What is it about Trump that has allowed him to acquire so many ardent followers?

[onlinebiker]

The most common reason I have heard them give--

"He ain't Hillary".

[Rev. Rye]

Honestly, I think that most of the recent presidents have had something comparable in terms of a cult of personality. I think Bush Sr. Is the only one in my lifetime that couldn’t be said to have had something at least superficially similar.

That said, Trump is different. While, in the past, (since roughly 1968), Republicans (and Democrats to a lesser extent) have maintained power by referring to the racial and otherwise socially unacceptable fears of the common voter in veiled terms. Trump, however, talks plainly about anything that’s on his mind and he’s not going to resort to the old, more electable saws like “protecting jobs” or “states’ rights.”




Sick of the phony baloney displays of righteousness that the right has come to call virtue signaling? Well, he doesn’t even bother to do that, dismissing the victims of extremist violence and war heroes with a palm of his hand. As to how he gets away with it, well, I suspect that it’s all down to his wealth. If he didn’t have billions to throw around and shamelessly self-promote all over the news media, he’d have petered out like the time David Duke ran for president in ‘88.

Of course, I have to admit: I think Obama paved the way for Trump in this regard, not necessarily because of anything he did, but because, thanks to his being half-Black, suddenly a lot of racists in the Republican Party came out of the woodwork, and thus, because they didn’t have much legitimate in the way of criticism (especially since most of his problems involved being either too conciliatory to the party that twice demonstrated they’d rather America fail than Obama win or perpetuating Dubya’s policies) they started paving the way for some normalization of racism.

And now that we’ve got radicals who have long been alienated from the political process actually having a candidate to root for (and he doesn’t even need a coherent ideology; it just needs to be extreme enough that they can project their own hair-brained ideas onto him), it only makes sense that they start up a cult of personality for him, and due to his slapping his name on anything that would pay him, a lot of the structure for that’s already in place.

[Anomalocaris]

RE: What is it about Trump this debased and debauched so called people that has allowed him trump to acquire so many ardent followers?

FTFY

[Alan V]

And now that we’ve got radicals who have long been alienated from the political process actually having a candidate to root for (and he doesn’t even need a coherent ideology; it just needs to be extreme enough that they can project their own hair-brained ideas onto him), it only makes sense that they start up a cult of personality for him, and due to his slapping his name on anything that would pay him, a lot of the structure for that’s already in place.

Interesting video.

After Obama beat Romney, Republicans did a post mortem which told them they needed to move back toward the center to appeal to a wider range of voters in the future. Trump turned that on its head by doubling down on the base in a way which shouldn't have worked, but did because he appealed more directly to the fringe elements of the Republican party which had been shut out previously. That helped to make up for the deficit identified in the post mortem.

It also helped that Clinton was a weak candidate, that Comey's public announcement was poorly timed, and perhaps that Russian propaganda demonized Clinton as well. Conspiracy theories have a way of appealing to the bigoted and marginalized.

[Shell B]

Anger. Get pissed and get people pissed and they will rally behind you.

[Rev. Rye]

And now that we’ve got radicals who have long been alienated from the political process actually having a candidate to root for (and he doesn’t even need a coherent ideology; it just needs to be extreme enough that they can project their own hair-brained ideas onto him), it only makes sense that they start up a cult of personality for him, and due to his slapping his name on anything that would pay him, a lot of the structure for that’s already in place.

Interesting video.

After Obama beat Romney, Republicans did a post mortem which told them they needed to move back toward the center to appeal to a wider range of voters in the future. Trump turned that on its head by doubling down on the base in a way which shouldn't have worked, but did because he appealed more directly to the fringe elements of the Republican party which had been shut out previously. That helped to make up for the deficit identified in the post mortem.

It also helped that Clinton was a weak candidate, that Comey's public announcement was poorly timed, and perhaps that Russian propaganda demonized Clinton as well. Conspiracy theories have a way of appealing to the bigoted and marginalized.

And yet they just couldn't resist going into a second debt ceiling crisis to completely screw the pooch on any potential move to the center.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Anger. Get pissed and get people pissed and they will rally behind you.

Hate works better.

[Pat Mustard]

that Comey's public announcement was poorly timed,

What do you mean poorly timed. As a life-time and fully paid up member of the republitraitor party, Comey was probably under orders to keep that fake investigation going, and couldn't have timed his party political intervention in the election better.

Just because he was stupid enough to think Dumbfuck would turn presidential between November and January it doesn't follow that Comey's actions weren't designed to get Dumbfuck anointed.

