Does anyone understand Trumps base?

[ThinkingIsThinking]

I see that the Democrats are really nervous about the likelihood of  there being no minorities in the next debate. Democrat voters must be racist also.

Not wanting other races to be excluded is the opposite of racism.

[Chad32]

Have you ever read What’s the Matter with Kansas? it was written in 2004, and it’s specifically pursues the question of why the poorest parts of America. The answer, as Thomas Frank sees it:

: In order to explain to the "Cons" why no progress gets made on these issues, politicians and pundits point their fingers to a "liberal elite," a straw man representing everything that conservatism is not. When reasons are given, they eschew economic reasons in favor of accusing this elite of simply hating America, or having a desire to harm "average" Americans. This theme of victimization by these "elites" is pervasive in conservative literature, despite the fact that at the time conservatives controlled all three branches of government, were being served by an extensive media devoted only to conservative ideology, and had won 6 of the previous 9 presidential elections.

And it really helps that the Republicans really know how to pander to these, well, I’ll let Gene Wilder say it:

Why is Willy Wonka talking to a dude about morons? Is this what he did after he left the chocolate factory to Charlie?

[Pat Mustard]

Have you ever read What’s the Matter with Kansas? it was written in 2004, and it’s specifically pursues the question of why the poorest parts of America. The answer, as Thomas Frank sees it:


And it really helps that the Republicans really know how to pander to these, well, I’ll let Gene Wilder say it:

Why is Willy Wonka talking to a dude about morons? Is this what he did after he left the chocolate factory to Charlie?

Nah, that's what he did on his sabbatical, before hiring on the Oompa-Lompas.

[Rev. Rye]

Have you ever read What’s the Matter with Kansas? it was written in 2004, and it’s specifically pursues the question of why the poorest parts of America. The answer, as Thomas Frank sees it:


And it really helps that the Republicans really know how to pander to these, well, I’ll let Gene Wilder say it:

Why is Willy Wonka talking to a dude about morons? Is this what he did after he left the chocolate factory to Charlie?

I’d show you a clip, but given that it’s Blazing Saddles, it’d probably involve too many N-bombs to be acceptable, even if they are all in the context of 19th century white people being made to look like bigoted idiots, because they are.

[Chad32]

Maybe I'll find it myself somewhere.

[Fake Messiah]

Fool me once ... shame on you
Fool me twice ... shame on me
Fool me 20,000 times ... I'm a Trumper!

[EgoDeath]

So, much to my chagrin, I've talked to multiple people in my life who support Trump, including family members, friends, acquaintances and so on. I would say that the vast majority of people I know are Democrats, but I know plenty of Republicans as well. Among the reasons I hear for support for Trump, at least among those reasons that are spoken out loud, are:

-Trump is "not a politician"

-He "runs things like a business"

-He says what he wants and doesn't care about consequences or what people think

-They are sick of the "status quo," and being lied to by politicians, especially by Democrats

-They want someone who was willing to "shake things up"

-They truly believed he was going to change things for the better (this is among one of the dumber reasons, though all of them are pretty baseless if you give it a seconds thought)

-They believed he was for the working class (another really dumb reason)

-They thought he was going to "solve the immigration problem"

-They wanted revenge, i.e. someone who was willing to tell the world "Fuck you"

-They felt like America had grown weak, concerning its place in the world as a superpower

-They felt like America's economy has become wholly dependent on the service industry

-They feel like "we don't make anything in America anymore"

-They feel like "America should look out for Americans first"

...among many others. I've tried to copy some of these statements verbatim, but for others I've tried to just jot down the general sentiment of how these people think. As a disclaimer, none of these views are mine, and I don't agree with these ideas, nor do I think that any of these ideas or qualities are something that would or could be considered "presidential." This is further reason for me to believe that people don't give a flying fuck about what's presidential, and seem to identify with potential presidential candidates for reasons that are wholly primal and that it essentially has nothing to do with any of us having some nuanced, educated political viewpoint. Obviously, none of these ideas are new, but I just wanted to type out what I thought about this.

-

[no one]

[EgoDeath]

Plenty of homeless vagrants find their way into the Lincoln memorial every night. What's so special about that?

[Fake Messiah]

Are you afraid of Trump's truth?





But this is the typical language of a con man, it's so vague: "left wing lacks truth and is afraid of Trump's truth to save this country..." not only because you can put whatever meaning you want in those empty words, but also he doesn't have to address the specific facts.