Featured, Race & Politics

How Many Profiles Are We Going To Read About Idiot Trump Supporters Doubling Down On Self-Sabotaging Whiteness?

, 4/2/17

This is (obviously) a rhetorical question. It’s impossible to answer. And as long as bloggers and reporters and columnists and opinion writers continue to pitch and write pieces where they either don’t know or pretend not to know why so many idiot Trump supporters still stand steadfast by their man, we will continue to read them. Which means they will continue to exist. Despite my frustration at this annoying new genre of MAGA fanfic, I admit to possessing a perverse fascination with these people, and I know I’m not alone.

Take “In Trump Country, Shock at Trump Budget Cuts, but Still Loyalty” for instance, where Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times interviews men and women who will be hurt and perhaps even killed by Trump’s proposed budget cuts.

Gawk at the follow passage, and tell me how you can read it and not be completely spellbound by it.

Judy Banks, a 70-year-old struggling to get by, said she voted for Trump because “he was talking about getting rid of those illegals.” But Banks now finds herself shocked that he also has his sights on funds for the Labor Department’s Senior Community Service Employment Program, which is her lifeline. It pays senior citizens a minimum wage to hold public service jobs. “This program makes sense,” said Banks, who was placed by the program into a job as a receptionist for a senior nutrition program. Banks said she depends on the job to make ends meet, and for an excuse to get out of the house.

“If I lose this job,” she said, “I’ll sit home and die.”

Yet she said she might still vote for Trump in 2020

If Trump does what he says he’s going to do, she knows she’ll have nothing to live for and might even die. But she still would vote for him — even if that vote came from the fucking grave. Keeping “those illegals” out and retaining the value of Whiteness in America is so important to her that she’d choose that over her own life. 

And perhaps quotes like that articulate the true value of these endless and mind-numbing profiles. It’s not for us to be sympathetic to them, or to determine how to reach them, but for us to finally collectively realize that they just can’t be reached. That we’re operating with different currencies, and concepts like “logic” and “literally saving your own fucking ass” are valueless to them. That they’d rather see us gone or dead (or both) than themselves alive.

So yes, let’s continue to read about and study them. Not to figure out how to sway them, but to squash any inkling or thought of feeling bad for them.

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Damon Young

Damon Young is the editor-in-chief of VSB. He is also a columnist for GQ.com and EBONY Magazine. And a founding editor for 1839. And he's working on a book of essays to be published by Ecco (HarperCollins). Damon is busy. He lives in Pittsburgh, and he really likes pancakes. Reach him at damon@verysmartbrothas.com. Or don't. Whatever.

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  • Gibbous

    I just can’t imagine the disconnect, and their probable refusal to believe what’s at the heart of their own actions.

    In addition, all this rhetoric about the Dems. not listening to middle America? There’s a reason for that.

    • stmije

      Easy. People don’t like admitting they’re wrong.

      • nillalatte

        I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken. ;) lol

    • Hugh Akston

      I’m not really sure about the notion that the dems didn’t listen to middle America

      I mean after you heard the first few arguments from slavery deniers or systematic racism deniers…how long do you spend listening to them and arguing with them? And when you state the facts they just ignore it?

      That’s why I wanted that healthcare bill to pass…let the house burn down..that’s what they’ve been asking for and that’s why they voted for cheeto so why stand in their way?

      • AJACs

        Because “they” are not the only ones who will suffer.

        • Hugh Akston

          Guess what? Many of us are still suffering

          Let them get a good taste of it…and a good majority of them would have felt it

          • fedup

            Yeah, no. As much as I despise their way of thinking, I cannot condone hurting everyone to prove a point.

            That may work when your mama takes away everyone’s dessert when there’s an issue and no one will come forward. But making it so that my mom has to struggle in her retirement because she can’t afford healthcare? No. I don’t think that “Yeah, we gave em a taste of their own medicine!” is gonna work as a treatment plan.

