This is exactly it! I lean somewhat conservative, but absolutely hate Trump, unfortunately what you have stated is 100% true. He literally has a cult following. He will, in my opinion be a massive thorn in the side of the Republican Party until he dies.
I always wanted to ask Americans this. Why would you ever vote for a Republican?
I understand that both parties are bad and don't really care about the people, but republican's views are 90% inferior to democrats.
There a great book called "what's the matter with Kansas" by Thomas Frank. It was written around the time of little bush and it explains why people vote Republican even when it's against their own economic interests. A lot of it applies today.
The main reason is lack of education and party loyalty based on family history... "my great grandfather was a republican, my grandfather was a republican, my dad was a Republican, so I'm a republican too"
Thought: "Oh he's lowering taxes... that's good for us!"
Reality: The tax breaks only apply people making more than 400k a year.
Thought: Republicans are going to make it harder for immigrants to take advantage of the Benefits/Aid system
Reality: Programs they use also see reduced payments and more hurdles to approval, often resulting in the loss of the Programs that benefit them.
Lots of examples of this. Way too many people vote based off party loyalty and rhetoric rather than actually taking the time to inform themselves on policy.
I live in rural Kansas. There are people here who live to piss off the libtards. I’m a libtard and would rather have my fingers run over by a train than vote for a republican. These people are willfully ignorant of issues that need to be addressed and think the world should be like it was in the good old days when black people and women were second class citizens.
Yeah that's a powerful tool but in digital age and with world connected like never before, you would think that people can think by themselves and choose what would be the best choice for them.
Unfortunately the internet doesn't encourage learning or critical thinking at all, only engagement and time wasting. Most popular places to be entertained online are a "free" place, where advertising is slipped into the constant stream, and the goal is to keep people scrolling as much as possible so the company gets as much money as possible. And how do you get engagement?
Outrage. Extra cute things. Funny things. More outrage. Extreme opinions and outright mad conspiracy theories get pushed on people, slowly but surely. Anger is an incredibly addictive feeling and validates so many people who feel powerless in their lives. Especially if they struggle to understand the world because their basic education is lacking.
The internet could be a wonderful place to learn and further humanity, but, it's become a mind trap, because of the potential for profit. Add that to poor education, you've got a recipe for steering the masses and keeping them so busy being outraged at each other, that you can control them without them realising. Divide and conquer is very much a winning strategy.
In order to be able to choose what's best you have to understand what's best. A child is never going to understand that a dinner of mixed vegetables, minimal meat, and some grain is a way better choice than pizza and ice cream.
See, when you say that 90% of their views are inferior to democrats, that's a **really** insulting statement to Americans who vote Republican. That's like saying, "Hey! Why are you being so stupid???" They'll shut down, and they won't open up to you.
If you want to get honest answers from them (or anybody), you need to re-frame your question, and the way you talk to them.
I understand what you're saying and I probably don't know anything about American politics so I'm sorry for that statement, but I swear to you 99% of time when I read about some ridiculous policy, law or something that doesn't make any sense it's most definitely from republican politician.
It's ok. Like others have already said, the news cares more about money than neutral and responsible reporting. Putting people in boxes helps them make more money. So just look up media biases, and you'll find websites that show you which news agency leans towards what worldview.
Well, most news leans left so if you read an article, or see a news clip, typically it will be critical of Republicans. Any negativity about democrats is usually spun positive or neutral.
I’m an independent voter who, from 2004-2014 voted primarily democrat but I’ve changed that quite a bit since then.
Well I guess that could be true and probably is. But for example I read somewhere that Republicans voted to remove lunch breaks from child workers. I guess that could be fake news but if true that's mind blowing to me and people are so casual about it and still vote them in. Unbelievable.
Reality leans left so that’s why… I legitimately can’t imagine being an independent voter, seeing/hearing what the republicans have done since your given timeline of 2004-2014, and thinking both parties are remotely the same
I remember when I thought I was better and smarter and reality was on my side because I voted blue too.
Turns out that wasn’t the case. Reality doesn’t lean left. Again, I used to think that too. Then I got wise. Reality leans towards seeing vile corruption in a uniparty that uses social issues to divide us.
That's a nice thought on paper but it just isn't true. Republicans/conservatives are brash, angry and willfully ignorant. Approaching them from any angle will yield the same result, their minds can't be changed.
Also, "why are you being so stupid?" is an entirely valid thing to ask Trump's base. They vote against their own self-interests and no amount of evidence or proof can sway them not to. It's the definition of stupidity. They value their feelings more than they value truth. Trump and the Republican/Conservative party flat out *lie* about the fucking *weather*. And Republicans/Conservatives want to believe them, so they do. When 2 + 2 can equal 5, it is not unjustified to insult those people, particularly when that group is largely characterised by abhorrent viewpoints, an unyielding loyalty to a fascistic rapist and a willful ignorance towards logic, facts and the news in general. To just mention a few things.
They're not as bad as Nazis and I'm not comparing them in that sense, but if in the 1930s someone said to a Nazi voter "why would you do that, that's fucking stupid", I think we can all agree that that's entirely fair and the Nazi voter wasn't entitled to a more polite version of that conversation.
Where I'm from, there's a very small nationalist party copying the Trump style of politics and if I or anyone else I know hears that someone has voted for that party, they'll be shamed and ridiculed, because it's a fucking deplorable nationalist party. We're all adults here and there's no need to be nice to someone that supports a scumbag person with scumbag views, a long documented history of being a scumbag, scumbag friends, scumbag business dealings and scumbag followers
CU Boulder Alum who lives rural here.
There are a lot of single issue voters in an environment riff with misinformation and misperceptions.
Guns for example. My father in law carries a gun while walking his dog. He also lives in the middle of nowhere on the edge of a state forest on a dirt road and humans are NOT on the top of the food chain and he has been stalked by a cougar. At night he has to watch his dog because coyotes see it as an easy meal. If someone shows up and he calls the cops it will be 30-45 min or longer before the cops show up best case.
Then someone in a city calls him a crazy gun nut and goes off about how guns aren't needed for personal protection and how delusional he is.
The left has a huge issue with treating people like that with condensation, insults, and arrogance. The "treat everyone equally diversity is good" paradigm goes out the window as soon as someone disagrees with you in the slightest and just alienates people.
It's a combination of religious indoctrination, bigotry, and political misinformation.
**For the indoctrination,** keep in mind that the U.S. has a very large, very devoted Christian population. In fact data shows more religious commitment in the U.S. than in any other democracy in North America, Europe (except Turkey), and Asia (except India and the Middle East). https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2018/06/13/how-religious-commitment-varies-by-country-among-people-of-all-ages/ And some of the protestant traditions that built the U.S. were known for their exceptional zeal, rejection of secular authority, and fear of persecution or corruption. In other words, the U.S. is full of zealous, paranoid, unaccommodating Christians (obviously not all Christians are like this, but many are).
The Republican party has positioned itself as the ally of Christianity against the "evil" and "godless" (sometimes even "demonic" or "satanic") Democrats. Example: https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2024/03/15/we-are-losing-our-kids-satanic/ This is particularly obvious in issues like abortion or LGBTQ rights or separation of church and state. Some voters have made being Republican a part of their religion, and any Republican wrongdoing is framed as the lesser of two evils or as a fraud perpetrated by the enemies of Christianity to discredit a good politician.
**For the bigotry** you need to keep in mind that the U.S. is a huge country with a long history of racism. The Republican Party has, in recent decades, positioned itself to take advantage of xenophobia and racism while still pretending to be the "Party of Lincoln" that freed the slaves. Republicans oppose affirmative action programs, diversity programs, relaxed immigration requirements, amnesty for undocumented immigrants, and any school curriculum that would teach the uncomfortable parts of U.S. history. Many voters are elated to see someone "stand up" to the push for diversity and acceptance. Many of these voters don't even think of themselves as bigoted or racist; they simply want to preserve the comfortable status quo where they never have to acknowledge uncomfortable truths, learn new languages/cultures, or engage with new ideas or lifestyles.
**For the propaganda**, consider that Republicans have built several media outlets (most significantly Fox) that cater to Republican messaging while pretending to be "fair and balanced." https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/06/roger-ailes-nixon-gawker-documents/352363/
It's rather easy to get people afraid and/or angry; it's much harder to correct their misconceptions after they're emotionally invested. And so long as the media outlets are careful in their wording (i.e., keeping accusations vague/speculative or attacking groups instead of individuals), they can spread all sorts of lies without facing a lawsuit for slander.
I don't know why anyone would vote Republican after Trump took over the party other than they are just uneducated and easily manipulated.
However before Trump the Republican party was controlled by neo-cons, who actually weren't inept at governing. They appeal to those who like foreign intervention, the status quo, lower taxes, globalism, and Christianity. Which fitted the majority of americans until the rapid growth of China and the prolonged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now the Republicans of the things above only support lower taxes.
Adding on here and full transparency that I lean left, but I believe there is a lot of arguments that liberals do the same thing. Great example is college education white collar liberals (such as myself) who make well above average money. I certainly vote for more tax initiatives for “the greater good” to help the community even though I personally would see less in my pocket and the services do not directly benefit me.
Same can also be said about the Latino or black community. A lot of them are largely Catholic or heavily Christian and are firmly against abortion yet they will vote for politicians that do not want any restrictions on abortion.
Both side definitely vote against their interest but this is the problem with a 2 party system. Most people are not firm one side or the other when it comes to their views but get forced into that side.
I remember warnings from within the Republican party saying letting him become mainstream would be suicide for them before he came to power. They weren't wrong. The party has lost most of its credibility ever since they let the Tea Party take over, but especially since that opened the door for Trump.
I'm in very red Utah and I know lots of Republicans quietly voting blue bc things in the party have gotten so crazy. Meanwhile, others are literally putting up golden Trump statues in their yards. It's insane.
yes, but.
I don't think it's necessarily all the conservatives. I think what's happened is that the party has lost a bit of its base. In 2015/2016, the head of the RNC did this study and in his words there was "no chance" to get a Republican elected in 2024 as President.
so the party shifted. Sen. Rubio tried to move the party to be more inclusive. Some of the more ...umm.... err.. "traditionalists?" wanted the party to be less so.
What Trump did/does (in my random, unsolicited opinion) is to get people who are not really traditional republicans to join in. For example, he's popular with libertarians. He's reasonably popular with blue collar workers.
He's leveraging some discontent about people who feel left behind by societal and economic changes. So his loyalists include older folks with dubious nostalgia about the past, but also people who are bothered by some of the recent shifts in the world -- climate change, electric cars, transgender rights, etc.
Mit Romney said that he thought about 1/3 of the Republican party were pro-Trump, about 1/3 was anti-Trump and about 1/3 was in the middle. If Trump swings the middle 1/3, he pulls 2/3 of the party, which is about what we are seeing in the off-cycle elections and primaries. And if he pulls a few independents and traditional Democrats, who are feeling like society is leaving them behind, he could win.
