The (R) doesn't stand for Respect!!!

As much as I have tried to interpret my Trumpian conservative friend in Milwaukee's "all-over-the-map" conversations, I've mistakenly filtered my analysis through the lens of friendship and respect, giving him the benefit of the doubt. Big mistake.

No Respect? GOP says it's No Longer Something You Earn:  Rodney Dangerfield said it best...:

If only they cast off their snooty liberal elitism and show respect to people who voted for Donald Trump, Democrats can win them over and take back Congress and the White House. There’s almost nothing more foolish Democrats could do than follow that advice.

Kurt Schlicter, a columnist for the conservative Townhall.com, recently wrote "We want to be treated with respect and we will not tolerate anything less which is just unacceptable for this to continue. I'm tired of Hollywood spitting on us. I am tired of academia spitting on us. I'm tired of the news media spitting on us." 

It's a Disrespected Scott Walker Scheme Too: Like Trump, Walker's been weeping the "no respect" game for years. 

Talk about Respect...: The CapTimes' Paul Fanlund wrote this about the Trump voters hypocrisy about respect:

"That’s rich. I can’t help but note, after years of Republicans infamously claiming their primary goal was to prevent Obama from being re-elected."

The Washington Post article explains it this way...

It doesn’t come from the things Democratic politicians say. Where does it come from? An entire industry that’s devoted to convincing white people that liberal elitists look down on them. The right has a gigantic media apparatus that is devoted to convincing people that liberals disrespect them, plus a political party whose leaders all understand that that idea is key to their political project and so join in the chorus at every opportunity.

You’ll find that, again and again, you’re told stories of some excess of campus political correctness, some obscure liberal professor who said something offensive, some liberal celebrity who said something crude about rednecks or some Democratic politician who displayed a lack of knowledge of a conservative cultural marker. The message is pounded home over and over: They hate you and everything you stand for.

“I despise Barack Obama. I think primarily because I don’t think he thinks very much of people like me,” one Republican told The Post’s Dan Balz.

Put another way...

In the world Republicans have constructed, a Democrat who wants to give you health care and a higher wage is disrespectful, while a Republican who opposes those things but engages in a vigorous round of campaign race-baiting is respectful. The person who’s holding you back isn’t the politician who just voted to give a trillion-dollar tax break to the wealthy and corporations, it’s an East Coast college professor who said something condescending on Twitter.

Democrats bend over backward to show conservative white voters respect, only to see some remark taken out of context and their entire agenda characterized as stealing from hard-working white people to give undeserved benefits to shiftless minorities. And then pundits demand, “Why aren’t you showing those whites more respect?” Democrats are supposed to abandon their values and change their policies, despite the fact that many of those policies provide enormous help to the very people who say Democrats look down on them ... How many times have we seen Democrats try to show respect by going to a NASCAR event or on a hunting trip, only to be mocked for their insincerity?

That's not all either:

A recent 15,000-word opus by the Post’s Dan Balz ... central finding is reflected in its headlines: “Loyalty, unease in Trump’s Midwest. Voters gave Trump a chance. Some remain all in. Others have grown weary of the chaos.” Balz describes down-on-their-luck, small-town and rural residents who feel disrespected by educated urbanites, especially coastal elites. But what exceeds that resentment is a quiet desperation as their local economies have receded or collapsed.

This comment should blow your mind...

Wearing a John Deere hoodie ... Kurt Glazier is a state worker, a union member and serves as chairman of the Republican Party in Whiteside County. He also sits on the county board. “I think Trump brought out the fact that — I mean, as crude and callous as he was at times — so many people had been almost discriminated against because they were Republicans and not Democrats, that we felt inferior.”

...so will this...

Republican Party chairman in Clinton County Dan Smicker recalled that many of those he encountered were mad, fed up with the state of things. “This is my observation, it is not necessarily my belief  … Number one, they said minority political people have been well taken care of. Small business and working people have been identified as the source of income to take care of those people.”

...there's more...

Republican Party chairman in Clinton County Dan Smicker recalled that many of those he encountered were mad, fed up with the state of things. “This is my observation, it is not necessarily my belief  … Number one, they said minority political people have been well taken care of. Small business and working people have been identified as the source of income to take care of those people.”

We No Longer Expect a Happier Better Life: Finally, the following story pretty much reflects what I see every day in my current job, and simply put, it scares me. Americans have accepted a lower expectation of life, of their country, their politicians, and are now settling for less:

Marsha Story, in charge of decorating cakes, described the life of a single mother struggling on $11 an hour. “We don’t have cable,” she said, explaining how she juggled her finances. “We don’t have the Internet.” She said she declined to go on Medicaid, although she was eligible to use it. “I’ve always paid my own way,” she said.