Episode 148 - Trump Country: What The Media Doesn’t Want You To Know

[JulyDiaz 2797]

You thought it would disappear before the Iowa primary. You thought it would surely never happen when its tax returns were released. You definitely thought it was going away as it drove past you on an 'Access Hollywood' tour bus. But it's finally here. We're doing a Trump podcast! Please hide your women and children.

 

We've actually kind of skirted around Trump a lot in the last year. We talked about the class divide in America, how it's not necessarily driven by money and how the Donald personifies the hopes and desires of the "lower class". We even talked about narcissism as America's mental disorder, symbolized again by king narcissist himself, Donald J. Trump.

 

So this week, Crooked Jack O'Brien is joined by Lyin' Jason Pargin (aka David Wong) in hopefully our final Trumpcast. They take one last look at Mr. Tinyfingers by looking at the 40% or so of people who are voting for him in a couple weeks no matter what. It's easy to pass them off as toothless rednecks, racist uncles and cartoonish extras from Daily Show segments, but they are real people who didn't come to support Trump out of nowhere. This cultural shift has been hiding in plain sight and the only problem was the left hadn't even bothered to look. By really dissecting the reasons for this social chasm, we'll prove that even the craziest of Trump supporters should actually be listened to, no matter how orange and absurd their political mouthpiece is.

 

Footnotes:

 

Cracked: How Half of America Lost Its F**king Mind: https://goo.gl/KBJs5W

 

Cracked Podcast: The 11 Nations of America: https://goo.gl/dTJnm4

 

Cracked Podcast: Why Class in America Isn't Just About Income: https://goo.gl/4juPht

 

2012 County-by-County Election Map: https://goo.gl/EKH1xb

 

Map of County-by-County Economic Growth: https://goo.gl/u3vqyo

[wakefresh 689]

Listening to this now and I had, HAD to comment.

 

These poor white conservatives' values do not matter. They still support Trump. They don't care that he insulted the Khans because they are Muslim. They don't care about sexual assaults because women always lie about rape and sexual assaults anyway. They don't care that he has been married several times because that means he's so honest (in their warped view).

[wakefresh 689]

Man, the problem with your premise is that it is not true at all. These rural conservatives have always been at the front of the American psyche. They were at the front in the 1980s -- Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, and bunch of other rock artists made their whole careers appealing to this demographic. In the 1970s, they had whole programming dedicated to them -- the Waltons, Little House on the Prarire, Beverly Hillbillies, Dukes of Haazard, etc. Hell, they were even so popular that the U.S. Senate threatened to investigate the TV networks if they pulled those shows.

 

They have a whole government party that tells them that they are only true "REAL AMERICANS". What is going on is a blacklash from these people about having to share the national dialogue. They have to share it with the numerous other groups that live and have lied here since the beginning. What is a more applicable comparison, is the Southern whites who complained about their rights being taken away when black folks could sit anywhere on the bus. Rural conservatives clearly view dominating the national culture as one of their "rights".

[wakefresh 689]

And it is very much a inferiority complex. They get upset when they called flyover country. They are always going on about how much more "realer" they are than all of the "fake" city people. If they cities went away, this country would revert back to the scientific and medical progress of the 1700s.

[wakefresh 689]

Has Jack never heard of "Friday Night Lights"? Blue Collar Comedy? All of those failed Jeff Foxworthy and Ron White shows? They have multiple times to make shows. Martin Lawrence got once chance and was never again to grace TV sets.

[wakefresh 689]

They don't have to try to make Trump supporters look stupid. They say things like, "Hillary Clinton is a demon" or say that they are going to cause bloodshed if Trump doesn't win. And that racism and homophobia are not side effects. They are the bread and butter of that culture. These people never forgave the Supreme Court for integration, remember. Jesus, these people are racist against the rural black folks as well. What in the hell are you talking about?

[wakefresh 689]

Rural white people hate ALL black people -- rich ones ( they only got that way because of affirmative action ), poor ones (they are lazy ), rural ones ( they may try to impregnate my daughter ), and urban ones (they are all in gangs). Jason still thinks that this racism is predicated on actions; its predicated on skin color only.