[Drich]

I don't get it! Has any sort of American Political leader had this sort of cult-like following before? Obviously, it has happened in other countries. Hitler, Kim Jong Un, and his family and interestingly enough, Putin. To be frank, Trump is a fucking moron. So why is it his followers seem to worship him? I have witnessed this myself via social media among my personal friends. Even so recently, like yesterday a friend of mine posted something talking shit about John McCain. This guy is a Trump supporter. His base often likes to see what they want to see. If you tell them the sky is blue, they will argue that it is green if Trump said it. To a normal, sane human being anyone who supports Trump comes off as a total moron. Again, Trump has demonstrated time and time again that he has very low intelligence. I like Tulsi, but I don't worship her. I can see her flaws, she is not a perfect human being. In fact, I have felt she needs to discuss more her plans for implementing policy instead of just using applause lines.

The truth?

Most followers do not like the "new super sensitive super tolerant to the point of hatred and bigotry towards anything not this new BS version america.
For instance under obama there was much lip service to tolerance and racial equality, but in practice we got riots and instability because the president himself was causing unrest and distrust of the police department, primarily by second guessing every shooting against a black person. 

Non-indoctrinated what you would call uneducated (but truly that is the definition of unindoctrinated if you think about it) people see this are are not stupid just because we have not been taught how to process what the president was doing. we are not stupid just because we do not buy into the group think that demands everyone on the left is right and everyone not far left is a racist.

Why do we like trump? 
1 because he is far smarter and can easily manipulate the media into doing what he wants. yes it is a give and take but for the most part trump pushes the group think media outlets into doing things for him they would otherwise never do. My personal favorite win was when on his campaign got them to cover his open galia at his new DC hotel by telling them he was going to admit to the obama birth certificate thing.. they estimated 50 million dollars worth of coverage and at the very end of the night he had a 15 second blurp..

2) He is not owned by any special interest other than his own. that intrest centers around his ability to make money, which is tied to the US economy! which means for him to make money we all make money! we went from .5%GDP growth to 4% when obama said the new normal was .5 to maybe 1% growth!!! Obama said gone are the days of 3% gdp growth! (this means we were in a perminate depression) that we would have to simply learn to tighten our belts!

3) he has done or tried to do everything his campaign said he would do. From draining the swamp to getting out of this stupid parris climate thing to redoing nafta and finishing obama's wall! getting rid of obama care!

4)he ended ISIS, we are safer concerning N.Korea since before WWII, we are holding iran to account to not having nukes. we solidified our partnership with Israel/got out of bed with Iran. we are no longer on track for becoming apart of the EU. he has enforced out border laws. he makes people imigrate the legal way. and as a first born son/first generation american born citizen from my mom's family, making people imigrate properly is very improtant to me and all of my family, conformity as it ensures integration into society and not disconnect sub cells of people. Meaning we see ourselves as americans with a stake in this country which means we seek to be apart of it by obeying the laws and want to be apart of the process, rather than seeing ourselves as us against the USA.

5) he is a live and let live president. he is showing you do not have to love chip on the shoulder people just to be tolerant. you can live and let live. where as the 'educated' (witnessed by the berkley riots) not even allowing a differently minded speak speak on campus. those 'educated people' would rather see the campus burn than allow simple freedom of speech to happen! America also wants to go back to not feeling obligated that every american owes black people 40 acres and a mule.. Why not again live and let live? meaning if you personally owned a slave then pay up your 40 acres and a mule! if not and if you where never a slave then learn to simple be decent to one another.. black people should not have to place whites at the same time there needs to be common goals as rules we all must obey as we come together as a society.. meaning the same rules that apply to whites latinos and asians should also be applied to black people when we are all out in public. no one race should be treated differently.

6)policy... not so much his, but the alternative. There is no middle ground on the left any more. your either want to be a socialist or the option is you don't which means trump. Most of us/trumper know we are the target of 'wealth redistribution.' even if the numbers are high right now. most of us understand and can see a day when middle of the road people will have to pay for the worthless and lazy/educated/can't pay back my student loans meanwhile I got a job out of highschool worked and made money for the first 5 or 10 years and now own my own business in this trade and make 6 or 7 figures while "educated people" want 'the rich undeserving' to pay for their loans and pay them to stay in their moms basements playing fortnight.

7) Clinton was evil and everyone knew it. She was not fooling anyone and we could clearly her tell one group of people one thing and another somethng completely contradictory and when ever confronted... she answered not the question asked but the question she would liked them to have asked! typical politician. 'we' are tired of the political lies. 'we' would rather have someone say something unpopular than lie.

That is why trump is given so much forgiveness. Grab a woman by the "p" did he lie about doing it? no he said he said it, but it is locker room talk.. Meh... why? because he is a playboy billionaire not a holier than thou politician. Trump is trump, he is what the constitution writers planned for.. a citizen, not a life long career politician, but a business man who is apart of the great mass of people flaws and all to be appointed leader!

