I attended a lecture recently at the New York Public Library and heard Paul Krugman speak. The general atmosphere was somber, as it was clear that he was depressed about the election, as were the 1,500 or so people in the audience. To all the pundits who extract lessons for the Democrats, Krugman pointed out that Hillary now has a lead of 2.7 million votes. But she lost because of the Electoral College, which was put into the Constitution to placate the slave states. He also talked about the carelessness of the media, which pushed Trymp’s trope about the emails, when there was nothing in them. He faulted the media for making a big deal out of Trump’s over-publicized deal to save 750 or so jobs. He pointed out that 75,000 people are fired or laid off every single day, so this was an insignicant blip.
His lecture reminded me of a post-election analysis by Nate Silver. He is a numbers guru who has an interesting website. I followed him during the campaign, and he was more cautious than other pollsters but still predicted a Clinton win. By analyzing voting patterns, he discovered that the best predictor of votes for Trump or Clinton was education. Where there were high levels of BA degrees, Clinton won. Where there were the lowest, Trump won.
Trump was right when he declared during the GOP primaries:
“I love the uneducated!”
Let’s watch and see what he does to their healthcare, their schools, and the economy.
A site to discuss better education for all
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Yelp, let’s watch. But sadly, they won’t figure it out bc they are “poorly educated”.
They figured it out the last time with Bush
The bizarreness quotient of the Trump presidency is just off the charts: from CNN – Kellyanne Conway on Friday defended President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to remain an executive producer on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” even as he takes office, arguing that “presidents have a right to do things in their spare time.”
At long last, have you no shame, sir and madame?
http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/09/politics/conway-defends-trump-apprentice/index.html
Can I turn into a Bernie Bro for just a minute to discuss Conway . Better not
I do not want to watch what happens to our healthcare, our schools or colleges or our environment, much less our world view. Also I fear a exodus of good federal employees who will not want aTrump cabinet boss. And even in blue CT, our Legislature became more GOP in November. And so many states have GOP legislatures. We all know how hard it is to be idealistic these days.
ALEC is pushing its legislative agenda in state elections. The GOP has used gerrymandering to their advantage to win more elections. The courts playing catch up trying to undo the damage, but it’s a slow process. They are making it hard to elect progressives.
You have to lose those states to republicans before they can gerrymander . There in lies the problem.
The idea is to never lose them again; and, of course, accumulate more states.
So instead of one set of extremes, we will have the other, right?
“Revolution allows the oppressed become the oppressors…”
Right, retired teacher. But we can talk about that all we want here, and nothing is going to change. The conservatives have had a plan for a long time. Start local, win the state governors, win the state legislature, implement ALEC agenda, and then they gerrymander and voter suppress all they want until there’s no way a liberal can get elected. Oh, and keep up the propaganda machine against Hillary. It worked.
Why is there no Democratic ALEC? Why is there no big liberal/progressive short-term and long-term plan like the GOP has had?
mathcs
Well I guess we can blame the Democrats for that can’t we ?
I did not run away from being a progressive a an unabashed liberal. The democratic party ran away from me
Including my very Democratic congressman who in 2008 said that he was protecting the middle class by asuring incomes up to 450,000 were exempted from a tax (i forgot which one)
Sorry Steve Israel . no not even in high cost NY does a working class voter and his wife make 450 grand. Even here 350,in 2008 would be phenomenal on two income .
But Steve former head of the DCCC. will be well rewarded by his major donors the Pharmaceutical industry. The fact that he contributed to the election of Trump with his refusal to come out against the TPP will never enter his mind when the checks start rolling in
With Betsy DeVos in charge of education, there will be so many more “uneducated” for Trump to love. I guess that’s the plan.