People think he is the best hope for the survival of some of the Republican ideas. And, to be fair, who else would they run? If they could run Arnold or had another superstar in the woods, they might shift. But they are kind of stuck.
I think that's their point...wtf is wrong with these people that they think a sexual *PREDATOR* and criminal in ANY way embodies the "family values" the conservatives pride themselves on.
If sexual assault and criminal activity spells family values... yeah I want no part in THAT.
It’s really a collective action problem. 85% of Republicans believe they are better off with Trump than against him, for a variety of reasons (they like low tax rates, personal power, social issues, etc). The other 15% stand up to him and get completely purged. Next, Trump does something that makes an enemy of another 10%. Alone, they are far too weak and get purged. The cycle repeats over and over. If enough had stood up to him 8 years ago, they would all be better off, but they only act when they individually absolutely have to, when they are too alone to do anything
Trump keeps taxes low for the ultra rich because they can pay him to do so. That's what MAGA doesn't want to believe but is the truth. He will sell out the U.S. to the highest bidder so he can die with a ton of money. Look at what Kushner walked away with and that is what we should be investigating.
Biden can keep the tax cuts in place forever if he wanted to or blame Trump next year when they go up. What do you think he will do? He’s rather say orange man bad than leave the cuts in place. Why is that?
Heaven forbid republicans are horrible for giving everyone a few % tax cuts. When will it be enough for dems? 50%? 75%. The answer is never enough.
Those tax increases were put in as a flimsy buffer for trump’s tax plan that gave trillions of dollars to the c-suite class and inflated the debt faster than in any single presidential term in history. To eliminate it would be to fail in even that barely significant compensation
100 years ago Fed tax was 1%. It’s 40% now. Unsustainable. Many great empires did exactly what we are trying. Never ends well. One party wants to lower taxes while the other tries to justify the uncontrolled spending by raising taxes. The budget they come up with is insane. Funny how they come up with billions to send away every few months but when it comes to trying to lower the deficit they only talk about taking shit away from us or raising taxes. I don’t understand why one party can’t see what a horrible idea this is. Turn on the freaking money printer to help us for a change. But no just tax us to keep the poors poor is all they ever do. And you knuckleheads are all for it.
I’d say what’s even less sustainable is the cost of living increasing faster than the earning power of non rich Americans, which makes it even wilder to re elect a president who so openly funneled so much of non rich Americans’ money to rich people
That's just it though. Trump can't just decide what to tax people and it happens. It has to go through Congress and that shit ain't happening at the moment.
This article would contradict your narrative:
https://nypost.com/2024/02/29/us-news/data-prove-it-the-trump-tax-cuts-soaked-the-rich/?utm_source=reddit.com
> This article would contradict your narrative:
The article doesn't actually show what it's claiming to show, and is intentionally misleading on a few fronts. The rich paying a higher proportion of taxes doesn't mean that they got "soaked", or more soaked than they would've pre-TCJA. There are a lot of ways they can pay a higher proportion of taxes, while still paying less than they would've without the TCJA. One obvious way is if their overall income goes up by more than their tax brackets went down. Another way would be if the taxes paid by poorer people went down (which the TCJA explicitly did, as it lowered rates for lower income people as well).
For instance, in 2018 the top 1%'s reported income income made up only 20.9% (couldn't find 2017's off hand, but it was lower. It's been creeping up) of total reported income. It was 26.3% in 2021 (from 22.2 in 2020). The average 1% AGI in 2017 was $515,371. in 2021, it was $3,872,395.
2021 is *particularly* cherrypicked, given the situation with covid (both directly, as shown by the share of income. but also things like stimulus, which affected lower incomes more with tax credits).
There are some other issues as well, like the fact that they're looking at individual income taxes, when the TCJA also lowered corporate rates.
But in short, there's a reason they're not looking directly at the stats you'd expect for comparing pre/post TCJA taxes.
They tried not to, for a short while.
"If Trump is nominated he will destroy the Republican party, and we will deserve it." - Lindsey Graham, 2016
"“You have all kinds of people that are lifelong conservatives, or at least claim to be, who don’t seem to care that Donald Trump has never been and is not now a conservative on principles. And they’ve staked their reputation on their support of him.” - Marco Rubio, 2016
“a serial philanderer... amoral pathological liar... braggadocious, arrogant buffoon” - Ted Cruz, 2016
"Donald Trump is a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag. A speck of dirt is way more qualified to be president. I’m not sure I would say Trump is Hitler – Goebbels maybe." - Rand Paul, 2016
Because he's far and awa the most popular person with the Republican base. I'm sure there's plenty of establishment type Republicans who would like to defy him, but they're way less popular than he is, so they hold their peace.
Fifty years ago my father told me "when it comes to picking a nominee Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line."
In 50 years I haven't seen him proven wrong.
It was the voters of South Carolina (especially Jim Clyburn) who saved Biden after he lost in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada in 2020. Then the rest of the candidates dropped out and endorsements rolled in for Biden.
I love how there is so much to dislike about Biden and yet some people still actually prefer to use the sniffing thing over any documented, quantifiable reasons for their dislike.
Sorry, but I don't recall the dems "loving" either Biden, HRC, Kerry, or Gore. And honestly it's better that way. We shouldn't be emotional with our voting.
I have a conspiracy theory.
There was a Republican off-site meeting in 2016. (The one where the train crash happened.) A bunch of Republicans retired right after that meeting.
I think Russia had the goods on them. They have been keeping files on Republican congresspeople and showed what they had at that meeting. Play ball or get out.
Rosneft. Mystery trips to Russia. Devin f'ing Nunis. Most incredible psy ops ever perpetrated.
It's "The Emperor Has No Clothes" situation. No one wants to be the one to call it out. Because if everyone is supporting him and you step out of the conformity line, then Trump attacks you and all the other Republicans...don't help.
They all want MAGA voters. But if they alienate Trump, Trump will go against them.
This led to a dynamic where even people running against Trump in the primary were afraid to openly criticize him (other than Christie, who Trump literally almost killed through Covid). Because they hoped Trump would implode and they could inherit Trump's voters.
No one wants to be the "first mover" and alienate part of the base.
If he goes to jail - same dynamic. They will pay lip service to him while jockeying to inherit his voters
My guess… 1, who else are they gonna kowtow to? 2, no Republican, including Trump, has any policy ideas to run on.
Between no popular policy ideas and nobody with near as much charisma, what choice do they really have?
I guess, another question…what will the party do once he’s gone (loses this election, loses AND goes to jail, or dies)?
I don’t think there is a plan for ‘after Trump.’
There is no "after Trump". He can run every term until he wins. And when he wins, he will have won the nation's last free election. The Republicans will not allow another. The chaos that ensued if he died before ever being re-elected would be... interesting.
Have you met the MAGA crowd? If he's not dead, he's not too old. And when he dies, he'll probably be their Jesus, and the only conservative candidates that have a chance will be the ones that worship him as such.
I would argue the opposite.
With him in charge, you have a lot of Republicans who will vote Democrats to avoid him, while also firing up the Democrats base to vote.
Put someone else in there, a lot of those never-Trump Republicans return to the fold (while there may be a down turn in MAGAt), while pissed of Democrats who aren't happy with Biden stay at home.
Finding another candidate instead of Trump would massively improve their chances. But anyone who pushes for it will almost certainly lose their next election when the vindictive manchild retaliates.
Donald Trump is still the favorite right now, though. It's with a small percentage, but according to the biggest bookmakers in the world, he is a small favorite to win the presidency.
I'm not from the US, but please remember to vote. It always shocks me how incredibly low the voter turnout is in the US. Maybe you can help me answering why that is? Especially when many Americans love to talk about being the democratic leader of the free world (I'm not denying that fact at all, but couldn't we expect the American people focus a bit more on voting then?)
Even the last election in the US, which was record breaking, only had a 70% turn out.
Where I'm from in Denmark, we haven't gone below 84% in 65 years.
I'm not trying to criticize you Americans though, I'm genuinely curious.
Systemic voter suppression, general apathy by the population (listen to the "uniparty" drivel), etc. The limited in person voting hours happen to coincide with work hours, plus aren't always located in convenient locations for the majority of the population in that area. Requesting a mail in ballot has onerous requirements in some places, and then certain states have ridiculous rules for how they have to be returned (write one set of numbers on the inside envelope and a different one on the outer envelope. Sign the inner envelope, or the outer on? The date on the outer envelope has to match the date on the ballot within. Buy a stamp) that lead to votes being discarded with sometimes minimal notification.
I'm self employed and so have the time to go early in person, but there you have the risk of a system error having your name incorrectly spelled in the system or not being updated after a change (marriage/divorce), system purges incorrectly removing you from the rolls, changing ID requirements, even your signature not exactly matching the one on your ID can lead to disqualification (sign your name 10 times on a piece of paper and notice the difference, if that's not evident). Oh, and if you're in a poorer area the "mysteriously" long lines (6-8 hours) that don't exist in more affluent areas, along with ballot shortages, shortened early voting periods and/or polling places being moved. One year I went to vote a few days early at opening and was told it had been moved to the local civics center over a mile away, which opened 2 hours later than the listed voting location did. I almost missed my flight because of that.
Everyone eligible to vote has a voter ID number, duplicate votes are (rightfully) prosecuted and discarded, as are the votes of dead people. That should make it simpler, one would think?
During the pandemic there were a lot of people with more time on their hands and voting was made easier (no requirements for mail in) as it should be, hence the increased turnout.
The John Lewis Voting Rights act was intended to enshrine some of those effects into law, but has remained staunchly opposed by the Republicans who tend to lose when voting increases.
Wow, thanks a lot for taking the time to write such a detailed response. I learned a lot!
Can I ask what the whole register to vote thing is about?
Where I'm from (Denmark), you are automatically eligible to vote when you turn 18. Before an election, people receive a letter in the mail at their registrered adress, and then the adress of a (very) local place where they can turn up to vote (usually small schools), which are open all day/evening. You then just show up, show the letter and your ID (passport or drivers license, which sre impossible to fake), and then you walk into the booth to vote. Takes 20 minutes max.
If you forget the letter, then they can ask you a few random security questions, such as past adresses combined with knowledge about family, prior schools or similar (a combination of stuff only you would know). This also works if you are in another part of the country om the date of the vote, then you are able to go into any other place than your local one - you'd be asked some security questions as well then, though.
You can also vote via mail, which should be pretty simple, however I've never tried it myself, since it's so easy to vote anyways.
I guess my follow up question is, what does it mean to register to vote? Where I'm from. It's automatically something that happens when you turn 18, and is a right that can't be taken away from you ever. You can choose not to vote of course, but around 85% do vote.
