Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

babylonsister

(171,070 posts)
Tue Jun 19, 2018, 09:25 AM Jun 2018

Has Trump Overestimated the Cruelty of His Own Supporters?

http://prospect.org/article/has-trump-overestimated-cruelty-his-own-supporters

Has Trump Overestimated the Cruelty of His Own Supporters?
Paul Waldman
June 17, 2018
After his family separation policy ignited a conservative backlash, Trump tried to pin the new initiative on Democrats.

snip//

When the president says "I hate the children being taken away," he's lying, just as surely as he's lying about this all being the fault of the Democrats. If he were telling the truth, he'd do something about it. But this is the path he chose, precisely because he saw traumatizing children and parents as an effective tool to deter immigration.

While most of us would not characterize Donald Trump as a particularly smart man, he has long possessed a kind of dark genius for locating and exploiting what is worst in people
. As a businessman he harnessed people's greed and envy to enrich himself, while as a politician he cultivated resentment, hatred, and fear. Few people realized that those malevolent forces could be so powerful they would overcome any hesitation voters might have about electing such an obviously corrupt con artist to the most powerful position on earth, but about that at least, he was right.

Yet today he's testing the limits of the voters and Republican politicians who helped him become president. How much hypocrisy will the "family values" party tolerate? How much cruelty can they stomach? Do they really see immigrants, even children, as subhuman?

The reaction to this ongoing controversy suggests that as a group, conservatives may not be quite as sadistic as the president hoped they would be. It's hard to find more than a few Republicans not in Trump's direct employ who are willing to publicly defend this policy, even if most of them respond in that tone we've gotten used to, the one that says, "I'm deeply uncomfortable with this, but please don't ask me if I'm going to do anything about it."

If nothing else, supporting the president for the last couple of years has not left them without a few remaining ounces of shame. Imagine what would happen if they actually stood up to him.
24 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Has Trump Overestimated the Cruelty of His Own Supporters? (Original Post) babylonsister Jun 2018 OP
NO DemocratSinceBirth Jun 2018 #1
He has under-estimated their cruelity randr Jun 2018 #2
+1000 Blue_Tires Jun 2018 #21
Doubt it. nt Guy Whitey Corngood Jun 2018 #3
No hatrack Jun 2018 #4
No edhopper Jun 2018 #5
He hasn't yet begun. Volaris Jun 2018 #6
Trump supporters are idiots and racists Gothmog Jun 2018 #7
No, but perhaps he's underestimated his moderate and independent supporters Johonny Jun 2018 #8
Nope. They thrive on seeing the "other side" suffer Freethinker65 Jun 2018 #9
His supporters are cut from the same piece of cloth he is, and it's rotten and diseased. n/t RKP5637 Jun 2018 #10
Crimes against humanity are a feature and not a bug to Trump supporters. DemocratSinceBirth Jun 2018 #11
Overestimate the cruelty and selfishness of his base? Marcuse Jun 2018 #12
woe, woe heaven05 Jun 2018 #24
Oh, hell no jberryhill Jun 2018 #13
not for 99.9% nt. heaven05 Jun 2018 #14
It sure doesn't look that way DFW Jun 2018 #15
This will be a key issue in the midterms Gothmog Jun 2018 #16
No !!!! SamKnause Jun 2018 #17
Heavens no this is a huge winner for him among his base BannonsLiver Jun 2018 #18
Trump is using the word infest with respect to human beings Gothmog Jun 2018 #19
Not even close. If you can bring yourself to read them, COLGATE4 Jun 2018 #20
Interesting that ChicagoConservative27 hasn't figured out area51 Jun 2018 #22
My thoughts exactly! I'd be the first to support COLGATE4 Jun 2018 #23

Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
21. +1000
Tue Jun 19, 2018, 10:31 AM
Jun 2018

The only thing Trump has under-estimated was the backlash from the public and the media... His only strategy is to keep it together and ride out the storm long enough for us to 'normalize' it like we've done everything else...

At least until the next big thing comes along...

edhopper

(33,587 posts)
5. No
Tue Jun 19, 2018, 09:34 AM
Jun 2018

but we have to stop worrying about reaching his idiot supporters.

There aren't enough of them for him to win. We should look at those who were blind enough to vote for him, but didn't stop to look at what he would do.

Volaris

(10,272 posts)
6. He hasn't yet begun.
Tue Jun 19, 2018, 09:35 AM
Jun 2018

My gut tells me they might care if those were white kids, but even that seems dependant on the circumstances. His supporters don't seem to give a fuck if white kids get shot for going to school soooo...yeah.
Nope not even close. If anything, he's underestimated the levels of cruelty and hate they are capable of.