Keep demeaning and insulting Trump supporters…exactly why Trump won! Amazing how the obvious is so ignored by the elite! Real hard working…and INTELLIGENT AMERICAN citizens are tired of the out of touch with middle America telling us who, what, and how we should think! We are NOT SHEEPLE and have minds of our own to decide what’s best for us and our families and futures! Universities and higher education institutions have had their hands on socially engineering our youth liberally for years, thus explaining the “entitlement” mentality of many students at expense of someone else’s blood sweat and tears! However that the DNC emails were hacked…it clearly showed what they all think of mainstream Americans and how corrupt it is including the media, hollywood, and so many that were ALL “in the tank” for entitled “it’s her turn” Hillary! With a total corrupt and bias machine against him and “the people” he and America overcame the system and their voice was heard. Look at the map of the country and admit that the whole country voted Trump. Those few heavily populated welfare states should not drown out the voices of the majority of the country that voted for change! Hence the electoral college that protects the voice of all the states! Mind you…if Hillary won the electoral college and not popular vote, we I’m sure the system would be just fine then? Funby how all the fraudulent discovered votes all voted Hillary/ Democrat!? With recount…Trump actually gained votes! Voter fraud is real but it is being exposed by who this time! As Hillary accused Trump of being undemocratic and anti American if he even considered challenging election results, its ironic how it is she that is promoting a challenge! Thankfully…I’ve spoken to many young teenage students and they are “seeing the light” of hard work equals success! Not color, sexual orientation or gender…just PEOPLE! I have HOPE not FEAR! The chicken little, sky is falling theory is not going to work any more! The giant has awoken…. We should all be supporting and praying for our leaders for a strong, safe and United America! Period….God Bless!
Not Openminded, Hillary is now 2.7 million votes ahead of Trump in the popular vote. Google Cook Political Teport for latest update.
2.8
The system is rigged. The nomination process was unfair. Those of us registered as Democrats did not have 17 candidates to chose from. People like me were turned away from the caucuses. It wouldn’t have mattered if we attended because our voices were ignored by super delegates that had their own agenda to elect a candidate the majority of people do not like. Hillary won the popular vote because her opponent is so terrible, not because she is a wonderful person.
Raisethebar,
Hillary won the nomination because she got 3 million votes more than Sanders. She won more delegates than he without the superdelegates. She was fully qualified to be president. She would have won without the unprecedented intervention of James Comey, who is a Republican.
I happen to be a member of middle America (NJ version), I am not the elite, I don’t belong to the elite, I am as elite as a used Ford Focus. Trump is so obviously and so blatantly a vicious lying demagogue, that it takes your breath away. It just boggles my mind that so many people are blind to the dangerousness of this wannabe Putin.
As a person who lives in one of those “heavily populated” states, I can assure you that if you continue to disparage us, we would be more than happy to have all of our tax dollars stay in our state. We rank 46th in least federally dependent states (please understand the difference between quantity and per capita), have the 5th largest economy in the world, and are quite tired of having our votes discounted. As a DAR, I am most assuredly a real American and will fight for what is right for all Americans, even those in the non “majority of the country”.
The real problem is that we care that children are not fed, even in the red states. We care that schools are closed early (Kansas), that miners will lose healthcare (West Virginia), that our Muslim neighbors, our gay neighbors, our Hispanic neighbors our African American neighbors are treated fairly. We believe that if your house floods in Louisiana, we should help you. If your house falls down in an earthquake due to fracking in Oklahoma, we should stand together. We believe in the dignity of all Americans, red or blue residents.
Thank you, JS. My feelings exactly.
Very well said, JS.
“Those few heavily populated welfare states should not drown out the voices of the majority of the country that voted for change! Hence the electoral college that protects the voice of all the states!”
First us Welfare States pick up the tab for you slackers. Secondly as some body said cows don’t count.
I am with JS . I am tired of being a disenfranchised voter in the Electoral College and the Senate.
I would be happy to keep money in my wealthy home state .
Voter fraud is real but Bush was so incompetent that, hard as he tried he found none. The only fraud that has been found is republican suppression of the vote. Repeatedly pushed back by the courts.
Hard work, a black man with a college degree will make less than a white man who graduates HS Try again please .
I do feel sorry for those teenage students they are about to get screwed perhaps for generations.
The last Troglodyte who promised blue collar workers that he had their backs. Oversaw the dismantling of Unions . The WHITE WORKING CLASS has seen their wages , employer sponsored healthcare and pensions bite the dust , especially in the Red States. . This puke will take the social safety net completely down . Us elite states rely less on that safety net than the cow states.
You will get what you deserve. I will revel in the fact that Trump makes Wall Street far richer making my state fabulously wealthy.
But I will still raise my middle finger every time I walk past 5th and 57th.
Thanks for making my argument for me again, Joel! I do find it amusing how some associate political geography with “real hard working” Americans. It seems that the federal taxes I pay in Ohio (not sure if we’re “hard working” or not) pay for a lot of services for people who hate government: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/which-states-are-givers-and-which-are-takers/361668/
I wish you would stop with the mistaken notion that the EC was put in place to “placate the slave states…”.