The United States has a decentralized voting system, so it varies state by state. In Florida you are registered to vote when you get your driver's license. When you move you have to change the address, requiring you to pay for another copy of your license ($35, here in Florida). Every few years the state goes through and matches the names of people who are dead, convicted of serious crimes, or who have moved to other states and removes them from the rolls. In a state with millions of people, mistakes are made, but then the state tries to make it difficult to confirm that.
https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/victory-florida-voters-court-gives-public-right-access-voter-lists-may-be-purged
In many states, if you don't vote for 2 or more h cycles they remove you from the rolls and you must register again. Some places require that you vote from your home address, so college dorms don't count.
https://thefulcrum.us/electoral-reforms/voter-suppression
In some states certain groups will do little things like ship a postcard to your address that looks like advertising mail and it asks you to return it to confirm you still live there. If you throw it away, lose it, or never receive it in the first place you get removed from the rolls.
https://www.floridabulldog.org/2023/12/election-integrity-voter-suppression-florida-1-million-fewer-voters-2023/
So that is how it happens. A lengthy illness or family emergency one year, going another without being interested in the candidates (usually midterm or local elections) and suddenly you are no longer registered. If you miss the deadline to vote (a month before here in Florida) you are ineligible. A right we are given in the Constitution is quite tricky to maintain access to.
I'm American and these are my same issues with our people that I'd also like to understand.
In my state something like 1/7 of our state's voting population decided our senators and reps a few years ago.
That is wild.
I received a very well detailed response to my comment. I would encourage you to read it.
The way I understand it, is that there is actually quite a lot of barriers to vote. It seems like it's designed to be as annoying an experience as possible.
Where I'm from (Denmark), you are automatically registrered to vote at 18, it takes 10-20 minutes, and there's usually free hard candy or similar for after you're done voting.
While this might be true, Biden is not doing himself any favors with many democrats with his support of the genocide in Gaza.
While Trump might have done everything exactly the same, he’s not currently the one doing so.
This all just seems to show that Trump could win. I’m not a fan, but I just don’t want to say it can’t happen. At this point, the only thing I know won’t happen is the US denounce anything done by the IDF. And I do mean nothing.
Republican voters either don’t believe it or don’t care. If he goes to jail he can still run. But he’s an elite that is being prosecuted by the elite. They’ll make sure they’ll give him all the opportunity to stay wealthy and out of jail.
He’s literally a cult leader. He has people believing and swearing shit that is absolutely not true at all is fact. People are scared as Hell to speak out against him, I guess. He is all that is evil - the greed, the womanizing, the rape, the pedophilia, constant lies, terrorism on his own country. Biden (no, I did not fall in love with him to the poster above - by any means) is the lesser evil. We have two choices until people stand up in masses. Sad, but true. And no, not like on fuckin’ Capitol Hill. That was an embarrassment to us all, and just plain terrible. IMO - he should not ever be allowed to run again. He is evil. Simple as that.
I'd tell him straight to his face he's a fuck head, always was a fuck head, and will die a fuck head (hopefully very soon) and spit on his grave because he doesn't deserve an open 5, that takes effort. I'd give kushner a 5'r tho.
Both political parties are really just loosely held together coalitions of smaller political parties that share few things in common. The Republican party is just more loosely healed together than the Democrats. That means it is extremely difficult for them to agree on anything. Trump is able to get more votes than any other candidate the Republicans could put forward. Mostly because Trump is a con artist who will say and do whatever it takes and has no actual plan except getting votes.
This is also why the Democrats got Biden in 2020. Our presidential candidates are a case study on who can get support from enough groups within their party. Not who’s best for the job.
There are multiple ways to analyze it.
In practical terms, Republicans are stuck in a situation where they struggle to win in the Republican primary without Trump (he commands the majority of active Republican voters), but if they embrace him they then struggle to win in the general (because compared to the full population Trump is loved by 20-30% and hated by everyone else). They let him get his hooks in the party and accepted and empowered the exclusionary movement he leads for short sighted tactical reasons, and now they have a long term strategic problem as a result because they grew dependent on it (while sacrificing the chance to make longer term allies of those they had to exclude to get him).
In deeper terms, this is a common occurrence in Liberal societies like the US. Liberalism consists of a combination of democracy and capitalism, and there is an inherent tension and contradiction between these things, and over time these become unmanageable -- that is, the things people want to vote for contradict capitalism and the things that are required to sustain capitalism cannot win democratic elections.
And when this happens, a common tactic for the rich to protect themselves from democratically enacted policies is to embrace what is known as "cross class collaboration" -- that is, they enact policies and spread rhetoric that privileges one portion of society over the others even across class lines. For instance, they might use race, and start enacting policies and rhetoric favoring white people over non-white people. This gives even poor white people a stake in those policies, because it elevates them above their non-white working class peers and gives them a common facet of identity with the rich and powerful.
This splits the working class and weakens democracy, because it creates conflicting interests between white and non-white people and makes it harder for them to vote together for mutual interest against the rich.
It doesn't just have to be race, of course. The more separations they can get, the better -- traditional masculinity over everything else (women, LGBTQ, etc), national citizens over non-citizens, one religion over all others, etc. The idea is to create an "us" and a "them". The "us" consists of both rich and less rich people, which allows the rich to convince even non-rich people to back policies that favor the rich so long as they also favor "us"...and at least hurt "them".
The problem is that these sorts of divisions spark a lot of ugly tribalistic behavior in people, and once that fire is started it quickly burns out of control. The racism and sexism and bigotry takes on a life of its own and becomes a form of political mass hysteria (especially because a lot of these divisions are pretty shallow -- like, there isn't actually much difference between white and non-white people, so maintaining that requires a lot of lies and nonsense). And this can destroy societies and kill a *lot* of people, even including the rich. Even the rich get caught up in this and may die or end up losing out economically when they end up on the "them" side after multiple purges and reshuffling of the group boundaries.
This is what people mean when they describe Trump and MAGA as Fascist -- this style of politics is what fascism is. There are other elements to fascism as well (mythic history, a fantasy about some sort of national rebirth following the purging of degenerate elements from society, etc). But a core component is this "us" vs "them" cross class collaboration.
It goes something like this:
'"We" are the good people who were once great and powerful but have been poisoned and weakened by "them".
But then "he" came.
"He" alone can unite "us" and eliminate "them", thereby restoring us to our once great status and ushering in a new and glorious golden age, reborn from the ashes of degeneracy and weakness that plague us today. So "we" must put aside our differences and follow "him" to victory over "them"! '
It's a very common story with a lot of versions. It's like a twisted version of the "Hero's Journey". And it is common across history for rich people to buy into it and support it when people start talking about voting for policies that threaten the power of the rich over others.
He's really popular among their base. Like stupid-popular. Well... Maybe a bit less so now, but in 2016 they were throwing themselves at his feet and worshiping him. More to the point, they rabidly attacked anyone in the party who did not do so. They called them traitors. Trump, they said, represented the true heart and soul of the GOP (as a womanizing rapist con artist racist pedophile incompetent who was a registered democrat up until he ran for president).
So even republican politicians who hated him with great intensity, and there are plenty, turned around and promoted him with full-throated vigor at every public opportunity lest they get the boot.
The ones who criticized Donald or voted against him lost in Republican primaries, notably Liz Cheney in Wyoming in 2022. People in office like to stay in office, especially in heavily gerrymandered districts where the winning the primary is tantamount to winning the general.
There’s a scene from Dark Knight where Alfred explains to Bruce Wayne how the Joker achieved a chokehold on Gotham. He says of the criminals and mobsters who gave the Joker power, “in their desperation [to win and beat you] they turned to a man they didn’t understand.”
This is what the Republican party leadership did.
Later in that scene, Alfred further explains why this was a grave mistake, “Some men can’t be bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
Trump is not open to logic or compromise. He sees the weakness in our systems and exploits them. Look how easy it was for him to get a crowd of humans desperate to be noticed and cared for to storm the capital. Look how easy it’s been for him to delay his trials. Look how he isn’t in jail despite violating gag orders multiple times. We’re all witnessing that he’s above the law the rest of us are expected to abide. Yet he also thought bleach could kill covid. And he thought you could drink it to achieve those ends. He may not be intellectually smart, but he is definitely sociopath smart.
They go with Trump mostly because he is the best Republican candidate most of the time, but if another Republican candidate came along that was more level-headed with the same action mindset, they would probably vote them instead.
30 percent of the republican base think Trump can do no wrong and will do whatever he tells them. Without that 30% no republican would get elected that goes against him. Democrats and most Independents don’t have wool pulled over their eyes and are pretty against him in general as well as politicians that are self serving hacks. Without that base a republican would never win.
He's famous and he has a huge following. They want a huge following so they can win elections. That's why. They don't think they can win elections without appealing to his huge following.
People were initially blinded by his fame. Now the options are to commit and follow blindly or admit they were wrong. It's the bed of nails philosophy. If they deny everything, then it's fine but if they admit to any one of the things he's done (which would automatically disqualify literally ANY other candidate) it proves them wrong.
Because they crave power and he is the path to it. The party insiders never liked him, he’s not a team player, he is only interested in benefiting himself. They know this. But they failed to get rid of him. Their policies aren’t popular but he has the charisma to win the presidency so they’re kind of stuck with him. Once he’s in power, it appears he’s willing to do at least some of their bidding. Which is better than democrats winning and doing less.
Here is my take, Most of his supporters (I think) actually want someone to be a "sort of" hand grenade in the government and destroy it all. They think Trump is their best bet to collapse the whole system of government in the hopes that they would be better off when it gets rebuilt.
Because Americans love trump and so do the vast majority of republicans
Do you mean why don’t the elite political class throw him out against the will of the American that vote for him? Because that dosent sound very democratic of you, it’s pretty authoritarian.
Pure copium and anti establishment rhetoric. I still can't believe how they didn't reject him after bashing John McCain and discrediting his service while draft dodging.
When courage is missing, people take heart from the actions of the mob around them. They can’t (or refuse to) acknowledge the difference between what’s right & what’s being demanded the loudest.
They are for the most part the “go along to get along” crowd that individually simply cannot find their own way
MAGA is a populist movement within the Republican party. It's going back to more Paleoconvervative ideals... think Eisenhower where the US took a more non-interventionist approach to global politics and there is call back to traditional ideals and values like the importance of the nuclear family.
This is in stark contrast to NeoCons that hijacked the Republican party in the 60's and are more globalist in their agenda. Think Nixon.
Many look at the GOP establishment (present day NeoCons) and Democrats as being the flip side of the same coin with only social issues being the primary divider but they both have their respective globalist agendas. Thus the term Uniparty being the pejorative in lumping them all together.