            • Hugh Akston

              I was sent in limbo

      • Gibbous

        I only meant that argument was ridiculous. Also, if they burn, they won’t burn alone. We’ll all get at least singed in the process.

        • Hugh Akston

          WElp we are getting burned right now…so…you think they care? I mean really right now I can point to policies impacting the black community directly and you think they care? We are already in the house that’s on fire so I don’t see the point of arguing “well we will get burn too”…uhhh we are already being burned alive

          • Gibbous

            I would rather not have my life destroyed in the attempt to teach someone a “lesson” that they’ll blame me for anyway.

            • Hugh Akston

              It isn’t about teaching them a lesson

              Those folks are looking every possible way to keep you down and they have a machete ready to take your arms even though they already cut your legs…but you think losing a little hair is worse

              Good luck

      • Alessandro De Medici

        It’s not that they didn’t listen as much as they didn’t have a strategy for dealing with them. People keep forgetting that the reason why Hillary lost, was because there were certain states she had in the bag that she didn’t. She lost for the same reason Mike lost to Buster Douglass.

        • Hugh Akston

          True especially for skipping a state during a presidential campaign..

          • Alessandro De Medici

            Hillary went all in on getting the women’s vote, specifically, the white women’s vote.

            Yes she did show some support for minority causes.
            Yes she did change her economic policies for the sake of appealing to Bernie Bros.

            But “I’m With Her”, was for white women…if we’re being honest; Hilary Clinton’s failure to win, is really a testament to the failure of white women’s feminism – which is one of the storylines that hasn’t been addressed by most people or think pieces on the election. That to white women as a whole, Phyllis Schlafly has been more influential and more politically relevant than Gloria Allred or Gloria Steinem.

            Never has a presidential candidate put so much energy and effort to attract a single demographic, and made little to no difference. Her failure would’ve been the equivalent of Obama winning only 60% of the black vote in 2008 and 2012.

            • Janelle Doe

              Great point, it is not being addressed by anyone in the Lean In camp. The only time I hear it being brought up tbh is on VSB.

            • jigg_uppa

              white women are the most protected and privileged group of people in all of Western civilization. maintaining that status will always be priority #1

              • I_AmU

                I see no lie.

    • Rhonda Jackson Joseph

      See, this part. I’m concerned this is a grand scheme for the “restructuring” the Dems are constantly being said to require. Yes, there’s always room for improvement, as the chasm between Clinton and Sanders showed. But this stuff seems to be leading right to a place of “forget those who have supported you and want to make you better” and “focus on those who threw the biggest temper tantrum EVER, so you can save them…even though they don’t need any saving”.

    • Brown Rose

      Dems have listened to them. They created programs specifically for them and it still wasn’t enough. They want a reversal of time. They want the Hollywood classic movie in which Blacks were porters and maids and they could live their white picket fence dream instead of competing against Martinez, Singh, Xi, and Abdullah.

  • Hugh Akston

    Wait what’s going on here?

    Is it Monday?

    • HouseOfBonnets

      Shhhhh don’t say anything.

    • fedup

      I just came back on the phone, feelin like I’d entered the Twilight Zone!

    • nillalatte

      It’s Monday somewhere. lol And, maybe 5 o’clock too. *pours another drink* lol

      • fedup

        Watchoo drinkin girl?

        • nillalatte

          LOL… right now… just hot tea. But, I might add a bit of Bourbon later- to my chicken. I’ve been having this craving for Bourbon chicken lately. So, I had to buy a bottle of Bourbon. Not sure I’ve ever drank Bourbon tho.

          Edit: I have. It’s in eggnog. duh. lol

          • fedup

            Well there’s no time like the present to try!

  • GrownAzzMan

    The level of cognitive dissonance https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2b8d81c3a426ae8d7f0b6cd31474e7359fd52bcbcedbf8bdffa0c8a3585f9817.jpg required for them to still support him is un-presidented.

