I have been paying attention to GRP since before the BSA3 administration. It was here that I began to truly understand what drove Filipino culture – as well as how it derived from the showbiz culture inherited from the Americans. It was highly understandable to me why Filipinos would swarm to Duterte in droves.
Like virtually everyone on the left here in America I was shocked when someone who pandered to racists and ultra-religious fanatics pulled another George W. Bush and won control of Congress and the Executive Branch.
I turned to GRP again for answers, and in that characteristic caustic wisdom I’ve enjoyed, it all made sense.
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The thinking that created “the Trump problem” is the real problem that needs to be solved here. – benign0
I had to be sure, of course. While it was a sentiment that was surprisingly starting to be echoed across “traditional” media sources, I needed to know more from the people who voted.
Immediately following Trump’s victory I partook in a discussion with some of his supporters (and having lurked on shady anonymous imageboards for the better part of a decade, I know quite a few). Some had been Trump supporters from the beginning, but some were “swung.” They confided to me that Bernie Sanders – that other anti-establishment candidate – could have given Trump much more of a run for their money in several battleground states.
It sounds incredulous at first. Why would a Socialist Jew stand a chance in neo-Nazi heartlands?
I realized during that discussion that asking that sort of question, in fact, is exactly part of the problem.
If you look at the electoral college state maps from 2008 and 2016, many of these battleground swing states were won by Obama – particularly Florida and the Rust Belt where the economic situation hasn’t been close to the American Dream for decades.
2008 election map where Obama beat McCain almost 2-to-1 in the Electoral College.
Note the “blue wall” in the upper midwest.
Source: 270 To Win
Now, calling out the left for their mistakes has already been done ad nauseum. It’s time to find the real solutions to this kind of thinking.
These aren’t all neo-Nazi skinheads, white trust fund babies and Klansmen. Many of them are more than likely the same people who were tired of the exact same Establishment that precipitated the Great Recession. These people did not believe their economic status had been righted in the 8 years since, and they needed hope that the ostensibly left-wing party could not provide.
So how do we as progressives change our thinking to make inroads with these people? It’s not something I can answer in one article – if I know the real answer at all. Instead, let me start the process with the story of Daryl Davis.
Davis is a blues musician who has performed with such luminaries as Chuck Berry and Bruce Hornsby. He is also famous for something else: he is an African-American who actively goes out of his way to befriend Ku Klux Klan members.
The story goes that while playing at a white bar, a patron came up to him and told him he’d never seen a black man play as good as Jerry Lee Lewis. Davis replied reasonably that Jerry Lee Lewis was a friend and that these white legends were heavily influenced by black musical pioneers as well.
He continued to meet with that Klansman and others, finding out why they believed the things they do, and then calmly and rationally helped them understand where their beliefs came from. Long story short, Davis convinced him and others to leave the Klan, and they even gave him their old hoods and robes.
Unlike the guy from Mafia III, he didn’t have to actually kill for these trophies.
Source: Daryl Davis personal website
Some of them remained untrustworthy that a black man would even try to befriend them, of course. But that didn’t stop him from trying.
Daryl Davis dedicated himself to knowing what makes these so-called racists tick. Where their beliefs came from, and why they chose to act the way they did. He was able to understand, and help them understand – all at very clear risk to his own life.
During the primaries Bernie Sanders, despite being part of the Democratic Party (and eventually caving into them), made that effort to reach out to voters in swing states and identify with them. When Sanders got canned, that left a wide open gap for people looking for that candidate to stick up for them against The Establishment. Trump swooping in and raking in enough of these voters was sound marketing in retrospect.
Angry protests in deep blue areas might be good for getting rid of stress, but that won’t change the past or stay out of copyright trouble.
2016 election map by County, showing who will benefit the most from dissolving the electoral college.
Source: Wikipedia
We won’t all be negotiating with the Klan or Aryan Nation. But it is still important for progressives now to step off their ivory tower and get our hands dirty to truly realize where these grievances are coming from and how old-time prejudices capitalize on it.
After all, progressivism has its beliefs rooted in knowing what the working class want, regardless of their creed or color. The current hipster generation of coastal elites have utterly failed that ideal, and with a meager two years to mid-terms, it’s down to us in the trenches to rise above the stereotypes we created and make that change.
“When two enemies are talking, they aren’t fighting.” – Daryl Davis
Frank is a devout anarcho-cynic and someone who has seen the same cycles of delusion happen so many times that the only thing that surprises him is that people somehow act like “this time things will be different.”
As a Trump voter let me share some of my perspectives:
* Many of us believe that it’s not racist to be for immigration reform and enforcement of immigration laws.
* Many of us really don’t care about what he said in that video. I’ve said worst, no biggie.
