(no subject)

[shadowkat]

1. The other night at dinner, I told my family that I really wasn't that surprised by Trump's rise to power, but was shut down by my brother and father, before I could explain my thoughts on the topic. The reason I wasn't that surprised was for the last two years, I've been reading various friends on lj write about the drift to the far right by Europe. At work, I've listened to people drift in a similar direction. One woman ranted in her office behind me for a full twenty minutes about the Governor passing a Civil Rights Law protecting the rights of Transgender People. It took everything I had, not to pop up and scream at her. This woman is a Trump supporter. She is 65, and just retired. She's also ill, and struggling with a type of cancer.

I see it daily. This drift. And it worries me. I try to ignore it, but it's there.

Anyhow...here's an interesting link:

Europe's Drift to the Right

2. On a brighter note, here's a lovely "pant-suit" flash mob in support of Hillary Clinton:

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

There have always been a lot of conservatives in this country. You have to remember that until the late 1960s the great mass of Southern conservatives were Democrats and it was that party that had to struggle every election cycle with balancing between extreme liberals and extremes on the other side. The Democrats couldn't win the Presidency without the South. F. D. R. and Kennedy were the only typical Northern Democrats to be elected between the Civil War and Barack Obama. Without the Great Depression, and memories of it, it's doubtful either would have been elected. Grover Cleveland was an odd pro-business Democrat. All the rest either grew up in a state that seceded during the Civil War or in the case of Harry Truman had not-too-distant relatives who fought for the Confederacy. Republicans had their their own factions, but they were less regionally defined until the Southern conservatives began to desert the Democratic party in the 60s. Freed of having to 'balance the ticket' every cycle the Democrats have become much more liberal. Conversely with a huge influx from the South the Republican party has become beholding to the conservatives, while its liberals drifted away and its moderates struggle to make any headway nationally. I don't think the percentages of conservatives to moderates and liberals in the country has changed, but both two parties are less broad philosophically and no longer generally represent the haves (Republicans: mostly business men, professional people and family farmers) and the have-nots (Democrats: mostly immigrants, labor and disgruntled Southerners) like they used to. (Isn't it hilarious that Donald Trump who insisted on running as an outsider and doing things his own way is demanding straying, old-fashioned Republicans be loyal to 'the party,' meaning himself.)

The economic boom after the Second World War added to the sudden ease of transportation has turned Europe into something a lot more like the United States and Canada have been with lots of immigrants from poorer nations wanting to share in the bounty. It's not surprising, that many people who were for very long isolated with their own kind with their own particular religions/philosophies and their own particular social ideals have trouble with new people who have little desire to follow the place's old ways.