A really great interview.
ow, the Trump phenomenon has a lot of really good stuff in it, the anti-elitism, the concern for America’s economy in the Rust Belt, the desire to see better days for the country. That’s all great stuff. Some of that stuff is Bernie Sanders stuff. The problem is that it’s marbled through with xenophobia and misogyny and bigotry. The problem that we have in the country now is, some people only see the positive stuff and wave off the toxic stuff, and some people only see the toxic stuff and wave off the positive stuff. You can’t have an honest conversation.
For the past 30 years, elites in both political parties signed off on trade, deregulating the banks, building all these prisons, getting into these dumb wars, et cetera. Both parties. When somebody comes along and says, “I think Washington, DC, sucks,” that’s not wrong. The problem is that in Trump’s case, he also demagogued around racial issues. Now I think liberals have gone from underreacting to Trump and saying that Trump is just a clown and a buffoon, and that Hillary Clinton’s going to kick his ass, to now overreacting, and saying, “Oh my God, 60 million people consciously endorsed a white supremacist for president.”
This is the right diagnosis – and I think it explains why Clinton lost so many former Obama voters who make under 30K:
But this idea that 60 million people all want to join the Klan and now have absolute control of all three branches of government and that America’s over is just ridiculous.
CJ: Sure, we can’t think all Trump supporters want to join the Klan–it’s much more complicated. Some might be really drawn to the messages of bigotry, but for most it’s probably just that…
VJ: Those kinds of comments were not disqualifying for a lot of voters who were basing their vote on other reasons.
That last line I think is dead right. That is surely disappointing.
I think this is the mistake the Clinton people made. They thought that showing the awful stuff Trump said would win.
But that meant that they never put the concerns of the white working class at the core of the campaign. Politico mentions Bill Clinton being dismissed about this.
I think it is fair to say the Clinton people didn’t see the level of defections that occurred.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/van-jones-donald-trump-sanders-clinton-racism
