Posted on 04/14/2017 8:45:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
JW: You wrote Listen, Liberal before the 2016 election. In it, you argued that the Democrats had detached themselves from their historic constituency: ordinary, working-class Americans. Your recent tour took you through the red states—you went to Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis—
TF: You want to know the biggest lesson I learned touring Trumpland? People hated Hillary Clinton. To a degree that even I, with my cynicism, did not understand. I did not hate Hillary Clinton. I voted for her, and I agreed with Obama that she was very qualified. She deserved to be president. I didn’t think she’d be a great president, but I thought she’d be OK—certainly better than Donald Trump. I knew how to hate Donald Trump. That’s easy. He boasts about groping women. He says these evil things about Mexicans, and mocks the handicapped. It’s unbelievable the stuff this guy did and said. Hating him was easy. What I did not understand was the degree to which people really hated Hillary Clinton. And that’s ultimately what this election was about: Which one do you hate more?
JW: Why did so many people hate Hillary?
TF: That’s the question. What is it about her? She doesn’t say rude things. She tries so hard to not offend people. I think it’s the very things that you and I like about Hillary that were the problem: She is so professional, she is so polished, and she’s such a wonderful lawyer. She went to Yale law school, and was so brilliant, and was the best in her class. People hate this. They hate what she represents, this kind of scolding liberalism that’s better than you. In Listen, Liberal, I talked about her goodness and her righteousness. I kind of made fun of her for it. But people hate that stuff. Hate it. And people running the Democratic campaign had no idea. The Republicans kept Trump at arm’s length all through the campaign. They knew that this guy was toxic. The Democrats did not do that with Hillary Clinton. They loved her without reservation. And not just them: the media, the press, the newspaper columnists—they could not imagine someone better than Hillary Clinton being a nominee for president.
JW: What is your case against the party of Hillary Clinton?
TF: It’s not a party of working-class people anymore. It’s not a party that cares much about the condition of the middle class. It’s a party that is attached to a different group, affluent, white-collar professionals who share a certain class perspective on the world. It’s a story of social class, but not the social class everyone thinks of when they think of the Democratic Party…. I voted for Hillary Clinton. But Hillary Clinton was the perfect embodiment of what’s wrong with the Democratic Party.
JW: Of course the Democrats had a choice in the primaries. On the one hand, there was the most qualified person ever to run for office, who would make history by becoming the first woman president. On the other, there was a 74-year-old Jewish socialist from Vermont.
TF: And he’s the electable one!
JW: You called him “a living symbol of what the Democrats used to stand for.” So why didn’t Bernie win?
TF: I’m not one of these people that thinks she won the nomination by cheating. Her side did cheat. There’s no doubt about that. The Democratic National Committee did cheat. But she also won fair and square. Why did Bernie lose the Democratic primaries? First of all, he was a totally unknown quantity when those primaries started. Today, he’s very well-known. People sort of wish he was president. But at the time, he was an unknown quantity. Most damaging of all, he wasn’t a Democrat. All those years in Congress, he never signed up with the Democratic Party. He voted with them most of the time, and he caucused with them, but he never joined the party. So party insiders, people who vote in Democratic primaries, Democratic elected officials—there’s no way they’re going to support a guy like that. And here’s Hillary, who has been promising these people things for decades now. She is their ideal candidate.
JW: The Democrats adopted most of Bernie’s issues in their platform at their convention—did that have an impact on the white working-class Trump supporters?
TF: No. Zero. They didn’t even know that. Another thing I learned in Trumpland: Bernie Sanders is a remarkably popular politician. Remarkably popular. This is a man that has very few scandals. I don’t think he has any. I think a lot of people regard him as a reassuring figure, as a comforting figure because he reminds them of Democrats of old. I spoke in a union hall in Indianapolis. This is the union local that represents those workers at the Carrier plant that Trump made such a big deal out of in the election. It was a lot of fun. These are people where the rank and file, by and large, went for Trump—because he was talking about not just their issues, but their lives. But all over this union hall are pictures of Bernie Sanders. They love this man. You see that, and suddenly, you figure something out: When people ask, “Would Bernie have been able to beat Donald Trump?” The answer is, “Hell, yes.” Because these are the voters that defected, that left the Democratic Party and voted for Trump. They love Sanders. Yeah, he would’ve beaten Trump. Hell yes!
He sounds pretty clueless to me.
It’s just great to listen to a delusional talk about the delusions they have about their own delusions. On the other hand, I got other stuff to do.
Well said.
