Realisation is growing amongst greens that the left has lost touch with the working class, particularly the white working class – but how do greens reach out to people whom they openly describe as “deplorable”?
Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, a strong supporter of Al Gore and climate action, in my opinion pretty much sums up the cultural position of greens towards working class people, particularly white working class people.
Green Day blame rise of Trump on stupid white people
Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong has blamed the rise of Donald Trump on “uneducated white working-class people”.
The pop-punk band released their twelfth studio album ‘Revolution Radio’ in October, their first record since 2012. Speaking to NME in this week’s magazine, available nationwide now, Armstrong compared billionaire TV personality-turned-Republican candidate Trump to Hitler and bemoaned the current state of US politics.
Describing those backing Trump as “uneducated white working-class people”, Armstrong added: “That’s the problem right there. There’s this white nationalism that’s been brewing under the radar for a long time. But now [Trump’s] been able to cause people to lash out and blame minorities and it’s really confusing. I mean, blatant misogyny going on at the same time.”
The singer also admitted that some members of his family are going to vote for Trump in the upcoming US election. He said: “I’ve got family members from Oklahoma that are big Trump supporters. And there’s no clear answer on why they’re supporting him because he doesn’t even have any policies.”
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Read more: http://www.nme.com/news/music/green-day-trump-stupid-white-people-1822731#PDKRLJFVL8K41Xb4.99
At least some Democrat green supporters realise that the only way they’ll ever regain the White House is to reach out to these “stupid” working class people.
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During an interview on CBS News’ This Morning, former presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders weighs-in on “what went wrong” in the 2016 presidential election. “This is what I think what went wrong- is what Trump did, very effectively, is tap the angst and the anger and the hurt and the pain that millions of working class people are feeling,” says Sen. Bernie Sanders. “I think there needs to be a profound change in the way the democratic party does business. It is not good enough to have a liberal elite. I come from the white working class. I am deeply humiliated that the democratic party cannot talk to the people from where I came from,”
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How do you pack activists who think working class people are uneducated deplorables, into the same tent as people who see the working class as the grassroots of a Democrat renaissance?
The answer apparently is lots of government handouts for green energy.
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May Boeve, the director of international climate group 350.org, which during the Obama presidency fought and won against the Keystone oil pipeline that is now back on the agenda, said building alliances with Trump’s heartland would be key.
“The best way to unite a progressive coalition with working class voters is to push for a 100% renewable energy economy that works for all,” she said. “Clean energy remains the greatest potential job creator in the 21st century, while climate change is still our greatest threat.”
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Its a bit difficult to arrange government handouts when most of your political allies have been booted out of office. But who knows, maybe business now embraces blowing profits and executive bonus cash on green boondoggles, even without government financial support.
… “Ten years ago, US business wasn’t on board about tackling climate change,” said Craig Bennett, CEO of Friends of the Earth in the UK. “This time round you have a situation where US businesses and businesses more globally [support action], so this time around the environmental movement does not feel like it is on its own. We’re much better placed to fight this.” …
Read more: Same link as above
Lets not underestimate the ability of Democrats and the Green Movement to pack people with incompatible views into the same tent – but this particular outreach and reconciliation excercise should be very entertaining to watch. Who knows, maybe Billie Joe could kickstart the process, by staging a “stupid white people” live music tour of America’s mining towns.
How to reach out to the “deplorables”? Well certainly not by telling the people of Appalachia that you are going to close down the coal industry. They can see where other industries have mostly disappeared, such as the auto industry in Michigan, that the Democrat Party has done little or nothing to help and support the resulting unemployed “deplorables”.
but shale gas has already killed the coal industry and Trump’s plans will only make shale gas more profitable and close coal down faster.
and mountain top removal already caused many miners to lose their jobs even before that.
One constant with Griffie, he actually believes that whatever is happening today will continue forever.
1) Shale gas is currently outcompeting coal, it hasn’t killed it, no matter what your masters have told you to believe.
2) When shale gas runs out, coal will still be there.
Shale gas is also not an easy substitute for coal. It can be used in some cases in lieu of. But not in all, and conversion to burn gas instead of coal is not a decision made on a lark.
I was talking with a guy who cuts timber. High school degree. Owns lots of equipment and has crews for the work. Employs college educated accountant and business manager. hahahaha
Sat next to guy at airport and started talking. Outwardly a hippie and in fact makes organic snack foods. But, as a small business and with relatives who own a small sawmill, he had seriously conservative points of view about there being too much government that is too nosy.
Seriously, the deplorables generally work in practical fields. As such they are not as impressed with virtue signalling. I would bet they actually contribute their own money to their church and to charities.
I have had to laugh as the election drew near and all the main stream media outlets were sending out incorrect information about Trump. That was my biggest worry was that too many people would buy into it. Then afterwards, they continued with incorrect analyses of what happened. Then the left wing starting rioting because of incorrect information. I had to chide my sister for getting swept up in the misinformation blitz. The stock market was going to tank! Oops, it is setting records. The Trump team is in disarray. Oops they are completely on track for the transition.
