You guys don't get it: the rust belt working class want to be TOLD, not reasoned with

[Mc Mike]

31. You look like a good person to me. I agree with you some, but not all, Laydee B.

There are racist whites around my rustbelt area in Western Pa. I work construction in Allegheny, Butler, Armstrong, Westmoreland, Greene counties, all rustbelt. I'm a white guy and work around a lot of white guys, and it's been a long time since anyone said the n word around me. The last time was over a decade ago, in Greene county, an old, well-connected obvious klan member said it to me.

There's no doubt that it's still being said around here, but no where as much as in the '70's and early '80's, among the general population I've interacted with. That being said, during Prez O's first term, our city's old arena was torn down, and a new one was built. The electrical contractor that got the job had one of the owners' family members working on the job, and he put a noose in the break area, where a group of Black electricians took lunch break. The new arena was being built in a Black neighborhood, too. There wasn't a big formal complaint filed by the union Black electricians, but they all got laid off from that job. That project was funded with government disbursed tax dollars, to boot. None of the laid off electricians pushed a complaint about the incident or the lay offs, because they have to go out tomorrow and work as a minority among a bunch of white workers, and they don't want to get a bad reputation as a "troublemaker" with other contractors.

That contractor with the racist family running it is a repuglican contractor, fundy christians also. It's one of the largest electrical contractors in our jurisdiction. They don't speak for blue collar white workers under them, and those workers didn't hang that noose or back the owners' racism.

My only actual point of disagreement with you, on the prevalence of racism in the rust belt, is that the election results aren't kosher. There are too many vulnerabilities in the electronic systems used to record or tally our voting preference. Those vulnerabilities were exploited this election. So when you see a "sea of angry racist know nothing white rust belt dwellers", you see a number that is wildly inflated, out of proportion to reality, a phantom army of white rust belt racists.

There are timid people who don't know which way to jump, and are in fear that they are out of step with the "massive'' amount of racist dRumpf backers. But committed people who are loudly opposing dRumpf racists give more timid or uncertain people a reason to not try to blend in and act racist. And there are plenty of us out there. Millions more, even according to doctored "official" counts.

I'm not typing to be disagreeable with you, just to give you some hope. Keep fighting against them. We did it with Nixon, raygun, li'l bush, we can do it now. I still have my Clinton campaign button on, and wear it around all the time, like a safety pin.