And who is the Trump voter? Largely working class folks, folks in the trades, middle-class people. Those of us smug about our fine college educations often think such people are hapless, stupid, clueless about how to manage their lives without expert help. Certainly they can't be trusted to run our government.
Who are you, betty? You are not the woman whose words I read with regularity for so many years here on FR, because you were so unfailingly intelligent, eloquent and fair. Reading some of your posts of late, when those posts concern Donald Trump and his political opposition, I have scratched my head in disbelief, wondering where the fairness went.
I am a vehement opponent of Donald Trump, and have written much regarding how I came to join that particular camp. And my writing has included much negativity regarding the man and what I believe he represents. At the same time, I have never personally disparaged any Trump supporter. Not his allegiances. Not his perspective. Especially not his personal motives for his political viewpoint. Not one of the above.
You suggest that those of us who oppose Donald Trump (people who are often 'smug about their college educations') do not actually dislike Trump himself but, instead, actually dislike 'working class folks, folks in the trades, middle-class people'.
That you, never having personally met me or others who will not support Donald Trump and are very vocal about our dislike of him, would attribute to us a personal distain for that segment of America that was (and still is) most responsible for America's rise in becoming the most moral and prosperous civilization in the history of mankind, is beyond inconceivable to me.
My Dad, the most incredible human being I have ever known, was a blue-collar worker for fifty years, often working 10-12 hours a day to put food on the table for his family during the 50s and 60s, and whose intelligence, sense of duty, industry, honesty, and love of country were second to none. He instilled in me, and virtually everyone he knew well, a deep and abiding reverence for 'working class America', and I have lived my life sharing that message.
I am a part of a group here in our township that is working on a program that we hope will allow us to speak at schools in our area of the state, presenting a program called 'The Case for Working With Your Hands' (based loosely on This article by Matthew Crawford).
And I am by no means alone. I would estimate that close to half of my (and my husband's) friends are college-educated 'professionals' and well over half are blue-collar workers, tradespeople, stay-at-home mothers, and the like. And I know, for a fact, that not a one of those friends has a negative opinion of the kind of people you theorize that we 'loathe and disparage', for any reason, and certainly not by virtue of the fact that we are not supporters of Donald Trump. To even intimate so is a stereotyping that is beyond unjust, and it hits me, personally, at the core of who I am, as well as reflecting poorly on many of my friends and family, who most certainly do not deserve to be the recipients of such unfair negative stereotyping, simply by virtue of whom they are supporting/not supporting in this election cycle.
You will note that, in this response, I have not once attributed personal motives/perspectives to your assertion, even when that assertion painted, with a broad, black brush, both me and many of the people I love/loved and whose opinions I cherish. Such broad, negative generalizations have no place in civil debate.
Nothing I said in the post you cited was directed at YOU. Or Jeff. I was thinking of the GOP establishment types, and their supporters in the private sector, MSM, and academe. I have very little doubt that they loathe and disparage the Great American Unwashed. They are a bunch of ideological snobs and control freaks. 'Nuff said.
I AM NOT DISPARAGING YOU.
We disagree in our assessments of the characters of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump respectively. I strongly suspect Cruz is a man of unsteady character and little wisdom, but with great personal ambition -- towards what end is completely unclear to me. I used to love the guy, until I noticed the dirty tricks, and started analyzing his manner of speech.
As to the latter, I note the difference between persuasion, which is entirely legitimate; and manipulation, which is not. I see a good deal of the latter in Cruz's manner of speaking.
But I recognize that you are entirely free and warranted to disagree with my assessment; and that does not make you any less in my eyes. We go back a long ways, and almost always agree in our assessments of matters that come to the attention of the forum.
I have long regarded you as a person of fine character and excellent understanding and intelligence. Nothing has changed for me in that regard. We just happen to disagree this time, maybe for the first time.
Our disagreement is based on what we know, on what we have seen; on evidence, logic and experience. We are looking at the same things; but our takeaways are different.
But the state of our knowledge is different, probably because our education, training and experience are different. For one thing, I am a keen analyst of language and the usages to which it can be put, which run the gamut from the accurate description of reality to the transformation of reality into shapes more pleasing to our subjective desires. I'll just leave it at that for now. (I could write a lengthy paper on the systematic abuse of language that has become rife in American culture in recent times. Maybe I will actually do that some time, if only for my own self-amusement.)
In closing, I still love you dearly. And may the best man win.
No matter what, come hell or high-water, I'll be voting for the Republican presidential nominee (even if I have to hold my nose) in November.
May God ever bless you, Joanie.