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Are the Democrats out of touch with the average American?

Most Americans are out of touch with reality. Not to be unexpected when so many people have a terrible education, abysmal reading comprehension, and are bombarded with noise, lies, and propaganda 24/7 from a wide variety of media sources.

And there is nothing to indicate any of these things improving any time soon so the rest of us are left to try getting by living in the asylum run by conmen who emboldened the lunatics by feeding into their delusions and encouraging awful behavior.
 
Which is why there's no excuse for us to be broke. Just look at all the suckers we could part from their money!

#SociopathEconomics
 
Trump has said he loves the uneducated.

How you see this depends on whether you see the uneducated as people who need better education, or as a class. The Democrats are traditionally pro education. For those who know no better, or for the noble savage wannabes, and for those who do but want a perpetually needy and powerless underclass, they are therefore the enemies of the uneducated, since they aim to thin their ranks.
 
Which is why there's no excuse for us to be broke. Just look at all the suckers we could part from their money!

#SociopathEconomics
you have to surround yourself with those people, though. Fully embrace the ecosystem.
 
We may need to wait.

The economic issues will not be solved. Trump promised nothing directly and the tariffs will not bring income of jobs to MAGA voters. With that, two years may not be enough. In four years MAGA voters will have apathy. Some foreigners were deported. A lot of things were deregulated. "What did Trump do for me?" Nothing.

The democrats also will not be able to help wages etc. Because corporations run all that. But healthcare and maybe child credits on taxes will help.
 
Or, conversely, most Americans in touch with politics.
I know what you mean. Most people don't follow politics. Certainly nowhere near like the regular posters in this subforum do. So many people I know don't even watch/check the news once a day.
 
I know what you mean. Most people don't follow politics. Certainly nowhere near like the regular posters in this subforum do. So many people I know don't even watch/check the news once a day.
I have this book, where the main topic is to support things like ballot initiatives for change.
But in every chapter the authors outline and claim with data (references) that Americans are totally disgusted with politics.
 
I have this book, where the main topic is to support things like ballot initiatives for change.
But in every chapter the authors outline and claim with data (references) that Americans are totally disgusted with politics.
It was published in 1998 and it sounds like what I was saying, but I'd love to see a revised edition.

To save others a click:

"Americans often complain about the operation of their government, but scholars have never developed a complete picture of people's preferred type of government. In this provocative and timely book, Hibbing and Theiss-Morse, employing an original national survey and focus groups, report the governmental procedures Americans desire. Contrary to the prevailing view that people want greater involvement in politics, most citizens do not care about most policies and therefore are content to turn over decision-making authority to someone else. People's wish for the political system is that decision makers be empathetic and, especially, non-self-interested, not that they be responsive and accountable to the people's largely nonexistent policy preferences or, even worse, that the people be obligated to participate directly in decision making. Hibbing and Theiss-Morse conclude by cautioning communitarians, direct democrats, social capitalists, deliberation theorists, and all those who think that greater citizen involvement is the solution to society's problems."
 
I have met one of the authors. One of them, Theiss-Morse is rather routine for a political scientist, more data driven than the other one. Though she does do open interviews where the subject says whatever comes to mind. I think the main point of view of the book came from Hibbing. He has another book I have not seen.

The Securitarian Personality: What Really Motivates Trump's Base and Why It Matters for the Post-Trump Era​

by John R. Hibbing (Author)
 
Apparently she is the good compiler and editor. The "securitarian" book review in Amazon:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Ready for Prime Time

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2020

Dr. Hibbing has done some interesting and useful research. Unfortunately, the presentation is a study in long-winded braggadocio, and in serious need of editing. Data presentation is difficult to decipher. I suggest the reader start with Chapter 5, then decide if they want more. A short journal paper would be more appropriate without the need for the grandiose title.
 
I'm reading Bowling Alone, which is mostly about the break down of American communities, and it goes into the decline of American participation in politics. Basically, parties and national organizations became too lazy, relying on things like mail order (in its day) and the itnernet to merely solicit funds from people. Politicians stopped going to the local Elk's Lodge for the spagetti dinner. People feel really disconnected and seeing a bunch of ultra rich politicians and celebrities circle jerking on stage together doesn't help.
 
I am trying the audio book, but it keeps referencing graphs and other visuals
 
The ones "owning the libs" and so on keep saying the democrats lost because of this and that. It's trans gender, it's Trump talking sharks and shower heads, it's anti-vaxxers. But none of this has any real meaning. The voters simply don't care about politics and politicians. They vote for someone on gut feel and the ones that get in somehow try to guess. Do they hate taxes? Let's get rid of taxes.

Well, it is more that the voters do not know the policies or the politicians other than Trump and Harris this time. Little bits feed into their entertainment clicks (social media). They then have some vague feelings. I would say a good 2/3 of people registered to vote would know their governor by name and party. They could not quote them on any issue. They have no idea what the governor sounds like.

What I'm trying to say is that the large masses (outside MAGA hat folks) just do not care, and are too impatient to follow any actual issue. Price of eggs can be the issue, if it is on social media. But WHERE the voter comes in every four years is just "I'm sick of so and so." They do not want the candidate or party anymore. They vote for the other party.

Let's get used to four year presidents and congress going back and forth every two years. The Senate is set up to favor the GOP, so that will occasionally swing on presidential election years.
 