    • cyanic

      White people are obsessed with the future. Hence the effort on their part to turn our present into a sci-fi movie.

      • ElusiveCupcake

        Too bad that sci-fi movie is “The Hunger Games.” Only they don’t realize they won’t be living in the Capitol, they’d be living in District 12 with Katniss and them.

  • I am making my way through the audio book of The People’s History of the United States..Not that Im surprised by this at all, but its almost astonishing realizing that nothing has changed. The same fear-mongering, bigoted, manifest destiny, toxic whiteness has echoed through history. Insert brown person and change the year. Rinse and repeat. But I’m with you Damon, I have a perverse fascination also.

    • kingpinenut

      The People’s History of the United States ( that book is life )

      • truthseeker2436577@yahoo.com

        It is a great book.

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      • A.G.

        I’m adding this to my reading list. Thanks for the recommendation! If you have any others, let me know :-)

        • kingpinenut

          Ms. Badu got me in my feels… I’ll see what I can get together once I’m right minded.

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      • Hahahaha

        That book sucks:D it’s got so Many bad reviews trumps daughters cloths are selling better:D

    • Mary Burrell

      College educated white women think they can just ignore the fact they too helped Trump get elected as well. Women’s reproductive rights and health care will affect them as well.

      • Bazy Hatty

        He got 52% of college white women and 61% of non college-white women. For them when fighting to preserve White privilege as he promised to make it great again all other issues become non-issues.

        • Diego Duarte

          53% actually. It just goes to show that even the “liberals” would rather see Blacks, Latinos and Muslims get beat on the streets than have access to contraception and safe abortions.

      • Wise Old Owl

        White females always vote Republican…in the last 30 plus years, only Clinton in 96 received the majority of the white female vote…Regardless of educational level, Becky, who just happen to be 38% of the electorate, vote Republican…so stop the myth that only uneducated Becky Sue in Alabama vote Republican…

        • Brady101

          Thank you, we’ll said….people voted Republican for 1 main reason….. it was not a vote some much for Trump as it was a vote against 8 failed years of hussein obama… just my opinion, for what it’s worth…

          • Exhausted

            Thanks for being racistAF. This discussion was too rational.

        • Kas loves Jamaican Breakfast

          You responded to Mary. Her first sentence mentions college educated.

          • Wise Old Owl

            It was more of a statement rather than a response to Mary….

        • Mary Burrell

          Can you read I said college educated in the beginning of my sentence.

          • Wise Old Owl

            No, I can’t read or write…however, I can think critically…my analysis was not about educational level per se….but about White Females historically voting Republican…now can you think critically?

          • Wise Old Owl

            The stop the myth was not directed towards you…it was a general statement about the false narrative that only uneducated white females vote Republican…I apologize for the confusion.

      • truthseeker2436577@yahoo.com

        That’s true. They obviously care more for white privilege than for true liberty for everybody. They ignore Trump’s abhorrent sexism and irrational views.

        • Mary Burrell

          Hey Brother Truth well said.

          • truthseeker2436577@yahoo.com

            Thank you Sister Mary Burrell.

      • Brown Rose

        They helped a lot. They are the majority and vote more frequently and often then men. Black women are the only other group that votes often. They are the demographic that allowed Trump to win. They won’t own it though.

        • I_AmU
          • Brown Rose

            There was a similar article in the WaPo about. To me this is meaningless argument. Clinton spent an enormous amount of time and money on them and it was wasted. White women have been trending conservative for decades and they vote reliably Republican and or conservative. Its farcical now to think that being a woman was any political motivator and that women’s rights would unite all women. It doesn’t. White women have their own agenda and they have been advancing their interests for a long time that is categorically opposite to minority women..

            • I_AmU

              Absolute #FACTS

      • Susan 530

        Not this white woman. Nor any of my friends.

      • SororSalsa

        White women who voted for Trump value whiteness above everything else, but they don’t get that they’re consigning themselves to second class citizenship as women. How ignorant and short sighted. I’m not white, but as a woman, I can’t imagine valuing whiteness over personal agency over my own body.