8)preservation of the US constitution as the forefathers planed it. know it or not on the left there is a huge movement to stifle free speech freedom of religion and the right to bear arms. with a "dim in office the supreme court was to empty out for fresh blood on the "dims' side (albeit they justices are supposed to be neutral) Clinton vowed to fill the court who saw the constitution as a 'living document.' Trump vowed and has made choices to the bench that maintains the constitution and bill of rights as they where originally written.

IE the Dims voted for a change of the 1st amendment that changed it from freedom of speech to freedom of reasonable speech. and the lower house voted on this and the dims passed the "reasonable speech" and voted down the original 1st amendment freedom n all speech.

9) because we know indoctrination is not the same as education, and are not afraid of people on the left calling us names or cutting us out of their elitist club.

10) trump ties us to our proud past or the parts of our past we can be proud of rather than shaming everyamerican for every sin our forbearers made. we are the hard working calluses hands sore sun burned back of this country and we will not be told what is right by people who put men in dresses in the same bathroom as a little girl. Again not that we have to hate that broken man, but at the same time we do not have to put our children and wives in danger for the sake of people who want to pretend there is nothing at all wrong with this. We are tired of the nut bags telling common sense folk what is right and what is wrong. Again common sense people don't have to hate anyone. that is what nut baggers do (if it is not the same hate it/make them feel unwelcome and not part of the club) however at the same time if you do not want to play by society's rules then you also should remove the expectations of polite society.

Trump allows you guys to have your space to be as nutty as you like pushing the idea of unisex bathrooms meaning anyone not wanted to be gender assigned to use one room or another to poop or pee can come together in one place... where as the last guy demanded everyone just accept a guy in a dress in the woman's locker room.

Not specificall about this one subject but the over all meeting in the middle where the left demands my way only.

[downbeatplumb]

The truth?

Most followers do not like the "new super sensitive super tolerant to the point of hatred and bigotry towards anything not this new BS version america.
For instance under obama there was much lip service to tolerance and racial equality, but in practice we got riots and instability because the president himself was causing unrest and distrust of the police department, primarily by second guessing every shooting against a black person. 

It is telling that "super tolerant" is seen as a bad thing.

Non-indoctrinated what you would call uneducated (but truly that is the definition of unindoctrinated if you think about it) people see this are are not stupid just because we have not been taught how to process what the president was doing. we are not stupid just because we do not buy into the group think that demands everyone on the left is right and everyone not far left is a racist.

You appear to be blind to the rampant racism that permeates your country.

Why do we like trump? 
1 because he is far smarter

Let me stop you there. Trump is an idiot. He knows nothing about anything of importance and his own over estimation of his own abilities stops him listening to anyone who does know.

and can easily manipulate the media into doing what he wants.

He does exert fascination for the media, but then a disaster always does.

yes it is a give and take but for the most part trump pushes the group think media outlets into doing things for him they would otherwise never do. My personal favorite win was when on his campaign got them to cover his open galia at his new DC hotel by telling them he was going to admit to the obama birth certificate thing.. they estimated 50 million dollars worth of coverage and at the very end of the night he had a 15 second blurp.

What you are describing is a con man. Was that what you wanted to do?

2) He is not owned by any special interest other than his own.

He is owned by almost all the special interest groups. Especially if that interest group is a foreign power like the Saudis or Russia.

that intrest centers around his ability to make money, which is tied to the US economy! which means for him to make money we all make money! we went from .5%GDP growth to 4% when obama said the new normal was .5 to maybe 1% growth!!! Obama said gone are the days of 3% gdp growth! (this means we were in a perminate depression) that we would have to simply learn to tighten our belts!

And he has done that by using all the methods you would use to stimulate the economy in a crisis. Leaving nothing to be done in a real crisis. And lets not forget the econmy that Obama was bequeathed. He performed an economic miracle and gets no thanks.

3) he has done or tried to do everything his campaign said he would do. From draining the swamp to getting out of this stupid parris climate thing to redoing nafta and finishing obama's wall! getting rid of obama care!

All of the things he has done are awful

4)he ended ISIS, we are safer concerning N.Korea since before WWII, we are holding iran to account to not having nukes. we solidified our partnership with Israel/got out of bed with Iran. we are no longer on track for becoming apart of the EU. he has enforced out border laws. he makes people imigrate the legal way. and as a first born son/first generation american born citizen from my mom's family, making people imigrate properly is very improtant to me and all of my family, conformity as it ensures integration into society and not disconnect sub cells of people. Meaning we see ourselves as americans with a stake in this country which means we seek to be apart of it by obeying the laws and want to be apart of the process, rather than seeing ourselves as us against the USA.

I think you are giving kudos to Trump for the things done bt Arab fighters on the ground. N Korea are expanding their missile programme and thought the results of the last negotiations were so bad they executed the negotiators. You wer never going to part of the EU you absolute loon. He has unleashed an army to persecute people often with dubious legal authority. Iran was actually not developing nukes, they are now thanks to Trump.

