- cross-posted to:
- politics
- cross-posted to:
- politics
“Hurt dogs sure do holler.” That was the saying that came to mind in 2008 when then-candidate for president Barack Obama drew outrage from Republicans because he described their voters as “bitter” people who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them.” The phrase came to mind again in 2016, when Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton used the memorable phrase “basket of deplorables” to describe supporters of Donald Trump. Since a cardinal rule of politics is “insult your opponent, but never their voters,” the mainstream media picked up and amplified the umbrage-taking from Republicans.
What wasn’t discussed very much in all this media coverage: The truth value of either Clinton’s or Obama’s comments. And what a shame, because both of them were right.
New polling out this week from CBS News proves, as many feared, Trump’s fourth set of indictments — he now faces 91 felony charges across four jurisdictions — has only caused the GOP to rally around their seething orange leader. (And let’s not forget this comes after a jury recently found him responsible for sexual assault.) Trump has surged to 62% support in the Republican presidential primary poll, and 73% of those backing Trump say it’s because, not despite, of his massive criminal exposure.
And, in a poll finding that really is astonishing, Trump voters claimed they trust the notorious fraudster more than anyone. A whopping 71% of Trump voters claim “what he says is true.” Only 63% of them say that about family and friends, 56% about conservative media figures and 42% about religious leaders.
The word that comes to mind is “cult.”
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Back in 2008, I told my friends, “never underestimate the racists and hate that persists in the south” when they were appalled by me saying, “I’ll be surprised if there isn’t an attempt at Obama.”
The true problem isn’t that racists exist. It’s that far too many comfortable people fail to understand THAT racists and hateful bigots still exist.
and in very, very large numbers.
Racists don’t just exist in the south. They exist everywhere.
In fact, the ones who aren’t openly racist are the most dangerous of all.
I agree. I only referenced the south to spare my friends’ feelings. (and because it’s WAY more pervasive in the south)
Like our current president.
The only slight silver lining for me in this whole shit show is that it shined a light on how prevalent racism is across the country. As an older white guy on the west coast, I knew there was still a fair amount of racism, but figured it was mostly found in the rural south and scattered uneducated cretins. It turns out that a giant percentage of our population are racists who used to keep those opinions to themselves. Now they feel like it’s completely acceptable to voice those opinions, and the rest of us can see the magnitude of the problem.
I’m a white in atlanta and I experience it at least once a week
What is ‘it’? Why do you experience it? What are you doing to deserve it? Being ignorant to your privilege? Trying to use your privilege like those morons that parked their boat?
If you’re receiving racism as a white dude … you probably deserve it. This is coming from a white dude.
Sounds like victim blaming if you immediately assume they are in the wrong without looking at the facts first.
I’m still waiting for information. Did you not notice the question marks throughout? Do you not understand what “probably” means?
You last paragraph suggests you’ve already made up your mind. People who victim blame ask questions all the time, they just don’t bother waiting for the answer before stating their preconceived conclusion. Just like you did, tbh.
You experience what in Atlanta?
Black people being racist against white people… Where I am it is about 95% black
In short: That demographic is a dumpster fire just like their representatives.
I really wish the media would at least try to appear unbiased, except in clearly identified opinion pieces - I don’t think it does any of us any good to have such slanted words in reporting.
All that being said, I agree with the overall take. People lost their shit when Hilary called Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables,” but look at how they behave and what they push for. Why would you want to vote for someone more because there’s credible evidence that he committed serious crimes? Not just that you’re looking the other way, but it’s a desirable attribute? That’s just crap.
There’s reporting that the guy who shot the shopkeeper over the pride flag was very outspoken against abortion. “Every life is sacred, but I’m going to murder this woman because she supports LGBTQ rights.” So much of their anger is against things that have zero affect on them personally. It’s crazy.
Um…this is an opinion piece. The whole site is pretty much opinion.
