Update for Trump voters by Robert Reich (former Secretary of Labor)

[JEDI]

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/posts/1532553506757240
if u don't have facebook:

1. Trump said he wouldn’t bomb Syria. You bought it. Then he bombed Syria.

2. He said he'd build a wall along the border with Mexico. You bought it. Now his secretary of homeland security says "It’s unlikely that we will build a wall."

3. He said he’d clean the Washington swamp. You bought it. Then he brought into his administration more billionaires, CEOs, and Wall Street moguls than in any administration in history, to make laws that will enrich their businesses.

4. He said he’d repeal Obamacare and replace it with something “wonderful.” You bought it. Then he didn’t.

5. He said he’d use his business experience to whip the White House into shape. You bought it. Then he created the most chaotic, dysfunctional, back-stabbing White House in modern history, in which no one is in charge.

6. He said he’d release his tax returns, eventually. You bought it. He hasn’t, and says he never will.

 

[JEDI]

For those w/short attention spans, I put the rest of what he wrote into a 2nd post:

7. Trump said he’d divest himself from his financial empire, to avoid any conflicts of interest. You bought it. He remains heavily involved in his businesses, makes money off of foreign dignitaries staying at his Washington hotel, gets China to give the Trump brand trademark and copyright rights, manipulates the stock market on a daily basis, and has more conflicts of interest than can even be counted.

8. He said Clinton was in the pockets of Goldman Sachs, and would do whatever they said. You bought it. Then he put half a dozen Goldman Sachs executives in positions of power in his administration.

9. He said he’d surround himself with all the best and smartest people. You bought it. Then he put Betsy DeVos, opponent of public education, in charge of education; Jeff Sessions, opponent of the Voting Rights Act, in charge of voting rights; Ben Carson, opponent of the Fair Housing Act, in charge of fair housing; Scott Pruitt, climate change denier, in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Russian quisling Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.

10. He said he’d faithfully execute the law. You bought it. Then he said his predecessor, Barack Obama, spied on him, without any evidence of Obama ever doing so, in order to divert attention from the FBI's investigation into collusion between his campaign and Russian operatives to win the election.

11. He said he knew more about strategy and terrorism than the generals did. You bought it. Then he promptly gave the green light to a disastrous raid in Yemen- even though all his generals said it would be a terrible idea. This raid resulted in the deaths of a Navy SEAL, an 8-year old American girl, and numerous civilians. The actual target of the raid escaped, and no useful intel was gained.

12. He called Barack Obama “the vacationer-in-Chief” and accused him of playing more rounds of golf than Tiger Woods. He promised to never be the kind of president who took cushy vacations on the taxpayer’s dime, not when there was so much important work to be done. You bought it. He has by now spent more taxpayer money on vacations than Obama did in the first 3 years of his presidency. Not to mention all the money taxpayers are spending protecting his family, including his two sons who travel all over the world on Trump business.

13. He called CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times “fake news” and said they were his enemy. You bought it. Now he gets his information from Fox News, Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, and InfoWars.

 

[chowderhead]

to be fair to Trump, he did say if you voted for Clinton, there will be endless investigations. I voted for Clinton and now there are endless investigations.

 

[Commodus]

It's as straightforward an explanation of Trump's hypocrisy, lies and unrealistic goals as you could hope for. I want to see our resident Trump cheerleaders try to weasel a defense here.

The hilarious bit is that the Democrats might only have to offer a basic amount of grassroots motivation to win one or both sides of Congress in 2018, let alone 2020. "Hey, you know how Trump didn't really fulfill his promises, and it turned out that many of those promises were bad ideas to begin with? Hi." Actually, I can imagine that Republicans increasingly dreading 2018... if there's enough of a backlash, it not only means that their agenda gets stopped dead, it likely means impeachment and general disaster for the party.

 

[ivwshane]

Here's one promise he did keep. He said he'd appoint a conservative anti abortion judge and he did.

And that's probably all any of his non ardent supporters cared about.

 

[fskimospy]

It's almost like Trump is a serial liar or something.

I've been amazed at the extent to which partisanship and emotional investment has destroyed logical thinking on the part of his supporters. When he was working to pass that horrible health care bill that would have totally screwed over large numbers of his supporters when asked about it they said 'Oh I don't think he would really do that' while he was trying to do exactly that. They were only saved by Trump's incompetence and the intransigence of congressional Republicans.

There's also this story in the NYT:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/01/...trump-budget-cuts-but-still-loyalty.html?_r=0

Judy Banks, a 70-year-old struggling to get by, said she voted for Trump because “he was talking about getting rid of those illegals.” But Banks now finds herself shocked that he also has his sights on funds for the Labor Department’s Senior Community Service Employment Program, which is her lifeline. It pays senior citizens a minimum wage to hold public service jobs.

“This program makes sense,” said Banks, who was placed by the program into a job as a receptionist for a senior nutrition program. Banks said she depends on the job to make ends meet, and for an excuse to get out of the house.

“If I lose this job,” she said, “I’ll sit home and die.”

