The reason I am not buying into the "we have to appeal to racists on economic terms BS" to win

[boston bean]

is because I don't believe the ones who pushed trump over the finish line were ever Obama supporters.

In fact, Trumps campaign will tell you these people rarely voted ad they weren't on the radar.

I believe that these voters came out in a whitelash against Obama. And these voters would have NEVER voted for Hillary and will likely NEVER vote for a democrat.

[geek tragedy]

1. we can't win those people over, but we can turn them negative on Trump so that they don't turn out

there were probably some people who saw him as a protest vote or who voted against the status quo moreso than for him. Those people we can win back.

[JimBeard]

2. They are talking about getting those red states back but the red states

have been leaving the Democrats for a long time. Why spend money on farmers when they don't vote for Democrats and haven't for some time. People in Labor Unions have been leaving the Democratic Party. They are wealthy workers.

We just have to get the real workers out to vote. Like Wal Mart and fast food and others who really need the help and hopefully will VOTE. Why should we reward people who don't vote for us and cost a lot of money after we are in power.

[heaven05]

3. WE HAVE TO RESPOND TO THE RACISTS

in the exact way they approach anti-trump fuhrer protestors and the minority 'others' of which I am one that they HATE so much. I am not talking just reaction, but proactive to them IF THEY START ANYTHING. Stomp them into jelly or use whatever means is at ones disposal. I can't go back to Africa, I can't afford it. I could go to germany on dual citizenship but I'm afraid that country is just as anti-PoC as the majority of ameriKKKans are now. Maybe I'll go to Cuba, My grandmother had family there. But I really want to get out of here before the trumpfuhrer crackdown on our border and crossings. Dictatorships do that you know.

[NastyRiffraff]

4. The People's View has a great piece on this issue

An Open Letter to the White Working Class: You Don't Get To Hide Your Racism Behind "Economic Concerns"

Look, I think we all know what part of your "white working class" identity is overriding for you. It's not the "working class" part. According to exit polling, Hillary Clinton won the working class vote. It's the 'white' part that cost her the election.

Still, we're told by the media again and again that you guys aren't all racists, that you are all just pissed off that your working class living is gone. We are told that the factory jobs - at least the good paying factory jobs - have either disappeared from the "heartland" (given what you gave us though, we're going to call you 'heart-attack-land' from now on) or been replaced with lower paying jobs. Even in the rust-belt, we're told, a white man can no longer expect to put in all day at the local manufacturing (or coal) plant and expect to own a home, put food on the table, and raise his children.

We're told that you are nostalgic for those days, and that this nostalgia is why you voted for the human wrecking ball. You blame politicians for not being able to restore the olden days, for making trade deals that move "your" jobs overseas for the fraction of the cost, and for immigrants you view as willingly providing cheaper labor here at home.

But seriously, can we have a moment to address what your nostalgia is really about?
The People's View

The whole thing is worth reading.

[duffyduff]

5. It isn't just racists, it is also SEXISTS.

After all, we had a WOMAN candidate for president. NEVER underestimate how much woman hatred there is in this country, and it goes far beyond HRC being who she supposedly is.

The entitled white dudes hate women even more than the minorities.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. Some of those voters did vote for Obama

can't remember where, now (Guardian, maybe? NYT? Washington Post? Somewhere, anyway), but, interviews with Trump voters in Michigan, one of whom voted for Obama and thought he was okay until he reminded her that he was black (didn't like his saying "Trayvon Martin could've been my son", "unnecessary injecting race into things" blah blah).

[baldguy]

7. We can't get rid of the cannibals.

But we can shame the normal people who have been conned into believing it's OK the accept their dinner reservations.

[ismnotwasm]

8. Yes!

K&R

[JCanete]

9. Racism is stoked by fear and insecurity, and is fed by propaganda. It is

a particularly poor tactic to attempt to shame and cajole people who are afraid of losing their own security into not being racist. It is a much better tactic to empathize with their pain and help them to see the actual cause of it. You can't make emotional appeals without first taking the logic of their own emotional reactions to task first, and you can't do that if they think you look at them as scum of the Earth. They have a right to be afraid. They have a right to look for answers. Why do we keep not giving them the answers? Why do we not listen respectfully, and then offer a far better narrative--one that undermines their fears about immigrants and Muslims and welfare and at the same time, turns their energy to a common cause with the rest of us, to reclaim the commons from the increasingly fat 1 percent.

If you don't want to wage class warfare, we will never get money out of politics and we will never stop being governed by divide and conquer tactics, and both major parties will be playing for the same team, because either you get sponsored or you don't play at all. We aren't going to have a lot of opportunities to galvanize people together, so we should probably take them as they come.