We could add opioid users for Trump too, but that would include much of the republican establishment today. The great evil is now acceptable proving once and forever the shallow emptiness of the republican party.
"Trump is just another drug, people round here are addicted to escapism." Daniel Justus [coal country]
"What angers Daniel is that his people are clinging to a way of life that has crippled them — often literally. “It’s as if they have Stockholm syndrome [where a prisoner falls in love with his captor],” he says. Dana Oliver, Daniel’s school friend who introduced us, puts it another way. In the absence of coal, half the county now subsists on federal handouts — Medicaid, food stamps, Social Security disability payments and other “entitlements”. Alone in the Republican field, Trump vowed to protect them. Whatever else you can say about the New York property magnate, he knows his market. Call it big-government conservatism for white people. “Coal is not coming back — it costs too much to open a flooded mine,” says Oliver. “In their heart of hearts, most people know that. Trump just gives them a little bit of hope.""
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5c01bee-22c4-11e6-aa98-db1e01fabc0c.html
Readers of Joe Bageant know the story. "His hippy adventures brought about in him a kind of wild-eyed lucidity when regarding the spectre of American capitalism, while his background gives him licence to be plain rude. Bageant believes, without question, that a majority of white working-class and poor Americans voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 because they are stupid.
More precisely, they are "downright stupid", "dumber than owl shit". Even worse, Christian fundamentalist schools, "those American madrassas", are "a sure way to make the masses even more stupid if there was one"."
Review: Deer Hunting With Jesus by Joe Bageant
"This book is written from a changing town in Virginia, but this class of mine, these people--the ones who smell like an ashtray in the checkout line, devour a carton of Little Debbies at a sitting, and praise Jesus for a truck with no spare tire--exist in every state in our nation. Maybe the next time we on the left encounter such seemingly self-screwing, stubborn, God-obsessed folks, we can be open to their trials, understand the complexity of their situation, even have enough solidarity to pop for a cheap retread tire out of our own pockets, simply because that would be the kind thing to do and surely would make the ghosts of Joe Hill, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Mohandas Gandhi smile." Joe Bageant
"Trump is just another drug, people round here are addicted to escapism." Daniel Justus [coal country]
"What angers Daniel is that his people are clinging to a way of life that has crippled them — often literally. “It’s as if they have Stockholm syndrome [where a prisoner falls in love with his captor],” he says. Dana Oliver, Daniel’s school friend who introduced us, puts it another way. In the absence of coal, half the county now subsists on federal handouts — Medicaid, food stamps, Social Security disability payments and other “entitlements”. Alone in the Republican field, Trump vowed to protect them. Whatever else you can say about the New York property magnate, he knows his market. Call it big-government conservatism for white people. “Coal is not coming back — it costs too much to open a flooded mine,” says Oliver. “In their heart of hearts, most people know that. Trump just gives them a little bit of hope.""
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5c01bee-22c4-11e6-aa98-db1e01fabc0c.html
Readers of Joe Bageant know the story. "His hippy adventures brought about in him a kind of wild-eyed lucidity when regarding the spectre of American capitalism, while his background gives him licence to be plain rude. Bageant believes, without question, that a majority of white working-class and poor Americans voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 because they are stupid.
More precisely, they are "downright stupid", "dumber than owl shit". Even worse, Christian fundamentalist schools, "those American madrassas", are "a sure way to make the masses even more stupid if there was one"."
Review: Deer Hunting With Jesus by Joe Bageant
"This book is written from a changing town in Virginia, but this class of mine, these people--the ones who smell like an ashtray in the checkout line, devour a carton of Little Debbies at a sitting, and praise Jesus for a truck with no spare tire--exist in every state in our nation. Maybe the next time we on the left encounter such seemingly self-screwing, stubborn, God-obsessed folks, we can be open to their trials, understand the complexity of their situation, even have enough solidarity to pop for a cheap retread tire out of our own pockets, simply because that would be the kind thing to do and surely would make the ghosts of Joe Hill, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Mohandas Gandhi smile." Joe Bageant