I guess it says “commentary” at the top, so maybe I should retract that part. I’m old, and I grew up in a time when opinion pieces one the news were very overtly identified as such, with disclaimers about the publication not endorsing any opinion given. The reason being that everything else was intended to be taken factually. I see so many things now where we blur the lines, with newscasters using a lot of subjective adjectives to tell us how we should feel about things they’re reporting on. It really bugs me.
I feel like I’m also increasingly seeing this coming from the left, which I find particularly troubling. We have the facts on our side, we don’t need to make bombastic clickbait and masquerade opinion pieces as reporting. It’s just distracting from the actual stories and undermining our position.
I fully agree. It’s a stronger position when we keep it fact-based.
“So much for Objective Journalism. Don’t bother to look for it here–not under any byline of mine; or anyone else I can think of. With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.” ― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
Salon.com only exists to provide a headline for people to circle-jerk about in the comments on their favorite social media platform.
Republicans have those too. But this is a Democrat one.
I’m sure I’ve read salon articles that people have linked, but not enough to get a feel for them as a publication in general. When I read news, I generally try to avoid sources that lean hard in either direction, except sometimes to see what their take on a subject is.
(A little tip for kbin users who are tired of clickbait: If you click here and press the block button, you won’t see any more posts from Salon.com. :) )
Equating Obama’s “bitter” and “clinging to guns” with Hillary’s “basket of deplorables” feels a bit forced, and is not exactly helping me take this post seriously. The headline makes it look like Obama called them deplorable.
The MAGA idiots are the dingleberries of the asshole that is the Republican party
So because Trump appeals to a large number of people Clinton and Obama were right? That doesn’t make any sense.
And Obama isn’t nuts? Droning weddings and stuff
Thank you for today’s injection of “whataboutism.” It was utterly irrelevant, as always.
It wasn’t irrelevant… And the die hard democrats still call this fake news… See other comments
Trump did more.
So if we’re talking about Trump VS Obama specifically you don’t get to use that one as a one up for Trump vs Obama.
But yes, that drone strike thing is one of the reasons I don’t like Obama. It’s also one of the reasons I don’t like Trump.
At least you are honest, but I think Obama is the one that started it (don’t quote me on that)
Well I think both Trump and Obama are war criminals that deserve to go to The Hague so you’re not gonna hear me sticking up for Obama starting it. But I’m gonna call a spade a spade here and say it’s a really stupid whataboutism to bring up if you’re pretending you actually care about civilian deaths when talking about drone strikes man.
I think its worth pointing out the other is also deplorable when he is calling someone else deplorable
So do you agree that it’s fucked up that Trump also did a ridiculous amount of drone strikes and that he’s also a huge piece of shit?
The only thing I like about Trump is that he is not a politician… Also, I am not aware of any hospitals or weddings that were droned by Trump
The majority of drone strike civilian casualties occurred under trump. It took me like three seconds to google dude.
What you’re doing is called a double standard. Congratulations, you stand for absolutely nothing.
It started under Bush. We didn’t have much drone technology prior to that, so it ramped up under him, continued to ramp up under Obama, and continued to ramp up under Trump.
Whether it’s a net negative is debatable to me. It’s not like those bystander deaths didn’t happen prior to the drones - on the contrary, there were more of them because we used less discriminate bombs instead. You can make an argument that the drone strikes have saved lives, at least as compared to what was happening previously. Targeting someone in a civilian area seems pretty reprehensible regardless.
Nope, it was Bush.
Yup that was illegal activity and he should not have been allowed to do it. Trump doing it as well doesn’t make it ok. Congress failed in their duty in both cases.
See? If you don’t make the quarterback of your political team into a deity, it’s possible to criticize them without ego death.
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That’s just a political attack job against Obama. You shouldn’t trust MSM it’s all lies. I bet you voted for treason trump
Its not an attack, its just the truth
Also… Not sure what MSM is
Wow lady you need to learn how to read. Maybe if you weren’t spending so much time getting offended about everything you would know something about news and politics. Ask JFK Jr who MSM is when he comes back from the dead
Everything you don’t want to believe is fake news? Ok
