The world is watching

Eight years ago, I wrote here about how proud I was of my country. That was a time of great turmoil. The financial markets had collapsed and America was on the verge of dragging all of the Western world down the drain with her. And yet, despite all of that, and despite an electorate that questioned his very birthplace, the United States elected Barack Obama. I felt we had finally overcome hate with hope and had cast a light on the darkness of the future. And now, eight years later, America has elected Obama’s exact opposite, the man who launched his political career by questioning Obama’s birth certificate, Donald Trump.

And Trump’s campaign has been the ugliest I’ve ever seen. It started with him calling mexican immigrants rapists and went straight down hill from there. This is a man who has mocked the disabled, who has insulted all women, who made fun of veterans, he boasted that he could shoot someone, he threatened to jail his political opponents, he spoke about his opponent getting assassinated, and he bragged about sexual assault. And all along, the vast majority of the Republican party either walked lock-step with him, or stood silently by him.

What Trump has done is exposed American politics. Whereas before people would say their hateful rhetoric in code, Trump doesn’t have that finesse and he just says what he means in plain language. He has truly exposed America as a nation of ugly, hate-fueled, bigots, and misogynists.

I know that there are a lot of people out there who will read that last sentence and their reply will be “didn’t Brexit teach you that calling people racists is why we voted against your candidate?” And my response is that if you voted for Trump, you voted for a candidate who opened his campaign by saying that Mexico is sending us rapists and drug dealers. A candidate who called the judge in his pending lawsuit a “Mexican”, when the man was born in Indiana. It was a remark that even Paul Ryan, the Republican Speaker of the House called “the textbook definition of a racist comment”. And while there are plenty of other examples, perhaps the most glaring is that he believes that the Central Park Five, the teenagers who were wrongly convicted of rape and who were exonerated years later using DNA evidence, are guilty. He just doesn’t know what they were guilty of, just something.  So, while it may make you uncomfortable, if you voted for Trump, you voted for a campaign and a man who made openly racist remarks and who uses race as a tool to discredit people.

But even despite all of this, I have to take a little solace in the fact that the majority of Americans voted against Trump. That means that more than half of this country isn’t racist, isn’t misogynist, and is right now very ashamed of the fact that Trump is our president. And a large portion of that half of our country voted against Trump despite the Democratic party putting up the most unliked candidate I have ever seen. Many of us who voted for Hillary did so despite the fact that she represented all of the political ills of our times — for example, that she used her political connections to enrich herself and her family — and we voted for her as a protest of Trump.

As for that Democratic party, everyone in any upper management position needs to resign immediately. I have been a lifelong Democrat, I have caucused with the Democrats in almost every election, and I have helped to shape the party platform. I saw the energy that Bernie brought to this country, the integrity he brought to this country, and the young people he mobilized in this election. If this election was about the poor and middle-class protesting the system, which it was in many ways, I feel confident that Bernie would have trounced Trump. They have to resign because they just lost the House, the Senate, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court to the worst candidate in American history.

That last bit is probably the hardest thing to take. Republicans have complete control of our government and they have an openly racist commander in chief. But I did get one glimmer of hope yesterday. I had dinner with my daughter and she told me that her class talked about the election. Only two kids in her class supported Trump, one is a bully and the other is a little girl who wants to be the first female president. After the discussion, the kids all went outside for recess and many of them marched, on their own, around the little track in their school booing Trump.

That is the only direction forward right now. We need to take the example of the young people who have walked out of schools and who took to the streets last night and add our voice to theirs. We need to stand up to the bully, to stand up for what is right, and not to let Trump and the Republicans run roughshod over our country.

The world is watching.

Qq

112 comments

  1. The only slim wafer of solace I can take from Tuesday’s shambles is that I don’t believe Trump is actually a Republican. I have a feeling the House and Senate are going to get about as much cooperation from him as he gave them during the campaign. With any luck he’ll have them pulling their hair out before he even takes the oath of office. But you’re right, the Supreme Court thing is depressing. Whatever happened to the Republican call for only needing 8 Justices when they thought Hillary would be nominating Scolia’s replacement?

  2. Tim,

    I agree with most of what you say. I just don’t believe (with no facts or research to back it up) that all who voted for Trump voted for racism, bigotry, misogyny. While there is no doubt those votes exist, I am certain that just as Hillary got an anti-Trump vote, Trump got an anti-Hillary vote.

    Bernie indeed had the people energised. You could sense it, even though the media painted him as an old fogie with goofy ideas. Hillary had no business being the presidential candidate. Being a woman is not reason enough to be it.

    Both Hillary’s nomination, and her subsequent failure to win against the vile buffoon that is Trump also exposed America’s politics. It has not been listening to the people, and the people refused to go along with what they felt was the establishment’s plan.

    (I feel I should include a disclaimer that this is just based on my uneducated reading of the American election, from a distance)

    1. Racism is about power. It’s about one group empowering itself over another group because of the social construct of race. If you vote to empower a leader who is making racist statements and whose platform includes openly racist policies you are voting for racism. You may not think you’re a racist, you may not want to hear me call you a racist, but you are a racist. An “anti-Hillary” Trump vote is a vote for racism.

      1. I agree it’s a vote for racism, even if that’s not the intended result but I don’t think they are necessarily racists themselves. For some time I thought they were but after the results, I thought it some more and now I don’t think it’s that black and white. There are Latinos, blacks and even Muslims who have voted for Trump. I know some educated, good people that I respect who have voted for Trump. It’s easy to paint all of Trump supporters with the same broad brush but I think we need to dig a little deeper.

        There is no question that a lot of Trump’s supporters are racists or misogynists but he also had a section of supporters from both conservatives and liberals who voted for him, or voted third party (which in effect was a vote for him) because they can’t stand Hillary (and some of them have good reasons for completely distrusting her). If you asked them about Trump’s racist rhetoric, they would say that Trump is only saying that because he wants to fire up the core support and he actually isn’t going to do something like ban Muslims from entering the country. I realize that doesn’t make it right but if you want to reach across the aisle and start a dialogue, I think it’s important to at least try to understand what would push some of these people to support such a hateful candidate. When you have a large portion of your electorate who are sick and tired of being lied to by politicians who forget them as soon as they are elected because they are too busy pandering to their corporate donors, they are prone to go and do something extreme. Just as smart people make stupid decisions sometimes, I think people aren’t racists can make racist decisions too. I voted Hillary because I thought she was the lesser of two evils but I think it’s important to realize that not everyone sees it the way I do and try to understand why.

        I am not angry at these people any more. I am angry at the government. They are the ones who perpetuated the hatred, the xenophobia, the misogyny through decades of inaction.

        1. People who wanted to protest the system or who hated Hillary didn’t have to vote for Trump. They could have done almost anything else and protested just as well. I think the people who voted for trump who claim not to be racist are engaging in an act which will have racist consequences. And let’s not play the fact that because they are black or Latino that makes the action less racist. This was a vote that empowered a man who has demonstrated that he is a racist and who is promising to enact racist policies.

          And I haven’t even gotten to the misogyny. Those people all voted for a man who bragged about “grabbing a woman by the pussy.” That is sexual assault and even my 8 year old daughter knows that is sexual assault. I’m going to tell a little story now, one that is entirely true, of an interaction between my daughter and I. I wrote this down (as I do, I am saving her stories in a google doc for her) as soon as it happened.

          “How is Trump not in jail?” she asks with a pained look on her face.
          “What do you mean?” I’m confused, this is an 8 year old talking about incarcerating another person. “Did you hear something on the radio or was your mom talking about this?”
          “Mom had the radio on the other day and I heard that Trump grabbed that woman on the plane and touched her on her privates. How come he’s not in jail?”
          My mouth is open. I’m scrambling for an answer.
          “When Trump grabbed that woman like that, it was a different time. People didn’t believe women when they stood up for themselves. They made women feel bad if they told someone that they were assaulted. Women were afraid to stand up for themselves because they would get blamed for the attack.”

          I pause.

          “If that happened now days…” I know that I’m lying, I know it because Trump literally said the same things that people used to say, like ‘she’s too ugly for me to grope’ and ‘they are all liars, trying to get a fast buck’ just the other day, publicly. But I want to give her hope, to make sure she feels empowered, and let her know that she needs to report it when someone does something like that to her.

          “If that happened to you on a plane now days you could say something out loud and I think people around you would witness and you would have a better chance of prosecuting him. I think if he did that these days, there would be consequences.”

          It’s a lie. I know. Trump is rich and powerful. He can hire all of the lawyers and I know that they would victim blame and that the woman would be dragged through the mud and that in the end, Trump would probably get off or settle the suit to have it go away.

          “I still don’t understand why he’s not in jail. How can anyone vote for Trump?” she asks.

          —–

          This was not a morally ambiguous candidate. This was not a simple choice between leftist politics and rightist politics. This was a choice that people had to make: choose the guy with the racist and misogynist language, or choose anything else.

          1. Tim,

            I can’t imagine how horrific it must have been for you to have to explain to your daughter why a man like Trump can get away with the things he says. I don’t have any children but that scenario you just described sounds like a nightmare for any parent to go through.