5) he is a live and let live president.

Only if you are a white Christian. Heard of the anti muslim measures he put in place? sure you did.

he is showing you do not have to love chip on the shoulder people just to be tolerant.

He is the opposite of what you say here. I honestly have no idea where you get this view of him.

you can live and let live. where as the 'educated' (witnessed by the berkley riots) not even allowing a differently minded speak speak on campus. those 'educated people' would rather see the campus burn than allow simple freedom of speech to happen! America also wants to go back to not feeling obligated that every american owes black people 40 acres and a mule.. Why not again live and let live? meaning if you personally owned a slave then pay up your 40 acres and a mule! if not and if you where never a slave then learn to simple be decent to one another.. black people should not have to place whites at the same time there needs to be common goals as rules we all must obey as we come together as a society.. meaning the same rules that apply to whites latinos and asians should also be applied to black people when we are all out in public. no one race should be treated differently.

One group has suffered discrimination for hundreds of years, they aren't all starting from the same place so one group will probably need a help up.

6)policy... not so much his, but the alternative. There is no middle ground on the left any more. your either want to be a socialist or the option is you don't which means trump.

This is what the far right want you to think. All lefties are communists. No we aren't.

Most of us/trumper know we are the target of 'wealth redistribution.' even if the numbers are high right now. most of us understand and can see a day when middle of the road people will have to pay for the worthless and lazy/educated/can't pay back my student loans meanwhile I got a job out of highschool worked and made money for the first 5 or 10 years and now own my own business in this trade and make 6 or 7 figures while "educated people" want 'the rich undeserving' to pay for their loans and pay them to stay in their moms basements playing fortnight.

You are paying for the super wealthy to get even richer while people work multiple jobs and are still unable to make ends meet.

7) Clinton was evil and everyone knew it. She was not fooling anyone and we could clearly her tell one group of people one thing and another somethng completely contradictory and when ever confronted... she answered not the question asked but the question she would liked them to have asked! typical politician. 'we' are tired of the political lies. 'we' would rather have someone say something unpopular than lie.

Clinton was a competent person with a history of government. I can only dream of the world that could have been if someone even half competent had replaced the utter shit storm that is brokahontas. The man who in the ninties lost more than any other person in the US and ran for office on his business record.

That is why trump is given so much forgiveness. Grab a woman by the "p" did he lie about doing it? no he said he said it, but it is locker room talk.. Meh... why? because he is a playboy billionaire not a holier than thou politician. Trump is trump, he is what the constitution writers planned for.. a citizen, not a life long career politician, but a business man who is apart of the great mass of people flaws and all to be appointed leader!

If its about lying then you should watch anything he says for about five seconds. He lies more than he tells the truth. I cant remember a time he said something that turned out to be completely true.

8)preservation of the US constitution as the forefathers planed it. know it or not on the left there is a huge movement to stifle free speech freedom of religion and the right to bear arms. with a "dim in office the supreme court was to empty out for fresh blood on the "dims' side (albeit they justices are supposed to be neutral) Clinton vowed to fill the court who saw the constitution as a 'living document.' Trump vowed and has made choices to the bench that maintains the constitution and bill of rights as they where originally written.

He tramples over and ignores the constitution when it suits him.

IE the Dims voted for a change of the 1st amendment that chaned it from freedom of speech to freedom of reasonable speech. and the lower house voted on this and the dims passed the "reasonable speech" and voted down the original 1st amendment freedom n all speech.

9) because we know indoctrination is not the same as education, and are not afraid of people on the left calling us names or cutting us out of their elitist club.

10) trump ties us to our proud past or the parts of our past we can be proud of rather than shaming everyamerican for every sin our forbearers made. we are the hard working calluses hands sore sun burned back of this country and we will not be told what is right by people who put men in dresses in the same bathroom as a little girl. Again not that we have to hate that broken man, but at the same time we do not have to put our children and wives in danger for the sake of people who want to pretend there is nothing at all wrong with this. We are tired of the nut bags telling common sense folk what is right and what is wrong. Again common sense people don't have to hate anyone. that is what nut baggers do (if it is not the same hate it/make them feel unwelcome and not part of the club) however at the same time if you do not want to play by society's rules then you also should remove the expectations of polite society.

Trump allows you guys to have your space to be as nutty as you like pushing the idea of unisex bathrooms meaning anyone not wanted to be gender assigned to use one room or another to poop or pee can come together in one place... where as the last guy demanded everyone just accept a guy in a dress in the woman's locker room.

Not specificall about this one subject but the over all meeting in the middle where the left demands my way only.

So basically you are wrong on every thought you have on the subject. No surprise there.