The MSM is completely wrong about who voted for Trump and why. The public supporters for the Democrats are by and large performers and sports stars who have little or no knowledge of the life that normal people live. They have no knowledge of what is required to survive without government assistance.
My friends who are Democrats continually paint an incorrect picture of whatever issue you care to name, then pose their arguments based on that inaccuracy. The straw man approach. Most people see through that tactic now, but the Democrats and the MSM still think it works.
I hesitate to change their minds now that most educated people, which includes white and blue collar, and every race and creed, no longer buy into the BS! If the left figures that out we might have a bigger battle.
Who or what is NME, and why should any educated person ever view this site?
NME = New Music Express
Used to be required reading for anyone interested in British music.
You know, back in the dark ages when Scientific American had actual science in it, and National Geographic didn’t have an article about climate change in EVERY.SINGLE.ISSUE.
Millionaire “artist” insults poor people who are worried about losing their jobs.
And these morons wonder why they are losing the support of working people.
Both my parents are rural working class (carpenter and “housewife”, who took in laundry, cleaned cottages and provided “day care” when it was still called “babysitting”), and voted for the NDP (think the most left-wing of Democrats, to the left of Bernie Sanders) here in Canada all their lives.
It broke my heart when I moved to Toronto and ran into those of the urban left who always took their votes (and donations) for granted. Insular, over-educated and utterly contemptuous of the very lives my parents live.
Every time I see a celebrity insult me by saying I’m uneducated, I google his or her education.
I’m rarely disappointed that their hypocrisy is as large as the gap between their fame and their talent (see: Green Day.)
I mean, a pale copy of punk rock for the “safe space” special snowflakes. Sounds about right.
Twerp rock is more like it.
Typo… Do you mean Billy Joel?
Ben,
You need to look up thread. The difference between Billy Joel and Billie Joe Armstrong were explained earlier. 🙂
Hey! We could post a whole new series of videos! Heh.
WooHooo!!!!
A brilliant analysis is available at the NY Post:
http://nypost.com/2016/11/20/dear-liberals-start-practicing-the-empathy-you-preach/
TomB
“Actually, you don’t really hate them, either. What you hate is the caricature of them the Democratic Party and the national liberal media created, and that you swallowed, hook, line and sinker….”
Actually what I fear is the consequences of poorer Trump voters swallowing hook line and sinker that he cares at all about them. It’s my opinion that he does not and that this will become evident over the next four years and this reality will cause anguish and anger that will spill over into the day to day lives of the American people.
It is patently obvious that Hillary has never cared about poor people. The same goes for most of the Democrat party.
Trump may or may not care about poor people, but the policies that he pushes are proven to be better for everyone, including the poor.
Personal anecdote.
My wife’s uncle was a firefighter in Florida. He was murdered when a crazy man stormed the firehouse and started shooting at anything that moved.
Trump set up a college fund for his two children.
MarkW says: “It is patently obvious that Hillary has never cared about poor people.” Well, it is patently obvious that MarkW is not aware of the work Hillary did in New Haven while attending Yale Law school. volunteered at the New Haven Legal Services offices. I suggest you examine the clientele of that specific organization. Secondly, MarkW should become aware of the first job Hillary took after graduation. She worked for Marian Wright Edelman’s Children’s Defense Fund. You have to care about poor people to take on such work. Did the Dumpster do any volunteer work?
it is also obvious that Richard Baguley does not know how Hillary and Bill screwed one of the poorest nations on the planet either.
Yea, Hillary loves poor people – to bilk them!
So, in other words, you didn’t read the article at all. Absolutely nothing, whatsoever, about its content or analysis has sunk in.
I live under no such illusion. I, like millions of other that either voted for Trump or “anyone but Clinton”, don’t believe The Donald is the answer to all the nation’s or the world’s ills.
What we voted for was a message:
1) We don’t believe the MSM/Liberal-Progressive/Socialist Elite’s propaganda and reject it utterly.
2) We don’t believe PC stifling of thoughtful discussion solves real world problems.
3) We look forward to 4 years of House and Senate members with “D’s” after their names suddenly recalling the Constitution and their co-equal status as a branch of government. Every time they do it, I’ll point out their hypocrisy, but it is a job they should be – and should have been – doing.
4) We believe that the biggest problem with politics – is politicians. Long past time we elected a chief executive that’s not a career politician. (The MSM kept trying to sell that as a downside when in fact that was a big plus).
The mudslide into bread and circuses socialism can’t be undone by Donald Trump. But it’s a start.
Richard, like most socialists, you really have flexible defintions for facts.
Working for far left wing groups proves that she cares about the poor.
Even by your pathetic standards, that’s weak.