            I absolutely agree with that last sentiment. I have told people the same thing a number of times – that this election has evolved beyond policies for me. It’s about basic human decency and how we want the new generation to behave.

            Trump’s behavior is unacceptable and makes him unqualified to be president. I thought that anyone with any shred of decency would realize it so when nearly half of the voters gave him the presidency, I was shocked just like most people that I know. But that also got me thinking. Why did some people who voted for Obama also vote for Trump? It’s not as if they became racists or misogynists overnight. Even some Arab Americans I know of voted Trump after having voted for Obama. They feel betrayed by Obama’s use of drones and the thousands of civilian lives his actions have claimed. They think that with Trump, at least the world will see America as it truly is – a war mongering superpower.

            Then there are people from the other parts of America who have just had it up to their necks being lied to by politicians. Thousands of miners in Youngstown, Ohio lost jobs and were told they have lost their jobs to China. So the narrative became .. “f*** China – they are stealing our jobs”. In reality they don’t really care for China. If you had a government that actually gave a sh*t about them and did something to replace lost industries, they would have nothing against China.

            You said there are other ways to protest the system. Maybe there is but aren’t we always being told the best way to change the status quo is by voting? So they did. This was their f*** you to the status quo.

            I was devastated by the election result but I have to believe that there is more good people in this country than bad. I think a lot of good people were manipulated during this election and some were just pushed to a point of desperation where they didn’t give a f***.

            Things will be bad in this country for a while and people like us will have to look out for our loved ones but as angry as we are now, I think we will survive and come out stronger in the end. Americans are a resilient bunch. That’s why I became an immigrant. A pork eating, heavy metal listening, liberal, non-practicing Muslim immigrant.

      2. So your moral vanity just allows you to proclaim, “you are a racist, even if you don’t realize it.” And you wonder why the country is divided. I would never presume to assign bad motivations to Democratic voters, “you must love corrupt politicians and making your children pay your debts”, but you seem to have no reservations about leveling moral judgments.

        1. It’s not moral vanity to point out racism, the only way that could be me being vain is if you think racism isn’t a problem or that it’s not a morally bankrupt position to hold. I would also point out that there is a huge difference between racism (calling a judge a Mexican) and policy (debt spending). I would have no problem with you saying “you must love tax and spend” because we can have a discussion about that and we can get into the morality of both that and the fact that the republicans have been the biggest debt spenders in the history of the country! But if you come on here with “Mexicans are rapists” I’m going to have to tell you to go fuck yourself, you racist.

          I do not at all wonder why the country is divided.

          1. You are leveling the charge that any anti-Hillary vote for Trump was a racist vote. It may be a vote for a racist, but that doesn’t by default make the voter racist. If you can’t understand the distinction, I guess we’re done.

            By the way, Obama in 8 years has single handedly doubled the national debt and for what… 1% economic growth. Wow, that seems worth it. The most in-debt states are ones run by Democrats; California, Illinois, New York. Detroit went bankrupt and had Democratic mayors and councils for 50 years. Chicago is next up. To suggest that Democrats are more responsible fiscally than Republicans is ludicrous. It is immoral to leave your kids our debts to pay and wars to fight. Democrats enjoy doing both.

          2. I will leave aside that tired canard about how Obama single-handedly doubled the debt. The drivers of the vast majority of our debt are the Iraq War and the Bush tax cuts, but reasonable people can disagree about the causes.

            But what isn’t really arguable is the idea that the states that have the most debt are Democratic-run states. That is just mental.

            http://www.thestatesproject.org/state-debt/

            There’s a definite trend regarding which states carry the most debt, but it’s the opposite of what you imagine it is.

          3. @Solon,

            I looked at that website. I think you are misreading it. The #1 state has the lowest debt – #50 has the highest. Of the ten states with the lowest debt, I think only VA went for Hillary. Of the ten states with the highest debt, 6/10 went to Hillary (I’m doing this from memory, there may be a mistake).

      3. Assigning motives to people is not as simplistic as you make it seem.

        By that same logic, a vote for Hillary is a vote for war. Being equal opportunity killers appeals a lot less than making racist statements to me. One kills, robs you of material support, and removes all vestiges of dignity and life. The other attacks your dignity and demeans. Both are repugnant. And while you don’t need to agree with those characterisations, I saw the choice being between them.

        (I had no vote. If I did, I don’t know if I could have been able to bring myself to vote for Trump. I did not want Hillary to win)

  3. I immigrated to the US from Canada when Obama was president. He’s the only president I’ve ever known as a resident, and while my coming here was a matter of necessity (a job), I took some comfort in moving to a country that voted for an African-American leader. To my mind, his presence at the top set the tone for this place, and it felt somehow less racist, less cruel, and less bullying than I had previously thought.

    I’ve said this before on this site, but I think it’s worth repeating, apropos of today’s post: Along with my worries about what Trump means for the livelihoods of the poor, marginalized, and disenfranchised of this country, I have deep fears about the tone his presidency sets for our day-to-day interactions. The glare at a brown person that says, “get out of my country,” the hateful remark aimed at an African-American (just having a bit of fun!), the sexually charged comment about a female colleague’s appearance (stop being so politically correct!), are now authorized, fully legitimized by the leader of this country.

    Yesterday, America became an ever-so-slightly more cruel, more paranoid place to live, and there are four more years, at least, for this tone to work its way down.

    1. This is absolutely true. Symbols do matter. This is the reality America is facing now. And I still think that it is better than the alternative. Does it have to do with the fact that I don’t live there? Sure (Although I have family there) But might that also be the reason that Hillary’s warmongering seems less harmful to you?

      Also, I am not saying Trump won’t continue the war profiteering. But there’s a chance he won’t.

      1. I would say there is very little chance that Trump won’t engage in war profiteering. War is one of America’s most important sources of revenue and as Obama revealed in an interview, he was handed a policy guide for US foreign relations when he first got into the White House. Every president uses that as a guide line when making foreign policy decisions. I doubt Trump even has a foreign policy plan to be able to depart from that. Sadly I think it’s foolish to think he will. I am not hanging to to that hope.

        1. I don’t know. You don’t need a foreign policy plan to say I won’t just go in and bring about ‘regime change’ and ‘democracy’ to the adoring public who hate us for our freedoms.

          No President can ever completely stop the war machine of the US. And I’ll even admit the first para sounds very much as something Trump would say was just what he intended to do. (Though I believe he did say he thinks the US shouldn’t try to topple foreign govts)

          I don’t know about Trump. Statements mean not very much. Even more so with him. But I don’t know which group is backing him, and how much he is prepared to take on the rest of the war faction. So I can’t be sure of his intentions. It’s just that I was certain of Hillary’s intentions.

          Perhaps it is foolish or naive to hope that Trump won’t go along with the same plan of destroying the entire Middle East region and increasing conflict with Russia and China. But without hope, what else do you have?

          Also…There’s still a couple of months before he takes office. Who knows what else can happen in that time frame as regards the wars. Syria, Yemen, Ukraine are all in a state of semi stalemate at this stage. But a push could change that. There’s also political turmoil in Europe and Turkey which could affect the situation before Trump even takes office.

          1. Trump has said that we shouldn’t try to bring about a ‘regime change’ but he has also asked why we make nuclear weapons if we are unwilling to use them. You can either interpret that as him suggesting that we shouldn’t be making nuclear weapons or that he would be willing to use them. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t suggesting that we should stop making nuclear weapons.

          2. nyc

            Or just empty machismo rhetoric.

            But yeah, he’s a wildcard. He says so much stuff which is either a lie, contradictory, or ambiguous. Which is why he won.

      2. How can you be so naive?

        Trump is the man who repeatedly asked military personnel why they don’t simply use Nukes. With killing innocents to stop ISIS.

        The man is fine with war.

        1. Qatar made a $10 million dollar donation to the Clinton Foundation when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State.

          The next year arms exports to Qatar went up 1400%. Qatar is one of the benefactor nations for a number of jihadist groups working in Syria today.

          Hillary Clinton has shown to have no qualms about profiteering from war. Not saying Trump will be any better, but Clinton has already demonstrated where she stood.

          1. Pires’s Goatee
            No witty come back to @Solon’s fact checking your nonsense?

            That’s what drives me insane the most , when people let their ideology dictate what information they accept as facts.

            Re Obama doubling the US national debts. That is true, but you conveniently skipped over the reasons why.
            Like @Salon said , reasonable people can argue what the driving forces for the skyrocketing debth were. Economy in a need of a drastic stimulus , while losing 800k jobs per month in Obama’s first week in office ,might’ve been one of them.

            Interestingly enough, people who put forth Obama doubling US national debth conveniently overlook G.W.Bush doing exactly the same during his presidency, even though he had inherited a healthy surplus and a thriving economy.

            Also, they never look back at the Reagan and Bush senior years , where national debth quadrupled during the 12 years of their three terms.