[wakefresh 689]

Nope, this is all bullshit. Jason is talking bullshit. He just said that it was ok for these rural whites to not show any empathy for anyone else in an bad situation. These people want a trait -- empathy -- that they don't extend to anyone else. Conservatives say they don't like "political correctness" but get all offended when someone calls them deplorable. They want empathy for themselves, but everyone else needs to stop whining and bring themselves up by their bootstraps.

[wakefresh 689]

By that logic, did all of the rural conservatives love the PETA ad when they compared farm animals to slavery? Since the rural conservatives think the black people are dangerous/killers/etc, then they should have LOVED the idea that PETA was saying that they own black people.

[wakefresh 689]

Rural conservatives make fun of reality TV as well because its people acting stupid. Even better that these people that are on reality TV are not from their rural communities.

[wakefresh 689]

If they don't believe the media because it is a "tainted messenger" then they shouldn't be upset when the country moves on without them. They are not the "Silent Majority" anymore. The future will be about them sharing the table instead of controlling the table.

[wakefresh 689]

Jason,

 

You just said that the racism and homophobia is a part of their culture and that they would rather die than change it. So how exactly do you change their views when they don't want to change. You say that it is on the liberals to reach out to them, but what is the responsibility of the conservative in this? The world is changing and they are being left behind. It would seem to me that the responsibility is on them to understand how they can fit into this new world?

[action52 554]

Wow, I wasn't expecting to see THIS negative a reaction. It's like you're trying to prove them right about how everyone dismisses and dehumanizes rural America. It is possible to humanize and understand them without condoning them.

 

The fact of the matter is that rural America has been getting screwed. Every downturn in the economy has hit them the hardest, and the recovery always benefits them less than most of America. All over America industries collapsed in the late 70s and early 80s, and when they did come back it was in fewer places and hiring fewer people. Then we had Wal-Mart leeching off of them for decades, slowly choking out local businesses and lowering GDP by bringing wages down. And when recessions came in the 90s it just killed the rest of those local economies, leaving towns as decaying shells of empty storefronts and houses, and more people moving to trailer parks. Then the real estate crash of 2008 which, once again, urban areas have recovered from but not rural ones.

 

They used to be quite a cultural force. Even in the 70s there were lots of shows and movies centering on them. But in the 80s culture gradually moved away from them. In the 90s and 2000s they had stuff like Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy but it was less and less mainstream. Niche programming for "those people" mocked by the rest of pop culture.

 

I'm not denying that there are good reasons to criticize them. The homophobia and racism are real. But maybe we should try to be less self-righteous.

 

Because they are right about one thing: the democrats will not help them. And I think even the conservatives are starting to wake up that the republicans ain't helping them either. That's why Trump appeals. They're not getting help anyway, so at least they'll go with the guy who tells them what they want to hear and makes them feel good. It's how con artists and cults work. They find the desperate people and prey on them.

 

But in the end I don't know what to do. I think the future will be that almost no one lives in rural areas. Just a tiny number of people watching and maintaining the largely automated agricultural equipment.

 

The times, they are a-changin'. And they better start swimming or they'll sink like a stone.

 

I don't know if empathy will help anything. They aren't giving it to other people, and they aren't asking for it either. But I think it means a lot to admit that if we had been born and raised in the same bubble that they were, we would probably think a lot like them. And that our not sharing their bigotry isn't the result of us being smarter or better than they are, but rather us growing up around different people.

 

This podcast isn't asking you to agree with them, or excuse them, or say that they aren't totally wrong in supporting Trump who would be a terrible president. They're just asking you to open up your mind enough to see things from their point of view and see them as human beings. But most of you seem unwilling to even try that.

[wakefresh 689]

Wow, I wasn't expecting to see THIS negative a reaction. It's like you're trying to prove them right about how everyone dismisses and dehumanizes rural America. It is possible to humanize and understand them without condoning them.

