StrangeSox

But they did literally enable a racist regime by electing them to the highest office in the country. At what point is it no longer ok to ignore parts of what someone is saying they'll do because you like other parts? Like bigruss said, Hitler wasn't elected solely on an antisemitism platform, but it was a key component. Germany was also reeling from the depression with lots of people struggling economically. People thought "oh, once they're in power they'll be more responsible." Now we've got the President refusing to denounce Nazi terrorists and we're still getting both sidesism. When do those excuses stop working? Trump's very open bigotry isn't enough, apparently, so can you define what your line in the sand is?

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Aug 13, 2017 -> 02:59 PM) Ya got hungry kids you struggle to feed? The number one predictor of whether someone supported Trump wasn't economic position. Plenty of poor and working class didn't fall for his con or decided that the extreme bigotry and hate was too much of a price to pay for the bs he was selling.

QUOTE (Middle Buffalo @ Aug 13, 2017 -> 11:06 AM) StrangeSox, It seems like you are presenting two different arguments. On one hand, you are implying that the GOP is unequivocally racist. On the other, you're saying racism a significant problem. I think most people arguing with the first statement wouldn't necessarily disagree with the second. But, it's not exclusive to the GOP. Racism is alive and well on both sides. Don't kid yourself. It's not exclusive to the GOP. However, it is much more of a problem there. I don't know how you can look at the campaign Trump ran and the policies and actions he's taken as president while maintaining strong Republicans approval and go both sides here. Just look at the Justice department. Ending civil rights reviews of police departments. Ramping up incarceration. Ramping up the way on drugs. Enabling minority voter disenfranchisement. While liberals and the Democratic party are far from perfect in race, the imbalance between the two parties here is staggering.

QUOTE (TaylorStSox @ Aug 13, 2017 -> 11:01 AM) Upper-class rebuplicans didn't win Trump the election. That's just dumb. Without strong suburban Republican votes, he loses. It was a tight election, but the Republican middle and upper class turned out reliably. He doesn't win it without every last bit of support that he got. That said, I do largely agree with your post above that underlying a lot of what we are going on globally truly are economic issues. However, i don't think that explains all or even most of what we see with the reliable Republican base as they've been this way since the southern strategy really kicked off. But not everyone's response to actual economic issues is right wing bigotry. The total working and poor class in this country didn't vote Trump. That's not an excuse for empowering racism.

Not just from "economic anxiety" as plenty of middle and upper class suburban Republicans voted for him. Lots and lots of Trump signs back in September and October in front of 500k+ homes in Mokena, Frankfort, etc. What would it take for you guys to see and acknowledge a significant problem with racism in the GOP base?

He was nominated by the base in large part thanks to his xenophobia and racism. Plenty of polling on where Trump supporters throughout the primary and the general bear this out. Refusing to hold anyone accountable for supporting, or at least not having that as a bright line, is part of the problem of politics in this country. Misdiagnosing political trends or causes is still not equivalent to neo Nazis, and that sort of both sidesism is also part of the same problem of accountability.

Yes, clearly saying people who voted for Trump are okay with Trump's ideology is just as bad as neo Nazis. Weren't you just complaining about ridiculous false equivalencies?

I never said it made them racist. I said it made them okay with voting for a racist who would and has enabled racist policies. That, to me, means they're not actually nice people. Republicans still stand solidly behind Trump despite all of his jobs rhetoric being so obviously empty, but him actually carrying through on the xenophobia and racist policies (mainly via DHS and sessions). When can we actually hold Republican voters responsible for their support and their votes?

I guess the tl;dr is that voting for Trump is literally voting to enable his ideology

It doesn't mean you completely support everything he's done, but it means you're okay with it and he never crossed a personal line that meant he went too far to lose your support.

Trump's racism was front and center during his whole campaign. Rapists and drug dealers led off his campaign. Judge Curiel. Muslim ban. His history as a land lord. His birtherism. If you voted for Trump, yeah, you were saying you were at least okay with all of that. The Republican base never once made him pay a price for any of it. The Republican base willingly nominated him. The leadership rallied behind him. If none of that was enough to make the voters and leaders say "whoa, I can't support this guy," what the hell is?

They are, at best, perfectly okay with voting for an explicitly racist and sexist man and enabling that ideology. They rewarded his disgusting behavior and gross incompetence time and time again. An overwhelming majority of Republicans voted for exactly what we've been getting for six months now. Even if you want to say they somehow didn't realize it, 80%+ still approve of him after everything we've seen. They like this. They want this. They aren't "nice" people.