    • Mary Burrell

      Is this the Howard Zinn book I have that book.

      • “M”

        Yep.

        • Mary Burrell

          I am thumbing through it now?

    • Bazy Hatty

      “Good White People: The Problem with middle class white anti racism” by Shannon Sullivan is a good read (244 pages) that echoes Howard Zinn.
      https://www.amazon.com/Good-White-People-Middle-Class-Anti-Racism/dp/1438451687

    • Adrienne_in_MTown

      It’s because slave owners (and poor whites) had kids, they had kids, they had kids and then they had kids too. These people are inbred racists who will only continue to pass on their self destructive behavior and ultimately, long term consequences to their children and the rest of the the world until they stop procreating. Birth control is the only way to stop them lol.

      • “M”

        Well, education would too — but they’re as anti-intellectual as they are racist, unfortunately.

    • JamaicanJewel

      I think there is a lot of blame to go round. The old people have been voting Republican for four cycles even though at the beginning of each session of Congress after those elections, the Republicans fulfill the party platform and mess with our Social Security, Medicare or Disability. Then the old people bitch. Makes no sense whatsoever.

    • J_JamesM

      The false and ghastly notion that we are any different than our predecessors is exactly what reactionaries want you to think. They want to recapture an idealized past that never existed, and half of that equation is making people too arrogant and ignorant to see they’re doing the same thing as their parents and grandparents.

    • Fantastic read, and one I recommend to anyone who is curious about the how we got here, why, as well as why understanding both is critical to moving forward…

      Enjoy it, and Pick up a dead tree version to keep the bookshelf from blowing away!
      ;-)

  • AJACs

    Blah blah sick, blah blah pity, blah blah blah eye roll.

    It’s hard to maintain any sort of compassion for such stupidity.

    • nillalatte

      That’s what I’m saying. These tRump supporters are just ignorant.

      • Hugh Akston

        I don’t believe that’s the case at all

        They know exactly what they were voting for

        • nillalatte

          Deep in their psyche, we see that. They don’t.

        • Kas loves Jamaican Breakfast

          Yes, they know.

    • “M”

      Not leastwise because they don’t seem to have much for the rest of us.

      Quoting one today (because it’s nauseating to try to rephrase):

      “Easy to push aside moral complications when survival or the chance to maintain what you have or improve on your opportunities is in the air. I refuse to believe 60 million+ people are magically racist, homophobic or hate women all of a sudden when many of those people voted for Obama one term or two terms before”

      Yeah.

  • nillalatte

    I don’t feel bad for them Damon. I think they’re ignorant of what government is supposed to do, how government works (and doesn’t work), how there are checks and balances to the 3 branches, and they are prejudice to the core, but they hold ‘priorities’ that are not very well thought through.

    I know some of these tRump supporters and their reasoning for voting for tRump was singular; they wanted to ‘save the babies’ or ‘the illegals get all our jobs’ or (my favorite) ‘if we get all the illegals off of public assistance…’ Hint: illegals are not eligible for public assistance. I literally posted the rules and regs from their state to show them how stupid they sounded. I’m sure it was appreciated. lol

    They, in most cases, do not have the mental capacity to see the ‘big picture’ or ability to deal with if we do A, then B may occur, but if B does occur, we have C to fall back on. No contingency planning whatsoever. I’m not saying all of them, but too many of them certainly.

    Here’s a hard fact tho, everything they vote against that does get passed they seem to the be the first in line to benefit from what the Dems pass. Case in point, I had a staunch Republican manager once. B i t c h e d and complained about Clinton passing the family leave program. Yet, when he welcomed a new baby he was quick to take that federal family leave option. I was like, hypocrite! You were totally against it. And, that’s how they roll.

    • cyanic

      A klansman’s wife said on the Howard Stern show she would remain on fire if the only person who could aid her was a black fireman. It was hilarious from my memory of her saying I rather stay on fire. Crusty Becky.

