Tonight, Chris Hayes did a special edition of his show on MSNBC in the form of a televised Town Hall in McDowell County, West Virginia. The audience (and county) voted overwhelmingly for President Walking-Sack-Of-Shit. Strike One. It featured Senator Bernie Sanders. Strike Two. (Yes. I’m still mad.) I watched anyway. It takes three strikes, right? And people tell me I’m supposed to stay “informed” by listening to “other opinions.”
Chris Hayes did a pretty good job asking questions, and Senator Sanders did a pretty good job speaking only when necessary and letting the residents – clearly suffering – do most of the talking. Topics covered included much of what you’d expect: Obamacare vs. the new “WealthCare” bill (authored by Caligula), how they did and would impact the county’s residents, coal jobs, opioid addiction (initiated flagrantly by two drug companies, inflicted intentionally on a tiny, vulnerable and isolated population) and what, if anything, the future holds for the county’s residents. In one particularly sick and cruelly twisted irony, they’d been sold on the idea of having a federal prison built there because it would give them jobs. Jobs, it turns out, which would require a clean drug test to pass. Suffice it to say, the residents remain unemployed.
Bafflingly, the audience seemed to be Democrats by all measures, yet nearly all voted for President WSOS. Why? Hayes and Sanders drew out the surface answers – He promised jobs! He promised the replacement of Obamacare would be EVEN BETTER than what we had now!
Yes. We all get that. But the more pressing question to ask is, “Why did you believe him?”
Well. I have a few ideas about the answers to THAT question I seriously doubt would ever get aired in a one-hour Town Hall with Chris Hayes and Bernie Sanders on MSNBC. One starts with “R” and ends with “acism.” And let’s not forget the one that starts with “S” and ends with “exism.” Two of American society’s chronic debilitating diseases that Senator Sanders, for all his strengths, proved unwilling to address as a candidate or a career politician. That pattern continued in tonight’s town hall. A truly probing and compelling piece of television journalism would have tackled those questions. Those layers. It didn’t. Neither Sanders nor Hayes had anything but sympathy and admiration for this crowd.
I’d like to be clear. I, too, have sympathy and admiration for the people in that town. I believe their education was likely subpar. I believe career opportunities available to them were and are non-existent. My heart broke (as it should) for the young woman who said that there really IS nothing to do there except to get high. That does not mean, however, that they should be shielded from being awakened to the role racism and sexism played in their horrible decision to vote for Trump. If anything, I believe that makes it even more of an imperative.
If racism and sexism is playing such an insidious role in them making decisions that have the effect of destroying the fabric of our nation, don’t we have an obligation to point it out to them, no matter how uncomfortable it makes them, or how much it adds to their troubles? Goddamn it, would those same West Virginia residents be as careful with the feelings of Black people who are suffering? Or do they silently wonder why People of Color don’t just do what the cops tell them, so they don’t get shot? Or worse still, do they ask it out loud?
I like to think I have as much sympathy for people as I did before this shitshow of an election cycle began. But if I’m honest, I do believe I’m a little more stingy with it than I used to be. It isn’t like there wasn’t a viable alternative to Candidate WSOS. It isn’t as if the gradual and natural browning of America wasn’t (and isn’t) exploited in “working class” (CODE FOR WHITE) towns in American politics. It’s not as if a fucking imminently qualified WOMAN with education, brains and incredible experience and poise WASN’T THE AVAILABLE ALTERNATIVE to follow an incredibly successful African AMERICAN, scandal-free, economically powerful and intellectually unparalleled president.
One resident towards the end stood up and movingly spoke about how much it meant to him that Bernie Sanders, a Senator from the Northeast, cared more about McDowell County residents than Mitch McConnell. Everyone nodded solemnly and applauded in agreement. I wanted to throw my cat at the TV. Because make no mistake. If the purpose of the town hall would have been to discuss racism, sexism, hate crimes, homophobia, transphobia, or gun control, I seriously question if Bernie Sanders would have would have shown up.
It would have been great if there had been this level of sympathy for those ruined by the crack cocaine epidemic in the ’80s as for opioids.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) March 14, 2017
Not surprisingly, the audience was primarily white. There were a few women wearing hijabs and more People of Color than I expected throughout the audience (and one even asked a question…) -but there was no doubt we were in a heavily white-majority town. So, I’d like to give a special shout out to the camera person who, toward the end, caught the close-up of the Black baby sleeping sweetly and soundly on the white lady’s chest. I’m gonna go ahead and assume she was the nanny.
Photo is a screenshot from an MSNBC clip of the Town Hall.
What a racist piece. Just keep believing that all white Republicans and all poor white people are racist, etc. – your party will never win again. It is the reason Dems lost this time, and they refuse to look in the mirror.
Do you have a clearer explanation for why, deep down, they went for Trump? Why they believe him? Why you believe him?
Oh, and Hi, Joy – nice to see you again.
