GOP pundit: "GOP working class communities deserve to die"

[VRAMdemon]

Want to know what the GOP nattering class really thinks of the Trump backers? Want to gauge the depth of their contempt for the GOP working class?

I can't recall an actual article in recent memory that went to town like this one on a given group of people. A panicked, angry conservative writer for the National Review takes the GOP Trump loving working class to task and just scorches the earth.

It's weird to see what passes the GOP intellectual class being willing to burn alive the conservative working class whose backs they have ridden on for decades to get electoral wins, the instant they start questioning GOP orthodoxy. The white working class is finally wising up to the fact that the GOP has taken them for a ride. They know Trump is a joke. They're fully aware he's probably not going to accomplish half the shit he says he's going to do. They know this New York billionaire has little, if anything at all, in common with them. What matters most is Trump's willingness to bury the establishment and piss on its grave.



http://www.nationalreview.com/corner...vin-williamson

It is immoral because it perpetuates a lie: that the white working class that finds itself attracted to Trump has been victimized by outside forces. It hasn’t. The white middle class may like the idea of Trump as a giant pulsing humanoid middle finger held up in the face of the Cathedral, they may sing hymns to Trump the destroyer and whisper darkly about “globalists” and — odious, stupid term — “the Establishment,” but nobody did this to them. They failed themselves. If you spend time in hardscrabble, white upstate New York, or eastern Kentucky, or my own native West Texas, and you take an honest look at the welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol addiction, the family anarchy — which is to say, the whelping of human children with all the respect and wisdom of a stray dog — you will come to an awful realization. It wasn’t Beijing. It wasn’t even Washington, as bad as Washington can be. It wasn’t immigrants from Mexico, excessive and problematic as our current immigration levels are. It wasn’t any of that. Nothing happened to them. There wasn’t some awful disaster. There wasn’t a war or a famine or a plague or a foreign occupation. Even the economic changes of the past few decades do very little to explain the dysfunction and negligence — and the incomprehensible malice — of poor white America. So the gypsum business in Garbutt ain’t what it used to be. There is more to life in the 21st century than wallboard and cheap sentimentality about how the Man closed the factories down. The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible. Forget all your cheap theatrical Bruce Springsteen crap. Forget your sanctimony about struggling Rust Belt factory towns and your conspiracy theories about the wily Orientals stealing our jobs. Forget your goddamned gypsum, and, if he has a problem with that, forget Ed Burke, too. The white American underclass is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whose main products are misery and used heroin needles. Donald Trump’s speeches make them feel good. So does OxyContin. What they need isn’t analgesics, literal or political. They need real opportunity, which means that they need real change, which means that they need U-Haul.

National Review Writer: Working-Class Communities ‘Deserve To Die’

 

[DrDoug]

Gotcha by a half hour. Horrible article though...lol! Talk about painful to read.

 

[disappoint]

The conservative brain defect is viewing the past through filters that filter out the bad things humanity had to go through in it's past.

Donald Drumpf has no intention of winning the general election.

Just winning the nom to take it away from the defectives that don't realize that they are defective, let alone why, or how.

He wants to do his part to make America great again by ensuring a D win this November. And here's the kicker: Whether he realizes it or not. And whether you realize it or not.

 

[Bitek]

I was reading a good article where it was comparing the charges now being made to the working whites to the demonization of black culture as the root of their poverty since the 60s (when blatent racism became unacceptable.)

It's not the economic system that is failing them, it's because they are horrible, immoral people who just want to take drugs, create baby momma's suckled on welfare funds and food stamps.

Congrats working white people, you just became n******* for not accepting the pittance the owner class are offering you.

 

[disappoint]

I was reading a good article where it was comparing the charges now being made to the working whites to the demonization of black culture as the root of their poverty since the 60s (when blatent racism became unacceptable.)

It's not the economic system that is failing them, it's because they are horrible, immoral people who just want to take drugs, create baby momma's suckled on welfare funds and food stamps.

Congrats working white people, you just became n******* for not accepting the pittance the owner class are offering you.

I'm not entirely sure of what you are trying to say. Are you saying blue collar white people are akin to slaves because the "owner class" as you put it are paying them less than a living wage?