I agree, clueless.
First time I've visited the Twilight Zone by accident.
Where’s the barf alert?! I made it to “she tried to never offend anyone” before I started gagging and retching. Come ON! Don’t spring that kind of journolistic carrion on us without SOME kind of warning.
He still doesn’t get it.
Which is fine.
“Yeah she cheated”
“Oh she was so well qualified to be president “
Cognitive dissonance.
Yep, what a joke, that she tries so hard not to offend people.
Basket of deplorables was simply one of many such statements, in which it is clear, that in Hillaryland, you have to be liberal. And if you are not liberal, you are persona non grata to Hillary.... Facts are stubborn things. They don’t give a blank who they offend. Hillary is quite offensive in many of her speeches, if you go back and watch and read the transcripts.
this kind of scolding liberalism that’s better than you.
This sums up Hillary and many liberals pretty well. Hillary has a scolding hectoring speaking style, which grates on many of us. Apart from what she’s saying, her mannerisms turn a lot of us off.
Amazing, this guy is the "author of several books" yet as he "tours the Red States" (for him, like exploring the home of Martians), he didn't listen at all to what people were telling him.
He misunderstood the very reason for his big revelation: Why people really hate Hillary in Red State land.
Hey let me be real frank with you Tom Frank: People could care less that she went to Wellesley and all that bunk. The reason is this:
She's a dishonest, backstabbing, murdering liar who never accomplished anything good in her life. And she's been like that ever since the first time she came to Washington fresh out of college and got kicked off the Watergate Commission for fraud.
Yep, I’m happy if the liberals don’t get why this election got away from them. Because it means they won’t be making changes in 2018, 2020 or beyond, in elections. They will hit rock bottom.
It’s not just the 2016 presidential election that has caused Democrats such losses. Since Obama’s election in 2008, Democrats have lost over 1000 seats in state legislatures, Congress, and governorships combined. Democrats control fewer than 10 states, in which they have the governor and state legislature in their control. The Democrats are on their way to being a liberal, but regional, party.
Hillary won only 50 electoral votes from states in the interior of America. The vast majority of her support came from the liberal anchors in the northeast and Pacific coast states.
And then they stupidly blew up the filibuster over Gorsuch of all the silly things that they could have done.
So we hate Hillary because she's GOOD and Righteous??? Hahahaha.
Thank God the Dems are still delusional.
When she went to Yale Law School it was a Pass/Fail system so how can he know where she rated? She could have been at the bottom of her class if there had been a GPA system. We'll never know so Frank doesn't know either.
However she showed a distinct lack of brilliance when she failed the DC law boards.
This guy could have saved some gas,people hate Hillary because she is a leech,a liar and a crook.
End of story
Didn’t learn anything, did he?
This is my #1 favorite Ctrl-Left excuse of the year. It goes at the top of my list:
People hating Hillary because she is so professional, so polished, such a wonderful lawyer, so brilliant, so good, so righteous, and so much better than us elected Trump.
Robby Mook selecting the wrong travel stops for Hillary and spending heavily in the wrong states elected Trump.
Hillary’s lack of likability and lack of trustworthiness elected Trump.
Self-hating women elected Trump.
Hillary’s campaign team failing to hone her message and get voters to the polls elected Trump.
Wikileaks elected Trump.
FBI investigation elected Trump.
Email scandal elected Trump.
Men elected Trump.
Misogyny elected Trump.
FBI Director Comey elected Trump.
Lower-level FBI agents pressuring their Director (because that’s how professional relationships work) elected Trump.
Tim Kaine gave Hillary Virginia, but he also elected Trump.
White women elected Trump.
The Russians elected Trump.
Racists elected Trump.
Sexists elected Trump.
Rural voters elected Trump.
The working class voting against their own interests elected Trump.
Fake news elected Trump.
Facebook elected Trump.
Supermarket tabloids elected Trump.
Celebrity (The Apprentice) elected Trump.
White male resentment elected Trump.
Over-shaming Trump supporters elected Trump.
Rejecting Bernie elected Trump.
Reagan democrats elected Trump.
Gary Johnson and Jill Stein voters elected Trump.
Backlash against political correctness elected Trump.
There are many terrible reasons for President Trump’s victory, but there are two things that were not a factor. First, Hillary was the perfect candidate; nothing she did harmed her candidacy in any way. Second, President Trump was the worst candidate imaginable; nothing he did helped his candidacy at all, except with racists, sexists, bigots, and the rest of the basket of deplorables.
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