"I have the ACA, not Obamacare."

Gah! I hate to sound superficial, but McConnell is repugly...
Of course, his actions are vehemently repugly too.. so perhaps he is a case of a racist-ass, power-hungry book being completely judgeable by it's sloppy-faced cover.

They're not necessarily voting against their own self interests. As long as their votes result in minorities, immigrants, those poorer than themselves, etc. ending up worse then they are, then it's a win in their eyes.

They're less concerned with Wall Street and big corporations destroying their lives and more concerned with brown people living next door.

Not overt racism exactly (a little bit of that though), but a feeling that certain people should always be worse off than themselves.

would that GOP voters in WA would suffer the consequences of their representative's hostage taking, but they seem to get lots of treats from Olympia regardless.

Not overt racism exactly (a little bit of that though), but a feeling that certain people should always be worse off than themselves.

Right, which is "supremacy"... one thinks one's 'kind' is more valuable than other 'kinds' of humans. Typically expressed in skin-color terms, (because we can't tell who is Irish any more), so functionally racist. Not a 'little bit' as you suggest, but a distinct and clear racism.

Of course, as St. Gibson put it.. racists don't know they are racist. They just think "that's the way things are". A basic psychological lapsus in thinking that makes all bigotry extremely difficult to confront head-on. You have to get all socratic on them and ask them a series questions that leads them to discover for themselves the anti-human errors in their viewpoints:

William Gibson @GreatDismal Nov 10, 2016

1) I was raised by and among white racists. they had absolutely no idea that they were. Racism was their culture, utterly invisible to them

2) I have seen racists *get it* that they are racist. It's an extraordinarily humbling and *painful* self-revelation, a sort of ego-death

3) But my biggest takeaway has been that racists don't know they are, and often regard "racism" as a false category for a *natural feeling*

(I'm not arguing for empathy at all. I'm making a clinical observation.)

Anyway, to Dan & Frank Rich's point: There's always going to be a hardcore group of people who will not believe Trumpypants isn't "Lord Emporer" or "God" or whateverTF they think he is. We don't need to argue with them... it's pointless.

We need to hold the discussion with the quieter majority out there who are able to discuss things in real terms, and aren't blinded by ideology.

And, you know, if the racists come marching down the street with torches to hurt our friends and neighbors, we can follow Woody Allen's advice and go have a nice, quiet talk with them ...with a bunch of bricks and baseball bats.

@6,
I don't disagree with you, but I would point out that many of the quieter majority are the racists you speak of.
A lot of otherwise mild-mannered people voted for trump based on his nationalistic rants. These people want foreigners out. Period. They want America's "tough guys" to bully other nations more. Period. They rarely say it out loud, but they still believe it enough to vote for it. Calling them racists will only get them defensive. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. They hear what they want to hear and believe what they want to believe. The fact that they voted for trump after he blatantly lied to them is proof of that.

The thing this piece (and so many others) miss is that 45% of the electorate didn't vote.

We don't need to win over Trump voters. We need to win people over to the idea that voting matters. Maybe the collapse of American government will do that, but I think perhaps simply running candidates who represent something aside from triangulation and half steps might be a much better solution.

So everyone's calling/writing/emailing their Senators and Reps, right?

You do realize, Dan, that the whole "win over the conservatives" is the "middle way" strategy of the Clinton wing of the Democrats, right? You know, the Demo wing that you support.

One can still feel empathy while watching people screw themselves over.

Until the left decides that being fat isn't something that should be considered okay let alone something to celebrate I'm against any form of universal healthcare.

Socialism requires personal responsibility and accountability for bad choices if you are going to ask others to carry the bill.

So get off your fat ass lard ball and take care of your body.

@12:
In that case, let's also include on your list:

Anorexics
Smokers
Drinkers
Drivers (why aren't they walking or biking?)
People who don't eat fruits or vegetables
People who don't hydrate enough
People who don’t exercise
People who get less than 7 hours sleep each night
Unmarried People and People who don't own pets (both are shown to improve longevity)
People who watch too much TV or spend too much time in front of a computer screen

Now, I could go on, but I presume you would also decide that none of these things should be considered okay and represent unhealthy lifestyle choices that should all be eradicated before we even consider any form of universal healthcare, yes?

I mean, if we're going to talk about "personal responsibility and accountability for bad choices", then clearly we must first eliminate ALL such bad choices – and anything else for that matter that does not further the goal of optimizing health, because, after all, unhealthy people are de facto not deserving of health care, by virtue of their inability or unwillingness to maintain their bodies at peak operating efficiency.

Too bad the Trump voters can't keep the consequences of their action to themselves. That's sort of the point about democracy.

The 'let 'em fuck everything up' until Jesus, or maybe Lenin, brings on the Apocalypse thing is at the heart of America's sickness. The Stein crowd CANNOT learn that they helped this happen. And of course the racist trash of the square states will blame every catastrophe they cause on....Mexicans? The Elders of Zion? Lizards?

@12 its a myth that obesity drives up healthcare costs anyway. Since the obese typically die much younger you end up paying less in pensions and geriatric healthcare which more than offsets the cost of obesity related healthcare.