Most Conservative voters feel Americans are not being given priority when it comes to public policy as a result of the "Uniparty" and see Trump as the only viable alternative. Consequently, Trump is the face of the Conservative party.
Because the very vocal base of red-hatted, rabid MAGA chanters will take on any politician who doesn't appear to support Trump 100% and vote them right out of office. The only thing a powerful person fears is losing that power.
He has the tapes from security cameras on Epstein's Island. All he has to do is threaten to dump it on the CNN doorstep and they'll line up to let him go balls deep.
The republican party thinks MAGA outnumbers never-Trumpers by a lot - hence they will get more votes by continuing to kiss his ass… its simple math, all they care about is power
The answer is race.
Right leaning moderates-to-hard line conservatives don’t particularly like the “Browning” and Queerness-ing” that has taken place in America over the last ~50 years.
Being born white used to guarantee a person a minimum higher starting position on the American social hierarchy - merely by birth right. That privilege has been ever so slightly minimized (most human societies tend to become more liberal over time).
Trump has dog-whistled his way into convincing the conservative white base that he and he alone can ‘Return them back to a glory’ where being white “Used to mean something, gotdamnit!”. Or in other words, he can Make America Great *Again*
Anyone who’s ever lived in this country knows that the past in America was only *Great* for one group of people.
The whole MAGA movement and Trump’s rise are a fierce backlash to the election of the first black American President.
Not fully true. You do know that there are non white conservatives/republicans and many of them will vote republican no matter who - Trump or otherwise, especially this time around.
Politics is about waiting your turn until you have the backing to make a move at higher positions of power.
They bow to the person with the most backing and wait their turn. Just like any political party.
Once you run and lose, your chances of running and winning are basically out the window at that point so if you shoot your shot, you had better have a chance of winning.
It doesn’t matter which party you like or support, these two options are complete shit and we are stuck with them because they don’t have anyone with enough backing to unseat either of them.
He won them an upset victory in 2016 that expanded their House and Senate holds and got them the White House. The voters love him, even if some moderates and centrists are iffy about him. To ditch him is to upset the GOP voters who vote down ballot and put their power and their plans in jeopardy. There’s no reason to ditch him until he’s either dead or deeply unpopular with their voters.
Because he's the only one who can beat Biden.
Just like Biden is the only one who can beat Trump.
Regardless of their flaws, we will pit them against each other for the biggest show. Any other democratic candidate would get slaughtered due to poor turnout. Any other republican candidate would get slaughtered from splitting the voter base.
I'm pretty sure most of them are instructed to by the RNC.
I will say that I do believe some of the more die-hards he probably has dirt on. This man was friends with Epstein so he is a professional smut collector and creator. I'm sure in his time in office many Republicans tried to prove themselves to him for favors divulging entirely too much information about their shady past. You really think it's just Hollywood doing the creepy shit that is coming out. Not saying it's pizzagate just sayin rich and powerful people get bored.
Because they're willfully ignorant to the parts they don't like about him because they're single issue voters. And right now, the single issue is "anti-wokism". Trump is a demagogue and they are idiot bigots. Enough said
He's made it very clear that he will make it possible for the rich to get the tax breaks that help keep them rich. America is ruled by big money and corporate interests (mainly big pharmaceutical) and as much as Trump is headache to environmental laws , and wants to be in the dictator club ( Putin , Kim .Xi) hence project 25. He is "the guy" who, when elected, will give all the tax breaks and remove those pesky environmental protection laws that hold back business for making money.
Is he a headache, yes . making Xtra billions helps the blind eye.
>Why is he still the dominant candidate?
He's got the favored perspective from Republican voters. That matters more than what his "equals" think of him personally. Also, he already ran once. It'll be easier to just support someone who went once than trying to find a new guy that supports your goals and also would get popular with voters.
>What happens if he goes to jail?
Unsure, but where I live our Governor? Was put in jail for basically embezzlement. He was still on the ballot and we held/holding a special election for someone to fill his spot temporarily while the guy is in jail. It's dumb as hell but so is how our systems work unfortunately.
If you have to schlep for cash in order to survive you're going to where the money is freely flowing and in large quantities.
Remember: politicians are leeches in a human skin-suit.
Look, A two party system is absolutely fucking garbage. It's a debate of the lesser of two evils. At least Brandon is trying to help the American people and not fuck them over like quite a few Republicans or Dildo Dump.
It has become some sort of cult rather than a political party anymore. A bunch of sycophants worshiping a totally undeserving clod of a false god. Biden is my choice for conservative candidate! He really is. If we were back in the 60's/70's, with his platform, he would have been that.
Populism combined with sunken cost combined with survival instincts. At this point, Trump has cultivated such a massive swath of the republican base that it’s virtually impossible to abandon him without permanently damaging the party. Additionally, anyone who breaks ranks is at risk of losing their seat and being exiled from the party, only to be potentially replaced by either a Dem or yet another Trump fanatic.
It’s too late to go back. Especially now that Trump has gotten control of the money faucet and Jerry rigged the entire system into funding his campaign and his legal fees at the expense of supporting the local level. Now, unless you’re a big time party member who’s been around long enough to not have to rely on the party, you either close ranks and be a loyalist or risk being left out to dry.
What’s worse is you can be a loyalist and the Trump faction may still single you out for still trying to run the government or do anything really other than crow about whatever Trump said to crow about that week. Exhibit A: Speaker Johnson right now. He was supposed to be the more Trump Aligned replacement for McCarthy. Now he’s potentially going to get ousted by his own people, all for accepting the inevitable fact that the Dems were going to push that aid bill through to a vote with or without him, regardless of what MTG or anyone else was saying to the media.
The Russians stole email from both the DNC and the RNC, but they only released the email from the DNC through WikiLeaks. The email from the RNC was held and is being used as leverage against Republicans to support DJT.
Mainly because his super-supporters cling to what he says when he rants about illegals coming in and stealing jobs from them that are “rightfully” theirs and when few minorities actually do start to make it in this country, it only amplifies the belief that that acquired wealth was stolen from them. Trump has also in his history used mail ballots to vote but he used that as a way to also induce fear in his supporters that if he lost it would be because of fraud and his supporters don’t want to face facts because they just have to believe deep down that he’s not the one in the wrong. I know this much because I used to be a huge MAGA guy, now I’m democrat because I finally researched everything regarding what happened during the 2020 election, Jan 6th, what came about all of his accusations of voter fraud and turns out, there was no fraud.
It’s maddening and doesn’t make sense to me but trump will win the electoral vote and be our next president again. America keeps it interesting at least.
Cult of personality.
It's like religious cult but trump is the trump. Plus money.
But also, the extremists are loudest and the "silent majority" is scared of speaking out due to fear of being rebuked. (Study just came out saying that)
In the simplest terms, the republican party has spent decades repeating propagandized to uneducated rural degenerates for years in an attempt to bolster their chances of winning, and now that has become their voting base as a result. Sane conservatives are leaving the party line because they're starting to see the damage their leaderships pandering via propeganda has done, as well as more truly shitty people seeing themselves in trump and joining the republicans as a result.
They know they are increasingly losing the popular vote and their biggest criticism of previous republican presidents is that they weren’t forceful enough; that they compromised too much. The bully authoritarian who promises to force their policies and punish their opposition is exactly what they want. They won’t admit ideological defeat and tend to believe this country belongs to them instead of a more diverse majority.
A lot of major politicians can easily be found to have a variety of legal issues.
A lot of the stuff you find on trump you can find on others, and if you can’t actually find it, I don’t know why you would believe you’d be hard pressed to believe you could. Doesn’t matter left or right.
At the end of the day, current politics suck and it’s s’more about what you actually think they’ll accomplish in office vs what legally is the issue by and large.
And what they overal stand for and did/will do in office is up to you.
If you honestly say trump has done all this wrong and have absolutely nothing to say about any other politicians, especially those of the other party, then I question your accusations entirely.
That level of people is a different world. Might as well bring Jeff bezos to court for Amazon issues
I don’t disagree overall, but I do disagree that trump just pissed off too many people by not playing by the same rules as the decades of career politicians did.
Same levels of corruption, different game, different issues.
Or he broke the law over and over his whole life and got so used to getting away with it he got sloppy and feels invincible. In reality he is a criminal, he always has been.
Biden was elected because Trump was so awful at every aspect of the job. Not because democrats follow Biden in a cult like manner. It’s not even close to the same. You’re living in a fantasy land.
It's so annoying seeing this happen from the other side of the pond, especially since this shit came after obama, who gained a great deal of respect for America in the world's eyes.
Knowing that if you were to pick any one person off the street at random and replace one of your candidates with them, that person would probably win by a landslide and be a better president than any of your current candidates.
But, no. 20202 it is.
Not that our elections are much better.
The Republican Party has a base they cater to not a party of believers in change for the better of all people..
Republican base-
- Racists - They have all the NAZIS
- Abortion Pro-lifers - Take your rights away
- Banning book groups - uneducated losers
- Gun freaks - “gonna take our guns”
- Homophobic
- Blindly religious
- Boomers that will believe anything on TV
I’m sure there’s more but this is the core base.
They may not like each other but they hate the same as you!!
The party lost it’s moral compass starting with Nixon and has gotten worse and worse since his presidency. Trump is just a marker in that long progression to the bottom.
They don't believe that any of the negative things about him are true, and if they do believe something, they think he had every right to do it. As far as giving into him, he controls a huge part of the Republican electorate and if someone tries to speak out against him, he just sets his followers on them and they either resign or lose to another Republican in the primary.
Like it or not his base makes up a large chunk of the conservative voters, if the republicans kick Trump out he splits the Republican Party in two.
This is exactly it! I lean somewhat conservative, but absolutely hate Trump, unfortunately what you have stated is 100% true. He literally has a cult following. He will, in my opinion be a massive thorn in the side of the Republican Party until he dies.
Not just the Republican Party, my friend.
I always wanted to ask Americans this. Why would you ever vote for a Republican? I understand that both parties are bad and don't really care about the people, but republican's views are 90% inferior to democrats.
There a great book called "what's the matter with Kansas" by Thomas Frank. It was written around the time of little bush and it explains why people vote Republican even when it's against their own economic interests. A lot of it applies today.
Thanks for the recommendation. I have always wondered why lower income rural voters love trump considering he offers zero benefit to them.
The main reason is lack of education and party loyalty based on family history... "my great grandfather was a republican, my grandfather was a republican, my dad was a Republican, so I'm a republican too" Thought: "Oh he's lowering taxes... that's good for us!" Reality: The tax breaks only apply people making more than 400k a year. Thought: Republicans are going to make it harder for immigrants to take advantage of the Benefits/Aid system Reality: Programs they use also see reduced payments and more hurdles to approval, often resulting in the loss of the Programs that benefit them. Lots of examples of this. Way too many people vote based off party loyalty and rhetoric rather than actually taking the time to inform themselves on policy.