And, to borrow a phrase from the president, so eloquently expressed to a US senator, “you lost. Deal with it.”
I don’t like the results any more then you do, but the reality is here.
Rudy,
Tomorrow I am posting a scholarly article by a law professor that shows that the Electoral College was indeed created to placate the slave-owning states. The EC is rooted in slavery.
In 2000 I came to the conclusion that the Electoral College violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment violating the “one man, one vote” principle. The fact that a vote in Wyoming or Rhode Island is worth more than one from California, New York, or Florida is wrong. And yes, it is an outdated legacy of the constitutional compromise between slave-holding and non-slave-holding states. It is as illegitimate as the 3/5 a person provision.
Interesting idea, GregB.
From Time: The Founding Fathers had something particular in mind when they set up the U.S. presidential election system: slavery
http://time.com/4558510/electoral-college-history-slavery/
Article by Akhil Reed Amar
Akhil Reed Amar is Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he teaches constitutional law in both Yale College and Yale Law School. His work has won awards from both the American Bar Association and the Federalist Society.
Quote – In fact, [Paul] Finkelman argues, the Electoral College was adopted in order to provide slave states with a disproportionately loud voice. The convention had already decided to allow each slave state to count an African-American slave as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of awarding seats in the House of Representatives. By apportioning the Electoral College so that every state got one electoral vote for each House district, plus two extra for each of its senators, the slave states were able to use their captive black populations to bolster their influence in presidential elections.
The proximate source of this wrangling was Virginia, the largest state—and thus the most likely to produce presidents, as long as its enslaved population was taken into consideration. According to the official record of the convention, one delegate, Hugh Williamson of North Carolina, observed that slavery would put Virginia at a disadvantage if the president were chosen by popular vote: end quote
Paul Finkelman, now an emeritus professor at Albany Law School, will be the John E. Murray Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh Law School starting in January.
http://news.wgbh.org/2016/12/06/news/yes-electoral-college-really-vestige-slavery-its-time-get-rid-it
“Quote – In fact, [Paul] Finkelman argues, the Electoral College was adopted in order to provide slave states with a disproportionately loud voice…’
Thats mr Finkelman’s argument. Fine. But that does not make it a fact.
There are scholarly voices who say that FDR knew the attack on Pearl Harbor was coming, date and all. That does not make it so.
There are scholarly voices who claim the JFK assasination was planned by the CIA and the mob.
Rudy,
There are no scholars who say that the CIA. and the mob killed JFK.
Zero. Nada.
A stupid comment like that can get you permanently banned by me. Next will you claim that 9/11 was a CIA plot and Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax?
The point I’m making is that the opinion of scholars are not the final authority on any given issue. The can help clarify. They can also confuse. But they are, as stated in the quote, an argument. One of anumver of arguments on either side of the issue.
JUST because a scholar argues a certain direction does not make it so.
Apart from that, I did not say that I agreed with the issues I mentioned. I happen to believe in the “lone wolf” in the JFK assasination, and I strongly disagree with the idea the FDR knew date, time and place of the attack.
But then, that’s because on both issues I happen to be very much aware of the history around them.
Do consider banning Rudy, Diane. Stupid is as stupid says.
Stupid – is when you refuse to look at issues from multiple angles.
Stupid – is denying reality while it is staring you in the face.
Stupid – is seeing 20+ years of swirling down the drain and then wonder how we got here.
Stupid – is thinking only your point is view is valid and true.
But then, what do I know…
Rudy, there is nothing stupid about having a one-dimensional, blinders-on angle on eradicating poverty in the United States and preventing it from turning into a banana republic oligarchy. It needs to go warp speed ahead to the left and wealth direly needs to be redistributed in meaningful and monitored ways.
And by the way, Rudy, I don’t see thousands or millions of people from the Netherlands knocking down the American door to come and immigrate here, where they face sky rocketing college debt, horror stories about access to healthcare, rigged elections, housing costs that are through the roof, infrastructure that is crumbling, no affordable chid care, very little vacation time, social safety nets that are being redistributed to the 1%, and incomes levels that don’t match the cost of living. Don’t you know, Rudy, zillions of we Europeans are just DYING to come here and enjoy all those wonderful aspects of American life, right?
Good choice, Rudy. Great thinking on your behalf.
