General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMy opinion of why Trump supporters are unnaturally loyal to him.
There's been a symbiotic relationship established. They more than identify with Trump. They are him. He literally speaks for them.
When Trump is criticized, insulted, not appreciated for all the hard work he's done for everybody (in their minds, not mine), etc., they absorb the criticism as though it was originally directed at them. When Trump is called stupid, a dullard, crazy, insane, a racist, it's the same as if the critics were calling them dirt-eating white trash who count for nothing. And perhaps more importantly, this criticism challenges, if not destroys, their republican delusions that they too can become impossibly rich like Trump with the right economy in place.
And that's why they'll never leave his side.
You could have video of him, caught in flagrante delicto, in bed with half a dozen hookers peeing on him and it won't push an inch between them and him. They blindly follow him like their minister (more or less the same thing in their eyes) because they've given up hope with everyone and everything else.
OAITW r.2.0
(24,610 posts)That is their calculus. The following reality be damned. Hard to get stupid people to admit they were stupid.
Motownman78
(491 posts)to admit being stupid" is probably why the 33% still support him more then any other reason. If you work, think about all the CYA that goes on in the workplace. A lot of people have a hard time admitting that they were wrong.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,838 posts)Hardly better than Jim Jones or David Koresh or L. Ron Hubbard or any number of other cult leaders. The leader can do no wrong and is believed absolutely, and his followers will do anything, including commit crimes, to defend the leader.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)IluvPitties
(3,181 posts)His supporters feel like they own the world, because they perceive Donny does...
thbobby
(1,474 posts)Rich white trash who all white trash wish they were.
rich, man-whore, bully, thieving. The dream of all poor white trash.
Binkie The Clown
(7,911 posts)Kristofer Bry
(175 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,458 posts)I hate to say it but there are many of us who feel just the same way regarding Barack Obama.
Drumpf IS "them" and despite the wealth that he was privileged to have thanks to his father and that he has placed around himself after conning people out of it or laundering it from others, he is STILL "like them" at the core. He is acting in the same manner that THEY would act if placed in the same position.
thegoose
(3,115 posts)Is spelled R-u-s-s-i-a.
Scary times, my friends. Scary times.
customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)but I see something darker.
They hate us. They absolutely freaking hate our guts.
Anything that pisses us off, no matter what else comes of it, they're happy. And they know Trump is the ultimate middle finger stuck in our faces. And it doesn't matter what else he does, even if he goes all nicey-nicey on "Chuck and Nancy" every once in awhile. They know he's going to be back to Mr. Asshole in no more than a couple of days, tops. And they know that it will confound Sen. Schumer and Rep. Pelosi to see him turn on them again so quickly.
progree
(10,918 posts)RandomAccess
(5,210 posts)I think it's because at heart they're fascists. And note that this was written before Trump was inaugurated.
In an interview with Slate, the historian of fascism Robert Paxton warns against describing Donald Trump as fascist because its almost the most powerful epithet you can use. But in this case, the shoe fits. And here is why.
Like Mussolini, Trump rails against intruders (Mexicans) and enemies (Muslims), mocks those perceived as weak, encourages a violent reckoning with those his followers perceive as the enemy within (the roughing up of protesters at his rallies), flouts the rules of civil political discourse (the Megyn Kelly menstruation spat), and promises to restore the nation to its greatness not by a series of policies, but by the force of his own personality (I will be great for fill in the blank).
To quote Paxton again, this time from his seminal "The Anatomy of Fascism": Fascist leaders made no secret of having no program. This explains why Trump supporters are not bothered by his ideological malleability and policy contradictions: He was pro-choice before he was pro-life; donated to politicians while now he rails against that practice; married three times and now embraces evangelical Christianity; is the embodiment of capitalism and yet promises to crack down on free trade. In the words of the Italian writer Umberto Eco, fascism was a beehive of contradictions. It bears noting that Mussolini was a socialist unionizer before becoming a fascist union buster, a journalist before cracking down on free press, a republican before becoming a monarchist.
Like Mussolini, Trump is dismissive of democratic institutions. He selfishly guards his image of a self-made outsider who will dismantle the establishment in the words of one of his supporters. That this includes cracking down on a free press by toughening libel laws, engaging in the ethnic cleansing of 11 million people (illegals), stripping away citizenship of those seen as illegitimate members of the nation (children of the illegals), and committing war crimes in the protection of the nation (killing the families of suspected terrorists) only enhances his stature among his supporters. The discrepancy between their love of America and these brutal and undemocratic methods does not bother them one iota. To borrow from Paxton again: Fascism was an affair of the gut more than of the brain. For Trump and his supporters, the struggle against political correctness in all its forms is more important than the fine print of the Constitution.
To be fair, there are many differences between Italian Fascism of interwar Europe and Trumpism of (soon to be) post-Obama America. For one, Mussolini was better read and more articulate than Trump. Starting out as a schoolteacher, the Italian Fascist read voraciously and was heavily influenced by the German and French philosophers Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Marie Guyau, respectively. I doubt Trump would know who either of these two people were. According to the Boston Globe, Trump speaks at the level of a fourth grader.....MORE AT LINK
https://www.salon.com/2016/03/11/trumps_not_hitler_hes_mussolini_how_gop_anti_intellectualism_created_a_modern_fascist_movement_in_america/
moondust
(20,006 posts)Drumpf declaring "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldnt lose voters" reflects about the same level of mindless obedience as would Jim Jones declaring that "I could tell my followers to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid and they would do it."
Very symbiotic. Very strong connection to the hard-core racists and xenophobes as well as those who worship money above all else.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)That covers it
they are one of those things or all 3