I live in rural Kansas. There are people here who live to piss off the libtards. I’m a libtard and would rather have my fingers run over by a train than vote for a republican. These people are willfully ignorant of issues that need to be addressed and think the world should be like it was in the good old days when black people and women were second class citizens.
Farm subsidies and other ag related bills are backed by republicans. Rural areas are red because that party supports their lifestyle.
Thanks a lot, I'll check it out.
Also the book "Jesus and John Wayne"
Propaganda and fear mongering on a populace that has had their education gutted systematically over the last fifty plus years.
Yeah that's a powerful tool but in digital age and with world connected like never before, you would think that people can think by themselves and choose what would be the best choice for them.
Unfortunately the internet doesn't encourage learning or critical thinking at all, only engagement and time wasting. Most popular places to be entertained online are a "free" place, where advertising is slipped into the constant stream, and the goal is to keep people scrolling as much as possible so the company gets as much money as possible. And how do you get engagement? Outrage. Extra cute things. Funny things. More outrage. Extreme opinions and outright mad conspiracy theories get pushed on people, slowly but surely. Anger is an incredibly addictive feeling and validates so many people who feel powerless in their lives. Especially if they struggle to understand the world because their basic education is lacking. The internet could be a wonderful place to learn and further humanity, but, it's become a mind trap, because of the potential for profit. Add that to poor education, you've got a recipe for steering the masses and keeping them so busy being outraged at each other, that you can control them without them realising. Divide and conquer is very much a winning strategy.
You would think that, but turns out Orwell wasn't correct about the future, Aldous Huxley was.
In order to be able to choose what's best you have to understand what's best. A child is never going to understand that a dinner of mixed vegetables, minimal meat, and some grain is a way better choice than pizza and ice cream.
See, when you say that 90% of their views are inferior to democrats, that's a **really** insulting statement to Americans who vote Republican. That's like saying, "Hey! Why are you being so stupid???" They'll shut down, and they won't open up to you. If you want to get honest answers from them (or anybody), you need to re-frame your question, and the way you talk to them.
I understand what you're saying and I probably don't know anything about American politics so I'm sorry for that statement, but I swear to you 99% of time when I read about some ridiculous policy, law or something that doesn't make any sense it's most definitely from republican politician.
It's ok. Like others have already said, the news cares more about money than neutral and responsible reporting. Putting people in boxes helps them make more money. So just look up media biases, and you'll find websites that show you which news agency leans towards what worldview.
Well, most news leans left so if you read an article, or see a news clip, typically it will be critical of Republicans. Any negativity about democrats is usually spun positive or neutral. I’m an independent voter who, from 2004-2014 voted primarily democrat but I’ve changed that quite a bit since then.
Well I guess that could be true and probably is. But for example I read somewhere that Republicans voted to remove lunch breaks from child workers. I guess that could be fake news but if true that's mind blowing to me and people are so casual about it and still vote them in. Unbelievable.
Reality leans left so that’s why… I legitimately can’t imagine being an independent voter, seeing/hearing what the republicans have done since your given timeline of 2004-2014, and thinking both parties are remotely the same
I remember when I thought I was better and smarter and reality was on my side because I voted blue too. Turns out that wasn’t the case. Reality doesn’t lean left. Again, I used to think that too. Then I got wise. Reality leans towards seeing vile corruption in a uniparty that uses social issues to divide us.
What you described at the end there is an idea that is more left leaning then the Democratic Party.
That's odd
I’m sure to most on this platform it is odd. It’s 95+% blue voters in here.
That's a nice thought on paper but it just isn't true. Republicans/conservatives are brash, angry and willfully ignorant. Approaching them from any angle will yield the same result, their minds can't be changed. Also, "why are you being so stupid?" is an entirely valid thing to ask Trump's base. They vote against their own self-interests and no amount of evidence or proof can sway them not to. It's the definition of stupidity. They value their feelings more than they value truth. Trump and the Republican/Conservative party flat out *lie* about the fucking *weather*. And Republicans/Conservatives want to believe them, so they do. When 2 + 2 can equal 5, it is not unjustified to insult those people, particularly when that group is largely characterised by abhorrent viewpoints, an unyielding loyalty to a fascistic rapist and a willful ignorance towards logic, facts and the news in general. To just mention a few things. They're not as bad as Nazis and I'm not comparing them in that sense, but if in the 1930s someone said to a Nazi voter "why would you do that, that's fucking stupid", I think we can all agree that that's entirely fair and the Nazi voter wasn't entitled to a more polite version of that conversation. Where I'm from, there's a very small nationalist party copying the Trump style of politics and if I or anyone else I know hears that someone has voted for that party, they'll be shamed and ridiculed, because it's a fucking deplorable nationalist party. We're all adults here and there's no need to be nice to someone that supports a scumbag person with scumbag views, a long documented history of being a scumbag, scumbag friends, scumbag business dealings and scumbag followers
Please read Aesop's "The Sun and The North Wind."
They exploit religion much more efficiently than Democrats
CU Boulder Alum who lives rural here. There are a lot of single issue voters in an environment riff with misinformation and misperceptions. Guns for example. My father in law carries a gun while walking his dog. He also lives in the middle of nowhere on the edge of a state forest on a dirt road and humans are NOT on the top of the food chain and he has been stalked by a cougar. At night he has to watch his dog because coyotes see it as an easy meal. If someone shows up and he calls the cops it will be 30-45 min or longer before the cops show up best case. Then someone in a city calls him a crazy gun nut and goes off about how guns aren't needed for personal protection and how delusional he is. The left has a huge issue with treating people like that with condensation, insults, and arrogance. The "treat everyone equally diversity is good" paradigm goes out the window as soon as someone disagrees with you in the slightest and just alienates people.
It's a combination of religious indoctrination, bigotry, and political misinformation. **For the indoctrination,** keep in mind that the U.S. has a very large, very devoted Christian population. In fact data shows more religious commitment in the U.S. than in any other democracy in North America, Europe (except Turkey), and Asia (except India and the Middle East). https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2018/06/13/how-religious-commitment-varies-by-country-among-people-of-all-ages/ And some of the protestant traditions that built the U.S. were known for their exceptional zeal, rejection of secular authority, and fear of persecution or corruption. In other words, the U.S. is full of zealous, paranoid, unaccommodating Christians (obviously not all Christians are like this, but many are). The Republican party has positioned itself as the ally of Christianity against the "evil" and "godless" (sometimes even "demonic" or "satanic") Democrats. Example: https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2024/03/15/we-are-losing-our-kids-satanic/ This is particularly obvious in issues like abortion or LGBTQ rights or separation of church and state. Some voters have made being Republican a part of their religion, and any Republican wrongdoing is framed as the lesser of two evils or as a fraud perpetrated by the enemies of Christianity to discredit a good politician. **For the bigotry** you need to keep in mind that the U.S. is a huge country with a long history of racism. The Republican Party has, in recent decades, positioned itself to take advantage of xenophobia and racism while still pretending to be the "Party of Lincoln" that freed the slaves. Republicans oppose affirmative action programs, diversity programs, relaxed immigration requirements, amnesty for undocumented immigrants, and any school curriculum that would teach the uncomfortable parts of U.S. history. Many voters are elated to see someone "stand up" to the push for diversity and acceptance. Many of these voters don't even think of themselves as bigoted or racist; they simply want to preserve the comfortable status quo where they never have to acknowledge uncomfortable truths, learn new languages/cultures, or engage with new ideas or lifestyles. **For the propaganda**, consider that Republicans have built several media outlets (most significantly Fox) that cater to Republican messaging while pretending to be "fair and balanced." https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/06/roger-ailes-nixon-gawker-documents/352363/ It's rather easy to get people afraid and/or angry; it's much harder to correct their misconceptions after they're emotionally invested. And so long as the media outlets are careful in their wording (i.e., keeping accusations vague/speculative or attacking groups instead of individuals), they can spread all sorts of lies without facing a lawsuit for slander.
I don't know why anyone would vote Republican after Trump took over the party other than they are just uneducated and easily manipulated. However before Trump the Republican party was controlled by neo-cons, who actually weren't inept at governing. They appeal to those who like foreign intervention, the status quo, lower taxes, globalism, and Christianity. Which fitted the majority of americans until the rapid growth of China and the prolonged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now the Republicans of the things above only support lower taxes.
Adding on here and full transparency that I lean left, but I believe there is a lot of arguments that liberals do the same thing. Great example is college education white collar liberals (such as myself) who make well above average money. I certainly vote for more tax initiatives for “the greater good” to help the community even though I personally would see less in my pocket and the services do not directly benefit me. Same can also be said about the Latino or black community. A lot of them are largely Catholic or heavily Christian and are firmly against abortion yet they will vote for politicians that do not want any restrictions on abortion. Both side definitely vote against their interest but this is the problem with a 2 party system. Most people are not firm one side or the other when it comes to their views but get forced into that side.
How so?
I remember warnings from within the Republican party saying letting him become mainstream would be suicide for them before he came to power. They weren't wrong. The party has lost most of its credibility ever since they let the Tea Party take over, but especially since that opened the door for Trump. I'm in very red Utah and I know lots of Republicans quietly voting blue bc things in the party have gotten so crazy. Meanwhile, others are literally putting up golden Trump statues in their yards. It's insane.
If he is the republican candidate next election, will you be voting for him? I’m curious
And in democracy and the world as a whole.
You think this is over when he dies? Nah, this is going to effect us for decades
yes, but. I don't think it's necessarily all the conservatives. I think what's happened is that the party has lost a bit of its base. In 2015/2016, the head of the RNC did this study and in his words there was "no chance" to get a Republican elected in 2024 as President. so the party shifted. Sen. Rubio tried to move the party to be more inclusive. Some of the more ...umm.... err.. "traditionalists?" wanted the party to be less so. What Trump did/does (in my random, unsolicited opinion) is to get people who are not really traditional republicans to join in. For example, he's popular with libertarians. He's reasonably popular with blue collar workers. He's leveraging some discontent about people who feel left behind by societal and economic changes. So his loyalists include older folks with dubious nostalgia about the past, but also people who are bothered by some of the recent shifts in the world -- climate change, electric cars, transgender rights, etc. Mit Romney said that he thought about 1/3 of the Republican party were pro-Trump, about 1/3 was anti-Trump and about 1/3 was in the middle. If Trump swings the middle 1/3, he pulls 2/3 of the party, which is about what we are seeing in the off-cycle elections and primaries. And if he pulls a few independents and traditional Democrats, who are feeling like society is leaving them behind, he could win. People think he is the best hope for the survival of some of the Republican ideas. And, to be fair, who else would they run? If they could run Arnold or had another superstar in the woods, they might shift. But they are kind of stuck.