Yet she said she might still vote for Trump in 2020. And that’s a refrain I heard over and over. Some of the loyalty seemed to be grounded in resentment at Democrats for mocking Trump voters as dumb bigots, some from a belief that budgets are complicated, and some from a sense that it’s too early to abandon their man. They did say that if jobs didn’t reappear, they would turn against him.

So basically she's saying 'Trump is looking to take an action that will kill me. Yes, I might still vote for him in 2020 because the Democrats said mean things to me.' Amazing.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Here's one promise he did keep. He said he'd appoint a conservative anti abortion judge and he did.

And that's probably all any of his non ardent supporters cared about.

I'm having trouble finding that Gorsuch himself stated he opposes R v. Wade, and no I don't mean Trump. At this moment it seems no one knows how he will rule.

 

[Pens1566]

Yeah, but you can't take him literally.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

I wonder how many Trump voters will ever see much read this Facebook blog....................my guess is less than 0.0000001%

 

[ivwshane]

I'm having trouble finding that Gorsuch himself stated he opposes R v. Wade, and no I don't mean Trump. At this moment it seems no one knows how he will rule.

Its based on his rational for other rulings he has made.

http://time.com/4652322/donald-trump-gorsuch-abortion/

The signs point towards anti abortion more than they do pro abortion (or women's rights for that matter).

 

[TheVrolok]

I wonder how many Trump voters will ever see much read this Facebook blog....................my guess is less than 0.0000001%

Or this thread

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

The article doesn't believe Gorsuch would go after Wade. The concern is how he would rule on state limitations which is legit. But if someone is likely to stand with the precedent then it seems that we're not looking at foaming at the mouth here. I'm not saying how he'll rule, but I am saying that how things shake out is unknown and yes this is legitimate concern. We'll see.

BTW, Gorsuch is supported for other things outside of abortion. He's not likely to be a gun right foe.

 

[Chiropteran]

I wonder how many Trump voters will ever see much read this Facebook blog....................my guess is less than 0.0000001%

Why would they?

Who is reading such a list, and suddenly looks up shocked "OMG, you mean he didn't build a wall yet?"

Trump voters know exactly where Trump is. They are also smart enough to realize that 3 months into 2 4 year terms is NOT all she wrote. There is plenty of time left for those promises to be fulfilled.

 

[WelshBloke]

There is plenty of time left for those promises to be fulfilled.

What about the things he wasn't going to do and did?

 

[Commodus]

I wonder how many Trump voters will ever see much read this Facebook blog....................my guess is less than 0.0000001%

You could always increase the odds by sharing it!

I'll agree that there is a problem with social bubbles, though. Both sides have this issue, but it's particularly bad with the right in the Trump era. I've seen more than a few conservatives who still parrot the "drain the swamp" line even as Trump installs the most corrupt administration in US history, or religious people who are fine with a philanderous, greedy liar in the White House so long as he promises to hurt LGBT people and curb abortion. Unless there's a big shift in social sharing, many of these people will only realize how bad Trump is when (not if) he screws them over.

 

[Chiropteran]

What about the things he wasn't going to do and did?

You got any of that evidence stuff to back up the claims you are making?

I don't have a prornographic memory or anything, but as I recall Hillary wanted a no-fly zone over Syria and Trump said that was a bad idea. I don't remember Trump ever saying we should just let Assad gas people to death with zero repercussions.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Why would they?

Who is reading such a list, and suddenly looks up shocked "OMG, you mean he didn't build a wall yet?"

Trump voters know exactly where Trump is. They are also smart enough to realize that 3 months into 2 4 year terms is NOT all she wrote. There is plenty of time left for those promises to be fulfilled.

It may not be enough time to fulfill all his promises, but it's apparently enough time to break several.

 

[Moonbeam]

The message is that a very large number of Americans are idiots who feel something that makes them vote irrationally out of some powerful emotional need that also makes them easily manipulated by such promises and even ignore the fact they aren't kept once their faith has been placed in them.

But of what value is that message. How much depth is there to calling somebody stupid. What is to be gained by rubbing people's noses in their own shit. This is what will happen if those who are angry at the destruction the right has caused simply react exactly the same to it, with a destructive curse of condemnation. These people have fucked themselves and those who tried to prevent it failed. We all failed and so we all must be stupid shits.

Let go of it. How did we get to be who we are and how can we change?

In my opinion we are the mirror of our system and our system is the mirror of who we are.

What has happened to the great America we imagine ourselves trying to get back to? However great we may have imagined it and no matter how great we were or imagined we were, it has led us right exactly to where we are today. And what name do we use for our society> I think we call it capitalism. And what is it based on? It is based on competition in a market economy where money is king, where self respect and achievement and personal worth are all measured by how much money you have, where getting ahead is everything, where having a job is life or death, and where that very competition has created such efficiencies that most of us are superfluous and unneeded, where now we grow up in economic fear and hatred of our competition. It is this competitive hatred and the failure to succeed, the loss of the images and external manifestations of success that have cause this rot from within. We have been destroyed by our system, the very God we worship and struggle to defend.

Once the American male lived in a paternal society that placed him at the top of the food chain pyramid, a single one of whom could support a middle class life for a whole large family, but now we compete to put our kids on a path to economic success as we compete for the best kindergartens for them to attend.