      • Mary Burrell

        Then the stupid cow deserves to burn up then her hatred makes her stupid.

      • Alessandro De Medici
      • King Beauregard

        That town needs an all-black fire department. And if one can’t be found, then can we allow blackface in that one targeted circumstance?

      • nillalatte

        Let her burn. *shrugs*

      • grownandsexy2

        I’ve heard similar sentiments from white folks.

        • imageWIS

          Best to let those strands of DNA perish from the earth.

  • WeJammingStill

    Since many of these voters are christian, I sometimes think they have a wrong and partial interpretation of the beatitudes. So they think ” Blessed are the poor.. signal lost ..for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven”, ” blessed are those who hunger and thirst… for they shall be filled”.

    • Hugh Akston

      I mean some of those folks gran gran were using the Bible for slavery…so…

      • Janelle Doe

        Welp

  • NoDramaCiCi

    Because the train-wreck is interesting, and its almost satisfying to watch as racists get screwed over by their own racism.
    This article is interesting to…
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/01/stephen-king-on-donald-trump-fictional-voters-truth-about-us-election

    • AB317

      Fun article. Although I’m generally empathetic I literally feel nothing for these people. My energy/focus is on getting apathetic folks registered and to the polls.

    • Brooklyn_Bruin

      ” but he’s got a folksy, straight-from-the-shoulder delivery that people
      relate to. The fact that he’s incompetent at best and downright
      malevolent at worst doesn’t matter.”

      • Hugh Akston
        • Brooklyn_Bruin

          He has that veneer of academia around him.
          Trump is failing
          Let’s get some smart people next to Trump, so he can succeed.

          I see a lot of that coming from “liberals” and “moderates”.

          They all want him to be able to accomplish something.

          I find it sickening to be honest.

          • Hugh Akston

            Yeah especially the liberals

            A lot of them voted for the folks that cheeto appointed

          • Gibbous

            And all of those who say it’s patriotic to want 45 to do well. What is your definition of “doing well?” If he successfully enacts a fraction of the ideas he’s propsed (they’re not even fleshed out enough to be policies,) none of us are going to be doing very well at all!

            • Brooklyn_Bruin

              Right, like a bringing in a marksman to teach the stormtroopers how to shoot properly. Destro, the consultant. Get Pol Pot and Mao together to advise on education.

              See what you oughta do is…

        • Alessandro De Medici

          Yep, one of those conservatives who have lots of liberal friends, since they lack the charisma to ever become politicians, while appealing to the needs of the base.

  • Blargg

    Enough about these idiot Trump supporters, I wanna hear from the people who decided not to vote because “Hillary is just as bad”. Do they regret not showing up to the polls? Will they lose their healthcare? Have they seen some of their friends/family being deported? How many of them are in this picture? https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–ETqzC2Z5–/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/n2hhlyshn6plinfzehn7.jpg

    • BatmansExWife

      Good point. I wanna hear from those that didn’t vote.

      • cyanic

        Sarandon doesn’t care that you dislike her for not voting for Hill.

        • fedup

          She isn’t important. She’ll be fine no matter how the cards fall.

          The opinions that matter are the ones who voted against their own self – interest, the ones who stand loose a whole heck of allot the longer this s h i t show goes on.

          • cyanic

            They can eat their Jim Crow. Or maybe the crows in Dumbo. Or the black licorice crows that aren’t Dots.

          • imageWIS

            “She isn’t important. She’ll be fine no matter how the cards fall.”

            Oh, does she survive by breathing carbon dioxide and drinking toxic water?

            • Gibbous

              No, but she has enough financial resources for bottled air and water, probably for the rest of her life.

      • Brooklyn_Bruin

        If you live in Texas or NY – it really didn’t matter who you voted for.

        It’s not like there would be a great reversal of decade long trends.