Why you decided to come and settle here, is, well, your headache. After I am done as a consultant on several film projects here, I will return to Norway, where life is very flawed and full of intense pain-in-the-ass this and that, but in almost all ways is very rarely uncivilized, inhuman or lacking in dignity.
Cherish your U.S. citizenship, as you might stand to lose your Dutch one.
Yes, Rudy: stupid is as stupid does, as the Americans say. You are truly not a European.
Any blinder based view IS stupid. It is. It is considered to be stupid when you believe in white supremacy. It is stupid when you believe in a master race. It is stupid when you think makes are better than females. All blinder views.
Thinking that education will be improved by simply eradication of poverty is blinder thinking.
Rudy: There is a difference between “seeing both sides of a story,” and denying facts.
Rudy,
My prescribed blinders had nothing to do with white people, Trump, Hillary, women, LGBT, Muslims, etc.
It had to do with where and how the wealth in the USA is being trapped and why. Wealth affects all people regardless of their backgrounds or profile.
I guess you were not smart enough to kind of figure that out for yourself.
But then again, that’s how shallow individualistic people like you are only capable of thinking, if you can actually call that “thinking”.
And, yes, Rudy, poverty has everything to do with education and how students perform, but certainly American public schools and educators in this country have rarely shied away from searching and executing ways to improve pedagogy and the whole process of teaching and learning. What comes into the schools in a certain state has everything to do with the responsibilities and civics that the American ruling elite have abandoned and that once a upon a time, they were far more reasonable about.
Ignorant people like you want to blame the education system for causing growing , spreading, and sustaining poverty; its the other way around. Government creates poverty by favoring policies that coddle the very rich, and then when poverty grows and enters the school system, the government and plutocrats that buy their elections have the public entities to blame for it.
Boy Rudy! Life has not been very generous in the brain department with you, you poor soul. Perhaps you do fit RIGHT in.
“Ignorant people like you want to blame the education system for causing growing , spreading, and sustaining poverty; its the other way around. Government creates poverty by favoring policies that coddle the very rich, and then when poverty grows and enters the school system, the government and plutocrats that buy their elections have the public entities to blame for it.
Boy Rudy! Life has not been very generous in the brain department with you, you poor soul. Perhaps you do fit RIGHT in.”
==.
Please quote me on that, ok? Where did I ever say that? Throwing mud until it sticks indicates you are running short of arguments.
In case you missed it, I work in public education, k-12, and have for the past almost 20 years. Before that, I was involved with education in the Netherlands, for about 15 years.
In both situations, I was associated with poverty areas, minorities, drug addiction, single parents and immigrants.
When is the last time Norway had a city with about 20% minorities, 10% immigrants, 10% drug addicted all gathered at a single k-6?
When is the last time you had to deal with kindergarten students whose lives were threatened so dad would hand over his drug earnings?
So from a Lilly white Norway, you really don’t have these problems, do you?
Come back when you spent 35 years in those surroundings, and then see where your high and mighty has taken off to.
Really Rudy? You said you were a chaplain in the military.
I said I was a CONTRACT chaplain. And a minister for a civilian congregation. That gives me a lot of leeeay with scheduling. Monday’s off – good time to work with the school where the kids went. Also a good time to be available as counselor when things went bad for either parents or children.
How about you telling me about schools in Norway? Any similarity between those and holland as far as student population is concerned?
Notice how Rudy does not want to answer about his true resume and career. He can’t make up his mind as to who he is or wants to be. Rudy? A teacher in the public schools? Where?
Hey folks, you notice how Rudy is using his real name, has shared more personal information?
Have you noticed that Norwegian filmmaker has not responded to tell me more about the Lilly white schools in Norway?
Rudy,
Again, my contentions had purely to do with distribution of wealth, not skin color. Please take this bizarre fixation upon skin color and ethnicity and put them next to your brain, which is fittingly located somewhere profoundly in your bowel canal.
Real names or pen names do not change issues deeply rooted in Amercan society. But critical thinking does.
Do sit on the toilet to help yourself figure that out.
Pen names also allows you to spout insults instead of arguments.
Your reply re schools in Norway is eagerly expected to see what your experience is with poverty, crime and such.
Rudy,
Schools in Norway are well financed by our tax dollars and the people and government believe heavily in funding the public commons. But we also believe heavily in preventing poverty before it enters the schools, and our social contracts prove it a million times over.
How much money does your (newer) country throw into its military campaigns and how much revenue does it lack in raising as result of allowing offshore tax havens for companies like Apple?
