We need to know why Trump is so popular

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This topic contains 25 replies, has 7 voices, and was last updated by  Unseen 7 months ago.

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  • #54153

    Unseen
    Participant

    …and we may not like the truth.

    So, what do you think? Why is a pathological liar and incipient dictator even in the running for a second term?

    #54154

    Unseen
    Participant

    Two views:

    His supporters:

    Bill Maher:

    But seriously, my view is that it’s nostalgia for a bygone day when minorities were servile, when we “knew” nobody could do anything better than Americans, when everyone was either a woman or a man, and when nobody was raising difficult issues that couldn’t be cut through with a bumper sticker-style slogan.

    And actually, I can relate to that without agreeing with it.

    • This reply was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by  Unseen.
    #54158

    _Robert_
    Participant

    Bill is right. The myth of American exceptionalism born after WW2, when most of the rest of the economic world was destroyed. Most of the Trumpers I know have never left the country and are in debt with little hope of a healthy, wealthy retirement. The types who actually think they know everything. Clueless in comprehending the vastness of what they do not know. Oh, and they know for sure that Jesus walked on water.

    #54159

    Unseen
    Participant

    @ Robert

    #54160

    Unseen
    Participant

    It’s looking to me like Trump’s “base” consists of a bunch of one-issue voters: immigration, guns, discomfort with people who can’t define what a woman is, inflation, foreign entanglements, abortion, general anti-liberalism, etc.

    * Looking at LGBTQ+, what are people who don’t even know what “Q” means in that designation supposed to make of the “+” part of it?

    • This reply was modified 7 months, 2 weeks ago by  Unseen.
    #54162

    _Robert_
    Participant

    It’s looking to me like Trump’s “base” consists of a bunch of one-issue voters: immigration, discomfort with people who can’t define what a woman is, inflation, foreign entanglements, abortion, general anti-liberalism, etc. * Looking at LGBTQ+, what are people who don’t even know what “Q” means in that designation supposed to make of the “+” part of it?

    Yes, I agree with that too. And of course, the one issue voters are exhibiting their cognitive limitations right there. I know ‘gun guys’ who would never vote for Biden even if Trump ran on a platform to cancel their social security checks. And they depend on their social security and Medicare. F’ckd up priorities.

    #54163

    Unseen
    Participant

    @ Robert

    I can find no statistics on how many/what percentage of gun deaths were bad guys killed by gun owners defending themselves or their homes/property. I suspect it’s miniscule in comparison by people—probably mostly children—killed in home gun accidents.

    #54165

    Unseen
    Participant

    Yes, I agree with that too. And of course, the one issue voters are exhibiting their cognitive limitations right there. I know ‘gun guys’ who would never vote for Biden even if Trump ran on a platform to cancel their social security checks. And they depend on their social security and Medicare. F’ckd up priorities.

    Yeah, guns, too. Thanks for reminding me. I added it.

    #54168

    Simon Paynton
    Participant

    I think Trump’s appeal is that he tells potential supporting demographics exactly what they want to hear, and promises them power.  This way he corrupts everyone who gives him the time of day.  The evangelicals, the entire Republican party.  He didn’t care about abortion, until he realised the anti-abortionists would vote for him if they believed he was a devout Christian who was anti-abortion.

    Then he proceeds to work people like glove puppets.

    #54169

    Unseen
    Participant

    The evangelicals, the entire Republican party.  He didn’t care about abortion, until he realised the anti-abortionists would vote for him if they believed he was a devout Christian who was anti-abortion.

    Yeah, but didn’t anyone tell him that the number of voters who didn’t want him to touch Roe v. Wade was twice as big as those who did?

    #54170

    Simon Paynton
    Participant

    Yeah, but didn’t anyone tell him that the number of voters who didn’t want him to touch Roe v. Wade was twice as big as those who did?

    That’s why, in his calculated, transactional, Machiavellian way, he’s been dialling back his support for anti-abortion issues.

    #54171

    Unseen
    Participant

    That’s why, in his calculated, transactional, Machiavellian way, he’s been dialling back his support for anti-abortion issues.

    I don’t think that fools the women of America. He can’t undo Roe v. Wade by arguing it now belongs to the states.

    #54172

    Unseen
    Participant

    I must have dashed off my last response without reviewing it. It should read “He can’t undo THE EFFECTS OF Roe v. Wade by arguing it now belongs to the states.” (emphasis mine, of course)

    #54204

    PopeBeanie
    Moderator

    Bannon, in his evil genius way, saw this coming, and helped make it happen. There’s some kind of cycle of socio-economic evolution and reactive populism that he has an understanding of. IMO he and Trump are agents of disruption, deception, who smell opportunity, while finding other like-minded, collaborative organizations also smelling opportunity.

    There’s a constellation of human reactions that also make this possible. There’s the evilizing of others, while banding together with angry, like-minded idealists or cult-philic misanthropes. Now add pent-up religious motivations. It’s like a perfect storm, I just wish I knew how to predict it.

    Putin’s got this down, too. And other authoritarians. Russians are successfully kept in the dark, and perhaps even have a historically cultural tendency to put faith in “preternaturally strong” leaders. My take on when many Americans started to hate on other Americans first started was during conservative talk shows back when radio was still popular. Some liberal talk shows tried to replicate the success, but (IMO) bleeding hearts (at least) chose to focus on having more empathy for less privileged people. The shows like Air America focusing on dissing the other half of America weren’t popular enough among liberals to compete.

    The most ominous coup was to stack SCOTUS. It began when Congress refused to consider Obama’s nomination for justice. Even back then, there was a political selfishness and arrogant self-importance that conservatives just felt they were entitled to, and that would make their anger-motivated constituents happy.

    I don’t know how else to boil this down (right now) except to say that self-serving politicians and angry conservatives ganged up to steal power with an assumption of entitlement and disregard for other rights and opinions. Add to that bias in the electoral college toward lower populated states in elections.

    Bannon and Trump knew how to work it, while the party supporting individual profit over public welfare became more selfish, and capitalized on some lucky breaks. Most importantly, those angry and smelling blood just stopped caring enough about the public welfare, and naturally joined together to defeat the now-presumed evil Americans that are the cause of their woes.

    #54205

    jakelafort
    Participant

    Pope,

    My take on when many Americans started to hate on other Americans first started was during conservative talk shows back when radio was still popular. Some liberal talk shows tried to replicate the success, but (IMO) bleeding hearts (at least) chose to focus on having more empathy for less privileged people.

    Hatred for others has never stopped. Father Coughlin had an enormous radio audience and he stoked the ever present but sometimes latent JEW HATRED. Indians or native americans were dehumanized before the American revolution. It is so much easier to fuck people over when ya have dehumanized. No need to discuss how Blacks were regarded.

    Not sure what you mean. Hatred is totally automatic.

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