America Great again!

[Catholic_Lady]

I'll never stand behind someone who doesn't stand for my principles.

Great. Now you'll be standing behind the Pussygrabber for four years...

I was referring to Trump.

[Anomalocaris]

OK America, you had your little joke, now tell us who the real president is!

Vladimir Putin.

[John V]

This mindset is part of why he won.

I don't know what that means.

I know you don't, and that's part of the problem.

You presumably disagree with most Trump voters on, for example, immigration.

If you thought along the lines, I disagree with them, but I can understand where they're coming from and empathize with them to a degree, then you'd have a chance of winning them over.

If you just write them off as stupid and/or evil, you'll never reach them.

[Anomalocaris]

You think? Trump is not going to do anything to inconvenience Russia's best ally. He's too afraid of having his loans called in.

Talking of which, I bet Trump doesn't know how the US owes so much debt to China that it can call the shots. I'm not sure Trump will enjoy having to placate their demands.

https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-debt-to-c...wn-3306355

China's position as America's largest banker gives it some political leverage. Now and then, China threatens to sell part of its debt holdings. It knows that, if it did so, U.S. interest rates would rise, which would slow U.S economic growth.  China often calls for a new global currency to replace the dollar, which is used in most international transactions. China does this whenever the U.S. allows the value of the dollar to drop, which makes the debt China holds less valuable.

China selling parts of its American debt holding cheapen the rest of their holdings.   So it's not exactly a credible scenario except if china and the US had a suicide pact.

[Anomalocaris]

OK America, you had your little joke, now tell us who the real president is!

Vladimir Putin.

And we think we won the Cold War.

[Divinity]

He's not my president.  So fuck off.

[LadyForCamus]

I don't know what that means.

I know you don't, and that's part of the problem.

You presumably disagree with most Trump voters on, for example, immigration.

If you thought along the lines, I disagree with them, but I can understand where they're coming from and empathize with them to a degree, then you'd have a chance of winning them over.

If you just write them off as stupid and/or evil, you'll never reach them.

I didn't say they were stupid OR evil. First of all, "uneducated" is not synonymous with "stupid." Second of all, there is quite a difference between being afraid, and being evil. What I said was that willful ignorance won out. Ignorance by itself is just a lack of knowledge. That's all. We are all ignorant in certain areas and subjects in life. It's not inherently an insult. willful ignorance, on the other hand, is a completely different animal.

I disagree that all it would take is a little bit of empathy. Empathy is a great place to start, sure, but it's futile if the person you are engaging with refuses to acknowledge facts simply on the basis that those facts contradict their feelings about a certain topic. Refusing to learn is an inexcusable offense, IMO.

To be fair, I shouldn't lump ALL Trump supporters together. It's hypocritical of me, and If I gave that impression, I'm sorry. But, I think it's perfectly fair to say, based on what just went down here in this country, that fear mongering works.

[The Grand Nudger]

I'll lump them all together for anyone who feels uncomfortable doing so.  I was raised not to feel shame about that...and so were they, lol.

[John V]

I didn't say they were stupid OR evil.  First of all, "uneducated" is not synonymous with "stupid."  Second of all, there is quite a difference between being afraid, and being evil.  What I said was that willful ignorance won out.  Ignorance by itself is just a lack of knowledge.  That's all.  We are all ignorant in certain areas and subjects in life.  It's not inherently an insult.  willful ignorance, on the other hand, is a completely different animal.

OK, you said that "Baseless irrational fear, and willful ignorance won out over intellect, reason, and critical thinking skills," and that you're embarrassed by it.

What would you expect a Trump voter to take away from that?

I disagree that all it would take is a little bit of empathy.  Empathy is a great place to start, sure, but it's futile if the person you are engaging with refuses to acknowledge facts simply on the basis that those facts contradict their feelings about a certain topic.

If you first validate the person's feelings, they may listen to you about (your view of) the facts.  

To be fair, I shouldn't lump ALL Trump supporters together.  It's hypocritical of me, and If I gave that impression, I'm sorry.  But, I think it's perfectly fair to say, based on what just went down here in this country, that fear mongering works.

I disagree, as the left engaged in fear mongering, but Trump won. Trump and the nuclear codes was brought up throughout the campaign. A few days ago The Atlantic ran a piece basically saying that if Trump wins, we'll have nuclear war with North Korea. That's fear mongering. I'm sure it worked on some people, but not on enough.

[Aroura]

This mindset is part of why he won.

I don't know what that means.

He's saying that while Christian males felt disenfranchised and made fun of, so they took back the country from all those PC pansies, Social warriors, the gays and those colored folk.

Edited to add, he's not wrong. This IS why Trump won.  They were tired of becoming the minority, they felt attacked, we've seen it for years now.  This is them paying it back.