Yes, I do. Millions of us do. And we knew all along that we had a chance of winning. The fact that you and others did not is the thing that is so remarkable.
I am not going to waste my breath trying to explain it in this biased forum. (I knew fairness was out the window for good when I saw your post of a picture of Jesus, with a line about his masturbation habits, yet somehow we are the people who stereotype others.) If you want to know why we feel your positions HARM minorities, read, “Please Stop Helping Us,” by Jason Reily, an African American scholar with an education that nobody could claim as “subpar.” He is heads and shoulders smarter and more eloquent than I am, and he brings real data to the discussion, and refrains from the shallow name-calling that is so favored by bullies the world over.
If I could have anything. it would be the power to make elite liberals live in the country and actually work…ideally, work a dairy farm for a month or even just a couple of weeks. Heavy labor. No breaks. No weekends. No vacations. No excuses, because the animals need you. Good weather or bad. Sick or lame, farmers are out there, without fail. Then, at the very least, the blindly judgmental and theretofore stupendously bigoted liberal elites would know how much respect country people deserve.
Are you okay? When the hell did I post about Jesus and his masturbation habits? I mean, I wouldn’t put it past myself, but I really don’t remember…
And as long as we’re making reading suggestions, how about “Waking Up White” by Debby Irving? Recommended by Van Jones and Bihop Gene Robinson.
Your unwillingness to discuss matters of race and gender baffles me, as does your willingness to be critical of my opinions, yet refuse to explain your position when asked about it.
I’ll leave you with the opportunity for last word, as I’m not interested in engaging you any further, and I won’t respond.
Joy, you voted for him because you had a chance to win? I don’t understand that rationale. Could you explain?
And by the way – white Democrats are racist, too. It’s just that the Democrats are still the party more willing to talk about it and address it and try to fix it.
I suspect you need to broaden your understanding of the term “racist.”
No, I am not OK! I am incredibly offended. For Pete’s sake, your piece all but suggested that the people in that audience thought about the race of the people who it permitted to ask a question. That is entirely wrong and uncalled for.
HC was not a viable alternative. Most importantly, she would have delivered the final deathknell to freedom in a country where, over the last eight years, a brilliant orator made vulnerable people feel hopeful while at the same time taking freedom after freedom from them, (Take no notice of the man behind the curtain.)
And the only people who think it was a referendum on women are missing so much. Most of all, there was no pressing need to elect a woman because, at least for me, that important “first” was accomplished two generations ago now, in the U.K. (and in other countries before that). It’s amazing to me to think that millions of liberals actually believe significant numbers of Republicans did not vote for HC because of her gender. (What must they tell themselves about all of the racists who voted for Obama, twice. ) It’s laughable, and yet that is shoved down our throats as a given. (When did you stop beating your wife Mr. Smith?)
Liberals of this ilk effectively shut down dialog in this country for at least a decade. They have only themselves to blame. And the liberal elite are wrong about Republicans. Not just a little wrong. Entirely wrong. We are for freedom and equality for all, we love our country and want to be safe in the knowledge that the liberties it provides will always stand, we are not racist, nor sexist, nor homophobic, etc. We are against word and thought police of any sort. This administration is providing hope again for the cause of freedom because, not only did it beat the people who so unfairly malign us, every day in a multitude of manners and venues, but it is actually fighting back against those bullies who continue to do so even today.
I am baffled.
Here, we have Trump. He has immediately moved to separate children from their parents, remove a woman’s right to choose how to care for her own body, and repeal the First Amendment by denying rights based on a person’s religion, shutting down the press by refusing them access to the presidency, and jailing protesters.
What rights did President Obama take away? The right to go without health insurance?
I am surprised by your lingering bitterness toward Bernie. Hillary was still the candidate and Bernie was not. I’d have thought you’d be more concerned about the influence of Putin and his henchmen, not to mention the corrupt minions of 45. However, I do share your frustration with Bernie’s failure to address with any depth the issues of racism and sexism during his campaign and now. I’m afraid he is under the impression that curing classism will take care of the other “isms.” You and I know it won’t, even it such a cure was discovered.
I’m pretty sure you have read this long post, but I’m including the link in case you haven’t. I’m also hoping Joy Reid will read it, however “snowflakey” I am being. http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/rural-america-understanding-isnt-problem
Lezlie, I’m surprised by it, too. I’m not as far along in the process as I’d like. In fact, I watched it thinking Bernie was really doing a good job – close to going back to liking him the way I used to. Which is what I want to do. And then as the town hall went on I found myself more and more frustrated that again, racism and sexism was being ignored. And I went back to being mad.
You and I have spoken so much about it, and managed to keep our friendship not only in tact, but thriving. I’m looking forward to reading that link. Love you!
I was not bitter toward Bernie during the race until the end, and I find that I’m even more bitter toward him now.
I don’t believe he has done enough of the denouncement of Trump that he should be doing. Scott Pelley is more candid when it comes to the truth about the state of Trump’s mental health and grip on reality.