The United States Dpt of Justice brought a civil rights violation action against Donald Trump personally because he refused to permit black people to rent apartments in his buildings. The Dpt of Justice said all he needed to do was agree to rent to minorities. He refused. Instead he spent a fortune in legal fees fighting to keep minorities out of his buildings. On the eve of trial he caved and signed the Consent Decree. Donald J. Trump is a racist. In the late 80s, Donald Trump argued that the death penalty should be re-instated for the 'Central Park 5', and when the accused were later found not guilty through DNA evidence, he refused to admit he was wrong and still thought they were guilty. Donald J. Trump is a racist. When the first African American President was elected, Donald J. Trump attacked the legitimacy of the President's citizenship with full knowledge that his attack was 100% based upon a lie. Donald J. Trump is a racist. During a television interview during his campaign he was asked about David Duke and the KKK and he outright refused to denounce him or his views (he finally renounced him weeks later after being forced to do so because of the political firestorm). Donald J. Trump is a racist. Then he refused to denounce the murder of a Muslim on a train in Seattle. Donald J. Trump is a racist. Then he refused to denounce the bombing of a mosque last week. Donald J. Trump is a racist. And this weekend he refused to denounce the views of Nazis. Donald J. Trump is a racist. But "nice" people voted for him.

Rasmussen bounces around a lot day to day

Nazi sympathizing President still hasn't condemn white Nazi terrorism because they're his core base.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Aug 12, 2017 -> 10:12 PM) Drawing the conclusion you just did in bold is just terrible of you. Almost as bad as saying 50 million + people are racists. How many racists do you know? I work with thousands of people every year in a very diverse field and I can't say I've ever met someone who I would characterize as racist. Not saying they aren't out there...but 50M strong? That's ridiculous. Most people are just trying to take care of their families and help out their neighbor. I wonder when it'll actually sink in that a person died protesting a Nazi rally today and a domestic terrorist ran over people in his car and the president refused to condemn it. That is who these people voted for. The "build the wall" "Mexicans are sending rapists and criminals" "execute the Central Park five" "Obama is a Muslim Kenyan usurper" "a Mexican judge can't be a fair judge" and a thousand other things he's never apologized for. If you've never met someone you'd consider racist, you've got a very, very narrow definition of racism.

QUOTE (LittleHurt05 @ Aug 12, 2017 -> 08:52 PM) My apologies. I took two months off the Buster because I was always wrong, I clicked again and the same s***. I'm out. it's very wrong to dismiss the racist part of the GOP base. Trump has done and said many racist and bigoted things before and during his campaign without apology, and the conservative base not only didn't punish him for it, they rewarded him.

QUOTE (Jerksticks @ Aug 12, 2017 -> 09:16 PM) I bet there are less than 10,000 white supremicists in this country. Acting like 50 million people are white supremicists is a serious problem. A serious problem. 60 million Americans voted for a deeply and openly racist man who never apologized for any of it. https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/896...src=twsrc%5Etfw But the problem with Nazi terrorism are the people who oppose it, sure.

It's the part of the base that got him nominated and elect people like sessions. Denying that part of the GOP is the ignorance

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 12, 2017 -> 07:10 PM) Fwiw, I took that to mean Robert E. Lee more than Nazis, but not much better in this current climate. The name of the park where the events were supposed to take place had recently changed to Remembrance Park or something like that. (The unfortunate thing is a timely and well-reviewed movie like "Detroit," about the 1967 race riots in that city, will come and go with nary a shoulder shrug.) The Nazis were there in response to the treasonous slaver's statue being taken down. That statement is taking their side.

The President of the United States is siding with terrorist Nazis who just murdered someone.

I missed this earlier. He didn't just whitewash this s*** with his "many sides," he literally took that Nazis' side with his "cherish our history."

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 12, 2017 -> 05:20 PM) I cannot stand the person I'm taking this quote from but I will still give him the credit as first person I saw it from. Donald Trump's entire plan for defeating ISIS was to call it out publicly. He cannot do so with this group because this is his base. This is the Republican base. "Many sides"

It's been seven months and we're worried about nuclear war and Nazis are murdering Americans.

Or that the Trump admin cut funding for researching White supremacist terrorist groups, and the GOP blocked DHS reporting and tracking of them during Obama's term