        Under our system, the only votes that have ever counted have been in battle ground states.

        • LilMissSideEye

          I would disagree with Texas. Given the number of Latin@ voters, specifically Mexican and Central American Latin@ voters who were specifically targeted by Tang Mussolini’s rhetoric, this could have been the year the Dems turned Texas, had they been willing to invest in it. They just don’t believe it’s worth it.

          • Monica Harris

            I think it’s the way counties or districts are drawn that prevents Texas from being purple despite it’s large minority population. Another thing, Texas has a large minority population, but whites are still the vast majority.

            • LilMissSideEye

              True. Gerrymandering is a b*tch.

        • Gibbous

          Gerrymandering doesn’t count in national elections – President or Senate, nor does it count in elections of state held positions. That’s why in NC, a state that went to 45, we have a Dem. Governor.

          • Brooklyn_Bruin

            Red states stay red,, blue states stay blue. So with presidential elections, the action is often in fly over country.

            With respect to gerrymandering, that affects state and congressional seats – which in turn affects a president’s ability to get his agenda passed.

            The reality for black people is that we are largely concentrated in areas where our votes are of marginal utility.

            At the federal level We can’t change the vote in the deep South. And we can’t do much out west and up north.

            But let’s say Hillary got the Obama black turnout, and curved Donald. The “heartland” that is typically anti black interests would have revealed themselves to be much more prone to virulence than previously thought.

            Donald is the symptom, not the disease. The onset of the disease was Reagan getting elected. The wholesale stripping of middle class white America by bankers on the east coast and technologists on the west.

            At one time, government may have had the strength to do what is necessary, but the idea of what government can and should do has been destroyed by them.

            The revolution is over, we lost.

            • Gibbous

              I don’t know . . . NC was considered a red state for the longest, then it went blue. Gerrymandering made it red again, although it’s purple population wise (50/50), but SCOTUS and demographics may allow it to be purple again. We’re down but not out.

      • Alessandro De Medici

        To be honest, if you have a long enough scope, it’s kind of pointless to bother…the number of non-voters in the election was normal, compared to most elections since the 1960’s. Even the White women vote was slightly more for Romney than Trump, despite all the attention, hype, drama, scandals etc, looking at the numbers alone, it’s amazing how regular the results of the election were.

      • ClaymoreParamore

        Not sure if you actually would want to do that lol. I’ve met the I didn’t vote ones (their typical rationale? Her emails and she was crooked too).

        I’ve also met black men who voted for Trump (their actual, ACTUAL, rationale to me? Her emails and people voted for Hilary just so they can just get handouts and Black people have treated me bad and I bet you, being me, believe in Black Lives matter don’t you, and grabbing her by the kitty cat is just locker room talk, and I don’t want to read any articles that make Trump seem bad…….Then they proceed to try to get into my panties *the most epic eyeroll*)

        Trust, you may not want to talk to them lol. I had to go woosah and center myself because I was about to throw some bows on these clowns.

      • ClaymoreParamore

        Basically, I think these types of articles do a great service (slight sarcasm there) so you can see the racist ideas, cognitive dissonance, intentional ignorance, and just plain stupidity from afar without fear of losing your job if you were to encounter it in person.

    • Mary Burrell

      Me too but unfortunately there is a large number of black Americans who out of ignorance believe that voting doesn’t help black Americans, this saddens and angers me. I am a huge supporter of Colin Kaepernick and his protest to stand up for black people and social injustice issues but I was disappointed he didn’t vote.

      • fedup

        That affliction isn’t confined to our people. The entire laundromat echoed the exact same sentiment during a debate this past week (immigrants and natives, Black wyt Latino and Indian/Asian, men and women, and someone who was actually using Sun detergent).

        None of them could understand how she won the popular vote, but lost the election.

      • cyanic

        My counterargument for those people are simple. If our vote didn’t matter voter suppression laws wouldn’t exist. Obvious the public’s participation in the electoral process still matters.

