re: #109 HappyWarrior

No doubt. They don’t want to hear that but the fact is they did get conned. They did fall for lies. And they’ll do it again and the way to prevent that from happening again isn’t infantizing them. I think many white liberals have this romantic vision of the working class. Perhaps because so many of our families came from families like that. I don’t think every or even most WWC is a bigoted person but I do think there are resentments unique to that group that the right has pounced on from Nixon to Trump and many white liberals simply can’t see it. They think if we just go back to New Deal economic rhetoric, that will get these people back into our fold and I just don’t think it’s that simple. A lot of them (not all) have a problem with the fact that our party and ideology champions immigrants, LGBT, racial minorities, poor people, etc.

It will take time.

In the abstract, it is easy to say “liberals hate America” or some such.

It’s tough when you are right there for them to tell you that to your face, when your neighbours see their rhetoric does not match their experience.

No one here thinks I “hate America.” Atheist, sister in a same-sex marriage, Democrat, liberal, &c. Everyone around me knows all that.

Also disabled military, pay my taxes and bills, keep my lawn mowed, &c.

That opens up a crack into which you can insert a wedge. (All politics is local.) If a political discussion comes up, “well, what do you think of all the Republican senators and representatives avoiding their constituents, while all the Democratic ones are welcoming them?”

Even my local paper’s poll today ran over 80% saying reps should meet their constituents, and they are all GOP, all the time.

Baby steps. It will take time to reverse thirty or more years of damage.