CURTIS, Nebraska - The only health clinic here is shutting down, and the hospital CEO has blamed Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’s signature legislation. But residents of Curtis - a one-stoplight town in deep-red farm country - aren’t buying that explanation.
“Anyone who’s saying that Medicaid cuts is why they’re closing is a liar,” April Roberts said, as she oversaw lunch at the Curtis Area Senior Center.
The problem wasn’t that Harris courted Cheney.
It was that she stared down a whole population of Americans who got poorer under Biden and said publicly: “I wouldn’t do anything differently.” It also didn’t help that she told all of these increasingly impoverished people to just be joyful for three months of her campaign before even addressing anything policy-wise.
But, at the end of the day, if you want people’s votes, you’re going to have to figure out how to display some level of empathy, because openly hating everyone who votes differently hasn’t worked to win them over to your side.
I’m not convinced that “showing empathy” is the way to court Republicans. It’s just seen as weakness, and weakness is a joke to them.
I’m thinking back to my grandmother’s funeral in Appalachia. She had a small terrier as her companion in her final years. They were inseparable. Multiple of her male relatives made the joke “I thought we were just going to toss the dog in the grave and bury him with her”. Hardy-har har. The dog was small and therefore weak and therefore a joke.
There were similar scenes between my mom and her coworkers when my dad was in hospital dieing of COVID-19. I’m not going into them because I already done triggered myself.
Anyways, that’s how I ended up with a surprise dog to take back home to a blue state. He’s still a good boy, even though he’s now a grumpy teenager.
I feel like I’m being very clear here, but let me clarify.
I’m not referring to the sadistic people that you’re referencing. There is, I think, a distinct difference between the cultists and the voters that Democrats can scrape off with a little effort.
I’m referring to the ones who are showing regret for their vote, because most Democrats seem content to push away all those votes without any regard for the fact that you absolutely need to flip the people you can in order to change the party alignment of the Federal Government.
Thank you for clarifying. TBH I got who was saying what a tad mixed up in the thread.
I can get behind not outright mocking folks that seem interested in leaving the cult. I just also think the sadistic and casually cruel folk are the norm rather than the outlier, based on experiences growing up in a Red State and visiting as an adult.
First of all, I hate them for who and what they voted for and not becsuse it happened to be different. This isn’t some pick a team and hate everyone else thing, they chose evil.
I also don’t want their votes, and chasing those votes is a fool’s errand. Spending the time motivating disengaged people to show up like Obama and other candidates with positive messaging is the path to success.