            I wonder why the selective outrage at the out of control government spending.
            Surely it couldn’t be that Obama is a democrat 🙂

  4. Tim,
    I often read your posts, and I respect your writing and the layered, introspective thinking that shines through your prose. I agree with most of your column here, but I think you miss the mark (a) believing that Bernie would have won or outperformed Hillary and (b) encouraging protest of the election results.
    Most analysis I have read shows that Trump received almost the same amount of support from 18-29 y/o white voters as Romney did. The inference being the election result isn’t solely down to the “revenge” vote of older white Americans. Also, there is the minor fact that Bernie was not, and still is not a Democrat. He did a masterful job of exposing Hillary’s baggage for a good 15 months before Trump took up the task (do not read that as an absolution of Hillary’s “flaws,” but the criticism of such “flaws” really is the domain of those who doth protest too much).
    The most important lesson we can give our children, indeed part of the civics lesson I had to give my young daughter yesterday morning is that elections matter. Trump was duly elected as president, full-stop. I have no patience for people protesting in the streets saying “He’s not my President” or the like. I guarantee, if Hillary had won, I would have been equally incensed by people who might have protested or taken up arms (as many Trump zealots threatened).
    No, the message to give our children is, if you disagree with the result, you have to work within the rules AND NORMS of our system (if any such norms exist after G. Marius Trump) to convince some and unite others to create a political solution more to your liking.
    The most dangerous result of this election (aside from the possible Attorney General selection and populating the Supreme Court with 3 or 4 conservative justices)is the penchant of this electorate to want a political arsonist who will “blow everything up” and, simultaneously, “fix all our problems”.
    Unfortunately, I am not hopeful…I just wonder who will be our Sulla?

    Keep up the good work.

    1. Trump got 58% of the white vote, Mitt Romney got 59% in 2012.

      Trump actually received fewer overall total votes than Romney in 2012.

      Trump won Wisconsin and Michigan with fewer votes than Romney in 2012. Wisconsin and Michigan were Sanders states… you can infer then that the Bernie supporters stayed home.

      Overall minority voters stayed home. Hillary just did not excite them. In fact when offered to eat one bowl of shit or another, they declined to eat any shit.

      By most accounts where the polling went wrong is +/- 10 million Democratic votes went missing; millenials and minorities staying home. But funny thing is Trump got more of the black male vote than Romney did.

      I always ask this to all the people who are so vehemently against Trump – do you have any family members who say they are voting for Trump? Are they racist? Sexist? I find almost without fail that gives people pause. Labeling anyone who voted for Trump as some sort of “deplorable” racist and sexist does nothing but add to the division. It’s a vast oversimplification of a very nuanced situation psychologically and socially.

      Bill Maher last week apologized for calling Mitt Romney and John McCain racists and fascists, he says he and the media were wrong to slander basically decent men. But this time – this time – he really really really means it. How many times can you cry wolf?

      I find Trump to be a despicable person. But I would have voted for him if for nothing else to give a big fuck you to Bill Maher, John Oliver, Samantha Bee, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, most of CNN and MSNBC and all the other Virtuous Ones who insist on jumping down our throats if we have one thought out of line with what they consider proper thinking.

      Everyone should take a deep breath and relax. Obama wasn’t the second coming of Jesus Christ and nor will Donald Trump be the second coming of Adolf Hitler.

      1. My sister voted for Trump. My sister is married to a Philippino man and has four children.

        My sister is racist against Mexicans. Extremely so.

        1. Pires Goatee, I know two people who voted for Trump – my uncle and a co-worker. The former is certainly racist; the latter is a misogynist.

          If you really wanted to stick it to the media folks as you claim, a less destructive way of doing so is to not watch their shows or buy their music. Now the entire country is royally screwed because you couldn’t think of a another way to express yourself.

          How about skipping that line on the ballot? Or writing in a candidate of your choice, rather than voting for a person you find so despicable?

          1. Because a) I don’t think Trump can “screw the entire country”. When the Tea Party shrieked that about Obama, you all laughed them off. Now the shoe is on the other foot. Obama didn’t ruin the country, nor will Trump. b) and because, like I said, voting for Trump gives me a perverse satisfaction in seeing the Hollywood elites cry. Scum bags like Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer and Stephen Colbert who can’t help but politicize everything. And I don’t patronize them. But we’re still force fed their bullshit on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and every media outlet under the sun. It’s suffocating.

          2. I definitely see Trump’s success as in one respect founded on the frustration many people feel with having their speech and actions policed to the point where any slip, however unintentional, is met with a very public and universal shaming. Nobody wants to be demonized because they lack a full understanding of another’s subjectivity.

            Even if I agree that we should refrain from saying hateful things to each other, I resent the fact that the presence of racist, sexist, or homophobic language — again, however unintentional, misguided, or slight — is met these days not by the opening of dialogue and as an opportunity for education, but rather with swift, wholesale judgment and character defamation. Nobody profits in this system, and divisions only deepen.

            Do Trump’s comments about women and visible / ethnic / religious minorities fall under the category of “slight” or “unintentional,” though? Would dialogue even be possible here? I don’t think so. I think he knew exactly how to capitalize on the racism, sexism, etc., however latent, in a large section of the American populace, and he simply didn’t care who was hurt by it.

        2. You’ve just proved my point. It’s nuanced. Clearly your sister isn’t a Klan member like I hear Samantha Bee basically accusing Trump supporters. What’s her experience with Mexicans that would make her disparage one group in particular?

          Sometimes I think we focus too much on the worst aspects of people and our neighbors and fail to look at them for the best of what they are. There seems to be a hierarchy of virtues – if you have racially biased views, no matter how slight, you are a bad person. Nothing else that you may have done good in your life counts.

          1. Dude, you can be a racist against just one group of people. I grew up around lots of people who had no problem with Spaniards but were racist as fuck against blacks.

            That’s exactly how racism works.

          2. So it’s an all-or-nothing equation for you? Either you LOVE everyone irrespective of any nuanced cognitive biases that may be coloring your world view or you’re a piece of excrement? C’mon, who is the narrow minded person here? You must work on a university campus. You’d fit right in there with the cultural Marxists who hate free speech and want to atomize society into a million identity groups.

          3. Oh no no no.. I do not say that if you’re a racist, you’re a piece of shit or even that I am better than you. I don’t think that you should even be banned from being a racist. I believe strongly in free will and freedom of thought and ideas. I also believe that people can and do change their minds but that they only do so through confrontation with new and challenging information.

            I grew up in a racist house. I was a racist. I got my first tattoo from a Nazi Skinhead. And as I learned more about the world, became more connected with other people, joined the military and was confronted with my racism, I changed my mind. I changed my attitude. I changed my life. I worked hard to change the way I think and act because I didn’t want to treat people that way any more.

            I understand racism very well. I don’t hate people for being racist. But I think they need to be confronted with the uncomfortable truth about their racism. If not, they will never have a chance to change their minds. And honestly, man, I’m not even doing this in a very confrontational way. I’m not calling anyone out personally, or trying to take away anyone’s livelihood, calling for boycotts, doxing, or doing anything personally damaging to anyone. I’m simply saying that a vote for Trump was a vote for a racist who has racist policies and as a result, is in itself an act of racism. It is an act of institutionally empowering a racist.

          4. Wow. Tim. Thanks for sharing that bit about your early experiences with racism. It’s amazing and a great credit to you that you’ve been able to overcome that as successfully as you have.

      2. I totally agree with you Pires – though I still couldn’t bring myself to vote for Trump.

        It’s also worth noticing how much he has shifted to the center already.

        1. Trump doesn’t exist on a right/conservative, left/liberal continuum. He knows little, cares even less about learning anything about the gaps in his knowledge. He comes on like a 6-year old. “YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!”

      3. “Are they racist? Sexist?”

        Ok, let me tell you a story. Have you ever been in an abuse relationship or subject to emotional abuse?

        I have, and typically there is the one or a small group of people who do the abusing. But alongside them are a whole group of people who are enablers: telling you to stay in the abusing relationship. Telling you that maybe you deserve it. Or simply being silent.

        Some of those that voted Trump may not themselves be racist or sexist. They are worse, they are enablers. People who should know better, who had the opportunity to stop it. But instead chose to victim blame and let abuse happen.

        Fuck enablers.

        1. Exactly. I assume them you are also condemning of Hillary Clinton and every other senior Democrat who enabled Bill Clinton’s abuse of women for 30 years. Proven abuse, btw, not alleged. Truly, the hypocrisy is staggering.

          1. I think that’s too simplistic a comparison. Bill Clinton’s misognyny and/or sexual predation was not apparent prior to his getting elected, whereas there was ample proof of Trump’s racism and sexism prior to the election. People effectively said, “we don’t care.” And that is pretty shocking, when you think about it, particularly if these same people say that the Clintons should be dismissed on account of their moral depravity. (Speaking of hypocrisy.)

      4. Pires’ Goatee
        Bill Maher didn’t apologize for calling Bush and Romney fascist and racist because he never called them that.
        Ffs get your facts straight if you want to be taken seriously.