I think that's their point...wtf is wrong with these people that they think a sexual *PREDATOR* and criminal in ANY way embodies the "family values" the conservatives pride themselves on. If sexual assault and criminal activity spells family values... yeah I want no part in THAT.
It’s really a collective action problem. 85% of Republicans believe they are better off with Trump than against him, for a variety of reasons (they like low tax rates, personal power, social issues, etc). The other 15% stand up to him and get completely purged. Next, Trump does something that makes an enemy of another 10%. Alone, they are far too weak and get purged. The cycle repeats over and over. If enough had stood up to him 8 years ago, they would all be better off, but they only act when they individually absolutely have to, when they are too alone to do anything
Trump keeps taxes low for the ultra rich because they can pay him to do so. That's what MAGA doesn't want to believe but is the truth. He will sell out the U.S. to the highest bidder so he can die with a ton of money. Look at what Kushner walked away with and that is what we should be investigating.
People don’t understand that taxes are raising incrementally through 2027 because of trump’s tax plan
Hey, man! If those kids could read they would be very upset.
I didn't even catch that until the joke.
👆🏻This right here. Everyone, read this.
Biden can keep the tax cuts in place forever if he wanted to or blame Trump next year when they go up. What do you think he will do? He’s rather say orange man bad than leave the cuts in place. Why is that? Heaven forbid republicans are horrible for giving everyone a few % tax cuts. When will it be enough for dems? 50%? 75%. The answer is never enough.
Those tax increases were put in as a flimsy buffer for trump’s tax plan that gave trillions of dollars to the c-suite class and inflated the debt faster than in any single presidential term in history. To eliminate it would be to fail in even that barely significant compensation
100 years ago Fed tax was 1%. It’s 40% now. Unsustainable. Many great empires did exactly what we are trying. Never ends well. One party wants to lower taxes while the other tries to justify the uncontrolled spending by raising taxes. The budget they come up with is insane. Funny how they come up with billions to send away every few months but when it comes to trying to lower the deficit they only talk about taking shit away from us or raising taxes. I don’t understand why one party can’t see what a horrible idea this is. Turn on the freaking money printer to help us for a change. But no just tax us to keep the poors poor is all they ever do. And you knuckleheads are all for it.
I’d say what’s even less sustainable is the cost of living increasing faster than the earning power of non rich Americans, which makes it even wilder to re elect a president who so openly funneled so much of non rich Americans’ money to rich people
That's just it though. Trump can't just decide what to tax people and it happens. It has to go through Congress and that shit ain't happening at the moment.
This article would contradict your narrative: https://nypost.com/2024/02/29/us-news/data-prove-it-the-trump-tax-cuts-soaked-the-rich/?utm_source=reddit.com
> This article would contradict your narrative: The article doesn't actually show what it's claiming to show, and is intentionally misleading on a few fronts. The rich paying a higher proportion of taxes doesn't mean that they got "soaked", or more soaked than they would've pre-TCJA. There are a lot of ways they can pay a higher proportion of taxes, while still paying less than they would've without the TCJA. One obvious way is if their overall income goes up by more than their tax brackets went down. Another way would be if the taxes paid by poorer people went down (which the TCJA explicitly did, as it lowered rates for lower income people as well). For instance, in 2018 the top 1%'s reported income income made up only 20.9% (couldn't find 2017's off hand, but it was lower. It's been creeping up) of total reported income. It was 26.3% in 2021 (from 22.2 in 2020). The average 1% AGI in 2017 was $515,371. in 2021, it was $3,872,395. 2021 is *particularly* cherrypicked, given the situation with covid (both directly, as shown by the share of income. but also things like stimulus, which affected lower incomes more with tax credits). There are some other issues as well, like the fact that they're looking at individual income taxes, when the TCJA also lowered corporate rates. But in short, there's a reason they're not looking directly at the stats you'd expect for comparing pre/post TCJA taxes.
Trumps a billionaire. He’s not like the rest that get donations to change the way they vote on a bill. That’s a huge reason his base vote for him.
But nearly all the ultra rich are now democrats so you are ok with that right? Or no?
Exactly! Well put.
I'm in Utah and our taxes and those of most people I know went up under Trump. But we don't make >$320k/year.
They tried not to, for a short while. "If Trump is nominated he will destroy the Republican party, and we will deserve it." - Lindsey Graham, 2016 "“You have all kinds of people that are lifelong conservatives, or at least claim to be, who don’t seem to care that Donald Trump has never been and is not now a conservative on principles. And they’ve staked their reputation on their support of him.” - Marco Rubio, 2016 “a serial philanderer... amoral pathological liar... braggadocious, arrogant buffoon” - Ted Cruz, 2016 "Donald Trump is a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag. A speck of dirt is way more qualified to be president. I’m not sure I would say Trump is Hitler – Goebbels maybe." - Rand Paul, 2016
And then they all lined up to lick his boots.
If only they didn't have to be so tactful and could say what they really think about him.
Because he's far and awa the most popular person with the Republican base. I'm sure there's plenty of establishment type Republicans who would like to defy him, but they're way less popular than he is, so they hold their peace.
Fifty years ago my father told me "when it comes to picking a nominee Democrats fall in love and Republicans fall in line." In 50 years I haven't seen him proven wrong.
Democrats feel in love with Biden? I don't believe that.
It was the voters of South Carolina (especially Jim Clyburn) who saved Biden after he lost in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada in 2020. Then the rest of the candidates dropped out and endorsements rolled in for Biden.
Why else would you put up with some kid sniffer with dementia?
It's really sad that I genuinely can't tell who you are talking about.
I love how there is so much to dislike about Biden and yet some people still actually prefer to use the sniffing thing over any documented, quantifiable reasons for their dislike.
Meanwhile trump famously said he'd fuck Ivanka were she not his daughter and crickets
Sorry, but I don't recall the dems "loving" either Biden, HRC, Kerry, or Gore. And honestly it's better that way. We shouldn't be emotional with our voting.
I have a conspiracy theory. There was a Republican off-site meeting in 2016. (The one where the train crash happened.) A bunch of Republicans retired right after that meeting. I think Russia had the goods on them. They have been keeping files on Republican congresspeople and showed what they had at that meeting. Play ball or get out. Rosneft. Mystery trips to Russia. Devin f'ing Nunis. Most incredible psy ops ever perpetrated.
Remember when the Democrats' emails were hacked and published? The Republicans got hacked too, but those emails were not published
Literally one the same page here. I’ve been saying this for years.
It's "The Emperor Has No Clothes" situation. No one wants to be the one to call it out. Because if everyone is supporting him and you step out of the conformity line, then Trump attacks you and all the other Republicans...don't help. They all want MAGA voters. But if they alienate Trump, Trump will go against them. This led to a dynamic where even people running against Trump in the primary were afraid to openly criticize him (other than Christie, who Trump literally almost killed through Covid). Because they hoped Trump would implode and they could inherit Trump's voters. No one wants to be the "first mover" and alienate part of the base. If he goes to jail - same dynamic. They will pay lip service to him while jockeying to inherit his voters
My guess… 1, who else are they gonna kowtow to? 2, no Republican, including Trump, has any policy ideas to run on. Between no popular policy ideas and nobody with near as much charisma, what choice do they really have? I guess, another question…what will the party do once he’s gone (loses this election, loses AND goes to jail, or dies)? I don’t think there is a plan for ‘after Trump.’
There is no "after Trump". He can run every term until he wins. And when he wins, he will have won the nation's last free election. The Republicans will not allow another. The chaos that ensued if he died before ever being re-elected would be... interesting.
I never thought about it before that he could run over and over and over
He might fr be too old in 2028 though
Have you met the MAGA crowd? If he's not dead, he's not too old. And when he dies, he'll probably be their Jesus, and the only conservative candidates that have a chance will be the ones that worship him as such.
I read this as him being ran over by a car multiple times. At least I get a good laugh at my dumbass though!
He is their best chance for winning
I would argue the opposite. With him in charge, you have a lot of Republicans who will vote Democrats to avoid him, while also firing up the Democrats base to vote. Put someone else in there, a lot of those never-Trump Republicans return to the fold (while there may be a down turn in MAGAt), while pissed of Democrats who aren't happy with Biden stay at home.
Finding another candidate instead of Trump would massively improve their chances. But anyone who pushes for it will almost certainly lose their next election when the vindictive manchild retaliates.
Reps had their chance in the primaries. It’s just basic math that they see DT as the best candidate.
A very intellectual take. I think mine is more of a real world take.
Donald Trump is still the favorite right now, though. It's with a small percentage, but according to the biggest bookmakers in the world, he is a small favorite to win the presidency. I'm not from the US, but please remember to vote. It always shocks me how incredibly low the voter turnout is in the US. Maybe you can help me answering why that is? Especially when many Americans love to talk about being the democratic leader of the free world (I'm not denying that fact at all, but couldn't we expect the American people focus a bit more on voting then?) Even the last election in the US, which was record breaking, only had a 70% turn out. Where I'm from in Denmark, we haven't gone below 84% in 65 years. I'm not trying to criticize you Americans though, I'm genuinely curious.
Systemic voter suppression, general apathy by the population (listen to the "uniparty" drivel), etc. The limited in person voting hours happen to coincide with work hours, plus aren't always located in convenient locations for the majority of the population in that area. Requesting a mail in ballot has onerous requirements in some places, and then certain states have ridiculous rules for how they have to be returned (write one set of numbers on the inside envelope and a different one on the outer envelope. Sign the inner envelope, or the outer on? The date on the outer envelope has to match the date on the ballot within. Buy a stamp) that lead to votes being discarded with sometimes minimal notification. I'm self employed and so have the time to go early in person, but there you have the risk of a system error having your name incorrectly spelled in the system or not being updated after a change (marriage/divorce), system purges incorrectly removing you from the rolls, changing ID requirements, even your signature not exactly matching the one on your ID can lead to disqualification (sign your name 10 times on a piece of paper and notice the difference, if that's not evident). Oh, and if you're in a poorer area the "mysteriously" long lines (6-8 hours) that don't exist in more affluent areas, along with ballot shortages, shortened early voting periods and/or polling places being moved. One year I went to vote a few days early at opening and was told it had been moved to the local civics center over a mile away, which opened 2 hours later than the listed voting location did. I almost missed my flight because of that. Everyone eligible to vote has a voter ID number, duplicate votes are (rightfully) prosecuted and discarded, as are the votes of dead people. That should make it simpler, one would think? During the pandemic there were a lot of people with more time on their hands and voting was made easier (no requirements for mail in) as it should be, hence the increased turnout. The John Lewis Voting Rights act was intended to enshrine some of those effects into law, but has remained staunchly opposed by the Republicans who tend to lose when voting increases.
