Aral BalkanMay 29, 2023

What’s happening in Turkey today is not some exotic oddity. It’s a forewarning of exactly what can (and is) happening in the West.

Does this timeline seem familiar?

1. Neoliberals get elected. They fill their coffers while alienating a whole swath of society who they deem too far beneath them to matter.

2. A religious fundamentalist arises who speaks to those marginalised people, telling them they’ve been wronged (they have) and that he will make it right.

3. He gets elected.

4. He stays.

Show threadWoodchazMay 29, 2023

@aral

"telling them they’ve been wronged (they have) and that he will make it right"

I wish more liberals would understand that. I knew Hillary was done when she called Trumpers "a basket of deplorables." They might have been, but she was essentially calling them "white trash." Huge trigger especially in the South. She wasn't going to try and convince them, she was going to cut them out. Trump was lying but he did promise them jobs.

Show threadKeith In PNWMay 29, 2023
@Woodchaz @aral I have to disagree, she was never going to get those votes, maybe she provided more motivation for them to get out the vote and that possibly hurt her, but where she really failed was to turn out the vote within her own party and independents. Many back then thought of Trump as a joke and fell to complacency. He only had the numbers to win because people thought he couldn't and they stayed home (or they were protesting Bernie not getting the candidacy).
Show threadWoodchaz
@keithpnw @aral
That's all part of it of course, but think how close it was. The well was also poisoned years ago by people like Limbaugh. They also brought much of it on themselves. But liberal and especially northern liberal condescension toward the South has been stoking resentment since before I was born. James Baldwin mentioned that in one of his speeches. It makes them putty in a reactionary's hands. Southern progressives and the poor pay a price for that arrogance.
May 29, 2023 at 5:08pmWeb
Show threadKevin LeecasterMay 29, 2023
@Woodchaz @keithpnw @aral
Blaming Democrats for the way the 2016 election turned out has nothing to do with the campaign. Obama failed to pay close enough attention to our threats overseas because his entire career had been focused domestically which allowed Putin free rein to subvert our democracy using his allies like General Flynn.
Show threadWoodchazMay 30, 2023
@GreenFire @keithpnw @aral
It's all of those things of course. Limbaugh poisoned the well for Hillary for decades. The people she called deplorables brought a lot of this on themselves and us. What bothers me is how out of touch the Democrats were. They didn't understand just how hot the country already was, especially in Texas. I was in the Central Texas and it was super tense even before she announced. She might've lost anyway, but she didn't need to give Trump that ammo.