Why—and How—Is Trump's Base Still Loyal to a Guy Who Is a Proven Disaster?

[signalmankenneth]

Trump supporters haven't been swayed by empathy or appeals to logic. It's hard to appeal to logic when you're illogical from the start?!!

After all the lies, contradictions, hypocrisy, flip-flops, gaffes, unforced errors, self-pity, insults, provocations, threats, bullying, betrayals, disappointments, scapegoating, exploitation, nepotism, and corruption, why is Donald Trump still beloved by 35 percent of the country?

The most popular theory in the mainstream media is that Trumpists think Trump will bring jobs back. The hypothesis here is that their support for Trump derives entirely from economic anxiety over globalization, loss of manufacturing, the supposed failures of Obamacare, wage stagnation, income inequality, trade deficits, and soaring national debt. But economic angst does not really explain Trumpists’ unwavering devotion to Trump, whose cabinet appointments, executive orders and legislative proposals generally do not help or even pretend to help them.

Nor is the economic angst theory borne out by the evidence. As policy analyst Sean McElwee and Prof. Jason McDaniel recently wrote in The Nation, an analysis of “the comprehensive American National Election Studies pre- and post-election survey of over 4,000 respondents ... [yielded] little evidence to suggest individual economic distress benefited Trump” in the 2016 election.

And even though all the economic data indicate both that the unemployment rate is consistently below 5 percent and that immigrants help to improve the economy, Trumpists are determined to believe just the opposite.

Their resistance to the economic facts, then, must be motivated by some deeper, non-economic concern.

The left insists that this deeper concern is cultural: Trumpists love Trump because they share his racism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, and misogyny. There is much to be said for this hypothesis. Neither Trump nor Trumpists seem to take equality very seriously, even though it is a cardinal principle of the Declaration of Independence and 14th Amendment. Even in 2017, they harbor toxic, hierarchical views of race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion and a pathological need to feel superior to other groups of people. Their worst nightmare was the country almost replacing the first black president with the first female president.

In her book Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right [3] (New Press, 2016), Arlie Russell Hochschild paints a slightly more sympathetic picture of conservative Louisianans, and by extension, Trumpists generally. By Hochschild’s account, Trumpists feels as though the country “broke up” with them during the Obama era. They felt, and still feel, alienated by the left’s identity politics (“political correctness”), disparaged by the left’s opposition to traditional values (anti-gay rights, anti-abortion, anti-feminism, and religious faith), and weirdly threatened by the left’s view of government as an institution designed to solve problems that capitalism either creates or fails to solve.

All of this, plus the anger and hurt of feeling dumped, explains why Trumpists love Trump: he shares their bitterness and resentment. As long as he keeps giving all those self-righteous, contemptuous “elitists” the finger, a gesture that started with his birtherism, it doesn’t matter what else he says or does, how many lies he tells, how many mistakes he makes, or how many detrimental policies he advocates or enacts. All that matters is that he keep disrupting and subverting the arrogant, oppressive establishment—or “deconstruct[ing] the administrative state,” as Trump’s white nationalist advisor Steve Bannon put it.

Trumpists’ politics are ultimately rooted in raw emotion, not principles or thoughtful ideology. Much credit goes to such macho, anti-intellectual, grievance-stoking propagandists as Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and—until his recent termination by Fox News—Bill O’Reilly. Female commentators like Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter and Sarah Palin have also won their hearts (not minds) by routinely bashing the whiny, controlling, effeminate liberals.

It is not clear whether Democrats can win over these narrow-minded, cultish voters in 2018. They are just not amenable to rational debate about the merits of Obama-era regulations or the dangers of autocratic populism. So Frank Rich is right: Democrats should leave them alone. They should stop feigning empathy or trying to shape their policies around Trumpists’ bigoted worldview. It is a complete waste of candidates’ valuable time and resources.

Yes, Democrats should still advocate progressive policies in all 50 states. But they should also keep in mind that these efforts don’t satisfy Trumpists, don’t alleviate their self-inflicted wounds or quench their thirst for retribution, nearly as effectively as childish insults and petty name-calling. Because Trump will always beat his competitors at these primal diversions, Democrats should concentrate entirely on uniting and motivating the other 65 percent who are already in their camp. That’s more than enough to win most state and federal elections.