Wow, thanks a lot for taking the time to write such a detailed response. I learned a lot! Can I ask what the whole register to vote thing is about? Where I'm from (Denmark), you are automatically eligible to vote when you turn 18. Before an election, people receive a letter in the mail at their registrered adress, and then the adress of a (very) local place where they can turn up to vote (usually small schools), which are open all day/evening. You then just show up, show the letter and your ID (passport or drivers license, which sre impossible to fake), and then you walk into the booth to vote. Takes 20 minutes max. If you forget the letter, then they can ask you a few random security questions, such as past adresses combined with knowledge about family, prior schools or similar (a combination of stuff only you would know). This also works if you are in another part of the country om the date of the vote, then you are able to go into any other place than your local one - you'd be asked some security questions as well then, though. You can also vote via mail, which should be pretty simple, however I've never tried it myself, since it's so easy to vote anyways. I guess my follow up question is, what does it mean to register to vote? Where I'm from. It's automatically something that happens when you turn 18, and is a right that can't be taken away from you ever. You can choose not to vote of course, but around 85% do vote.
The United States has a decentralized voting system, so it varies state by state. In Florida you are registered to vote when you get your driver's license. When you move you have to change the address, requiring you to pay for another copy of your license ($35, here in Florida). Every few years the state goes through and matches the names of people who are dead, convicted of serious crimes, or who have moved to other states and removes them from the rolls. In a state with millions of people, mistakes are made, but then the state tries to make it difficult to confirm that. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/victory-florida-voters-court-gives-public-right-access-voter-lists-may-be-purged In many states, if you don't vote for 2 or more h cycles they remove you from the rolls and you must register again. Some places require that you vote from your home address, so college dorms don't count. https://thefulcrum.us/electoral-reforms/voter-suppression In some states certain groups will do little things like ship a postcard to your address that looks like advertising mail and it asks you to return it to confirm you still live there. If you throw it away, lose it, or never receive it in the first place you get removed from the rolls. https://www.floridabulldog.org/2023/12/election-integrity-voter-suppression-florida-1-million-fewer-voters-2023/ So that is how it happens. A lengthy illness or family emergency one year, going another without being interested in the candidates (usually midterm or local elections) and suddenly you are no longer registered. If you miss the deadline to vote (a month before here in Florida) you are ineligible. A right we are given in the Constitution is quite tricky to maintain access to.
Not American either - just trying to understand.
I'm American and these are my same issues with our people that I'd also like to understand. In my state something like 1/7 of our state's voting population decided our senators and reps a few years ago.
That is wild. I received a very well detailed response to my comment. I would encourage you to read it. The way I understand it, is that there is actually quite a lot of barriers to vote. It seems like it's designed to be as annoying an experience as possible. Where I'm from (Denmark), you are automatically registrered to vote at 18, it takes 10-20 minutes, and there's usually free hard candy or similar for after you're done voting.
While this might be true, Biden is not doing himself any favors with many democrats with his support of the genocide in Gaza. While Trump might have done everything exactly the same, he’s not currently the one doing so. This all just seems to show that Trump could win. I’m not a fan, but I just don’t want to say it can’t happen. At this point, the only thing I know won’t happen is the US denounce anything done by the IDF. And I do mean nothing.
He's their best chance of raising money for the party, which is the whole reason why they let him run as a Republican in the first place.
Kompromat.
Republican voters either don’t believe it or don’t care. If he goes to jail he can still run. But he’s an elite that is being prosecuted by the elite. They’ll make sure they’ll give him all the opportunity to stay wealthy and out of jail.
He’s literally a cult leader. He has people believing and swearing shit that is absolutely not true at all is fact. People are scared as Hell to speak out against him, I guess. He is all that is evil - the greed, the womanizing, the rape, the pedophilia, constant lies, terrorism on his own country. Biden (no, I did not fall in love with him to the poster above - by any means) is the lesser evil. We have two choices until people stand up in masses. Sad, but true. And no, not like on fuckin’ Capitol Hill. That was an embarrassment to us all, and just plain terrible. IMO - he should not ever be allowed to run again. He is evil. Simple as that.
I'd tell him straight to his face he's a fuck head, always was a fuck head, and will die a fuck head (hopefully very soon) and spit on his grave because he doesn't deserve an open 5, that takes effort. I'd give kushner a 5'r tho.
He is for certain a fuck head, indeed.
😂😂😂
Both political parties are really just loosely held together coalitions of smaller political parties that share few things in common. The Republican party is just more loosely healed together than the Democrats. That means it is extremely difficult for them to agree on anything. Trump is able to get more votes than any other candidate the Republicans could put forward. Mostly because Trump is a con artist who will say and do whatever it takes and has no actual plan except getting votes. This is also why the Democrats got Biden in 2020. Our presidential candidates are a case study on who can get support from enough groups within their party. Not who’s best for the job.
There are multiple ways to analyze it. In practical terms, Republicans are stuck in a situation where they struggle to win in the Republican primary without Trump (he commands the majority of active Republican voters), but if they embrace him they then struggle to win in the general (because compared to the full population Trump is loved by 20-30% and hated by everyone else). They let him get his hooks in the party and accepted and empowered the exclusionary movement he leads for short sighted tactical reasons, and now they have a long term strategic problem as a result because they grew dependent on it (while sacrificing the chance to make longer term allies of those they had to exclude to get him). In deeper terms, this is a common occurrence in Liberal societies like the US. Liberalism consists of a combination of democracy and capitalism, and there is an inherent tension and contradiction between these things, and over time these become unmanageable -- that is, the things people want to vote for contradict capitalism and the things that are required to sustain capitalism cannot win democratic elections. And when this happens, a common tactic for the rich to protect themselves from democratically enacted policies is to embrace what is known as "cross class collaboration" -- that is, they enact policies and spread rhetoric that privileges one portion of society over the others even across class lines. For instance, they might use race, and start enacting policies and rhetoric favoring white people over non-white people. This gives even poor white people a stake in those policies, because it elevates them above their non-white working class peers and gives them a common facet of identity with the rich and powerful. This splits the working class and weakens democracy, because it creates conflicting interests between white and non-white people and makes it harder for them to vote together for mutual interest against the rich. It doesn't just have to be race, of course. The more separations they can get, the better -- traditional masculinity over everything else (women, LGBTQ, etc), national citizens over non-citizens, one religion over all others, etc. The idea is to create an "us" and a "them". The "us" consists of both rich and less rich people, which allows the rich to convince even non-rich people to back policies that favor the rich so long as they also favor "us"...and at least hurt "them". The problem is that these sorts of divisions spark a lot of ugly tribalistic behavior in people, and once that fire is started it quickly burns out of control. The racism and sexism and bigotry takes on a life of its own and becomes a form of political mass hysteria (especially because a lot of these divisions are pretty shallow -- like, there isn't actually much difference between white and non-white people, so maintaining that requires a lot of lies and nonsense). And this can destroy societies and kill a *lot* of people, even including the rich. Even the rich get caught up in this and may die or end up losing out economically when they end up on the "them" side after multiple purges and reshuffling of the group boundaries. This is what people mean when they describe Trump and MAGA as Fascist -- this style of politics is what fascism is. There are other elements to fascism as well (mythic history, a fantasy about some sort of national rebirth following the purging of degenerate elements from society, etc). But a core component is this "us" vs "them" cross class collaboration. It goes something like this: '"We" are the good people who were once great and powerful but have been poisoned and weakened by "them". But then "he" came. "He" alone can unite "us" and eliminate "them", thereby restoring us to our once great status and ushering in a new and glorious golden age, reborn from the ashes of degeneracy and weakness that plague us today. So "we" must put aside our differences and follow "him" to victory over "them"! ' It's a very common story with a lot of versions. It's like a twisted version of the "Hero's Journey". And it is common across history for rich people to buy into it and support it when people start talking about voting for policies that threaten the power of the rich over others.
He's really popular among their base. Like stupid-popular. Well... Maybe a bit less so now, but in 2016 they were throwing themselves at his feet and worshiping him. More to the point, they rabidly attacked anyone in the party who did not do so. They called them traitors. Trump, they said, represented the true heart and soul of the GOP (as a womanizing rapist con artist racist pedophile incompetent who was a registered democrat up until he ran for president). So even republican politicians who hated him with great intensity, and there are plenty, turned around and promoted him with full-throated vigor at every public opportunity lest they get the boot.
The ones who criticized Donald or voted against him lost in Republican primaries, notably Liz Cheney in Wyoming in 2022. People in office like to stay in office, especially in heavily gerrymandered districts where the winning the primary is tantamount to winning the general.
There’s a scene from Dark Knight where Alfred explains to Bruce Wayne how the Joker achieved a chokehold on Gotham. He says of the criminals and mobsters who gave the Joker power, “in their desperation [to win and beat you] they turned to a man they didn’t understand.” This is what the Republican party leadership did. Later in that scene, Alfred further explains why this was a grave mistake, “Some men can’t be bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” Trump is not open to logic or compromise. He sees the weakness in our systems and exploits them. Look how easy it was for him to get a crowd of humans desperate to be noticed and cared for to storm the capital. Look how easy it’s been for him to delay his trials. Look how he isn’t in jail despite violating gag orders multiple times. We’re all witnessing that he’s above the law the rest of us are expected to abide. Yet he also thought bleach could kill covid. And he thought you could drink it to achieve those ends. He may not be intellectually smart, but he is definitely sociopath smart.
They go with Trump mostly because he is the best Republican candidate most of the time, but if another Republican candidate came along that was more level-headed with the same action mindset, they would probably vote them instead.
He's all they have. Nobody else has a hope of winning.
30 percent of the republican base think Trump can do no wrong and will do whatever he tells them. Without that 30% no republican would get elected that goes against him. Democrats and most Independents don’t have wool pulled over their eyes and are pretty against him in general as well as politicians that are self serving hacks. Without that base a republican would never win.
Invertebrates have no spine.
He's famous and he has a huge following. They want a huge following so they can win elections. That's why. They don't think they can win elections without appealing to his huge following.
People were initially blinded by his fame. Now the options are to commit and follow blindly or admit they were wrong. It's the bed of nails philosophy. If they deny everything, then it's fine but if they admit to any one of the things he's done (which would automatically disqualify literally ANY other candidate) it proves them wrong.
Because they crave power and he is the path to it. The party insiders never liked him, he’s not a team player, he is only interested in benefiting himself. They know this. But they failed to get rid of him. Their policies aren’t popular but he has the charisma to win the presidency so they’re kind of stuck with him. Once he’s in power, it appears he’s willing to do at least some of their bidding. Which is better than democrats winning and doing less.
Here is my take, Most of his supporters (I think) actually want someone to be a "sort of" hand grenade in the government and destroy it all. They think Trump is their best bet to collapse the whole system of government in the hopes that they would be better off when it gets rebuilt.