 

[Bitek]

I'm not entirely sure of what you are trying to say. Are you saying blue collar white people are akin to slaves because the "owner class" as you put it are paying them less than a living wage?

Their complaints as being dismissed as coming from lecherous, immoral people who only want to take from others.

It's not a logical argument, is an ad hominem rather than a serious consideration of their situations.

Again, think of all the parallel charges that have been made against the black communities for decades (broken families, drug use, welfare, lack of drive & education, etc) versus the drivel in that article.

"Don't blame the govt and business, blame yourselves, and let's keep the power in the hands of the people it belongs to you dogs."

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

I think he's saying any deference the GOP establishment has for their white blue collar base goes out the window when they stop being useful to them and start getting all uppity.

As for the article, I love how it starts off with this:

It is immoral because it perpetuates a lie: that the white working class that finds itself attracted to Trump has been victimized by outside forces. It hasn’t.

like there hasn't been a 24/7 rightwing bullshit machine for the past 30 years endlessly telling these people exactly what "outside force" to blame for whatever their plight.

And some of the comments just make me SMH:

The thing that has hurt the working class is that they do not stick together. Unfortunately groups like the Demoncrats and the unions know how to rally their base...

Yeah, Bob.

 

[disappoint]

Oh I agree. That article was written by a madman.

 

[Gonad the Barbarian]

Not a madman, he's doing exactly what the GOP establishment has been doing for the past 30 years- telling their base who to erroneously blame for their ills (this time, it's the base's own lack of bootstraps).

 

[michal1980]

Their complaints as being dismissed as coming from lecherous, immoral people who only want to take from others.

It's not a logical argument, is an ad hominem rather than a serious consideration of their situations.

Again, think of all the parallel charges that have been made against the black communities for decades (broken families, drug use, welfare, lack of drive & education, etc) versus the drivel in that article.

"Don't blame the govt and business, blame yourselves, and let's keep the power in the hands of the people it belongs to you dogs."

Because everything is always someone else's fault.

 

[disappoint]

Not a madman, he's doing exactly what the GOP establishment has been doing for the past 30 years- telling their base who to erroneously blame for their ills (this time, it's the base's own lack of bootstraps).

I disagree that he's not a madman:

It is immoral because it perpetuates a lie: that the white working class that finds itself attracted to Trump has been victimized by outside forces. It hasn’t. The white middle class may like the idea of Trump as a giant pulsing humanoid middle finger held up in the face of the Cathedral, they may sing hymns to Trump the destroyer and whisper darkly about “globalists” and — odious, stupid term — “the Establishment,” but nobody did this to them. They failed themselves.

If you spend time in hardscrabble, white upstate New York, or eastern Kentucky, or my own native West Texas, and you take an honest look at the welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol addiction, the family anarchy — which is to say, the whelping of human children with all the respect and wisdom of a stray dog — you will come to an awful realization. It wasn’t Beijing. It wasn’t even Washington, as bad as Washington can be. It wasn’t immigrants from Mexico, excessive and problematic as our current immigration levels are. It wasn’t any of that.

Nothing happened to them. There wasn’t some awful disaster. There wasn’t a war or a famine or a plague or a foreign occupation.
...

The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible. Forget all your cheap theatrical Bruce Springsteen crap. Forget your sanctimony about struggling Rust Belt factory towns and your conspiracy theories about the wily Orientals stealing our jobs.

...

From the other thread as it will likely be locked, despite being posted sooner. This thread has more replies in it. I wrote:

Wow. Was that written by the second coming of Adolf Hitler?

Suspend your Godwin's Law enforcement for just a moment as I don't agree with that law anyway. If someone is acting like a genocidal fascist maniac I will call them on it.

This is exactly some of the tactics used by such persons. Dehumanization: Equating children to dogs.

And genocide or ethnic cleansing: "...they deserve to die."

I'm sure it'd be much easier to murder the problem than deal with it in a more humane fashion for example oh I don't know helping them. But has he really learned nothing from the mistakes of the past?

Furthermore, if the problem isn't Washington, then we should see the same problem in all nations on Earth to the same extent as in the United States. Do we?

