A week before the election, my dad was visiting and talked to me about his gut feeling that former President Donald Trump might win. He was clear about his choice to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. “But what are they doing?” he asked me, exasperated.
“They need to level with people about the economy,” he continued. “I know so many people who can’t afford a place to live any more. People do not want to hear, ‘Well, actually the economy is good.’”
Then suddenly he pivoted away from Harris to liberals more generally, and away from the economy into culture.
“You know, another thing: I’m tired of feeling like I’m going to get jumped on for saying something wrong, for using the wrong words,” my dad confided, becoming uncharacteristically emotional. “I don’t want to say things that will offend anyone. I want to be respectful. But I think Trump is reaching a lot of people like me who didn’t learn a special way to talk at college and feel constantly talked down to by people who have.”
At 71 years old, my dad is still working full time, helping to run a delicatessen at a local farmers’ market. He didn’t go to college. Raised Mennonite and socially conservative, he is nonetheless open-minded and curious. When his cousins came out as gay in the 1980s, he accepted them for who they are.
Not talking about politics is what got us into this situation in the first place.
No.
People making their entire identity political got us into this situation in the first place.
lol, and just whom do you think that was?
Who is most likely to disseminate incorrect information? Who never bothers to verify facts? Who couldn’t be arsed to apply critical thinking to the information presented?
Why do you think foreign agitators targeted Facebook in 2016 and beyond? It’s because Baby Boomer rubes are the easiest targets available. Who voted for Brexit?
There’s no critical thinking there, no challenging of statements. They just assume they’ll fail upwards no matter what course of action they take, because for most of their lives that has been true.
99% of voters.
Y’all clearly do not care about the quality of people you elect, judging by the effects of their governance. The world can burn and people can starve so long as the person in charge wears blue and says nice things.