* Many of us just can’t buy into the victim mentality cause for the whatever oppressed minority/gender/sexual preference, white guilt and political correctness. It’s just not a top priority to say the least.
* Hillary was a far worse choice
* Many of us really don’t care about what he said in that video. I’ve said worst, no biggie.
– My 15 y/o daughter and 71 y/o mother asked me re. this. As a Filipino nurse in a CA hosp (and you know how very diverse it is here) i’ve heard white female RNs talk that way, and worst. My answer to my family? “Propaganda. Mainstream media in Ph just like here. As who copied who, what do you think anak? Soros’ name pops up in both countries.”
Thanks for giving interest to the opinions of Filipino bloggers and Web writers. We are not all YellowTards…some of us are well informed, well educated and even have good accomplishments in our fields.
I am an OFW…I live and work in the U.S. So far, I have not yet met and talked to a Klansmen…
We are all human beings, with different views of the world; with different cultures and different colors of our skins.
Pres-Elect Donald Trump victory is really astonishing. His messages resonated to the grass root level of America…America has been led by incompetent leaders.
People in America are just tired of the same old politics. Some are tired of the “freebees”, given by the Democrats, at the expense of working people. They are tired of illegal immigrants taking their jobs, at lower pay. They are tired of wars, terrorism, high level corruption and waste of money in the government.
Trump promised to make these wrong things right …we wait and see !
8 years. America had 8 years.
Philippines had 30 years.
Patience is a virtue (but when it takes 30 years … that is subjugation… and the yellows’ downfall is karmic retribution, one of the good things that have happened to the Philippines in a long time.
“There are no tyrants, where there are no slaves”…from Dr. Jose Rizal…
People were deceived, because, they refused to use their common sense. They were herded like sheeps by the Aquino Cojuangco political axis, with the participation of the Lopez Media, and other YellowTard media.
Ever heard the Nazi propaganda Machine of NAZI Propaganda Minister, Josseff Goebbels, in NAZI Germany ?
NAZI concentration/death camps were in their midst. But, the German people refused to care, what were happening in those death camps !
During the time of the Aquino Cojuangcos…it was wholesale DECEPTION , they used. They portrayed themselves, as heroes and saints…they demonized their political opponents !
“Those who forgot the past, are condemned to repeat it”…from the historian /philosopher Santayana…
A great democracy has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy.
I love DemoCRAZY! 😀
http://listverse.com/2013/06/16/10-reasons-why-democracy-doesnt-work/
Well forget about the so-called democracy. Here’s a new political system that is even better than democracy or any kind of political systems (e.g. fascism & communism). It’s called Demarchy, and what is that? This kind of political system is theorized by an Australian philosopher John Burnheim (in which in my opinion he’s much better than Karl Marx), and here’s the explanation of Demarchy:
Source: http://listverse.com/2009/03/06/10-lesser-known-or-used-forms-of-government/
I think Demarchy system should be apply it here in our country & it’ll be a successful one than democracy & imagine there’ll be no more elitists, the conyo democrats, the anarchists or other “bad voters” or “bad people” who will rule to this country anymore, just “wise & good people” who will rule it in our country. I wish President Duterte will introduce to this kind of political system for his charter change agenda before his term will end besides federalism.
By the way if want to know more about Demarchy, there’s a book about it & the title of that book is Is Democracy Possible by John Burnheim & also The Demarchy Manifesto: For Better Public Policy also written by himself. Seach that on Amazon or Google Books.
You could even read this website on the comparison between Democracy & Demarchy:
http://ritholtz.com/2013/07/democracy-v-demarchy/
Nice observation and nice example you used of Davis. What a story.
I recall a recent Jonathan Pie video that says, they should discuss things. But that’s the problem. The guys with agendas don’t want discussions, they want to force what they want on others. It’s all a contest of domination once again.
I watched that whole video and the actor is spot on. He even stated that “the Left won the cultural war”. It’s more like are reality-check. Most of them are embarrassed to make discussions on others about different opinions so they wait till election day to speak up what’s on their minds; and yet they chose Trump.
It makes me think: the Left not only destroyed the Democratic Party but perhaps they’re destroying America. I realized that Obama belonged to the radical Left and those movements like Black Lives Matter, SJWs, feminazis are gaining attention because of well, the Left. Because these groups belong to the radical Left. They got their gendered toilets, gay marriages, race riots, and it wasn’t enough? What’s next?
That “victory in the cultural war” is starting to get overturned, as I see it. As I said in my article following this one, the left won by getting some privileges marketed as “rights.” That angered some people and electing Trump is how they countered. Around the world, right-wing is becoming more popular because of how the left’s policies failed to solve problems.