 

[michal1980]

I disagree that he's not a madman:



From the other thread as it will likely be locked, despite being posted sooner. This thread has more replies in it. I wrote:

Wow. Was that written by the second coming of Adolf Hitler?

Suspend your Godwin's Law enforcement for just a moment as I don't agree with that law anyway. If someone is acting like a genocidal fascist maniac I will call them on it.

This is exactly some of the tactics used by such persons. Dehumanization: Equating children to dogs.

And genocide or ethnic cleansing: "...they deserve to die."

I'm sure it'd be much easier to murder the problem than deal with it in a more humane fashion for example oh I don't know helping them. But has he really learned nothing from the mistakes of the past?

Furthermore, if the problem isn't Washington, then we should see the same problem in all nations on Earth to the same extent as in the United States. Do we?

I think you are projecting.

 

[LegendKiller]

Not a madman, he's doing exactly what the GOP establishment has been doing for the past 30 years- telling their base who to erroneously blame for their ills (this time, it's the base's own lack of bootstraps).

The problem is, they sold the boots to China and now there's nothing to pull up. People are realizing it and they are scrambling to put down the revolution any way they can. The best way they can come up with is to shame them. Don't think it's going to work.

 

[disappoint]

I think you are projecting.

Only on Sundays. Enjoy your transderivational search.

 

[VRAMdemon]

Because everything is always someone else's fault.

Is that why you blame the rise of Trump on Obama?

If you believe Williamson is right in general - These people are part of the "Mooching class" that many in the conservative base like to rail against or pretend that they don't even exist. The huge hole in his argument is that he refuses to accept any responsibility by the GOP, which has fought to destroy the union movement, fought to limit federal assistance, fought to demonize minorities, fought to uphold religious closed-mindedness, fought to apotheosize businesses, fought science and education and technology. All at the same time they courted the Appalachians all across the country to support them while they destroyed all chance they had of change. We'll put up a fence against The Future, the GOP cried, and it won't get to you. They did and it didn't. Democrats have some blame. Both sides wanted this. Neither likes it and neither will take responsibility. A pox on both their houses.

 

[interchange]

The function of our political machine is essentially to find blame for someone else. This is no different.

Blaming low-middle class working America for underachieving, being addicted to drugs, and looking for handouts is asinine.

Equally asinine is blaming the 1% for not caring about the working class, being greedy, and hoarding money for themselves.

Of course, these paradigms are also true in a limited sense. There are many wealthy people whose goal in life is to exploit others and easily make business decisions at the expense of human welfare. There are many individuals who escape from their own responsibility by using drugs, who refuse to work at lower-paying jobs because it is beneath them (despite their lack of qualification), who believe that it is the government's responsibility to take from the rich and give to the poor.

The problem with all the blaming, though, is that it merely reinforces the paradigm.

If the perception of the little man is that there is no hope to succeed and that they will be taken advantage of bar none if they try, then of course they will not try.

If the perception of the 1%ers is that their employees don't value their product, their mission, their company, etc. and will take any opportunity to get more for themselves merely because you are advantaged and they are not, then of course the 1% will not spread the wealth unless they see it as good business. Especially if they believe that the government will take the responsibility for these people's lives so they won't have to.

I have no side in this because picking a side is exactly the thing that perpetuates this mess. The reality is that any workplace where the boss is empathetic and empowering of its employees and the employees are invested in the success of the business and demonstrate willingness to take some personal sacrifice to benefit the company is the workplace that will strive. Unfortunately, our culture continues to move farther and farther away from this even being possible.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Oh I agree. That article was written by a madman.

It's debatable if it's madness or deliberate blame shifting. However, it looks like there is more than one, Kevin Williamson who wrote the original article and David French who backed him up. In general I disagree with conservative mantra and wish the conservative base would see things for what they are - their party (with the help from democrats) screwed them over by letting companies outsource for the past 50 years, but damn, that was painful to read. I can only hope that when the "white working class" gets a hold of the article that it's going to backfire on the national review and the GOP establishment, I truly hope that the conservative base will finally wise up to the failed, no, malicious GOP policies.

 

[VRAMdemon]

The function of our political machine is essentially to find blame for someone else. This is no different.