        • fedup

          Love it. Stealin it.

        • Mary Burrell

          Good point

        • cedriclathan

          I’m stealing that and sending it to a friend who didn’t vote. He was all, “down for the cause” and taking up armed struggle back in the ’70s, but, now the negro won’t vote? WTF?

        • Bazy Hatty

          Wow, I never thought about that.

        • BatmansExWife

          Good point!

        • “M”

          Brilliance.

          *reads reply comments*

          And obviously I’m not the only one who thinks so.

        • truthseeker2436577@yahoo.com

          That’s an excellent point. If voting was pointless, why did many states pass Voter ID laws, which has harmed voting rights in many ways.

          • Mary Burrell

            Good points i will remember that next time I am in a discussion about voting being pointless.

            • truthseeker2436577@yahoo.com

              Right on Sister. I read about the sacrifice of so many black people who fought just for the right to vote. Jim Crow was about lynching and depriving black people voting rights with massive restrictions from grandfather clauses to certain tests. Voting matters, because the reactionaries certainly passes anti-voting laws plus the Supreme Court gutted parts of the Voting Rights Act too. Voting deals with resources, funding, and our way of life.

        • I_AmU

          Nor would gerrymandering – redistricting to change districts to Republican voters which were previously Democratic strongholds.

        • Carmen

          I work with voter education issues and programs and will certainly use that reasoning when I talk to people about the importance of voting.

      • Brooklyn_Bruin

        His vote would not have made a difference – http://www.cnn.com/election/results/states/california

    • Annalise Keating

      I did not vote. And I have no regrets. I just wish we didn’t live in a world where Trump or Hilary were our only choices.

      • “M”
        • Annalise Keating

          ??????

      • jigg_uppa

        This is a stupid argument.

        • Annalise Keating

          There is no argument there so I have no clue what you are talking about. But your eloquence and intellectual response leave me speechless.

          • Katie Gared

            You didn’t vote because you didn’t like either candidate even though one, who is currently in office, is actively trying to destroy everything good and progressive, while the other would not have done the things that are currently being and would have been infinitely better for our country and the world. That’s stupid.

            • Annalise Keating

              1. There are many reasons I did not vote. It was not one reason. I did not specifically say that the reason I did not vote was because I didn’t like either candidate. I simply said I wish we had better choices. But I get how that seemed implied from my comment. Hence why I clarified that I made no argument for why I did not vote.
              2. You don’t know for sure what kind of president Hilary would have been. If you are going by her record in the past, she rarely delivered on campaign promises so her campaign promises are not an indication of what kind of president she would have been.
              3. The idea that that the fate of the world depends on the president of the US just make me laugh. It’s great that you think so highly of the power of the US president.

    • Monica Harris

      It’s still too early for me to have regrets as no one close to me has been affected by Trump. I’m waiting to see if that will change. I suspect it will.

      • imageWIS

        Is that really how you view reality only by what affects you personally or those close to you?!?

        • “M”

          I’ve seen other Trumpanzees admit to that.

          One of them trolls The Root; said that civil and moral rights were “abstracts” that were “hard to think about” when issues of “survival and protecting what one has” were at stake.

          With no sense of irony.

        • Wizznilliam

          Yes… Aren’t you supposed to vote for people to represent YOU??.. I don’t get this sentiment. So many black neighborhoods are straight terrible with no one proposing ANY solutions.. I think it is about time black people focus their attention on people who will affect them or their family members personally.

    • Diego Duarte

      People in the USA don’t vote because:

      1- Your electoral system is stupid as he11. The electoral college makes no sense whatsoever, everywhere else in the planet is 1 person 1 vote. This discourages people from fucking casting a vote.

      2- Voter registration: seriously, what. The. Fuck? You have to register to vote??? I’m willing to bet my left kidney that Congo has more progressive voting rights than the USA. Everywhere else you get issued a national ID once you turn 18 years of age, and that’s the ID you use to vote.

