Quote of the Day: Red State Stupid; Red State Mean

A number of my posts since November 8, 2016, have focused on the stupidity - no more Political correctness required according to Der Fuhrer - and meanness of Donald Trump's white working and middle class voters.  These people were only too willing to let their hatred towards others, bigotry and resentment of others lead them to vote for a man and a political party that will gleefully kick them to the curb and perhaps literally die in the case of those who lose healthcare coverage. These folks by their own actions are the definition of mean and stupid. They deserve zero respect and zero understanding.  Apparently, I am not the only person who feels this way.  A friend shared a blog post that perfectly sums up Trump voters who are now worried that Obamacare will be repealed. Here are the best quotes:  

I want to talk a little bit more about what I call, in our blissfully post-PC era, Red State Stupid. Red State Stupid is also really Red State Mean.  It’s shoot-off-your-nose-to-spite-your-face mean. And I don’t think that we can separate the two

My friend J. says that you can identify, with 100% accuracy, Democrats vs. Republicans with one simple test.  Democrats, he says, don’t care if some “undeserving” folks cash in on, for example, a free lunch program, as long as not one child goes out to recess hungry.  While Republicans, according to J., don’t really care how many children starve as long as not one, single “undeserving” child gets a free meal.

I think J. is right.  It’s pretty clear where I come down.

And I’ve been coming back to his test over and over as I ponder this article that I cited earlier about a woman whose husband will die without Obamacare but who voted for Trump in spite of Trump’s and the Republican Party’s explicitly-avowed intent to destroy the very program keeping her husband alive. . . . .

 

Just to be crystal clear, we’re talking about a woman who voted for the candidate who promised to cut off the only thing that is keeping her husband alive because she’s just that pissed at some poor elementary-school kid who got an Xmas gift.  (Be sure to tell her “Merry Christmas” and not “Happy Holidays.”  She’s sent off more money than she can afford to some Elmer Gantry who got her all hepped up on the War on Xmas.  Jebuz is the reason for the season.   . . . . .  but some poor kid getting an Xmas present is JUST TOO GODDAMN MUCH FOR HER.)  That damn kid got an Xmas gift even though his parents received a few dollars of welfare and food stamps and she’s just NOT HAVING IT anymore.

 

Here’s a six-year old who got a Tonka truck and a stocking cap at Xmas and here’s her husband getting the health care that keeps him alive.  And she’s so damn mad at that six-year old that she’s willing to risk her husband.  Fuck the love of her life.  If he dies, so be it, but at least Trump won’t be handing out hand-knit scarves and tea sets to those undeserving brats. *

The post author goes on to address something else I advocate: turning the under 27% of registered voters who voted for Trump into shunned outcasts.  Here's the quote:

So let me say this loud and clear:  That woman is evil, and venal, and stupid and she’s not going to stop voting out of hate even if Democrats nominate another white man and even if he, what . . . ?  What is it that the Democrat is supposed to do to win her vote? 

I have two things to say:  (1)  Shunning, shaming, and blaming are actually effective tactics of social control.  See, e.g., Mothers v. Drunk Driving.  And pretending that stupid people are really just simple farmers, people of the land, the common clay of the new West who would suddenly vote in their own best interests if only a Democrat would finally go hunting, or ride a motorcycle, or get in a tank hasn’t worked for the last half century or so and I’m now ready to try shaming them and focusing on how they’re not the cool kids who are in with the in crowd; (2) If we’re not going to magically convince Ms. Red State Mean to vote in her her own self interest (and we’re almost certainly not), then we’re going to have to figure out how to get other voters to the polls with the needed ID.  And that effort needs to start now.  Waiting until a few weeks before the election to get them IDs is too late.

 The shaming, however, MUST include evangelical and fundamentalist Christians, 81% of whom voted for Der Fuhrer.  They are evil and embrace stupidity and ignorance.  I left the GOP right around the time the "godly Christians" began to heavily infiltrate the GOP and the meanness and ugliness of today's GOP directly reflects the "values" of these people.  Polite society and responsible political parties need to shun these people.