Blaming low-middle class working America for underachieving, being addicted to drugs, and looking for handouts is asinine.

Equally asinine is blaming the 1% for not caring about the working class, being greedy, and hoarding money for themselves.

Of course, these paradigms are also true in a limited sense. There are many wealthy people whose goal in life is to exploit others and easily make business decisions at the expense of human welfare. There are many individuals who escape from their own responsibility by using drugs, who refuse to work at lower-paying jobs because it is beneath them (despite their lack of qualification), who believe that it is the government's responsibility to take from the rich and give to the poor.

The problem with all the blaming, though, is that it merely reinforces the paradigm.

If the perception of the little man is that there is no hope to succeed and that they will be taken advantage of bar none if they try, then of course they will not try.

If the perception of the 1%ers is that their employees don't value their product, their mission, their company, etc. and will take any opportunity to get more for themselves merely because you are advantaged and they are not, then of course the 1% will not spread the wealth unless they see it as good business. Especially if they believe that the government will take the responsibility for these people's lives so they won't have to.

I have no side in this because picking a side is exactly the thing that perpetuates this mess. The reality is that any workplace where the boss is empathetic and empowering of its employees and the employees are invested in the success of the business and demonstrate willingness to take some personal sacrifice to benefit the company is the workplace that will strive. Unfortunately, our culture continues to move farther and farther away from this even being possible.

I agree with this...

Wealthy conservatives were able for a long time to persuade working-class conservatives that they were on the same side, that their "values" or "hard work" or "patriotism" were just on the brink of allowing them to "take their country back". Trump is just the latest updose of that same drug for the addicted and desperate who were no longer getting sufficient pain relief from Romneys and Bushes.

White working-class conservatives are growing more and more frantic because they have no real majority solidarity to fall back on as their illusory solidarity with white upper-class conservatives grows ever less convincing. They can't join forces with the large demographic who are in the same boat with them economically, because those are the dreaded commies and hippies and "urban" people and foreigners.

And they can't form a genuine populist movement of their own because they're still on some level buying into the anti-populist, pro-elite ideology that they've been schooled in by their conservative leaders. They're taking refuge in fantasies of themselves as patriots, revolutionaries, a small struggling band in the vanguard of reclaiming the nation, by force if necessary (or for preference).

Upper-class conservatives have groomed them to despise their natural allies in populist politics, but they no longer really believe in the artificial alliance with upper-class conservatives. They're grasping with one last convulsive clutch at the fading vision of the promised ideal: a powerful rich Boss who will really be on their side and will open up the pathway to their success at last.

 

[theeedude]

Reaganomics destroyed the white working class. The only thing that trickled down was misery. Drugs and alcohol are just finishing the job.

 

[hal2kilo]

I agree with this...

Wealthy conservatives were able for a long time to persuade working-class conservatives that they were on the same side, that their "values" or "hard work" or "patriotism" were just on the brink of allowing them to "take their country back". Trump is just the latest updose of that same drug for the addicted and desperate who were no longer getting sufficient pain relief from Romneys and Bushes.

White working-class conservatives are growing more and more frantic because they have no real majority solidarity to fall back on as their illusory solidarity with white upper-class conservatives grows ever less convincing. They can't join forces with the large demographic who are in the same boat with them economically, because those are the dreaded commies and hippies and "urban" people and foreigners.

And they can't form a genuine populist movement of their own because they're still on some level buying into the anti-populist, pro-elite ideology that they've been schooled in by their conservative leaders. They're taking refuge in fantasies of themselves as patriots, revolutionaries, a small struggling band in the vanguard of reclaiming the nation, by force if necessary (or for preference).

Upper-class conservatives have groomed them to despise their natural allies in populist politics, but they no longer really believe in the artificial alliance with upper-class conservatives. They're grasping with one last convulsive clutch at the fading vision of the promised ideal: a powerful rich Boss who will really be on their side and will open up the pathway to their success at last.

Well said. Reality is finally catching up to them.

 

[Mxylplyx]

I agree with this...