        1. Bill Maher did say liberals were wrong to attack Romney, Bush and McCain on last Friday’s show and apologized on their behalf, which you could argue means he took ownership of a lot of the attacks that were levelled against those candidates, which were by and large accusations of them being racist and fascist. Just Google “Romney racist” and you will get hundreds of hits. Maher was right but too late. The damage has been done. Most of us will not listen to accusations of being racist anymore, it’s lost its power when everyone is accused of being racist. Ms. Clinton suggested in the debate that there was such a thing as “implicit bias” a theoretical concept that gets bandied about in universities but for which their is scant evidence. But the basis of it is that we all carry a subconscious racism that informs our every action. So in other words, we’re all racist. See? It loses all meaning. True racism gets a pass because it’s diluted in a sea of hyperbolic rhetoric.

          1. This is how bigotry and hate become normalized. People are on here using every ounce of their intellect to try and redefine the social impact of being called a racist. I treasure this blog that 7am built for its intelligent discussion, but I’m not giving anyone the benefit of the doubt on this issue.

            I have a simple message for some you – grow up and adapt. Don’t come on here preaching about how racism, anti-semitism or bigotry has lost it’s meaning. The problem is with you and not with society. Own your prejudice. Own your sexism. Own your misogyny. It’s not part and parcel of your personality – you were raised, socialised or educated with it, and you can address it and unlearn it.

            In 1930’s Europe anti-semitic rhetoric was rampant yet few believed a political party from Germany would follow it through to it’s deadly conclusion. Never underestimate the power of words. Stop blaming other people because addressing your own personal prejudices brings about feelings of shame or discomfort.

            Also how the fuck do you know what “true racism” is when you’re also claiming the word has lost meaning? Kindly sort yourself out please.

          2. Wait what?

            How can you argue that the word “racism” has lost it’s power then in the same breath argue that “true racism gets a pass” because of that? Referring to “true racism” is like using the phrase “true rape” in a discussion about sexual violence – it reveals a lack of knowledge on the subject.

            And you know what? That’s okay. it’s not an easy thing to deal with. Addressing our own prejudices feels shameful. It provokes strong feelings. But we’re better off working on our personal prejudices than we are trying to redefine terminology used to describe them.

            If you really think “racism” is over-used then how can you reasonably have an issue with the term “implicit bias”, of which implicit bias training is a near-standard component of law enforcement training?

            Look, these terms have been studied and codified because our shared history demands it. It’s how we address, better understand, and prevent a repeat of past conflicts that are a stain on the human race. What they also help us do is understand that individually we may hold certain prejudiced views, but we can resist acting on them.

    2. I support people voicing their opposition to Trump.

      As someone who has worked in the party, I also support working in the party and do not advocate destroying our treasured institutions. But the leadership of the Democratic party has to step down. Now.

      Sorry if it seemed like I was suggesting we blow it all up.

  5. I’ve worked in a few different places in my life, and I’ve never, ever seen any upper management leave of their own accord, no matter how incompetent they were, other than a) getting pushed out by even higher management, b) moving on to fuck up another organisation, or c) having said organisation made obsolete and unprofitable by a rival, to the point where it collapses. I suspect the only real hope for the left in the U.S. is option c).

    1. I don’t see how there isn’t a change in the Democratic party. Our base now consists of millennials and minorities – many of whom have a more “socialistic” ideology that Sanders spoke to. I guess the question then becomes, how will we f*** it up next time?

  6. I have to agree with Tim, a vote for Trump for whatever reason no matter how you slice it dice it dress it up was a vote for Racism. Live with it. And then live with the fact that you gave The Village Idiot the nuclear codes!

    1. Maybe is it a vote against being jobless? Could be something as basic as that for the village folks right.

      1. You’re right. This is about people feeling disempowered by a system that is rigged. This system, in America, uses race, immigration, gender, and a veritable cornucopia of social canards in order to keep poor people fighting among themselves. This is done so that the people who are rigging the system, the Koch Brothers and the handful of ultra-wealthy men, can continue to build inequality and wealth.

        It’s telling that of the few well defined policies that Trump has proposed, one of the most well defined but least discussed is lowering taxes on the very wealthy. The other fairly well defined plan is to eliminate Medicare and the Affordable Care act. He and the Republican congress are going to give away the entire American treasure to the very wealthiest, the biggest corporations, and create not one single job. Because we did all this once before, under George W. Bush, and before that under Reagan, and the result was the most crippling debt the country has ever seen and massive recession. Trickle-down economics doesn’t work. Removing the social safety net doesn’t work. The people only get a lower and lower standard of living.

        All of that still doesn’t mean that a vote for a man who makes openly racist remarks, who has racist policies, who brags about sexual assault, and who mocks veterans, the disabled, women, and everyone who doesn’t agree with him, isn’t a vote to empower and embolden racism.

        It was. And whether you voted that way on purpose or if you just ignored the racism, or you just rationalized it away through some other method is irrelevant, a vote for Trump was a vote for racism.

  7. I think many people voted for their political party of choice, rather than whomever was at the helm.

    But sadly that suggests that the Republican voters genuinely felt that party loyalty was preferable to a vote against prejudice and bigotry

  8. The fear is all encompassing, I live in the U.K having been fortunate to emigrate from Zimbabwe and for the most part the daily interactions I have with people of all races is extremely positive. And so I have always had a sense that the world and people were over this racist shit. But brexit has shown me that people would rather screw themselves in order to bring the “other” down a few notches. This is what the Trump vote represents , the need for superiority overt the “other” trumps any semblance of reasonable thought or tolerance. Of course Clinton has her baggage , but is her baggage so much that every black and brown person in the US and the UK feel like second rate scum? In the main no. It’s a continuation of entrenched privilege,freedom from harassment both from your fellow citizenry and law enforcement.

    “President Lyndon B. Johnson once said, “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.””

    Maybe we are wrong and trump will actually tear house and senate republicans a new one, they dissed him so much he might get just say “ha no more –insert whatever nastiness normally happens here” , or maybe the law and order candidate will have us view Jim Crow laws in action in HD. And it’s not a joke, I’ve spoken to many black, brown and white people here in the U.K. , Zimbabwe, South Africa and the U.S and we all fear that our day to day lives will be that much harder. And please before the usual defensive reaction of “oh we not racist just sick of the establishment ” stuff just remember most hate crime in our day to day lives never originates from brown and black people, it’s almost always the other way around and not all of it gets press coverage.

  9. I should add that I was a Rubio supporter in the primaries. I find myself in the distasteful role here of defending Trump. Whatever. The over-reaction and hyperbole is amazing. The world is filled with evil, it’s not hard to find. Look for the good instead.

      1. My final comment. For good.

        When you call out good people as racists and misogynists, no caveats, no attempt at perspective, no forgiveness, you drive people away. You think you’re being noble and helping reform people, but all it is is virtue signaling and moral preening. If people worried more about fixing themselves rather than fixing others we’d all be better off.

        I think there is some value in examining immigration policies, I think BLM is a misguided movement, I refuse to use “zie” and “xer” as gender neutral pronouns or accept that men who self-identify as female should be allowed in the same change room as my 8 year old daughter. I don’t believe Christian bakers should be forced to make cakes for gay weddings if they don’t want to and I’m pro-life. I guess this makes me a racist,sexist, misogynist homophobe in your eyes. I’m all for live and let live, but it’s your side that says I’m wrong, I can’t just go my own way, I have to change. I’m a bad person. Keep it up and Trump will only be stage 1 of the push back. As they say, “politics is downstream of the culture”. And culture is only changed by three things; technology, demographics and violent catastrophe. Cheers.

        1. I appreciate the threat at the end it really crystallizes your position. These discussions with conservatives tend to end this way: threatening with violence.

          Equal protection laws have a long history of people who hate those laws fighting them with violence. So, I’m not surprised at all that you ended your rant with a threat.

          The violence is already here and has always been here. Any time someone stands up to demand their rights they are smashed in the face. Like a boot kicking a face for a thousand years that violence was there when Medgar Evers was shot in the back because he demanded equal rights. When Evers was shot he was rushed to a hospital where he was denied entry because he was black. The violence was there when those men bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham and killed four precious little girls. Imagine that. The violence was there when Matthew Shepard was beaten and tied to a fence, then left to die because he was gay. One of his murderers assaulted a Hispanic man that same night, an act which led to his arrest. The violence is still here: Dylann Roof murdered those people in the AME Methodist church just in 2015. Church burnings and clinic bombings are on the rise. There was a massacre at the Pulse nightclub.

          Your threat of violence? It’s always been there. It will always be there.

          1. Fuck you asshole. I don’t expect you to approve this comment. Because you’re obviously an intellectual coward who wants to misrepresent the views of the other side just to reinforce your own opinions.
            I didn’t threaten violence, I was warning that if you dismiss other people’s opinions as invalid you risk that outcome and it will impact the culture. A warning is not a threat. I’m not threatening when I WARN everyone that next up is Merkel out, then Hollande out, and it will rumble across the West. You did this. Not me. The pushback is not against moderate conservatives, the pushback is against a left wing that has over-reached. The pendulum swings.

