General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIf You Want to Understand Trump and His Base
It is not too late to read "Bandits" by Eric Hobsbawn.
For instance, have you been knocking your head against the wall, trying to figure out why Trump keeps insisting that he believes that Roy Moore is innocent? It is not because he thinks Moore is innocent. It is not because he thinks his base or the rest of the GOP will think Moore is innocent. They know the man is guilty. But they do not care. For the self styled outlaws who worship Trump as their Bandit King, innocence and guilt matter not one bit. All they care about is loyalty. Like the loyalty of a mob boss to his thugs and the loyalty of the thugs towards their mob boss. Trump's law breaking, goose stepping, white hood wearing, Nazi flag waving, wife beating, tax dodging, meth snorting base believes that their Bandit King Trump will defend their right to do any good damn thing they want. And he has just proved it again by declaring a guilty-as-sin man "innocent."
Meanwhile, the Democrats have shown that they are willing to toss one of their own to the wolves for the flimsiest of reasons. Trump' base looks at how Dems have treated Franken and Conyers and they say to themselves "Those folks can not be trusted. They will turn on you."
If any Democrat seriously wants to win over Trump's base, they have to understand Trump's base. To them, loyalty means more than guilt or innocence. And yes, this is a fucked up morality. But it is what they have, and if you want to appeal to them, you have to talk to them in a language they understand. So, when trying to win over the base more about how Trump and the GOP are going to take their Medicare and Social Security and raise their taxes and less about how they protect sexual harasser and pedos.
Matthew28
(1,798 posts)Right on this.
We have to talk jobs, unions and making life better for everyone.
We have to defend our people at all cost.
rusty quoin
(6,133 posts)Hayduke Bomgarte
(1,965 posts)I haven't spoken language they'd understand since about the third grade.
BigmanPigman
(51,593 posts)since it is futile. I read an article and it was crystal clear why they love the fucking moron. It is a good read...check it out.
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/15/16144070/psychology-alt-right
Permanut
(5,608 posts)Spot on. Eric Hoffer also described this syndrome in The True Believer, where loyalty is all-consuming.
bobbieinok
(12,858 posts)YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)The Wielding Truth
(11,415 posts)power.
mahina
(17,659 posts)I'll check it out, mahalo.
dchill
(38,497 posts)Put a plastic bag over your head and do a lot of meth for, say, 3 weeks while reading the Old Testament upside down.
Then PRETEND you're way dumber and more prejudiced than that.
I'm guessing.
cyclonefence
(4,483 posts)Asserting that Trumps rise was primarily powered by cultural resentment and economic reversal has become de rigueur among white pundits and thought leaders. But evidence for this is, at best, mixed. In a study of preelection polling data, the Gallup researchers Jonathan Rothwell and Pablo Diego-Rosell found that people living in areas with diminished economic opportunity were somewhat more likely to support Trump. But the researchers also found that voters in their study who supported Trump generally had a higher mean household income ($81,898) than those who did not ($77,046). Those who approved of Trump were less likely to be unemployed and less likely to be employed part-time than those who did not. They also tended to be from areas that were very white: The racial and ethnic isolation of whites at the zip code level is one of the strongest predictors of Trump support.
An analysis of exit polls conducted during the presidential primaries estimated the median household income of Trump supporters to be about $72,000. But even this lower number is almost double the median household income of African Americans, and $15,000 above the American median. Trumps white support was not determined by income. According to Edison Research, Trump won whites making less than $50,000 by 20 points, whites making $50,000 to $99,999 by 28 points, and whites making $100,000 or more by 14 points. This shows that Trump assembled a broad white coalition that ran the gamut from Joe the Dishwasher to Joe the Plumber to Joe the Banker. So when white pundits cast the elevation of Trump as the handiwork of an inscrutable white working class, they are being too modest, declining to claim credit for their own economic class. Trumps dominance among whites across class lines is of a piece with his larger dominance across nearly every white demographic. Trump won white women (+9) and white men (+31). He won white people with college degrees (+3) and white people without them (+37). He won whites ages 1829 (+4), 3044 (+17), 4564 (+28), and 65 and older (+19). Trump won whites in midwestern Illinois (+11), whites in mid-Atlantic New Jersey (+12), and whites in the Sun Belts New Mexico (+5). In no state that Edison polled did Trumps white support dip below 40 percent. Hillary Clintons did, in states as disparate as Florida, Utah, Indiana, and Kentucky. From the beer track to the wine track, from soccer moms to nascar dads, Trumps performance among whites was dominant. According to Mother Jones, based on preelection polling data, if you tallied the popular vote of only white America to derive 2016 electoral votes, Trump would have defeated Clinton 389 to 81, with the remaining 68 votes either a toss-up or unknown.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/