Wealthy conservatives were able for a long time to persuade working-class conservatives that they were on the same side, that their "values" or "hard work" or "patriotism" were just on the brink of allowing them to "take their country back". Trump is just the latest updose of that same drug for the addicted and desperate who were no longer getting sufficient pain relief from Romneys and Bushes.

White working-class conservatives are growing more and more frantic because they have no real majority solidarity to fall back on as their illusory solidarity with white upper-class conservatives grows ever less convincing. They can't join forces with the large demographic who are in the same boat with them economically, because those are the dreaded commies and hippies and "urban" people and foreigners.

And they can't form a genuine populist movement of their own because they're still on some level buying into the anti-populist, pro-elite ideology that they've been schooled in by their conservative leaders. They're taking refuge in fantasies of themselves as patriots, revolutionaries, a small struggling band in the vanguard of reclaiming the nation, by force if necessary (or for preference).

Upper-class conservatives have groomed them to despise their natural allies in populist politics, but they no longer really believe in the artificial alliance with upper-class conservatives. They're grasping with one last convulsive clutch at the fading vision of the promised ideal: a powerful rich Boss who will really be on their side and will open up the pathway to their success at last.

Wow. Thats good stuff right there

 

[sandorski]

The real way to send a Message wouldn't be to Vote for Trump, it would be to not Vote at all or Vote for the opposition.

Even if they hate the Establishment, there is no way of knowing if Trump will even do anything about the Establishment. He could attain the Office and still need the Establishment to help him through doing his duties.

The Establishment also just needs to wait out Trump. At worst their influence would be minimized for 8 years, but only at the Presidential level. This makes Trump an inconvenience.

OTOH, if People don't Vote Republican, the very existence of the Party is put on the table. That will force a fundamental change.

 

[interchange]

There is some validity to making it safe to say what is on your mind, even if it is extreme. However, the inciting of violence and racism without responsibility is horrendous. It would be cool to have a leader that helped make it easy to approach discussion on the beliefs we have that might be taboo without also taking the stance that they are appropriate to act on or that other ideas might not also be true.

 

[Hugo Drax]

The real way to send a Message wouldn't be to Vote for Trump, it would be to not Vote at all or Vote for the opposition.

Even if they hate the Establishment, there is no way of knowing if Trump will even do anything about the Establishment. He could attain the Office and still need the Establishment to help him through doing his duties.

The Establishment also just needs to wait out Trump. At worst their influence would be minimized for 8 years, but only at the Presidential level. This makes Trump an inconvenience.

OTOH, if People don't Vote Republican, the very existence of the Party is put on the table. That will force a fundamental change.

What Vote for Clinton, An establishment candidate who also works for the same people.

 

[Jhhnn]

The function of our political machine is essentially to find blame for someone else. This is no different.

Blaming low-middle class working America for underachieving, being addicted to drugs, and looking for handouts is asinine.

Equally asinine is blaming the 1% for not caring about the working class, being greedy, and hoarding money for themselves.

Of course, these paradigms are also true in a limited sense. There are many wealthy people whose goal in life is to exploit others and easily make business decisions at the expense of human welfare. There are many individuals who escape from their own responsibility by using drugs, who refuse to work at lower-paying jobs because it is beneath them (despite their lack of qualification), who believe that it is the government's responsibility to take from the rich and give to the poor.

The problem with all the blaming, though, is that it merely reinforces the paradigm.

If the perception of the little man is that there is no hope to succeed and that they will be taken advantage of bar none if they try, then of course they will not try.

If the perception of the 1%ers is that their employees don't value their product, their mission, their company, etc. and will take any opportunity to get more for themselves merely because you are advantaged and they are not, then of course the 1% will not spread the wealth unless they see it as good business. Especially if they believe that the government will take the responsibility for these people's lives so they won't have to.

I have no side in this because picking a side is exactly the thing that perpetuates this mess. The reality is that any workplace where the boss is empathetic and empowering of its employees and the employees are invested in the success of the business and demonstrate willingness to take some personal sacrifice to benefit the company is the workplace that will strive. Unfortunately, our culture continues to move farther and farther away from this even being possible.

Please. Leadership matters. Power matters. Hedge fund ownership disavows obligation to everybody save the principals. They deal in abstractions, not human lives.