            You’re just posturing for the sycophants, you’ve got some kind of hero-complex. You’re not interested in dialogue; you’re interesting in stereotyping, casting aspersions at broad swaths of people and moral preening.

            When people are consistently lectured that they are wrong, they should shut up, when free speech is pissed on, then the venting takes another form.

            There is more blood on the hands of leftists throughout history than conservatives. Fact. There were Tea Party protests in 2008, not one was violent, but there’s already video circulating of Trump supporters getting beaten.

            I came on here not as a Trump supporter, but trying to ask for everyone to be reasonable and stop slandering the 65 million people who voted for Trump as simply racists and sexists. I am not a white nationalist. I don’t care for the “alt-right”. You know who the left needs as a bulwark against true racists and bigots? Decent people like the ones you are throwing into the pot with the far right.

            Good luck with your myopic life, asshole.

          2. I approved this message because I’m not at all afraid of you. You should continue talking. You’re making my point for me.

          3. 1. I made an argument – voting for a man who uses racist language and has racist policies is a vote for racism, no matter if you agree with other parts of his platform or if you disagree with racism, because RACISM will be the outcome.
            2. I think people need to be confronted with this fact and I don’t accept that people “only voted for Trump because they were feeling disempowered.”
            3. I have no sycophants. You give me way too much credit.
            4. I have however been very consistent about calling out racism when I see it. In football and in politics.
            5. “The left have overreached” on inclusion, accepting difference, and demanding equality for people regardless of race, religion, or their gender choices.
            6. Doesn’t the right also need a bulwark against the racists and the bigots?
            7. Don’t the decent people who voted for Trump need a bulwark against the racist and bigots?
            8. I think a lot of the people who voted for Trump “because of the promised economic reform” either thought that the racism he spouted wouldn’t effect them, that he wouldn’t really act on it, or that it didn’t really matter. All of those are positions which help foster racism.

            The outspoken bigots are always a small minority. But it takes the larger, entitled, middle-class and poor to actually elect and give voice to that small minority. That’s what happened on Tuesday.

          4. One last thing, we are having a conversation. This is a dialog. I’m listening to your points. I’m just not agreeing with you.

          5. “If people worried more about fixing themself rather than fixing others, we all would be better off” – said Pires’ Goatee in one of his responses to, what I can only describe as ,one of the most remarkable examples of ” self fixing ” represented by Tim Todd.
            Curiously, nothing in Pires’ Goatee posts sugests he’s done any of what he preaches others should be doing.

            Half truths and misleading “facts” can never be the foundation of any meaningful debate.

          6. 1) How do you know RACISM will be the outcome? Do you have a crystal ball? Can you see in the future? Your gal Hillary asked that everyone have a open mind, I guess you didn’t heed her advice, sounds like it’s closed to me. You’ve already decided this is going to be the Fourth Reich come to life.
            2) The ego is incredible; “I don’t accept” who set you up as moral imperator to judge the rest of us? I don’t accept your accusation that I am a racist. There you go, we’re at a impasse.
            3) You’ve got plenty.
            4) Good for you. You’re a hero.
            5) The Left have overreached on the enforcement of political correctness, the role of the state in governing people’s behaviors and ostracizing people of dissenting views from universities, media and popular culture.
            6) I am that bulwark, me and others like me that in Martin Luther King Jr’s own words choose to judge people by the content of their character, and not the color of their skin… but still hold conservative views. We’re the bulwarks because we can demonstrate a better, less extreme outlook and approach. But you insist on demonizing ALL conservatives as racist.
            7) What decent people? I thought you’re suggesting anyone who voted for Trump is a racist/sexist/misogynist?
            8) You’re repeating your point from 1) above.

            And no, you’re not listening to me, and I really don’t care. Nobody gets their minds changed in a debate on a board. But fact is, again and again I’ve posted that all I would like is for people to take a deep breath, relax, and wait and see what happens, and in response I am called a racist. That’s leftist hypocrisy for you. Wonderful example.

            Oh, and Tom? You’re a condescending prick. How’s that working out for you in real life?

          7. 1. It already has been. All over the country there are people showing their true colors. Fifth graders chanting “build the wall”. On and on. http://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2016-11-10/after-donald-trumps-election-racist-outbursts-in-us
            2. I set myself up as the moral compass of myself. I don’t accept personally. I have made it abundantly clear that you can be a racist all you want if you want. But here’s the thing, I think you’re finally admitting you voted for Trump and that’s great. I’m sorry I called you a racist, you’re probably not, but are you now at least somewhat aware of the fact that your vote put into office a racist? And actual racist?
            3. …
            4. …
            5. Political Correctness is just people not wanting to be called names that hurt. Last I checked every human in America still has the legal right to go around and say all of the nasty things that they want. Hell, we just elected living proof of that. But deeper at the heart of the backlash against “PC” is that you want to be accepted for saying things that hurt people’s feelings, basically, you want to be allowed to be a dick. Not just allowed, but we should all accept you. Which is ironic because if I call you a racist, it’s very clearly hurtful.
            6. Where did I call all conservatives racist? I can think of no more conservative family than the Bush family and none of them voted for Trump. Because he’s a racist. I said a vote for Trump is a vote for racism, a vote to empower racism. I also accepted that there are probably quite a number of people who voted for Trump and either thought that they weren’t voting for racism or thought that the racism doesn’t matter. This is a cognitive dissonance about their vote, which I totally understand: as you rightly point out Hillary has hugely problematic baggage regarding the way she treated the women who accused Bill of sexual assault.

            So perhaps they aren’t racist in the classic sense of them going around lynching blacks, but they have voted to empower a racist and in support of racist policies. That is an act of racism. I would also point out that Latinos, Muslims, and liberals voted for Trump. And yes, I think they all committed an act of racism.

            This is a bit of a nuanced position but I don’t think every act of racism is committed by people who are KKK members. Plenty of people who would otherwise not consider themselves racists will take up racist positions unwittingly.

            What I’m hoping for here is that by making it clear that they just voted for a racist candidate and by proxy committed an act of racism, the folks who didn’t want to be called a racist might take a step back and see what they just did. And if they really, truly, didn’t mean to be a racist, they might even feel a bit of contrition about their vote. They might admit they voted for a racist and that they really hope his racist policies don’t get enacted. They might even act as a bulwark against those racist policies, which is what I’m hoping.

            But is that person really against the racist policies? Or are they just against being called a racist?
            Is that person really against the racism that the candidate said on the campaign? Or are they just against being called a racist?

            I’ve listened to you. I have taken your positions on board and I think I’ve changed my mind a little bit and now see that people might have unwittingly voted for a racist. Thanks for this dialog.

          8. From a person of color who comes from a Muslim family, I thank you 7am, and Tom and the other guys on here who speak up for our humanity, our right not to be dehumanised and trivialised due to *existing social conditions*.

            Seriously, thank you.

        2. Sorry about this man but whenever someone mentions ‘virtue signaling’ alarm bells start to go off. That’s when I start preparing for everything else on the list form femin@zi to cu©k.

          Referring to people in their preferred terms as opposed to terms which can come with a lot of unpleasant baggage for them is only about being polite and respectful to fellow human beings. It costs absolutely nothing and it’s amazing how attached people are to their words, while telling other groups they shouldn’t care about the words they are called.

          I’m sorry if people have been mean to you and were too quick to judge and condemn rather than educate and inform you, but sadly every group has it’s a$$holes. That’s no reason to dig your heels in and be unreasonable.

          There isn’t any ‘politically correct brigade’. There isn’t any ‘thought police’. You’re welcome to air your views. No one is coming to take you away. People are just tired of the insults and the meanness and the hatred, and have decided to make an effort to try to get along and be respectful of each other even if we don’t always agree.

  10. What is the difference between requiring a registry for muslims and the one required of jews circa 1932? This is an idea he has spoken openly of at his rally. He was asked this very question by a journalist not too long ago. His answer. “You tell me”
    Well the answer is quite obvious. There is no difference. We must stop the rising tide of nationalism and I do not just mean in this country. We are seeing this in Britain, in France, in Germany. It must be held back.

  11. November 8th was a roller coaster of emotions for me. I felt denial, depression, anger, fear, resentment and even some hatred. But most of all what I felt was shame. Shame for the message we just sent to the rest of the world. Shame for all the minorities, muslims, hispanics, blacks, gays, women, people with disabilites etc etc. Shame because these people are human beings many of whom I know and love. They are our neighbors, our friends, our coworkers. They are Americans and 50 million people voted to say they do not want them here, they do not want to give them a chance to make a better life for themselves and their families.
    Like Tim I too am a veteran I have been silent during this entire election. I live in Seattle now but am from Florida. I didn’t feel i should say anything on facebook about was happening because I didn’t want to offend floridian christians on facebook. I even preached openly of voting a third party. When I sat down to vote something hit me. Something I feel has been lying dormant for a long, long time. I can only describe it as an awakening of which i have never experienced. I realized for the first time in a long time how much this country means to me, and by that i mean how much the people in this country mean to me. When I looked at my ballot I realized that I had a duty to vote Hilary to say no to racism, to stem the tide of nationalism, intolerance, and bigotry. But it was already to late. I am ashamed of myself for not saying something sooner. The time to sit idly by has passed, I believe it is now our duty (perhaps it always was) that we must stand up and speak.
    Perhaps I am wrong about everything, maybe Trump will be a good president. Maybe he has been lying this whole time (he has) and will actually help the poor and help create jobs and not set this country back 100 years. But then again maybe he won’t. Maybe he will do all the things he has said and this is the beginning of a movement as close to fascism and authoritarianism as we have seen in this country in a long, long time. If you look at everything he has said and done then logic dictates that this is all a very real possibility. Even if it is a small possibility we must act, we must speak up.