Unlike your newfound motherland, we believe in (and live by) equitable enough redistribution of wealth regardless of who has what skin color. Whether we have white, black, purple, or rainbow colored skin in our classrooms, we would be be funding the schools resplendently nonetheless.
You fixation on skin color is predictably racist, but one has come to expect this from you. There is not one molecule of doubt that the Dutch citizenry would find you a laughing stock. Certainly, many readers on this blog do . . . .
Again, insults but no answer how Norway would deal with circumstances as found in the Netherlands or the US. So it is easy for you to anonymously criticize both these countries on their educational approaches.
Since Norway has Lilly white schools without the issues of immigrants, poverty and such, you really have no basis whatsoever to criticize.
Thank you for affirming such.
So I figured I will do some of the research for you. From a recent study: “- This may be differences between schools that do not change much over time, such as the quality of teaching staff. One can imagine that some schools find it difficult to recruit and retain good teachers, and that this has implications for how students perform.
These findings correspond well with recent research from England, the Netherlands and the US, which also conclude that the proportion of immigrant pupils have little or no bearing on how children are doing at school.”
Not only that, but there obviously is the same problem as in the US – something you denied…
What you wrote: “Unlike your newfound motherland, we believe in (and live by) equitable enough redistribution of wealth regardless of who has what skin color. Whether we have white, black, purple, or rainbow colored skin in our classrooms, we would be be funding the schools resplendently nonetheless…”
What the researcher said:
“Hermansen believes it is important to monitor how the distribution of the immigrant population is related to student composition and educational achievement across schools. These processes are largely controlled by family finances, and many parents have only limited options…”
Note the fact? Education options are as much controlled by financial circumstances as in the US?
You also wrote, “You fixation on skin color is predictably racist, but one has come to expect this from you…”. Once again, feel free to quote me where I ever said anything about skin color.
I spoke of immigrants. I spoke of poverty. I spoke of drug dealers. I spoke of single parents. Show me where I spoke of skin color.
But something tells me that I should not hold my breath. You produce many insults, but zero facts.
I am noticing a frightening backlash against being educated. Trump himself refuses to take security briefings. Some yahoo argues on Twitter with the leading expert on ancient Rome about what caused it to fall, and then declares, “well, I’m not a fancy academic like you.” I’ve been attacked on Twitter for being a teacher in a poor Hispanic area–and therefore not worth listening to. So “you’re a teacher” is now an insult? “Elites” as a term is being used to denigrate EDUCATED people. Didn’t we used to measure a family’s progress by the fact that new generations were the first to complete high school, or attend college, or earn a degree? Now all that matters, it seems, is whether you can make more money than the previous generation. Ugh.
Anti-intellectualism is a (some would argue THE) core element of fascism. Facts can make ideology messy, so it’s better to ignore or tailor them to the world view one already has. This legitimizes determinism (and fatalism), prejudice, and violence as options for public policy.
Julie Porter
Is this new.
’ “A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete core of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.” .
He was in the words of Mick Jagger “just a shot away ” Spiro Agnew.
shades of too many historical coups where those wearing glasses have been especially targeted for death: glasses seen as denoting a bent toward education
“You could tell by the way he talked, though, that he had gone to school a long time. That was probably what was wrong with him.”
John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces
Julie,
I believe it was your very own Spirew Agnew who declared, “We DON’T need a nation full of intellectuals.”
Agnew: Not my Vice President! 🙂
I bet some of these uneducated have some expertise with a feature on facebook called BUF….anybody heard of it….or worse….like me…experienced it? “The comments for articles on http://www.stltoday.com, and posts in the forums on interact.stltoday.com, are two different systems. •One uses Facebook.
•The other doesn’t.
Facebook provides a Block User Feature (BUF.) Both at the moderator, and user level.” the pd continued…since a lot of websites use Facebook commenting if you are BUF’d on more than one website the odds that Facebook will start to filter you everywhere increases.
You do not get a notification if you’ve been BUF’d. My guess is if enough folks have BUF’d you… You’ll find yourself filtered out of conversations elsewhere on Facebook.
The forums provide a Foe List Feature (FLF.)
You do not get a notification if you’ve been FLF’d.
I’m appalled that you somehow manage to equate lack of intelligence or education to mental illness. Mental illness is simply that: an illness. I’m sick to death of having those who suffer with mental illness, including me, be denigrated and stigmatized. It’s not right.