One thing is certain: given recent events, Republicans don’t get to yell and scream about national security—or emails, private servers, or Benghazi—ever again. Nor do they get to yell and scream about pretty much anything else. Their ignorant, narcissistic, unprincipled, and unpatriotic standard-bearer has cost them whatever moral high ground they pretended to have for at least a generation.

By Ken Levy

[cawacko]

Fresh new take. Thanks Ken.

[GazzaQueen]

He's a disaster for the prog cucks, that's for sure. They can't win an election to save their tears.

[tsuke]

at the end of the day voters were given a choice which direction the country should go in. You can say the employment rate is 100%. If the people are deeper in debt and making less money they are not going to believe it.

[christiefan915]

at the end of the day voters were given a choice which direction the country should go in. You can say the employment rate is 100%. If the people are deeper in debt and making less money they are not going to believe it.

Another broken promise.

Trump Dumps 'Clean Coal' Research Despite Lauding Its Potential

President Donald Trump promised his administration would bring about “clean coal,” but his budget proposed slashing research the industry says it needs to make that a reality.

The Energy Department has spent more than $200 million a year on research into ways to capture and store the carbon dioxide emitted when coal is burned to make electricity. Under Trump’s proposal released Tuesday that would be cut to $31 million, an 85 percent reduction.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...-its-potential

[Nomad]

Because they are too GUTLESS to admit they were taken for CHUMPS.

[zappasguitar]

Trump supporters haven't been swayed by empathy or appeals to logic. It's hard to appeal to logic when you're illogical from the start?!!

After all the lies, contradictions, hypocrisy, flip-flops, gaffes, unforced errors, self-pity, insults, provocations, threats, bullying, betrayals, disappointments, scapegoating, exploitation, nepotism, and corruption, why is Donald Trump still beloved by 35 percent of the country?

The most popular theory in the mainstream media is that Trumpists think Trump will bring jobs back. The hypothesis here is that their support for Trump derives entirely from economic anxiety over globalization, loss of manufacturing, the supposed failures of Obamacare, wage stagnation, income inequality, trade deficits, and soaring national debt. But economic angst does not really explain Trumpists’ unwavering devotion to Trump, whose cabinet appointments, executive orders and legislative proposals generally do not help or even pretend to help them.

Nor is the economic angst theory borne out by the evidence. As policy analyst Sean McElwee and Prof. Jason McDaniel recently wrote in The Nation, an analysis of “the comprehensive American National Election Studies pre- and post-election survey of over 4,000 respondents ... [yielded] little evidence to suggest individual economic distress benefited Trump” in the 2016 election.

And even though all the economic data indicate both that the unemployment rate is consistently below 5 percent and that immigrants help to improve the economy, Trumpists are determined to believe just the opposite.

Their resistance to the economic facts, then, must be motivated by some deeper, non-economic concern.

The left insists that this deeper concern is cultural: Trumpists love Trump because they share his racism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, and misogyny. There is much to be said for this hypothesis. Neither Trump nor Trumpists seem to take equality very seriously, even though it is a cardinal principle of the Declaration of Independence and 14th Amendment. Even in 2017, they harbor toxic, hierarchical views of race, ethnicity, nationality, and religion and a pathological need to feel superior to other groups of people. Their worst nightmare was the country almost replacing the first black president with the first female president.

In her book Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right [3] (New Press, 2016), Arlie Russell Hochschild paints a slightly more sympathetic picture of conservative Louisianans, and by extension, Trumpists generally. By Hochschild’s account, Trumpists feels as though the country “broke up” with them during the Obama era. They felt, and still feel, alienated by the left’s identity politics (“political correctness”), disparaged by the left’s opposition to traditional values (anti-gay rights, anti-abortion, anti-feminism, and religious faith), and weirdly threatened by the left’s view of government as an institution designed to solve problems that capitalism either creates or fails to solve.

All of this, plus the anger and hurt of feeling dumped, explains why Trumpists love Trump: he shares their bitterness and resentment. As long as he keeps giving all those self-righteous, contemptuous “elitists” the finger, a gesture that started with his birtherism, it doesn’t matter what else he says or does, how many lies he tells, how many mistakes he makes, or how many detrimental policies he advocates or enacts. All that matters is that he keep disrupting and subverting the arrogant, oppressive establishment—or “deconstruct[ing] the administrative state,” as Trump’s white nationalist advisor Steve Bannon put it.

