Presidential election, 2016

[Warren Dew]

(12-06-2016, 11:32 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(12-04-2016, 11:13 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(12-04-2016, 10:14 AM)Warren Dew Wrote: The problem is that they don't understand it themselves.  Most of them believe their own side's propaganda, rather than understanding it's about dictatorship of the urban majority over the hinterlands, all in the cause of the blue urban elites.

You started out good, saying each side is into their own propaganda.  You then pushed your own side's propaganda without thinking from the other perspective.

Bush 43 was tagged with the 'Republicans are Fascists' propaganda during his entire time in office.  I shouldn't need to reprise that?  Trump is being labeled as a Putin Friend or Putin Light, a potential strong man.  He too is going to be tagged as a dictator in an un American style.  His failure to 'drain the swamp' in his cabinet choices will also get him tagged as a representative of the elite.  I'm not going to argue against the rural perception that the blue folk are trying to dictate over them.  That's real enough and has cause enough.  Just don't lose track of equal and opposite beliefs on the other side.

I also see the culture wars stuff as coming from the bases more than from the elites, again using guns an reproductive health care as examples.  Oh, the elites of both stripes will use such issues to gather votes, but the bases care about such issues in and of themselves and would with or without encouragement and support from the wealthy.

Adding just a bit to this: the urban majority is finally getting fed-up with rule by the rural minority.  I'm sure that rural minority thinks they have been dictated-to and aren't the problem, but there are two very distinct sides here.  The case for the urban majority was covered by the NY Times in this Sunday Review article.

It's a little different from the other side.  The rural and exurban population is getting fed up with subsidizing urban living.  When there is spending in rural areas, it's almost exclusively for things that benefit the urban rather than the rural population, such as huge corporate farms that ship their product off to be processed for urban outlets rather than sold locally, and trains and massive highways designed to connect urban concentrations, not for the benefit of the rural and exurban populations.