Sorry, Joe. I meant this for Georg, as it turns out.
The finding that education was decisive for voting for or against “lout-speakers” like Trump, is no surprise for me since I have been studing the dependence of political cultural on moral-democratic competence since four decades. We define moral-democratic competence as the ability to solve problems and conflict through free thinking (!) and respectful discussion (!), instead of through violence, deceit and power.
Many studies show that people with no or very low such competence have a high risk of offending against the law and of becoming psychologically disturbed to a point where they need psychiatric treatment or, when this is not available, treat their unmanagable emotions with excessive drug consumption. I know of no studies of their voting behavior but studies consistently found high correlations of lack of moral-democraric competence with authoritarian and rightist political attitudes.
In sum, as I argue in my book “How to Teach Morality” (https://www.amazon.com/How-Teach-Morality-Deliberation-Discussion/dp/3832542825/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481388999&sr=8-1&keywords=lind+morality) , people without a minimum of moral-democratic competence are overwhelmed by the task of self-government. They have no choice but either to fight democracy or to elect politicians who promise to do this on their behalf.
This means that the only effective and sustainable way to defend and to developo democracy is to provide a free and good education for all citizens, as already Thomas Jefferson, Alexis de Tocqueville and many others have argued. General education is important but not sufficient. It needs to be supplemented by modern methods of moral-democratic education which easily fit into existing curricula. Permanent testing and grading, in contrast, has a devastating effect because it keeps our kids from using the frontal part of their brain, where moral-democratic competence is located. Like all parts of our body, it degenerates when not used.
After this election, we have to make sure students get a heavy dose of critical thinking and recognizing propaganda. We need this across the curriculum more than ever. As you have indicated, we all need some ethics.
Not looking good for public schools under Trump/DeVos.
Yesterday they held a political rally exclusively for Trump supporters. They held it in Grand Rapids- a city the DeVos family own, lock stock and barrel. No one in that city would dare to publicly oppose or criticize a DeVos. You’d have to spend some time there to understand the extent of the DeVos lock on the place. It’s like a warm, comfy cocoon for them.
At the rally, Trump announced public schools were “horrible” and DeVos delivered a batch of ed reform mush about how she loves the children of the lower classes.
They have yet to have a single public meeting with a public school supporter, although they met with two charter advocates.
She’s gonna be shocked when she ventures out of the ed reform echo chamber and finds out how strongly local people feel about public schools and how no one outside Michigan or GOP political circles will give her the deference she’s used to.
Her name won’t mean anything to regular people and they won’t be scared to oppose her privatization plans.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2016/12/betsy_devos_shows_at_trump_ral.html
In her new position DeVos will have to tolerate the public. That’s one of the requirements of being a public servant.
This makes it pretty clear why the right wing wants to destroy public education. Dummies are a lot easier to push around.
“This makes it pretty clear why the right wing wants to destroy public education. Dummies are a lot easier to push around.”
The implication of your statement is that the Democrats for educational reform would then be guilty of the same desire, right?
Rudy
You are correct DEFR is as you say. The only problem is they were never really democrats . Which has been the focus of many discussions on this board .
“Trump was right when he declared during the GOP primaries:
“I love the uneducated!”
Let’s watch and see what he does to their healthcare, their schools, and the economy.”
I would posit that he and his cabinet will attempt very intentionally to do the same things to the “educated” as well.
My stocks go up as my bonds go down . When the economy tanks all may work out well in the end.
But just in case how cold does it get in Norway.
Don’t worry about the cold, it’ll give you a reason to buy a few snuggly sweaters. The summers are wonderful, the people are as educated and open-minded as you will find anywhere, and you can use the cold, dark winters to catch up on that reading you’ve been neglecting (or listen to Norwegian radio, which taught me many things about the U.S. culture and politics). If you like herring, salmon, hearty breads, and cream sauces, you’ll survive (reindeer is exceptionally good!). But stay away from that stinky cheese! Never could figure that one out.
Joel and Greg,
Uneducated people are important to Trump and company because they will not get (not be able to get) in his way.
Educated people are also very important to Trump because they stand to question things, so he will be neutralizing them as well.
The 1% is against everyone except the 1%.
The cheese in Norway is pungent, but you eat it with other things and you can access it sparingly if you choose to. I rather like some of it in my omelette.
