A month from now, 50 million Americans will vote for Trump

[smilesammich 10,727]

If you live in deep red county USA, the far right probably poses a more immediate concern.

If you live in deep blue county coastal USA, the lunacy on the far left is far more apparent.

Which is why talking politics often becomes apples and oranges.

i'm an hour from DC, ten minutes from wva. i haven't seen a single hilary sign but ive seen countless trump signs, multiple diy trump billboards, pickups with lock her up, etc painted on. guy got in the paper for his highway billboard & display of life sized trump, melania, hillary (locked up) right down the road from me. i think michelle and obama too. i know there are plenty of people here that won't be voting trump, but they're certainly quiet this go round.

[millefleur 5,046]

i'm an hour from DC, ten minutes from wva. i haven't seen a single hilary sign but ive seen countless trump signs, multiple diy trump billboards, pickups with lock her up, etc painted on. guy got in the paper for his highway billboard & display of life sized trump, melania, hillary (locked up) right down the road from me. i think michelle and obama too. i know there are plenty of people here that won't be voting trump, but they're certainly quiet this go round.

That isn't surprising since WVA is the most Trump supporting states in the US apparently. WVA carries very little electoral votes and it's not a swing state, so at the end of the day, the reality is their votes simply do not count that much. Maybe that's why they're angry, heh.

Edited October 20, 2016 by millefleur

[Teddy B 17,252]

In honor of The Donald, from now until Nov 9th the "B" in Teddy B will stand for Bigly.

[smilesammich 10,727]

That isn't surprising since WVA is the most Trump supporting states in the US apparently. WVA carries very little electoral votes and it's not a swing state, so at the end of the day, the reality is their votes simply do not count that much. Maybe that's why they're angry, heh.

imo this is why trump supporters are so vocal around here. virginia goes blue because of the metro area, red pockets like where i'm at are a stark contrast to progress. they're angry because they feel unheard and unrepresented. seriously angry, considering the slime ball they're willing to vote for has vested his career in screwing over workers just like them.

west virginia is the flip side, liberal pockets - overall misguided angry disenfranchised working poor..

[millefleur 5,046]

imo this is why trump supporters are so vocal around here. virginia goes blue because of the metro area, red pockets like where i'm at are a stark contrast to progress. they're angry because they feel unheard and unrepresented. seriously angry, considering the slime ball they're willing to vote for has vested his career in screwing over workers just like them.

west virginia is the flip side, liberal pockets - overall misguided angry disenfranchised working poor..

It is kind of sad and pathetic because neither Trump, nor any one person on Earth for that matter, can bring back the "good old days" these people are yearning for.

[smilesammich 10,727]

It is kind of sad and pathetic because neither Trump, nor any one person on Earth for that matter, can bring back the "good old days" these people are yearning for.

west virginia gets a bad rap for being filled with bumpkins and that just isn't accurate.

i may live in a red pocket, but the median income for a family in my county is almost 60,000 a year. there's some dirt poor people but there's lots of old money and wealth too.

[Teddy B 17,252]

It is kind of sad and pathetic because neither Trump, nor any one person on Earth for that matter, can bring back the "good old days" these people are yearning for.

I've long wondered why some of the staunchest Republicans & now Trump supporters are poor people whose America has never really been great to begin with. I have friends in some southern red states who are by no means well off, yet they will go down in flames supporting the Republican party which does next to nothing for the middle and lower classes of this country.

[B_J 2,752]

It is kind of sad and pathetic because neither Trump, nor any one person on Earth for that matter, can bring back the "good old days" these people are yearning for.

That's a tough video to watch.

It's really sad because those people are looking for something that Trump simply isn't going to deliver. Hillary's statement makes more sense but who knows if she really means it either.

[millefleur 5,046]

That's a tough video to watch.

It's really sad because those people are looking for something that Trump simply isn't going to deliver. Hillary's statement makes more sense but who knows if she really means it either.

It is sad. I don't think these people are evil, brainwashed idiots...they really are mostly just disenfranchised people who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time when the economy shifted. It's not like being a coal miner was THAT great of a lifestyle to begin with, but now since it's gotten much worse there, they feel nostalgia for it.

I thought it was interesting that one of the old guys in the video used to be an Obama supporter. Shows you that they're not all brainwashed, one-party-following sheep. They are simply voting for whoever is making them the greatest promises.

[smilesammich 10,727]

“This book is written from a changing town in Virginia, but this class of mine, these people--the ones who smell like an ashtray in the checkout line, devour a carton of Little Debbies at a sitting, and praise Jesus for a truck with no spare tire--exist in every state in our nation. Maybe the next time we on the left encounter such seemingly self-screwing, stubborn, God-obsessed folks, we can be open to their trials, understand the complexity of their situation, even have enough solidarity to pop for a cheap retread tire out of our own pockets, simply because that would be the kind thing to do and surely would make the ghosts of Joe Hill, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Mohandas Gandhi smile.”