      3- Election day is not a holiday. This is another thing. Everywhere else election day either takes place on the weekend or the day is declared a paid holiday. In the USA however, you get the lovely choice of deciding whether you eat or whether you vote, because the lines are also stupidly long, which bring us to….

      4- Voter supression. Do I really have to go through a fucking military style obstacle course and swim accross a moat of alligators, only to wait in line 9 hours to cast a fucking vote??? Even poor third world countries provide better access to voting machines. Also, figure waiting 9 hours to cast a vote only to be told by some lying YT azzhole telling you your polling place is elsewhere. I understand why so many don’t even bother.

      5- Voting is not mandatory. Granted, it’s not mandatory in most developed countries either, but it contributes to voter apathy when voting is not a duty.

      6- Voter apathy. Grab a cauldron, pour in some water, a little bit of celery and soul, pour all the aforementioned ingredients and cook for half an hour at 250 F° and what do you get? Voter apathy. Why fucking bother to vote when the entire system is DESIGNED TO KEEP YOU FROM VOTING?

      7- On the Hillary thing, yeah no one is as bad as the orange Mussolini. Especially considering he now wants to start war with North Korea (which will drag China into a war) JUST to distract people from his Russian scandal. HOWEVER, let’s not give Hillary a pass just because she is the lesser of two evils. She might be way, WAY more qualified than Trump would ever be. That being said let’s not turn away from her having backed and provided logistics for the Coup d’État in Honduras, as well as backing the zionists in Israel (call it what you want, that ish is genocide, plain and simple). And those are just the top two of the list.

      Admittedly, it’s not enough NOT to cast a vote for Clinton. Personally I get it, but go ahead and tell that to foreigners who lost family members in Palestine, Iraq, Honduras or who saw their countries devastated by the economic policies she pushed and backed abroad.

      She’s a war hawk. An INFINITELY more competent and qualified war hawk than Trump, but a war hawk nonetheless. And I’m sure it’s beyond easy to judge other people, when you’re making such judgements from the relative safety provided by the borders of the United States. But it’s another matter entirely when it’s YOU getting bombed or when it’s the government of YOUR COUNTRY getting overthrown to place yet ANOTHER right wing dictator who’s friendly with corporate America’s interests.

      • lunanoire

        I agree about her being a war hawk. The harm she has done is irreversible. I wonder how much of it is a strategy to come across as tough, rather than a weak woman.

        • Diego Duarte

          Not much I’d wager. Hillary was born and raised in a republican family and campaigned for Goldwater. All of it has been for profits, which is why she kept on taking money from the private prison industry (which she also lobbied in the 90s) until she was called out on it on October of last year.

          She also kept a solid stance in favor of the genocide in Palestine during the primaries and the general election.

    • Michelle

      I would like to hear from the 10,000 or so idiots, who chose to write “Harambe” on their ballots, as a joke. Or, the ones who decided to vote for Trump as a joke. Those people are the ones that I want to talk with.

    • JamaicanJewel

      After reading the feedback, I am so glad you raised this issue…. which is THE issue we should be addressing. If President Obama was re-elected for a second term and Trumpers did not materialize out of thin air in four years, why did Republicans prevail and why did so many Democrats stay home? Was it because the polling suggested it was a Democratic sure thing? Voter suppression? Ennui? A total disregard for our country and democracy? Didn’t they consider that with 32 states in their pocket and a trifecta in Washington that we could face a Constitutional Convention that would completely rewrite it? And finally, what exactly are the Democrats still up to, for gawds sake? Because I don’t see them analyzing these issues for the future. Maybe we do need a 3rd party.

  • NonyaB?

    That segment of WytMurica is for whiteness at all costs and have unwavering support for the head of the orange brotherhood of fake tanners with åssfaces because they believe he’s the chosen prophet to save them.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/471a0c10f4e787d1165409be82dc79cdefef81bd57f6c4849fbbe1c4792bbe1c.gif

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