  12. I thought having Rob Ford for a mayor was embarassing but you folks (OK, about half of you folks) have taken it to a whole other level! We are traveling I another dimension not in Rod Serling in the weirdest “Twilight Zone” episode could have imagined.

    WTF have you done?

    Seriously, although Ford made some disastrous personal choices which probably exacerbated a very painful end to cancer he was, when it came to saving taxpayer money in this city, a pretty effective mayor.

    I would fervently hope that Trump will rise to that relatively low bar and not put the country back 20 years or more.

    The exchanges about racism here though interesting are missing the mark for me because the issue with Trump is larger and more encompassing. It is about simple decency.

    The election of Trump was the biggest anti-decency vote in American history. And that’s something even a crackhead mayor found possible.

  13. Of the the many lawsuits facing Trump right now I’ll be paying attention to the two separate Trump University cases.

    If the so called Trump U was indeed a scam it would do to him what he has tried to unsuccessfully do so many people including the presiding judge for the case (“he’s a Mexican) and the still sitting POTUS (the disgusting “Birther” business): it would delegitimize his presidency.

    Serious question: would he be able to finish his term if found guilty?

  14. What am I thinking? His lawyers are probably just waiting for him to pull the trigger on a settlement now that he’s President-elect.

  15. Going by the comments section here, it seems that nobody is learning the true lesson from Trump’s election.

    This perpetual attempt to paint job insecurity in colors of racism and hate mongering is not helping.

    Wide spread demonstrations will actually silence the majority of those who voted for Trump leaving only the vilest sort to open their mouths as “representation” of those who voted.

    The Trump vote is not a vote against decency; it is a vote about job security.

    But are you getting the message? No. And my guess is that your political elites know this and want to keep the message simple. Keep this issue about hate and racism so that they can continue to enrich ourselves by ensuring the world business proceed as usual.

    I am not an American, but I do hope that you can see things from the other side of the divide so that the country can avoid electing another mad cow unto the throne.

    We Arsenal folks should know better. After all we have been living in the AKB vs WO world for the past 10 years.

    1. Well said. Exactly this. I mentioned in the last post that I was worried the decent folk (I used another term and got put in moderation). The people who care about equality, rights, truth and facts, and decency, would allow themselves to focus on the wrong things when it comes to analysing this.

      Perhaps it’s too early. Maybe they’re still just processing and we’ll get to the analysis later. Which is understandable.

    2. Well, thank God someone is here to tell us the “true lesson” of all of this!

      I submit that there are many ways to experience and manifest job insecurity, and yet the way it is experienced and manifested in America is as a battle line drawn according to skin color and ethnicity. I can’t believe you’re making a claim for job insecurity in isolation of factors of race and immigration. Absurd. Though you did admit that you’re not American / don’t live in America. Cheers. Here, folks blame their lack of economic prosperity on brown people. The move to shut down the borders, to build a wall, to block Muslims, has everything to do with the idea in people’s heads, however baseless, that job insecurity and disenfranchisement is directly correlated to certain kinds of people entering and living in the nation. Nobody is blaming white people for this problem. How interesting.

      And all of the above assumes you’re even right that this is about job security. I would submit that such reductive claims about the one thing this election is about deserve to be ignored.

      And Shard, I’m sorry but you got called out badly yesterday as ignorant (by a poster who clearly knew what he was talking about), and I don’t see that you’ve at all recovered. There are people living in the US dealing with the realities of this election, and as an outsider you make absolutely idiotic claims about how we should be experiencing it.

      1. If the US would let the world largely alone and be a normal country, you could perhaps say that ‘outsiders’ don’t get to talk ‘idiocies’ about it. But the US is not a normal country, and it affects everyone in the world to various extents.

        I am allowed to have my own ‘fears’ and opinions on the US election and how people experience it, and what happens next.

        I always said I approached this election only from a geopolitical point of view. Does Trump change that? Probably not to a great extent, if at all. (Though his victory does damage their propaganda machine) But Hillary would have made it ‘worse’ (subjective opinion. Horror)

        And I agreed with you on the racism front. It will happen. And I actually am ok with people going out on the streets and making their voices heard against it(as long as it is peaceful) That is an important part of democracy. The direct voice.

        But I do not accept the idea that all votes for Trump carry a racist motive. That is as much a reductive argument as you accuse Dark Hei of making by focusing on job security.

        Browns being blamed is racist. But it happens because it’s easier to unite people by dividing them against an ‘other’ who is competing with you for limited resources. This doesn’t happen as easily in a stable, prosperous environment, and even less in a more integrated environment than the US has had since forever. Trump doesn’t win in a US that works. Now I don’t know if it was job security, world peace, or any other amorphous, undefined idea that made people who would normally abhor Trump vote for him. But I certainly would say it reflects a deeper dislike and distrust of the polity as it stands than simply saying it boils down to racism/misogyny.

      2. Guess what I’m saying is that racism is a symptom, not the disease that afflicts the US right now.

      3. “I would submit that such reductive claims about the one thing this election is about deserve to be ignored.”

        Yup, it is not just about anti-decency or active racism either. In your own words.

        Who votes for Trump because they are just in-bred evil doers? Just maybe a small percentage. Folks like Jose M do exists. And there is Trump himself of course. But by and large, quite a good number are just regular folks.

        No sir, the truth is that upwards of 40% of US citizens voted for Trump because of something else. And that is the feeling of displacement, job security etc. Many of them are not smart enough nor fast enough to carve out a place in the new economy.

        This article seeks to demonize the folks who voted for Trump. See the 2nd last paragraph. But have anyone considered that 8 years ago, folks voted for Obama precisely because they believed that Obama cares for them and will give some protection for their jobs?

        1. Anyway, I take back what I said.

          Got to understand that your country is now run by Trump. I just hope there are enough decent folks in the Republican party who will stand up and keep him on a leash.

          Small comfort, but the rest of the world rooted for Hilary. Me included. I was in dismay, took me a day to process things.

          1. ALL the GOP cares about is winning. Otherwise they would have all denounced him, as only a few did (Bravo Mitt!)

        2. Thanks, Dark Hei, and Shard, for not lowering yourself to insults, as I did. I should be more gracious.

  16. Wasn’t about policy…more about change. It’s just hard to support this change, ….but change we must.

  17. “If I were to run, I’d run as a Republican. They are the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they’d still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific.” Said Trump half jokingly in an earlier interview when asked about his posible political plans in the future.

    Years later he launched his political carreer with Birtherism. Solidified it with claims of building a wall and having Mexico pay for it. Then he closed the deal with empty promises of bringing back the jobs that were lost mostly to automation.
    The first one was a blatant lie. The second and third were just empty promises that have almost zero chances of coming to past.

    The wall would be too expensive to build and to maintain, and it would be opposed on federal and state level by environmental and political concerns.

    The jobs he promised to bring back were lost mostly to automation ,like 90% of what brazers, welders, cutters and solderers do.

    This in a nutshell was Trumps platform that got him elected, sprinkled with Muslim bashing and Hilary hatred for extra flavor.
    His assessment of the Republican electorate as a whole was spot on.

    1. Tom, So true. So true. Particularly the part about the Automation. And because they find it so much easier to blame the black, brown, woman, poor, disabled, homosexual, muslim, chinese bogey man rapist they don’t even see the tsunami that is Aritifical Intelligence that is going to wipe out 80% of white collar jobs in next 10 years!!

      We are all in for a whole lot of pain because so many of use can’t and won’t accept that we can’t go back to the good ol’ days. Our only hope is to create good new days based on sharing and taking care of this planet but it looks like we are going to have to actual crash and burn this planet before we start working to turn things around. I pray it won’t be too late.

      Tim. Please never stop blogging. Your authenticity is refreshing. I even click on ads sometimes, cause I want you to write more 😉

  18. Sad that yet another sports blog has become politicized. I can’t watch ESPN or TNT for football or basketball anymore without being beaten over the head about Black Lives Matter or Donald Trump. Brexit gets mentioned during soccer games. Has Brexit had any impact at all on soccer this season? Virtually none. I can’t watch TV without some celebrity wearing their political opinions on their sleeves.