― Joe Bageant

[OriZ 3,157]

That's a tough video to watch.

It's really sad because those people are looking for something that Trump simply isn't going to deliver. Hillary's statement makes more sense but who knows if she really means it either.

Unfortunately I got some bad news for those people. Neither Trump nor Clinton is going to make anything better for them.

[JayJayH 546]

i'm an hour from DC, ten minutes from wva. i haven't seen a single hilary sign but ive seen countless trump signs, multiple diy trump billboards, pickups with lock her up, etc painted on. guy got in the paper for his highway billboard & display of life sized trump, melania, hillary (locked up) right down the road from me. i think michelle and obama too. i know there are plenty of people here that won't be voting trump, but they're certainly quiet this go round.

I have a couple of friends in Southern California who are voting for Trump but will never admit to it for their own safety. I've seen some Trump signs here in bright blue Hawaii, but never in coastal California.

imo this is why trump supporters are so vocal around here. virginia goes blue because of the metro area, red pockets like where i'm at are a stark contrast to progress. they're angry because they feel unheard and unrepresented. seriously angry, considering the slime ball they're willing to vote for has vested his career in screwing over workers just like them.

west virginia is the flip side, liberal pockets - overall misguided angry disenfranchised working poor..

I read an excellent article in The New Yorker about West Virginians' love for Trump. I generally cannot stand "elitist mainstream media" outlets discussing Trump supporters because it usually ends up in 'civilized city folk' criticizing the 'misguided peasants' for not knowing what's best for them. But this article was spot on: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/10/in-the-heart-of-trump-country

I've long wondered why some of the staunchest Republicans & now Trump supporters are poor people whose America has never really been great to begin with. I have friends in some southern red states who are by no means well off, yet they will go down in flames supporting the Republican party which does next to nothing for the middle and lower classes of this country.

"Great" is a relative term.

One of the greatest misconceptions about the "poor, white working class GOP voter" is that they're voting against their own best interest. In certain contexts I'll concede that it's true. One of my main problems with the GOP aside from the religious conservatism is the anti-union rhetoric. Detroit isn't bankrupt because of unions. Detroit is bankrupt because supply of American-built cars outweighed demand for them. In that context, I think a lot of Rust Belt voters have shot themselves in the foot by jumping on the anti-union bandwagon. A lot of these people are nostalgic for different economic times, sure, but "great" is more of a feeling of nostalgic pride.

That being said, poor working class whites have traditionally been the backbone of the Democratic party. That didn't change in 1964 as some people will claim. West Virginia voted for Bill Clinton twice and even voted for Mike Dukakis in 1988. Bernie Sanders won more primary votes in West Virginia than all non-Trump GOP candidates combined, and he wasn't far behind Trump in total votes either. A lot of these voters no longer see a significant economic difference between the Democratic and Republican establishment, so they are cultural and social issue voters.

If you (not you personally) want to convince poor working class white voters to vote Democrat again, you'll also have to stop telling them that their skin color makes them more privileged than others, and that they're uneducated peasants who cling to their guns and religion. Plain and simple. And that's what most of the mainstream media has been doing for decades.

Edited October 21, 2016 by JayJayH

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

"Great" is a relative term.

One of the greatest misconceptions about the "poor, white working class GOP voter" is that they're voting against their own best interest. In certain contexts I'll concede that it's true. One of my main problems with the GOP aside from the religious conservatism is the anti-union rhetoric. Detroit isn't bankrupt because of unions. Detroit is bankrupt because supply of American-built cars outweighed demand for them. In that context, I think a lot of Rust Belt voters have shot themselves in the foot by jumping on the anti-union bandwagon.

That being said, poor working class whites have traditionally been the backbone of the Democratic party. That didn't change in 1964 as some people will claim. West Virginia voted for Bill Clinton twice and even voted for Mike Dukakis in 1988. A lot of these voters no longer see a significant economic difference between the Democratic and Republican establishment, so they are cultural and social issue voters.

If you (not you personally) want to convince poor working class white voters to vote Democrat again, you'll also have to stop telling them that their skin color makes them more privileged than others, and that they're uneducated peasants who cling to their guns and religion. Plain and simple. And that's what most of the mainstream media has been doing for decades. It's kind of like when Trump talks about "the blacks" and can't understand why that doesn't sound very inviting.

This exactly. Our state's Democratic party, the DFL, is absolutely stumped on how to win back all the rural white voters they lost, but you've nailed it.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

And of course totally on message came this ad in a local paper today:

[Ban Hammer 13,337]