Had she volunteered for an unpaid position, there’s an outside that you might have a case.
Otherwise you just prove the adage that the left only cares enough to spend other people’s money.
“Trump may or may not care about poor people, but the policies that he pushes are proven to be better for everyone, including the poor.”
Which policies, what people and how are they proven? Talk about blind faith….he hasn’t started yet. But maybe you mean the wall? The one that will cost the taxpayer billions and merely act as a filter to keep the honest Mexicans out.. the hardened criminals will always find a way in.
“Which policies, what people and how are they proven? Talk about blind faith….he hasn’t started yet.”
That’s right. Perhaps you should withhold your criticisms of Trump until Trump actually does something on the domestic or foreign fronts.
‘Cost the tax-payer billions’?
Just kind of making stuff up to scare yourself with? And exactly what ‘honest Mexicans’ are going to be kept out? The ones that would have crossed illegally?
Typical. You gotta set up a false narrative to rail against.
Oh so you still think the Mexicans are gonna pay? ROTFL. Popcorn time.
“Oh so you still think the Mexicans are gonna pay? ROTFL.”
Well, what do we have, a $40 billion annual trade deficit with Mexico. Let’s see how much of that deficit Trump reduces. I don’t see why he couldn’t reduce it enough to pay for the wall. Plus, he has other ways of making Mexico pay. Trump said it. Mexico is going to pay. Watch and see.
TA
“Trump said it. Mexico is going to pay. Watch and see.”
Wanna bet?
As I read down through the comments, I have to admit that there is a load of contempt and hate in the sound of them. Some people deserve it, of course, but if this “give and give, no take” is an example of where we are because the people in the US are frustrated and forced a change, then we will never be able to come together again anyway. Looks like the children on the playground are very upset. Some want to take their marbles and run home to scream at momsie and pops about how unfair things are because they didn’t get their way. Others keep smiling and sticking it to them to see them cry harder. Truth is, it’s a small world getting smaller, and the nation is getting crowded so we need to learn to live together. This is just another day in the life and there will be others that come along after this one plays out. If there is one constant in the world, it is change. Things have changed and things are changing now. And they will change tomorrow as well. So relax, take a deep breath and move on. We can move things in the direction we want with constructive action, not disruptive reaction.
Well, Tom, there’s been a large segment of the population that has pushed tolerance, simply in order to take over, and then demonstrate nothing but intolerance of any who don’t tow the line. And they count on submissiveness and fear of confrontation… all in the name of decorum and nice manners, of course.
As for you children on the playground analogy – with you obviously portraying yourself as the ‘adult in the room – us ‘kids’ are long past crying, and we’re quite ready to ‘stick it back’ to the bully (because that the primary mechanism of Progressivism) and send them home crying to ‘momsie and pops.’
When people who have made their life out of treating others unfairly FINALLY incur the wrath of the general public I’m frankly on board, especially when there is absolutely no sign they’ve internalized the lesson..
A time for all things. And now is the time to beat them back into the ocean.
Funny how we are only required to forgive and forget whenever the left loses.
When they aren’t being sore losers, they’re being sore winners.
Patrick Henry had some words for natter like this. Something about crying Peace when there is no peace.
Hmmm. Billy Joe Armstrong is a highschool dropout according to Wikipedia.
White too.
And male. Maybe, I can’t keep up with the gender stuff these days.
So he’s a hypocrite for calling other uneducated people dumb, the again for being white and speaking for non-whites, and (probably) mansplaining (don’t laugh, that last one is almost a crime in Sweden now).
He’s one of those who believes he’ll be taken to the re-education camps last.
The problem with the left is they believe their own lies about the nature of Donald Trump’s personality. As time goes by they will be forced to understand by virtue of the profound economic successes and the clear positive effect “Amerca First” in foreign affairs and immigration that the eutopian political philosophies of the progressive elite are ananachronistic and backward. He will demonstrate that there is a solution to the vexing problem of free market capitalism and simultaneously uplifting huge numbers of Americans out of mediocrity and governmental dependance. This can and will be accomplished by reestablishing the spirit of American individualism unfettered by an overbearing over regulating federal behemoth. Time for 16 years of Trump-Pence refined conservatism that will shape the common desitiny of all races and creeds into the original dream our founding fathers first envisioned.
A left comedian makes an obnoxious joke about the right and it’s just a joke. An alt-right wannabe comedian makes a bad joke about the left and it’s a racist hate crime. They have no sense of perspective.
No self-awareness of their own moral myopia, either.
New propaganda is already upon us. From Yale Climate Connections: Former Coal Worker Finds New Career in Solar
“The singer also admitted that some members of his family are going to vote for Trump in the upcoming US election. He said: “I’ve got family members from Oklahoma that are big Trump supporters. And there’s no clear answer on why they’re supporting him ….”
Sure there is. They’re smarter than the High School dropout.