    I guess I can’t read this blog or Arseblog anymore. I am a racist, because I voted for Trump. I did so not in affirmation of Trump, but because I felt the Democrats and their supporters were arrogant, condescending and unappreciative of my concerns. It’s unlikely Trump will solve many problems. Hillary would have just created more because her election would have been seen as affirmation that the Democrats are right to dismiss the concerns millions of us have with the direction our culture is taking. I am half-Indian, but I guess according to your post above, that means I can still be a racist for voting for Trump.

    I liked the analysis you had on your blog, and appreciate the hard work you must put in to create the content. But your tenor on twitter and here tells me that my views are unwelcome. Tolerance and understanding is a two way street.

    Final word of advice; narrowing your audience by polticizing your content will reduce your reach. NFL and NBA ratings are down dramatically. Stephen Colbert is on the verge of cancellation because he’s made a late night comedy show a political vehicle. Go back to writing about soccer.

    1. Prahabjot, Let me get this right. The world is going to hell in a hand-basket and you want Tim to ONLY write about young men paid obscene amounts of money to kick a ball around?!!

      And now you can’t even read about when he writes about these young men, because you are confronted by the fact that his views about how we should all live our lives is not in alignment with yours?!!!

      Dude, Seriously!!! Talk about wanting to live in a bubble…

      1. I could care less what Tim’s personal views are. Everyone’s first and foremost right is to freedom of conscious. However, he’s made it very clear that he considers Trump a racist and has argued that anyone who cast a vote for him, regardless of reason, has thereby affirmed a racist and ergo must be a racist themselves. (and sexist, and misogynist, et al). That’s a very polarizing “you’re either with us, or against us” stance, which again, is his right to take. But the consequence of taking that kind of stance is that you will force a lot of people who disagree with your line in the sand by saying, “OK, I guess I’m against you.”. And demonstrating as much by stopping reading, watching something else, or finding a different podcast to download. I won’t download Arsecast today because he’s made it clear he hates my views. That’s OK, that’s his right as is mine to not listen to him any longer.

        1. I should add that this fills me with sadness. It’s not with pleasure that I find myself alienated from people that I’d read and listened to about a common love, Arsenal Football Club. A club with players of all nationalities and creeds. I grew up with and work with people of all backgrounds. I don’t consider myself a racist, but obviously my actions voting for Trump are judged as such.

          1. Are you truly not a racist?

            Then denounce the racist you just voted for. And stand with me and others against his racist policies, when he tries to get them implemented.

            Or are you just offended by being called a racist?

            As for Arsenal being some symbol of multicultural love, I’ve seen plenty of racism from Arsenal fans at the matches. Much more so than here in the USA. Munich was particularly harrowing.

        2. My position is slightly more nuanced than that.

          Remember when Luis Suarez committed a racism? It’s pretty clear that Suarez said something racist to Evra. Now, after the fact we had a long discussion on this blog about whether Suarez was a racist and concluded that all we can say for sure is that he committed a racism.

          I think America committed a racsim. Or at least close to 50% of the America that votes committed a racism.

      2. Both 7am and Arseblog are two of the most-respected football bloggers. They didn’t just start early, in the days prior to social media’s explosion. They THOUGHT differently about the game at a time when newspaper and television punditry was tired, cliched and very conservative.

        This week is not the first time both writers have been outspoken about politics & society. I hope it won’t be the last. One of them’s a veteran. The other is an Irishman. Making hidden threats about their readership or content is not a smart move.

  19. I come back every few hours for the comments. Pure gold as a sample section of what ordinary day to day folk think of the election and it’s outcome. Thank you for the platform Tim. And kudos to you for allowing alternative comments to be published. Not many moderators would have the balls to do that.

  20. Seriously, the guy hasn’t even taken power yet. He changes his position daily. Why don’t we all just wait and see what he actually does. Certainly wouldn’t be the first time a politician says one thing during a campaign and then does something else once elected. And besides his daughter is hot as hell.

  21. Wow. I learned far more about some people here than I cared to. Im talking to you especially, Pires’ Goatee. Your faithful regurgitation of far right talking points (no, Obama did not double the national debt. Stop listening to Hannity) now frankly makes it hard for me to view your comments through any kind of logical prism.

    The thing I don’t understand is how anyone who is far-ish right, pro Trump and ignores Trump’s flagrant racism and religious bigotry can be pro-Arsenal. This is a club that is the epitome of diversity, inclusion, broad-mindedness, tolerance, and has its roots in very left Highbury and Islington. Given his regularly making excuses for Russia and Putin, Chelsea would seem to be the natural habitat of a Trump supporter. I cant see you support Trump and profess to share the values of this great club. No I dont have the power or moral authority to excommunicate, and I’m saying how I feel.

    It will be difficult to listen to you or Shard who expressed some support for Trump some months ago, bad mouthing Fabregas. He resides at your spiritual home, and Trump’s.

    Accepting Trump was not just looking the other way or (who knows?) maybe secretly buying into his ugliness. It meant turning a blind eye to a lot. Scamming fake degrees? Check. Casualised sexual assault? Check. Epic, bald-faced lying (anyone remember the non-existent NFL letter?) Check. Lying about his wife receiving an architecture degree? Check. Taking a cheap shot at the grieving mother of a dead soldier? Check. Saying a judge of Mexican origin can’t fairly adjudicate case because of the colour of his skin? Check. Blanket Muslim ban? Check. Shamefully race-baiting the country’s first black president over his birth certificate for 5 long years, and making his produce his papers like he was in some southern African bantustan? Check.

    About that blanket Muslim ban. Mesut Ozil likes to hang out in LA for his holidays. Trump’s policy wouldnt let him in. Or Elneny. Still ok with Trump?

    Do you think Mourinho, awful as he is, would last 10 minutes in the game if he had shoved his hands into Eva Carniero pants and forced kissed her? The sainted Arsene, whom you idolise. Miles apart from Trump in character.

    Yeah, you had to be wilfully blind to a lot, to be one of those who foisted Trump on America. You thought that Trump was an acceptable fit for the presidency. I frankly don’t know that I can take seriously anything you have to say, say, about conduct. Referees, players, anything. Sorry, that’s just me.

    1. Well said Claudeivan.

      Just before or after Brexit I remember reading a conversation between two guys I respect on here, Bunburyist and Dr. Gooner, talking about how society had “over-corrected” and lamenting the fact that any racist behaviour was immediately followed by “public shaming”. They said that there was a backlash against this. On this page Bunburyist again says this was a valid reason for people to vote for a racist, lying, sexual predator.

      Let me be honest – some of you people scare me. You lack empathy and context in the way you analyse race and society. I concede that it’s hard for people to learn about racism the hard way, where individual mistakes on social media can become public and lead to pile-ons and hundreds of angry comments. It’s a horrible way to learn hard truths.

      But where was the context from you guys? Why didn’t you guys at least reference those marginalised, powerless people who’ve suffered physical and racist abuse for years, decades, while society turned a blind eye? The reason some of you feel there’s a greater sensitivity to racism is simple – the social media explosion was driven by groups of diverse marginalised people amplifying their experiences. Stories that were ignored by the traditional press found a place on social media. And what people realised was that casual racism has always been indulged, ignored, and minimized by the media and state institutions.

      That’s why there’s a reluctance from people of colour to engage, to teach with patience and understanding. This has been going on for decades. If you are over 20 and find that learning this stuff is hard, understand that some groups of minorities start having tough discussions with their 5-yr old kids about discrimination and how to stay alive and unharmed.

      So when you lament the dying of “old modes of discourse” when it was easier to make jokes and stereotype marginalised people without being labelled a bigot, and when you talk up the supposed freedoms of those minorities to stereotype in turn, without also addressing the clear and present danger of being a minority in the first place, then you might want to rethink your approach to these issues.

      It’s astonishing that some of you think TOO MUCH progress has been made. How many unarmed victims did it take to raise awareness of state violence? How many mysterious unsolved murders of gay and trans people does it take to understand homophobia? How many stories of people denied jobs, housing or other basic opportunities for social progress does it take to properly understand discrimination? What has been the cost in blood, the weight of the sacrifices, just to get to this point?

      And because a group who has always held power over others felt shamed, impoverished or began to feel as marginalised as the people they’ve always despised, they put a demagogue in the White House.

    2. Hang on. Does nuance escape people all the time? I’m effing tired of this man. In my view, Hillary would likely have KILLED thousands more people and pushed Russia and China more and more towards having no choice but war. And I think that scenario more likely than Trump doing all the horrible racist things he talked about. (Why? Because I believe people, no matter how uneducated and scared, are better than that). And if he still does those things, but there’s less chance of greater war across the world, I’d still take that option. Abhorrent as it seems to us all, it isn’t a choice between good and evil.

      Not my choice to elect Trump. I don’t know if despite my belief I could have cast my vote for him. But those are the two choices the American system threw up (literally). Do I hate Trump’s racist views. Yes. And It took a lot of soul searching and thought before I reversed my stance on who I’d rather took office.