 

The fact of the matter is that rural America has been getting screwed. Every downturn in the economy has hit them the hardest, and the recovery always benefits them less than most of America. All over America industries collapsed in the late 70s and early 80s, and when they did come back it was in fewer places and hiring fewer people. Then we had Wal-Mart leeching off of them for decades, slowly choking out local businesses and lowering GDP by bringing wages down. And when recessions came in the 90s it just killed the rest of those local economies, leaving towns as decaying shells of empty storefronts and houses, and more people moving to trailer parks. Then the real estate crash of 2008 which, once again, urban areas have recovered from but not rural ones.

 

They used to be quite a cultural force. Even in the 70s there were lots of shows and movies centering on them. But in the 80s culture gradually moved away from them. In the 90s and 2000s they had stuff like Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy but it was less and less mainstream. Niche programming for "those people" mocked by the rest of pop culture.

 

I'm not denying that there are good reasons to criticize them. The homophobia and racism are real. But maybe we should try to be less self-righteous.

 

Because they are right about one thing: the democrats will not help them. And I think even the conservatives are starting to wake up that the republicans ain't helping them either. That's why Trump appeals. They're not getting help anyway, so at least they'll go with the guy who tells them what they want to hear and makes them feel good. It's how con artists and cults work. They find the desperate people and prey on them.

 

But in the end I don't know what to do. I think the future will be that almost no one lives in rural areas. Just a tiny number of people watching and maintaining the largely automated agricultural equipment.

 

The times, they are a-changin'. And they better start swimming or they'll sink like a stone.

 

I don't know if empathy will help anything. They aren't giving it to other people, and they aren't asking for it either. But I think it means a lot to admit that if we had been born and raised in the same bubble that they were, we would probably think a lot like them. And that our not sharing their bigotry isn't the result of us being smarter or better than they are, but rather us growing up around different people.

 

This podcast isn't asking you to agree with them, or excuse them, or say that they aren't totally wrong in supporting Trump who would be a terrible president. They're just asking you to open up your mind enough to see things from their point of view and see them as human beings. But most of you seem unwilling to even try that.

 

Every downturn in the economy has hit black Americans the hardest. Even in good economies black unemployment is higher than rural white people. In fact, during the times when these factory towns existed, those rural whites colluded to make sure to cap the number of black people working in the factory and excluded them from the unions.

 

The negative reaction is because this a group of people whose entire "way of life" was sustained by actively keeping others down. It was based on myth and fairy tales about a self-reliant white guy battling the world and winning. IT IS NOT TRUE.

 

Those factory jobs stayed as long as there was cheap labor. When that cheap labor could go to other countries, it left. It was never about the "craftsmanship" and "quality" of work these people were doing. IT WAS A POLITICAL CALCULATION

 

When women and minorities can compete with them for jobs, they lose a little and freak out. Remember that all of the board of directors and C-suite people are mostly white male, but these people act as if black person getting a promotion is the end of the world. They were fed a myth about them being the smartest and IT IS NOT TRUE.

 

I disagree that they aren't asking for empathy. They are ALWAYS asking for empathy. They are always asking for a special spotlight on them because this is the first time in history when there hasn't been a spotlight on them.

 

This podcast isn't asking you to agree with them, or excuse them, or say that they aren't totally wrong in supporting Trump who would be a terrible president. They're just asking you to open up your mind enough to see things from their point of view and see them as human beings. But most of you seem unwilling to even try that.

 

You obviously have an idea of what you consider "seeing them has human beings" to mean, and disagreement is not it. All I have been doing is disagreeing with the very premise that they are "forgotten" and "downtrodden". They are not. They have had the ear of one of the two parties of this country since the 1980s. The only other group that can make a claim like that are rich white people, who have had the ear of both parties since the very beginning.

[omondieu 7]

I can understand the desire to want everyone to coexist, and to "reach out" to the far right, but man, where would you even begin? These are people who refuse to believe in evolution for chrissakes. How do you encourage them to embrace change when their whole culture is predicated on not changing?