix a mediocre healthcare plan with another plan that may or may not be as mediocre? Called for a tax reduction similar to those enacted by previous Republican and Democratic administrations? Cut back on some regulations that became overly burdensome? Called for a temporary halt to immigration from a half-dozen countries his predecessor had already cited as dangerous hotbeds of terrorism? Shot off a few dozen cruise missiles at the airfield of a dictator who was gassing his own people, but didn't harm a single person in the process?
“I thought I was a Tahitian Eskimo Mexican until I sent in my DNA test kit, and boy was I flummoxed when the results came back! I’m really Croatian with a mix of sub-Saharan! I guess I’ll be turning in my furry hat!”
If my political history serves me, people in mental health found serious diagnoses for Nixon, Reagan, and Bush 2, but none for Johnson, Clinton, Obama, or Hillary. Is there a pattern here?
Instead of name-calling, I'd like to see some thoughtful policy critiques but I won't hold my breath. Trump Derangement Syndrome (DSM 5006.09) strikes again. We must be kind to the sufferers.
The media's "angry, ignorant mouth-breather" stereotype of the Trump voter is no more than Lefty media spin. Since they do not talk to Trump voters, they will never report the reality. While working class white voters, male and female, might have given Trump his electoral edge, clearly large numbers of all sorts of demographics preferred him over Hillary. I did, and I do not think I am a knuckle-dragger.
Megan McArdle has a half-decent piece, Trump Voters Want Respect. Here’s How to Give It to Them, but it falls into the same stereotyping: sophisticated, educated elites vs. ignorant, feckless plebs referred to as "them." It is condescending and inaccurate.
If Megan wishes to contact me, I would be happy to introduce her to a goodly number of sophisticated, highly educated New York elites who were Trump voters - some enthused, some in the (political) closet, and some holding their noses but ok with it given the alternative.