Cathy Griffith posted pictures of a decapitated Donald Trump. To do so she had to have a group of like minded people design everything necessary to take such photos and then post them. In their view of the world, Donald Trump is a monster that should be decapitated, ISIS style. They must have truly believed in their minds and in their hearts that what they were doing is right, and the rest of the US agrees with how they view Donald Trump.
I don't buy that interpretation of events for a second. Griffin is a comedian who has made herself rich and famous by being deliberately inflammatory. She partnered with an artist/photographer who is even more inflammatory. Tyler Shields's previous work has focused on graphic depictions of violence and sex, often involving stand-ins for US presidents and other celebrities. Look him up, the guy's a real piece of shit. His only goal life is to offend.
So no, I don't think that he thought for one minute that this photo shoot was okay. He knew it was obscene, and that was the whole point.
It turns out their perception was wrong. A very large portion of people believe what Cathy Griffith did was a horrible atrocious act. How is it possible?
His perception was exactly right. He knew people would be outraged, and that's the reaction he was hoping for. That's how he stays "famous". Like I said, he's a piece of shit.
If Seniors are so likely to vote, do you really believe that there is a single candidate willing to destroy their largest base of voters?
I think you've confused the party's voters with the party's constituency.
The Republican party represents wealthy business interests. They promote lower taxes on rich people, higher taxes on poor people, and less regulation on what businesses can and can't do. They want more law enforcement of poor black communities but less law enforcement of white collar crime. They preach a gospel of individual liberty, unless you are a woman, or gay, or unintentionally pregnant, or brown. They want fewer restrictions on gun ownership, except in inner cities.
In order to further these interests, they need voters. In order to get voters, they need money to buy allegiance. They aren't trying to sway elections by proposing ideas that are important to their voters, they are trying to sway elections by telling their voters which ideas should be important to them. That strategy requires newspapers and tv networks, AM radio talk show hosts, and elected representatives who can be bought off enough to parrot their lies. It needs money. Money comes from wealthy business owners, not voters.
The Republican health care plan is a giant fuck-you to senior citizens. Compared to the ACA, their premiums would skyrocket and their coverage would be skimpier. The GOP health care plan takes healthcare away from millions of poor and elderly Americans in order to pay for a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans. Who do you think is the real constituency here?
They're not worried about losing the votes of senior citizens. Those votes can be bought back with enough Fox News coverage about how our seniors made a noble sacrifice to save the country from ruin. They're only worried about keeping the money flowing, and that means appeasing the Kochs and Adelsons of the world.
Maybe you are wrong and maybe the goal of conservatives is not to "fuck over the elderly."
I used to spend more time and effort trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. I thought long and hard about why the GOP could possibly think supply side economics would work this time, when it never has before. Why they thought taking health insurance from tens of millions of Americans would fulfill their campaign promise of coverage for everyone. About why they think the way to improve public education is to gut its funding, why they think the way to deal with climate change is to make it worse, why they think the way to fight terrorism is to start wars. The only unifying theme that I found in all of these ideas is (and maybe you're catching on enough that this won't be a surprise at this point) is that all of these seemingly asinine ideas are good for business. They make even more money for the wealthiest Americans, at the expense of average Americans. They promote the wealth inequality that is the very foundation of the Republican party.
I'm open to hearing other ideas, if you have any genius suggestions for what alternative unifying theme might motivate such a seemingly disparate array of republican policy positions.
Equally there is a large percentage of poor people who vote conservative. They also don't think their elected officials are trying to fuck them over.
They've been deceived. Many poor people who vote republican have been tricked into that support with seductive advertising about "personal responsibility" and "individual liberty" even though our wealthiest citizens don't really believe in any of that. Trump inherited his fortune and appears to lack a moral compass, how personally responsible is he? Individual liberty sounds great, unless you're black or gay or muslim, in which case it usually rings a little hollow as the republican party systematically deprives you of your individual liberties.
Poor rural white Americans sometimes support the republican party platform of enhancing wealth inequality. Not because they actually support a system that keeps them poor while enriching the born Trumps of the world, but because they have been deceived into believing that their systematic economic oppression is a necessary part of their perceived economic opportunity. They want to believe that they too can become rich like Trump, if they just support enough crony capitalist politicians who further enhance wealth inequality, without realizing that their support of those politicians is the very thing preventing them from rising out of poverty. You think the Trumps of the world give a rat's ass about poor people?
Some use terms like "class warfare" to describe the liberal movement. Are the conservative voters just stupid?
It absolutely IS class warfare, but they'e got the wrong party. The Democratic party has spent three generations fighting for the rights of blue collar workers, while Republicans further divide America into the haves and the have-nots. It's Republicans like Trump who are conducting class warfare, by using a calculated public performance of success and wealth to inspire our poorest citizens to self-destructively support further social and economic inequality. They're like 1850s plantation slaves pressed into service to hunt down runaway slaves with the argument that runaways make it harder for the slaves left behind.
What I do know is when we use such blatant comments as "fuck over the poor" or "class warfare" all it shows is that we are stuck in an echo chamber of like minded individuals who may be estranged from reality and the possibility that our perceptions may be flawed.
I don't feel like I'm in an echo chamber, I feel like I'm shouting into the void. All three branches of US government currently parrot the Trump/Ryan philosophy of America, which I find repulsive. Everyone around me says the only way to save America is to destroy everything we have built together, and I feel like the one lone rational voice left in a sea of lies, stupidity, and complicity.
I choose to use inflammatory language to describe the destruction of the American ethos because I find it a deeply inflammatory development. I'm always open to having my views changed, if I find an argument that relies on rationality and history and makes a compelling case, but so far that hasn't described anything the GOP has done in the past few cycles.