Johonny

(20,851 posts)
8. No, but perhaps he's underestimated his moderate and independent supporters
Tue Jun 19, 2018, 09:38 AM
Jun 2018

His base is lock solid disgusting people

 

heaven05

(18,124 posts)
24. woe, woe
Tue Jun 19, 2018, 12:40 PM
Jun 2018

woe. MAGA amerikkka, same as old time wild west, early slavery, genocidal ameriKKKa, segregationist ameriKKKa. A few bright, hopeful spots, some dreams dying with fatal doses of lead or are respected ex-POTUS'S. Millennia-old trees are dying off, recently. They feel and are nourished by this small finite ball of dirt.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/06/baobab-trees-dying-climate-change/562499/

We are hurting ourselves and our planet.

DFW

(54,405 posts)
15. It sure doesn't look that way
Tue Jun 19, 2018, 09:52 AM
Jun 2018

There will be the odd Republican here and there who discovers a conscience lurking where one was not suspected. However, by and large, I think most of them are perfectly happy. I've seen a few blog posts. Monotonously parroting "they broke the law," so they deserve whatever fate Sessions and Miller can dream up for them, blah, blah.

BannonsLiver

(16,396 posts)
18. Heavens no this is a huge winner for him among his base
Tue Jun 19, 2018, 10:10 AM
Jun 2018

They are beside themselves with joy and celebration of children in cages.

COLGATE4

(14,732 posts)
20. Not even close. If you can bring yourself to read them,
Tue Jun 19, 2018, 10:29 AM
Jun 2018

I put on a wet suit and went sewer diving over to Jim Bob's "site" to see what the great thinkers had to say about this. Here are some unedited samples. These people have gone way past any bottom known to any person with even a marginally functioning moral compass. Fair warning - you will need to take a shower after reading these gems!


To: ChicagoConservative27
Mass media is the propaganda wing of communism for the world. They will print and say anything to make it happen. We need a law that says if any news organization prints a politically false statement the owner gets the death penalty. Opinion stated as opinion will be exempt. How ever items reported or inferred to be the truth are w hat this law is for.


13 posted on 6/19/2018, 9:29:07 AM by
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ChicagoConservative27
In every conversation about it with liberals I lead with if I believed the picture of that little kid in a cage was real I’d be pissed too. Now the picture has an explanation which is a nice addition to the conversation. Then I channel my inner numbers USA and ask how many more third world citizens live in fear and poverty and how do you think we can help them all. That leads to help them there. If we haven’t reached reality by now they are no longer my friends. I will not let my friends compare me to Hitler and they should already know I care about my fellow man.


14 posted on 6/19/2018, 9:29:37 AM by ( I always smile when my competition doubles down on stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
To: ProtectOurFreedom
I didn’t get that far. I’m gonna ####ing throw up.

YOUR FRIEND WANTS BABIES ABORTED, THREAD POSTER. HE WANTS THE COUNTRY OVERRUN BY ILLEGALS THAT WILL NOT THINK TWICE ABOUT RAPING AND KILLING YOUR DAUGHTERS/WIFE/GIRLFRIEND/FIANCE/NIECE.
HE’D TAKE YOUR GUNS BY GUNPOINT, IRONICALLY.

But by all means, don’t lose that “friend”.


15 posted on 6/19/2018, 9:32:29 AM by (The Left should know if Trump is kicked out of office, it is WAR!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]
To: ChicagoConservative27
If he is going to the Hitler card, especially so soon, then he is not smart and has already lost the argument and is not susceptible to logic or reason. He is either crazy or dumb.


16 posted on 6/19/2018, 9:35:48 AM by

[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
To: ChicagoConservative27
I guess if I were born poor but wanted a “better life” I could break into some rich person’s home and they would have to feed me and provide shelter while some judge somewhere decided if I was going to be kicked out.


17 posted on 6/19/2018, 9:36:34 AM by (BUILD KATE'S WALL!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
To: ChicagoConservative27


I'm a pretty smart guy, but there was a time when I voted 'rat and frankly, didn't know jack $hit. I believed all the leftist mantras - "republicans only care about the wealthy", "republicans are racist", "republicans want old people to eat dog food", etc. I voted for Clinton in '92, but by '94, I was a full-fledged republican. The difference is that I educated myself in those two years. If your friend does not do likewise, he will continue to be clueless.

18 posted on 6/19/2018, 9:36:40 AM by (Time to get the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]
To: lgjhn23
“It’s eventually gonna come to a full boiling point where we’re no longer going to be able to coexist with these insane, violent tyrants. For our own survival, It’s gonna be ugly and bloody. They have started it, not us. We have very right to defend ourselves from em. And defend ourselves, we will.”

Sad, but true.

area51

(11,910 posts)
22. Interesting that ChicagoConservative27 hasn't figured out
Tue Jun 19, 2018, 10:44 AM
Jun 2018

that if they get "We need a law that says if any news organization prints a politically false statement the owner gets the death penalty.", Faux "news" will lose their owner to the death penalty.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Has Trump Overestimated t...