You’re right – what sounds so horrible to many of us actually resonates with many suburbanites. However, I must note that even though many older suburbanites feel this way, demographics have been changing at a rapid pace AND the economy has changed over the last few decades to be more of a service industry economy. Many of those McDonald’s and WalMart type positions are filled by 30- and 40-year olds (with children and/or elderly parents in need of care) who can’t find work in their preferred industry. Like it or not, globalization has also had the effect of suppressing wage growth across many sectors – but prices of things such as housing, healthcare and transportation keeps increasing at a much faster pace. IOW, though some of what you said does still apply (especially in this district), there have been strong changes in the last few decades that has put a lot of pressure on the need(s) for more livable wages in what was traditionally entry level positions. This election will be interesting.
What a goddam whore. At least she is an honest whore, other GOPers would dance around this but she took it straight on. Kind of like that horse in the stable back when she lived on her family farm.
Karen looks like she’s into livable snacking…
There’s the soundbite.
“Shocked to hear my opponent supports wages that you can’t live on.”
Georgia is on trial. Will they convict themselves by winning with Handel?
I agree, but I also think the national psyche will be irreparably damaged under two years of Comrade Covfefe.
That $150,000 is gonna look kinda puny compared to the $3.2 million SPLC just took in after auctioning off Jerry Garcia’s “Wolf” guitar for $1.6 million and receiving a matching grant from another anonymous donor.
But I agree with your message 100%.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER!!!
I think we should do something similar. It just makes sense because the cost of living is higher in some areas than in others.
Somehow they’ve got it into their minds that the way to win is to reject every factual, rational proposition about the world. The only other place I’ve seen this is with defiant 2-yr-olds and teenagers…and people in the grips of a religious delusion. God is testing my faith, and if I give into the temptation of accepting what is reasonable and just I will lose my eternal soul. Or something?
I’m going to be around an otherwise reasonable relative who I suspect voted for Trump in a few weeks. I don’t really want to ruin our time together by confronting him, but I would like an explanation of what his thought process is.
Good idea! My stepfather is a reluctant but confirmed Trumpist. He mocked Trump during the primary, but then solemnly swore that Hilary had to be stopped even if it meant voting for that shitbag. Knowing he was a lost cause, I turned to my mother, whose values are not even close to jibing with the GOP’s but has become increasingly tribalized into voting conservative. I made clear to her that Clinton, like Obama, in my view was basically a moderate Republican. I think this gave her something to chew on.
Living wage is the common idiom. Livable wage is not the common idiom, but is more descriptive, taken literally. Six of one …
I think that’s kind of simplistic. There are definitely some 'yellow-dog Democrats"-- “I’d support a yellow dog if the Democrats nominated him!”-- but in actual experience, we know that most Democrats now, if some racist or nutcase gets nominated somehow, will not support that person. For example, in my state, a kind of crazy guy slipped in and got nominated for Congress a couple decades back-- it was almost an accident, as he had taken another name that was kind of well-known-- and when he got nominated (he was really crazy-- impersonated famous people on the phone trying to get dates, etc), the party apparatus refused to support him, and he got almost no votes-- they actually ceded the election to the GOP rather than elect this nutcase.
So that experience and others shows me it’s just too simplistic to say, “Both parties are the same!” After all, the Democrats rejected segregation in the 50s and 60s-- the “Dixiecrats” went to the GOP-- and that meant they “lost the south” for the rest of the century-- and that was a principled, not “tribal” choice.
Also, frankly, even with the Trump voters, that’s simplistic. There are, of course, many GOP voters like my aunt who voted GOP because they always do. But Trump also got a bunch of angry TP types who aren’t traditional voters. They voted for him specifically… scary as it seems, because they think he’s great. That wasn’t about tribalism, unless the tribe is “people just like me” or something. The good thing is, if the GOP can ever stir itself to kind of edging away from Trump, these voters are likely to reject the party in anger.
C’mon. Get serious. You’re talking about people who believe that professional wrestling is real here. Genius has its limits, but stupidity doesn’t.
Channeling Cruella de Vil, Handel perfectly shares an essential Republican core value; the “Others” have to suffer, not us.
wow. she’s really testing the “i could walk out on the street and shoot someone and you’d still vote for me” theory.
Karen Handel ! As beautiful as she is smart !
Pre-Trumpp GOP message to the poor:
Stop looking for government handouts. Work for a living.
Trumpp-led GOP messages to the poor:
Arbeit macht Frei. [Auschwitz and others: work sets you free.]
Jedem das Seine. [Buchenwald: everyone gets what he deserves.]
I really like this post. It so captures how I feel. The country has gone completely mad - or at least enough people have to destroy any possibility of positive change. It’s a downward spiral, and I want to just hide (and I’m in Europe right now hiding).
And to other commenters - I don’t agree that this is some kind of cycle that just happens and is normal. Things are getting worse in a hurry. As bad as things were under W it was never like this. It feels like the right just gets bolder and bolder, and they keep getting away with it. And so they will keep pushing further until finally someone (i.e. a whole lot of people) start pushing back hard. I worry that the 2018 elections will be fairly rigged. The apparatus for rigging is in place. If they pull that off and get major majorities in both houses of Congress who knows what they’ll do with that power? Truly scares me.
“Did I say: ‘I do not support a livable wage’? I meant to say: ‘I don’t support any wage at all’! After all, this is Georgia. We have a long, proud tradition of such things.”