The time to complain about the rules is before you lose when you expected to win by those rules. I’m all about getting rid of the EC going forward, but Hillary knew the rules she was playing by and smugly assumed she would win by them. Oops. Maybe she should have campaigned in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Incidentally, it’s pretty rich to complain about a rigged election after the rigged primary.
Dienne
Hillary hasn’t complained.
Many others have. Including me.
We will have a president who appoints people to undercut the mission of their cabinet departments. A guy in charge of EPA who doesn’t believe the environment needs protecting. A guy in charge of Health and Human Services who wants to kill the Affordable Care act that provides health insurance for 20 million people. A woman in charge of education who opposes public schools. A guy in charge of labor who opposes unions and the minimum wage.
This is not about Hillary.
It’s about the future of millions of people and our aspirations for a better society.
This is not about Hillary.
I noticed in the chart attached to the article that Diane posted and average household income among the college educated in selected cities, at $77,768.
I think household income is not a great measure,even in tandem with college education, for identifying voting patterns.
The picture is probably more complicated. Household income does not tell us much about the number of people making a contributuon to the household income or the relationship of occupation to income within a household.
I note, for example, that the average salary for public school teachers in 2014–15 was $57,379 in current dollars (i.e., dollars that are not adjusted for inflation, NCES table 211.50). In constant (i.e., inflation-adjusted) dollars, the average salary for teachers was 2 percent lower in 2014–15 than in 1990–91. And salary says nothing about the bi-partisan sport of teacher bashing for the last two decades.
Yes, and Nate Silver’s conclusion is strange, and the going along with it here is stranger, because educators are always talking about the correlation between education and earnings. If education and income are strongly correlated, why would education “but not income” predict Trump voting?
Including income AND education, several things predicted Trump voters: being white, being Republican, being poor, being an industrial or service worker, being pissed off, being disillusioned with American politics so much that you are willing to overlook (or incapable of overlooking) Trump’s bad side.
And yes, there were those who voted for him “because of” his bad side. But I believe they were in the minority. Most people just want better lives for themselves.
Being male also somewhat predicted Trump voting, but not really, since 42% of women voted Trump. Yeah, the guy who bragged about being a sexual predator. Maybe lots of those women were uneducated, but they were lots of something else too. Pissed off.
Why were they pissed off?
On topic
http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/disagreeing-with-paul-krugman-his-friends-probably-do-vote-against-the-interest-of-the-working-class-white-and-other
Also incidentally, I too used to believe that “educated” = “smart”. Then I worked with people with disabilities and the only one of my staff who could relate to them as people was a guy who dropped out of high school. Then I worked at a law firm where the highly educated lawyers can hardly wipe their own behinds without an “uneducated” secretary to help them. Then I married a man who grew up dirt poor in Ghana and never had the opportunity to go to school past junior high. He’s the smartest man I’ve ever met. Heck, the smartest person, and that includes me and my University of Chicago education.
Please stop dumping on the “stupid” people of the world and start listening to them. They’re trying to tell you something you’re refusing to see at your own peril.
For what ever it is worth, all the Trump supporters of my acquaintance have college degrees. Yesterday, I saw a woman in the diner in a Confederate flag costume. I live in New Jersey, which last time I checked was north of the Mason Dixon line.
Depends what part of Jersey you live in.
Just curious, are those college educated Trump supporters long time Republicans in which case I have no problem with them voting in their economic interests . Or shall I rephrase that and say I understand why. Greed is a far greater motivator than patriotic duty to country. Most of those I run into are merely racists.
The first is a Democrat, who voted for Sanders in primary. Another is an independent and a retired Newark teacher. Of the three Republicans, one is a retired Newark teacher. Number two was formerly a police officer and now owns a restaurant. The third served in Iraq and has a county social service job. They are of varying ethnicities and not one of them has particularly racist views. My point is that we form pejorative profiles at our own peril.
It almost seems as if there is a concerted effort to keep the masses uneducated so that power can be centralized in the hands of a few. Am I overboard in thinking this?
You are very much onboard.
I think a better way to slice it is not by years of formal education, but how many books do you read in a year? My own observation is that voracious readers tend to vote Dem. Those I know who voted for Trump like to brag that (like Trump) they haven’t read a book in 20 years.
Strange way to measure things. That means I should be a Democrat. Since graduating in 1978 I’ve been reading 200 pages a day.
Of course, as a republican I did not vote for trump either.