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The ones "owning the libs" and so on keep saying the democrats lost because of this and that. It's trans gender, it's Trump talking sharks and shower heads, it's anti-vaxxers. But none of this has any real meaning. The voters simply don't care about politics and politicians. They vote for someone on gut feel and the ones that get in somehow try to guess. Do they hate taxes? Let's get rid of taxes.

Well, it is more that the voters do not know the policies or the politicians other than Trump and Harris this time. Little bits feed into their entertainment clicks (social media). They then have some vague feelings. I would say a good 2/3 of people registered to vote would know their governor by name and party. They could not quote them on any issue. They have no idea what the governor sounds like.

What I'm trying to say is that the large masses (outside MAGA hat folks) just do not care, and are too impatient to follow any actual issue. Price of eggs can be the issue, if it is on social media. But WHERE the voter comes in every four years is just "I'm sick of so and so." They do not want the candidate or party anymore. They vote for the other party.

Let's get used to four year presidents and congress going back and forth every two years. The Senate is set up to favor the GOP, so that will occasionally swing on presidential election years.
At least "owning the libs" in this context consists of actually trying to think of reasons why the Democrats may have failed to get the votes they needed to win.

But look here: You've described an average American, explained how the Democrats failed to reach them, and how it ended up in a loss at the polls. I think this adequately demonstrates the premise of the thread: The Democrats are indeed out of touch with the average American.
 
I thought this was a pretty accurate analysis of the situation the Democrats are facing. It does lean heavily into Robert Reich's thinking.

New York Times

“One of the things that has been frustrating about the narrative ‘The Democrats are losing the working class’ is that people are noticing it half a century after it happened,” said Michael Podhorzer, the former political director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. “The resentment and movement away from the Democrats began long before they were for nongendered bathrooms. It was because their lives were becoming more precarious, their kids were leaving town, the pensions they expected were evaporating, and that took a toll.”
What was less appreciated beforehand was the psychological damage that would be done by factory closures, large and small, in communities where prestige, stability and identity centered on those plants — as well as the political impacts of those closures on key industrial states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
 
At least "owning the libs" in this context consists of actually trying to think of reasons why the Democrats may have failed to get the votes they needed to win.

But look here: You've described an average American, explained how the Democrats failed to reach them, and how it ended up in a loss at the polls. I think this adequately demonstrates the premise of the thread: The Democrats are indeed out of touch with the average American.
Tero's done far more than that:
I would say a good 2/3 of people registered to vote would know their governor by name and party. They could not quote them on any issue. They have no idea what the governor sounds like.

What I'm trying to say is that the large masses (outside MAGA hat folks) just do not care, and are too impatient to follow any actual issue. Price of eggs can be the issue, if it is on social media. But WHERE the voter comes in every four years is just "I'm sick of so and so." They do not want the candidate or party anymore. They vote for the other party.

Let's get used to four year presidents and congress going back and forth every two years.
 
We may need to wait.

The economic issues will not be solved. Trump promised nothing directly and the tariffs will not bring income of jobs to MAGA voters. With that, two years may not be enough. In four years MAGA voters will have apathy. Some foreigners were deported. A lot of things were deregulated. "What did Trump do for me?" Nothing.

The democrats also will not be able to help wages etc. Because corporations run all that. But healthcare and maybe child credits on taxes will help.
Or a rerun of what everyone was claiming would happen 4 years ago. Instead People looked at Trump's first term and decided 'yeah let's do that again only worse because now he's actually going senile'. If you expect any honest self reflection or realism from Trump voters come 2028 you will be disappointed.
 
I think it's going to be a long time. People have longer memories for the easy lies of propaganda than the hard truths of history. The one-liners and factoids of party and press prevail over the uncomfortable and dreary facts. While the remnants of the world that don't burn first are plundered by plutocrats and their puppets, the inevitable result of our folly will be blamed on those who couldn't stoop to stop them in language stupid enough.
 
It wouldn't surprise me in the least if it turns out Trump wants Greenland because he thinks it has penguins and that people eat penguin eggs.
Remember when such a proposal would be self evidently absurd? This kind of ◊◊◊◊ is trending on the daily now.
 
Trump is talking about Greenland, Panama and Canada because its fits the vision of American exceptionalism that seems to be held by his followers. The USA is to them the greatest nation the world has ever known without question, so of course Canadians want to join the USA. The USA is the world's greatest economic power, so if its not doing so great right now that must mean its being sabotaged somehow or that others are cheating. So kick out all those immigrant who are dragging it down, punish the Chinese for making all those cheap goods we keep buying.
I think those of us outside the USA really don't always get that what to us seem like cringeworthy patriotic displays and hilariously inaccurate portrayals of the USA's place in the world are being expressed completely sincerely, even by Trump, god help us.
 
esa55jarvi
13 minutes ago

We are in the same place we were at in November. Republicans are in their ZERO SUM world. Government is only there to take stuff from them and give it to someone else. Like the fire thing. They are getting free Fire Department services! Just like those penniless immigrants are ripping us off.
(picture in link)
 
Biden forgot to tell them they were better off. Trump told them different. Eggs. Gas. Eating cats and dogs.

Household Net Worth​

The net worth of households and nonprofit organizations increased by $4.8 trillion to $168.8 trillion in the third quarter. The change in household net worth primarily reflects gains on corporate equity assets. The value of directly and indirectly held equity on the household balance sheet increased by $3.8 trillion in the third quarter, while the value of real estate declined by $0.2 trillion.
 
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