We are surrounded by competition and the fear of failure, men competing with women, the young with the old, blacks against whites, the rich against the poor, all out of a terror of failure and a deep need to succeed. This is what a competitive system creates, this is what fills reality TV. Competition for some sense of personal achievement and our 15 minutes of fame, rats running in a wheel. What's your heart rate, have you done your cardio for the day? Got a BMW yet? Upgraded your computer, well wait a minute.

Competition is hate. Competition is fear. Fear is the mind killer. Trump is what you get when one makes a life our of competition, the glorification of the personal ego that destroys lesser beings in its wake. We put our faith in where his is, in his giant ego and tiny hands because we want to be on a winning team even if we have to dress up like clowns and cheer from our bigly-grand stands eating hot dogs and peanuts.

I think it was God that said you will not win until you treat your neighbor as you want to be treated yourself. That is just the opposite of competition and something fearful people can't do. And if you can't care for others, you will surely never be cared for either. Competition is loneliness and misery and here we are. We aren't stupid. We are deeply wounded by the system we worship. We hold our neighbors in contempt and they us. And all this because we cannot love. Love creates a competitive weakness.

I would love to help you but well you know, you can't get blood from a turnip, much less a turnip that feels inwardly drained and just fell off a truck.

 

[WelshBloke]

You got any of that evidence stuff to back up the claims you are making?

I don't have a prornographic memory or anything, but as I recall Hillary wanted a no-fly zone over Syria and Trump said that was a bad idea. I don't remember Trump ever saying we should just let Assad gas people to death with zero repercussions.

I'm sure Trump at least hinted at not going into Syria...

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

What has happened to the great America we imagine ourselves trying to get back to?

The joke's on us, there never was a 'great america'. The American Dream was an ideal invented by those in power to convince those not in power to continue working themselves to the bone. They were given just enough of a leash to think they could be whatever they wanted before being ground under the wheel of progress. We're reaping what we sowed.

 

[trenchfoot]

"Fake news!" That's all it takes for Trump to shout out in order to convince his supporters to ignore what he's really up to, how incompetent he really is, how he is factually working against their best interests and how he is mired in a controversy that could actually amount to treason.

There has to be some kind of breaking point where his circle of lies to support his previous lies will finally catch up with him, but it seems that among his supporters the tolerance level to this chronic debilitating habit of his knows no bounds. That he solely relies on this weird misfire of common sense to keep his presidency from derailing is, in the face of all things logical and practical, mystifying to say the least, yet functional in practice.

In any other way you'd look at his rise to power and how he holds sway over his faithful flock of feckless followers, he'd be the leader of some kind of fiendish cult looking to anarchy as a way to fix things good and proper.

 

[Atreus21]

Well, at least I got to keep the doctor I liked.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

"Fake news!" That's all it takes for Trump to shout out in order to convince his supporters to ignore what he's really up to, how incompetent he really is, how he is factually working against their best interests and how he is mired in a controversy that could actually amount to treason.

There has to be some kind of breaking point where his circle of lies to support his previous lies will finally catch up with him, but it seems that among his supporters the tolerance level to this chronic debilitating habit of his knows no bounds. That he solely relies on this weird misfire of common sense to keep his presidency from derailing is, in the face of all things logical and practical, mystifying to say the least, yet functional in practice.

In any other way you'd look at his rise to power and how he holds sway over his faithful flock of feckless followers, he'd be the leader of some kind of fiendish cult looking to anarchy as a way to fix things good and proper.

I think there's been some mild (if unintentional) conditioning of the American mentality to accept 'wrong' as being okay, as long as it's defined and understood. We see reality TV for instance with people doing 'wrong' stuff in it, and we accept that it's being done within the bounds of that TV show and so it's accepted as simply 'a thing' within the scope of that TV show. There's no moral outrage, picketing in the streets, or calls for the studio execs to be fired for accepting of the behavior because it's just a TV show. Well, likewise, most think/assume politicians are corrupt, so when one acts corrupt it's business as usual.

We've gone past what should have been considered any kind of 'breaking point', just that it isn't a breaking point and there won't likely ever be. Americans in general expect administrations to be corrupt to an extent and so it's expected, as long as it's not too severe. Apparently collusion with an opposing world power, being surrounded by people who's motives are very clearly opposed to the 99%, and policy desires which coincide with said surrounded people aren't enough for most. He could eat a human child on live TV and he'd still have someone defending him.

 

[Chiropteran]

I'm sure Trump at least hinted at not going into Syria...

Those are from years ago...

You don't think gassing nearly 60 people to death changes anything?

I mean, if you told me we should attack Canada today, I'd call the idea insane. But if the Canadian government nukes Alaska, that would be a valid reason to change my point of view, would it not?

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

You don't think gassing nearly 60 people to death changes anything?

More than killing thousands through conventional means? Not really. It gets to a point where the methods don't mean much anymore.

Not to Godwin this, but would you *really* think less of Hitler if he had ordered 60 random Jews skinned alive in front of their families? Would it really matter anymore?