      Speaking of Russia. What have they done that deserves more opprobrium than the good ol US of A? Refuse to join the same crooked system that forces people to start ‘Occupy’ movements, vote in racists, and bring wars throughout the world? And this is the crux. You choose to demonise anyone who wouldn’t submit to your exact way of thinking. Which is exactly how you’re conditioned to think about the US and the Western world view. Don’t look for the nuance, go straight for the throat because ‘they’ don’t have the same way of life.

      This transcends labels man. This isn’t about us vs them. It shouldn’t be. You can’t fight an entrenched view like racism through isolation. You can’t build a better world if you refuse to try and understand why people who share the same values, may have different outlooks and choices, and if you ignore what others are suffering under a system that seems to you to just about work.

      1. Trump and the Republican controlled congress are just as likely to go to war with (insert country) as Hillary. We have now entered the portion of the American program which demands constant war. Without constant war I’m pretty sure our economy would collapse.

  22. When the Nazis came for the communists,
    I remained silent;
    I was not a communist.

    When they locked up the social democrats,
    I remained silent;
    I was not a social democrat.

    When they came for the trade unionists,
    I did not speak out;
    I was not a trade unionist.

    When they came for the Jews,
    I remained silent;
    I wasn’t a Jew.

    When they came for me,
    there was no one left to speak out.

  23. I learned far more about some people here than I cared to. Im talking to you especially, Pires’ Goatee. Your faithful regurgitation of far right talking points (no, Obama did not double the national debt. Stop listening to Hannity) now frankly makes it hard for me to view your comments through any kind of logical prism.

    The thing I don’t understand is how anyone who is far-ish right, pro Trump and ignores Trump’s flagrant racism and religious bigotry can be pro-Arsenal. This is a club that is the epitome of diversity, inclusion, broad-mindedness, tolerance, and has its roots in very left Highbury and Islington. Given his regularly making excuses for Russia and Putin, Chelsea would seem to be the natural habitat of a Trump supporter. I cant see how you can support Trump and profess to share the values of this great club.

    It will be difficult to listen to you or Shard who expressed some support for Trump some months ago, bad mouthing Fabregas. He resides at your spiritual home, and Trump’s.

    Accepting Trump was not just looking the other way or (who knows?) maybe secretly buying into his ugliness. It meant turning a blind eye to a lot. Scamming fake degrees? Check. Casualised sexual assault? Check. Epic, bald-faced lying (anyone remember the non-existent NFL letter?) Check. Lying about his wife receiving an architecture degree? Check. Taking a cheap shot at the grieving mother of a dead soldier? Check. Saying a judge of Mexican origin can’t fairly adjudicate case because of the colour of his skin? Check. Blanket Muslim ban? Check. Shamefully race-baiting the country’s first black president over his birth certificate for 5 long years, and making his produce his papers like he was in some southern African bantustan? Check.

    About that blanket Muslim ban. Mesut Ozil likes to hang out in LA for his holidays. Trump’s policy wouldnt let him in. Or Elneny. Still ok with Trump?

    Do you think Mourinho, awful as he is, would last 10 minutes in the game if he had shoved his hands into Eva Carniero tracksuit and forced kissed her? The sainted Arsene, whom you idolise. Miles apart from Trump in character.

    Yeah, you had to be wilfully blind to a lot, to be one of those who foisted Trump on America. You thought that Trump was an acceptable fit for the presidency. I frankly don’t know that I can take seriously anything you have to say, say, about conduct. Referees, players, anything. Sorry, that’s just me.

  24. I would like to start off by saying that I have read almost all the comments made here up till now.

    As a means of exercising full disclosure I will state that I am a South African born in 1993. This makes me younger than the majority here.

    I will begin by stating that I do not have a direct interest in the affairs of the USA. However as many have pointed out before, the USA is the world power. As America goes so goes the world.

    With this in mind it is easy to see why I would have a right to form an opinion, provided it is valid (informed).

    The political background of my country is such that I don’t have to bore anyone with a history lesson. Suffice it to say that South Africa has seen it’s fair share of racism, discrimination and human rights abuses.

    My girlfriend and I have been following president elect Trump’s progress since the primaries. Although we found his treatment of the other candidates quite hilarious, we also found his open racism and intolerance unacceptable.

    I remember when Trump said he was going to let others deal with his foreign and domestic policy. Anyway the point is that he demonstrated his unsuitability to the office of the President of the United States. We trusted the american people to see through his facade.

    President Obama touched on this when he said that this is the real thing, not Survivour.

    I live in a country full of people who are silently racist. I know what it is like to deal with people who are advancing an agenda.

    I agree with Tim, a vote for Trump is a vote for racism.

    America deserves a leader who seeks to emulate Mandela and doesn’t idolise Putin.

    I wish that Bernie was the Democratic nominee. I believe he would have beaten Trump.

    This election has scared America and the rest of the world because we look up to the US.

  25. “Oh, and Tom, you are a condescending prick. How’s that working for you in real life?”

    Can’t complain, Pires’ Goatee. Thank you for asking.

    If I’m a “condescending prick”, it’s only because I have no more patience for people like yourself living in a fact free world.
    And since this is not a political forum where there might be an incentive to sway someone’s opinion for the purpose of future elections, I can be as brazen and condescending as I wish to be in pointing out your ignorance regarding facts.

    Anyone who talks about Obama doubling the US national debt but conveniently skips over the Iraq war and Bush’s tax cuts is disingenuous at best, a political hack or in your case probably a moron.
    No country in the history of the world had ever gone to war and lowered taxes at the same time until Bush did it in 2003.
    Anyone who complains about the size of the US national debt but doesn’t mention the Reagan and Bush senior years is again ,ignorant at best.

    I don’t care about your ideology or which way you lean politically, but I’m sick and tired of people’s fact free proclamations that dumb down any discourse , and people like you and especially Trump are the prime example of that.

    The biggest threat to our democracy isn’t racism, bigotry or sexism ( America has survived 240 years of these) ,but the willful ignorance of facts and Trump has taken it to unprecedented levels.

    1. Using R2P provisions to classify guns and missiles under humanitarian aid and imposing a no-fly zone in Libya, the coup in Ukraine, the creation of ISIS and ‘moderate rebels, and the ongoing destruction of Syria (a secular country in the middle east). None of these are cheap or morally right, and had no legacy tied into Iraq.

      I don’t know how much they contributed to the debt, but it’s disingenuous to talk about Iraq and leave the rest as mere footnotes.

  26. As per usual you are all over the place with your statements.
    Both Afganistan and Iraq war were started by the Bush administration, so it makes sense to apportion at least some of their cost to Bush’s spending. This, of course is not the easiest thing to do since some of the cost, like taking care of the wounded soldiers ,will last for another 50 years or so.
    The total for both wars by the time the last US vet of those conflicts dies, could reach as much as $6 trillion or more.

    Whatever US involvement in these other conflicts is, its cost should be appropritly tallied and put on Obama’s tab.

    Btw, ISIS did originate in Iraq and will always be Bush’s legacy.
    Your denying it won’t ever change this fact, but keep doing it if it makes you feel better.

    1. They originated in the territory but they and others like them have been financed and supported in the Obama years to fight their wars for them.

  27. Shout out to Muhammad, it is indeed good to see South African gooners commenting on great blogs.

  28. Er… I’m going to be honest and call out the fact that I’m a Nigerian. Never been to the US and have no personal experience of the place. I just feel there’s a tendency for people to want others to hold the same values they do irrespective of how they’ve come to a decision. As children we are open to the world without prejudices but as we grow older and experience starts to create patterns our decision making starts to reflect our fears and failures. We avoid things that have hurt us and others we know. We forget that as life works more in probabilities than in definites. Individuals react different to the same stimulus andbsolve problems in different ways. Just like there are many ways to solve a Rubik’s cube, there are many reasons behind the making of a decision. Not everyone who voted Trump did so because their racist glasses were on and I disagree with Tim labelling them as such. His point remains valid though as a racist stands as president elect. I believe finding ways to overcome that moving forward is thebhetter option that blaming those who voted one of two devils. I don’t believe in absolute good or absolute evil just varying shades.

    1. I don’t believe in absolutes either. However, what I do believe is that it’s important to highlight when people commit acts of racism. The reason for this is because exactly what it takes is for good people to do nothing, to say nothing, in order for atrocities to take place. And moreover, it seems that a lot of people are pretending as if it didn’t happen and minimizing their act of racism. They need that false shield to hide behind to make themselves feel better. Look, if there was a racist diner in my town, a diner which invited neo-Nazi’s to eat at the table, and which openly tried to refuse service to LGBTQ people, Mexicans, and Muslims, but was forced to allow them to eat by federal law, and I ate at that diner, I would be supporting a racist diner. If I turned around and told people, “I’m not a racist. It’s just that they have GREAT hamburgers!” I’m still supporting a racist diner. “But they aren’t racist, Chinese people eat there and they let Mexicans eat there.” It’s still a racist diner. “But Mexicans support having the racist diner there.” It’s still a racist diner.

      As for healing the divide. I’m not interested in helping people who ate at a racist diner feel better for their choices. That would be doing exactly what they are doing: aiding a racist, and pretending that the racism doesn’t exist.

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