Trumpists’ politics are ultimately rooted in raw emotion, not principles or thoughtful ideology. Much credit goes to such macho, anti-intellectual, grievance-stoking propagandists as Alex Jones, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and—until his recent termination by Fox News—Bill O’Reilly. Female commentators like Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter and Sarah Palin have also won their hearts (not minds) by routinely bashing the whiny, controlling, effeminate liberals.

It is not clear whether Democrats can win over these narrow-minded, cultish voters in 2018. They are just not amenable to rational debate about the merits of Obama-era regulations or the dangers of autocratic populism. So Frank Rich is right: Democrats should leave them alone. They should stop feigning empathy or trying to shape their policies around Trumpists’ bigoted worldview. It is a complete waste of candidates’ valuable time and resources.

Yes, Democrats should still advocate progressive policies in all 50 states. But they should also keep in mind that these efforts don’t satisfy Trumpists, don’t alleviate their self-inflicted wounds or quench their thirst for retribution, nearly as effectively as childish insults and petty name-calling. Because Trump will always beat his competitors at these primal diversions, Democrats should concentrate entirely on uniting and motivating the other 65 percent who are already in their camp. That’s more than enough to win most state and federal elections.

One thing is certain: given recent events, Republicans don’t get to yell and scream about national security—or emails, private servers, or Benghazi—ever again. Nor do they get to yell and scream about pretty much anything else. Their ignorant, narcissistic, unprincipled, and unpatriotic standard-bearer has cost them whatever moral high ground they pretended to have for at least a generation.

By Ken Levy

Its simple, Ken.

The GOP and Trumpkins care more about pissing off and "getting even with" liberals than they care about the lies being told by the Trump administration.

[Nomad]

Its simple, Ken.

The GOP and Trumpkins care more about pissing off and "getting even with" liberals than they care about the lies being told by the Trump administration.

Their entire existences are based upon and revolve around anger, resentment and revenge.

Mostly about money, taxes and social programs.

[BRUTALITOPS]

it's very simple, not everyone thinks like you. arrogant liberals think everyone agrees with them due to their culture privilege. This is not the case. The world you thought you lived in was a lie. Maybe you should ponder going to the conservatives side instead of expecting them all to come home to you.

[anatta]

The left insists that this deeper concern is cultural: Trumpists love Trump because they share his racism, Islamophobia, anti-semitism, and misogyny. There is much to be said for this hypothesis.

Frank Rich is right: Democrats should leave them alone. . It is a complete waste of candidates’ valuable time and resources.

works for me..

[zappasguitar]

Their entire existences are based upon and revolve around anger, resentment and revenge.

Mostly about money, taxes and social programs.

When the GOP talks about wanting to return the country to "the good ol days", they mean the days when "certain Americans" only counted as 3/5ths of a person, when a man could make money by selling a product or service and didn't have to worry if his product killed anyone, and when a woman stayed barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.

[Buckly J. Ewer]

The republican racist base still believe Trump an Bannon will deliver on their racist, bigoted promises from the campaign.
Think about it...
They have nowhere else to turn.
They will stick with the orange clown to his end.

[Buckly J. Ewer]

When the GOP talks about wanting to return the country to "the good ol days", they mean the days when "certain Americans" only counted as 3/5ths of a person, when a man could make money by selling a product or service and didn't have to worry if his product killed anyone, and when a woman stayed barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.

They are neanderthals...
Trump is their last gasp.

[GazzaQueen]

He's the guy who putted Hillary into the hole for a birdie.

[cawacko]

When the GOP talks about wanting to return the country to "the good ol days", they mean the days when "certain Americans" only counted as 3/5ths of a person, when a man could make money by selling a product or service and didn't have to worry if his product killed anyone, and when a woman stayed barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.

Arguably the biggest reason for wealth differences between whites and blacks is housing. Yet liberals across the country fight to restrict new housing development in their well to do neighborhoods to protect their property values. Yet it is considered a "progressive" value. Great friend/allies to have huh?