Posted on 08/11/2015 2:31:05 PM PDT by Sir Napsalot
Memo to pollsters: while Im having as much fun as everyone else watching the unsinkable Donald defy predictions of his assured collapse, what I really want to see at this point is a profile of his supporters. What characteristics predispose someone to like this guy, as opposed to accepting the establishment candidates?
The reason Id like to see such a poll is that I suspect that both conservative and liberal pundits are still getting the Trump phenomenon wrong. And yes, thats the kind of statement hey, left and right both wrong! that I usually hate when other pundits do it. But in my case its not knee-jerk centrism, its an informed guess based on some related evidence.
Right now, the conservative explanation of the GOPs onset of DTs is, as best I can figure, that base voters are victims of celebrity; what they really want is a true conservative, but theyre being hijacked and hoodwinked by someone who makes good TV.
Meanwhile, the liberal version, as Ive seen it, seems to be that Trump is appealing to resentment that ultimately rests on economic failure: working-class whites have been left behind by soaring inequality, but they mistakenly blame immigrants taking their jobs.
But are Trumpists being hoodwinked? Are they members of the suffering working class who dont understand why theyre hurting? OK, heres my guess: they look a lot like Tea Party supporters. And we do know a fair bit about that group.
First of all, Tea Party supporters are for the most part not working-class, at least in the senses that group is often defined. Theyre relatively affluent, and not especially lacking in college degrees.
(Excerpt) Read more at krugman.blogs.nytimes.com ...
As I understand it, he has great insight into the factors governing international business siting decisions (the basis for his Nobel Prize). If he's making pronouncements on that one, narrow topic, I'll sit up and attend to what he's saying. Otherwise he's just another academician, who having become the world's expert on one little topic though years of work, fancies he's the world's expert on his whole discipline, and now, even on things in tangentially related areas.
The other narrative definition is: "immigrants" and "undocumented immigrants" as opposed to "trespassing foreign nationals". Certain CNN "experts" will use alternately "immigrants" and "undocumented immigrants" as much as 20 times per minute. The objective here is to confer legitimate status on fugitives from the law. Why, they aren't fugitives! They are "undocumented immigrants"!
Brainwashing us.
Krugman juxtaposes conservative and liberal. That really misses reality.
Most of FR, Occupy-Wall Street, Sanders, Trump, Cruz, Carson, Paul and Tea Party (and others) is anti-establishment and anti-oligarch.
Conservative:liberal paradigm ignores the reality that there are three economic approaches in modern society. Krugman (who pretends to know about economics) ignores that CORPORATISM aka Mercantilism is the ideology of both Bush and Clinton and most of the media.
Socialists think Corporatists are capitalists. Capitalists think Corporatists are socialists. They are both wrong.
Thank you very much for the additional links. A quick question before I read the articles,
About that 40 millions employed by the government (in one way or another), does that include the military personnel?
Never mind, I started reading the second article, and it is clearly stated.
From what I see, ‘angry people’ are real. And people on both sides of the political spectrums are angry.
I may be a pessimist, but I just don’t see it could be resolved through regular political process, not any more.
No, that’s not factually correct at all.
Would you care to try to reply again?
Yes. That’s a good point! Subtract the number of defense personnel and a few other essentials from that number, in my opinion. The size of civilian government probably needs to be cut in half at least.
We could easily do without regulatory offices in rural areas (planning, building, zoning, etc.), public education employees and many more. Federal pork to state and local governments should be outlawed. It’s the tie that turns too many more toward socialism.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.