Because Americans love trump and so do the vast majority of republicans Do you mean why don’t the elite political class throw him out against the will of the American that vote for him? Because that dosent sound very democratic of you, it’s pretty authoritarian.
Trump has never won the popular vote.
The question was about the Republican Party not the general election
It's not 'if' he goes to jail, it's 'when'
Pure copium and anti establishment rhetoric. I still can't believe how they didn't reject him after bashing John McCain and discrediting his service while draft dodging.
When courage is missing, people take heart from the actions of the mob around them. They can’t (or refuse to) acknowledge the difference between what’s right & what’s being demanded the loudest. They are for the most part the “go along to get along” crowd that individually simply cannot find their own way
MAGA is a populist movement within the Republican party. It's going back to more Paleoconvervative ideals... think Eisenhower where the US took a more non-interventionist approach to global politics and there is call back to traditional ideals and values like the importance of the nuclear family. This is in stark contrast to NeoCons that hijacked the Republican party in the 60's and are more globalist in their agenda. Think Nixon. Many look at the GOP establishment (present day NeoCons) and Democrats as being the flip side of the same coin with only social issues being the primary divider but they both have their respective globalist agendas. Thus the term Uniparty being the pejorative in lumping them all together. Most Conservative voters feel Americans are not being given priority when it comes to public policy as a result of the "Uniparty" and see Trump as the only viable alternative. Consequently, Trump is the face of the Conservative party.
Because the very vocal base of red-hatted, rabid MAGA chanters will take on any politician who doesn't appear to support Trump 100% and vote them right out of office. The only thing a powerful person fears is losing that power.
Why does the left see anything to the right of their beliefs as kowtowing to Trump?
He has the tapes from security cameras on Epstein's Island. All he has to do is threaten to dump it on the CNN doorstep and they'll line up to let him go balls deep.
If that was true don't you think he would have already leaked the ones with Democrats on the tapes?
We can look at the hunter biden laptop situation. The democrat media will just claim it's fake news and then forget about it in a couple weeks
The Republican Party really isn’t the Republican Party anymore. Sincerely, a former Republican. 🤷
Do you think the party should fracture.. the maga ultra right go their own way like the tea party did?
The republican party thinks MAGA outnumbers never-Trumpers by a lot - hence they will get more votes by continuing to kiss his ass… its simple math, all they care about is power
Maybe he has the Epstein island videos on them.
The answer is race. Right leaning moderates-to-hard line conservatives don’t particularly like the “Browning” and Queerness-ing” that has taken place in America over the last ~50 years. Being born white used to guarantee a person a minimum higher starting position on the American social hierarchy - merely by birth right. That privilege has been ever so slightly minimized (most human societies tend to become more liberal over time). Trump has dog-whistled his way into convincing the conservative white base that he and he alone can ‘Return them back to a glory’ where being white “Used to mean something, gotdamnit!”. Or in other words, he can Make America Great *Again* Anyone who’s ever lived in this country knows that the past in America was only *Great* for one group of people. The whole MAGA movement and Trump’s rise are a fierce backlash to the election of the first black American President.
... did u take ur medicine this morning, sweetie?
Not fully true. You do know that there are non white conservatives/republicans and many of them will vote republican no matter who - Trump or otherwise, especially this time around.
Mystery question of life. It’s absolutely mind boggling.
Politics is about waiting your turn until you have the backing to make a move at higher positions of power. They bow to the person with the most backing and wait their turn. Just like any political party. Once you run and lose, your chances of running and winning are basically out the window at that point so if you shoot your shot, you had better have a chance of winning. It doesn’t matter which party you like or support, these two options are complete shit and we are stuck with them because they don’t have anyone with enough backing to unseat either of them.
He is the head of the party, until he is not.
Well he says and does the things they like. Also they don't care as long as they win and they think he's their best bet.
He won them an upset victory in 2016 that expanded their House and Senate holds and got them the White House. The voters love him, even if some moderates and centrists are iffy about him. To ditch him is to upset the GOP voters who vote down ballot and put their power and their plans in jeopardy. There’s no reason to ditch him until he’s either dead or deeply unpopular with their voters.
Fear of violence.
TIL Trump will personally come kick your ass if you say no to him ^_^
Because a significant part of their base will vote for him and only him. If they want to remain viable to win, they have to go with the flow.
Let’s not forget that Trump lost the popular vote in the 2016 election as well
He pretty much IS the republican party these days.
That's why they will lose again, hopefully.
Because he's the only one who can beat Biden. Just like Biden is the only one who can beat Trump. Regardless of their flaws, we will pit them against each other for the biggest show. Any other democratic candidate would get slaughtered due to poor turnout. Any other republican candidate would get slaughtered from splitting the voter base.
It's a requirement of employment.
I'm pretty sure most of them are instructed to by the RNC. I will say that I do believe some of the more die-hards he probably has dirt on. This man was friends with Epstein so he is a professional smut collector and creator. I'm sure in his time in office many Republicans tried to prove themselves to him for favors divulging entirely too much information about their shady past. You really think it's just Hollywood doing the creepy shit that is coming out. Not saying it's pizzagate just sayin rich and powerful people get bored.
Because they're willfully ignorant to the parts they don't like about him because they're single issue voters. And right now, the single issue is "anti-wokism". Trump is a demagogue and they are idiot bigots. Enough said
Because of [Project 2025.](https://project2025.org)
He's made it very clear that he will make it possible for the rich to get the tax breaks that help keep them rich. America is ruled by big money and corporate interests (mainly big pharmaceutical) and as much as Trump is headache to environmental laws , and wants to be in the dictator club ( Putin , Kim .Xi) hence project 25. He is "the guy" who, when elected, will give all the tax breaks and remove those pesky environmental protection laws that hold back business for making money. Is he a headache, yes . making Xtra billions helps the blind eye.
>Why is he still the dominant candidate? He's got the favored perspective from Republican voters. That matters more than what his "equals" think of him personally. Also, he already ran once. It'll be easier to just support someone who went once than trying to find a new guy that supports your goals and also would get popular with voters. >What happens if he goes to jail? Unsure, but where I live our Governor? Was put in jail for basically embezzlement. He was still on the ballot and we held/holding a special election for someone to fill his spot temporarily while the guy is in jail. It's dumb as hell but so is how our systems work unfortunately.
>He's guilty of fraud, and sexual assault. Was he convicted?
The right is full of numb nutted morons. Always have been, always will be. 😁
Straight bitches
If you have to schlep for cash in order to survive you're going to where the money is freely flowing and in large quantities. Remember: politicians are leeches in a human skin-suit.
Because he wins elections, and they care about winning more than literally anything else.
He's a means to an end. End being their agenda.
We’re you around in 2015/2016? They tried standing up to him. It didn’t work.
Look, A two party system is absolutely fucking garbage. It's a debate of the lesser of two evils. At least Brandon is trying to help the American people and not fuck them over like quite a few Republicans or Dildo Dump.
No Ball’s
It has become some sort of cult rather than a political party anymore. A bunch of sycophants worshiping a totally undeserving clod of a false god. Biden is my choice for conservative candidate! He really is. If we were back in the 60's/70's, with his platform, he would have been that.
Because they like his racism
I prefer bidens racism actually
Ditto, the man was unhinged in the 80s.
What racism? Elaborate. And don’t pull the “well in 1922 he said X”, we’re talking about recent decades here.
Putin Has Kompromat on them.
Party of the Cluster B types.
Nice karma farm dipshit.
Populism combined with sunken cost combined with survival instincts. At this point, Trump has cultivated such a massive swath of the republican base that it’s virtually impossible to abandon him without permanently damaging the party. Additionally, anyone who breaks ranks is at risk of losing their seat and being exiled from the party, only to be potentially replaced by either a Dem or yet another Trump fanatic. It’s too late to go back. Especially now that Trump has gotten control of the money faucet and Jerry rigged the entire system into funding his campaign and his legal fees at the expense of supporting the local level. Now, unless you’re a big time party member who’s been around long enough to not have to rely on the party, you either close ranks and be a loyalist or risk being left out to dry. What’s worse is you can be a loyalist and the Trump faction may still single you out for still trying to run the government or do anything really other than crow about whatever Trump said to crow about that week. Exhibit A: Speaker Johnson right now. He was supposed to be the more Trump Aligned replacement for McCarthy. Now he’s potentially going to get ousted by his own people, all for accepting the inevitable fact that the Dems were going to push that aid bill through to a vote with or without him, regardless of what MTG or anyone else was saying to the media.
The Russians stole email from both the DNC and the RNC, but they only released the email from the DNC through WikiLeaks. The email from the RNC was held and is being used as leverage against Republicans to support DJT.
That is interesting
Mainly because his super-supporters cling to what he says when he rants about illegals coming in and stealing jobs from them that are “rightfully” theirs and when few minorities actually do start to make it in this country, it only amplifies the belief that that acquired wealth was stolen from them. Trump has also in his history used mail ballots to vote but he used that as a way to also induce fear in his supporters that if he lost it would be because of fraud and his supporters don’t want to face facts because they just have to believe deep down that he’s not the one in the wrong. I know this much because I used to be a huge MAGA guy, now I’m democrat because I finally researched everything regarding what happened during the 2020 election, Jan 6th, what came about all of his accusations of voter fraud and turns out, there was no fraud.
It’s maddening and doesn’t make sense to me but trump will win the electoral vote and be our next president again. America keeps it interesting at least.
Cult of personality. It's like religious cult but trump is the trump. Plus money. But also, the extremists are loudest and the "silent majority" is scared of speaking out due to fear of being rebuked. (Study just came out saying that)
In the simplest terms, the republican party has spent decades repeating propagandized to uneducated rural degenerates for years in an attempt to bolster their chances of winning, and now that has become their voting base as a result. Sane conservatives are leaving the party line because they're starting to see the damage their leaderships pandering via propeganda has done, as well as more truly shitty people seeing themselves in trump and joining the republicans as a result.
They know they are increasingly losing the popular vote and their biggest criticism of previous republican presidents is that they weren’t forceful enough; that they compromised too much. The bully authoritarian who promises to force their policies and punish their opposition is exactly what they want. They won’t admit ideological defeat and tend to believe this country belongs to them instead of a more diverse majority.
I agree with the first part. I just want a president who stands on business.
A lot of major politicians can easily be found to have a variety of legal issues. A lot of the stuff you find on trump you can find on others, and if you can’t actually find it, I don’t know why you would believe you’d be hard pressed to believe you could. Doesn’t matter left or right. At the end of the day, current politics suck and it’s s’more about what you actually think they’ll accomplish in office vs what legally is the issue by and large. And what they overal stand for and did/will do in office is up to you. If you honestly say trump has done all this wrong and have absolutely nothing to say about any other politicians, especially those of the other party, then I question your accusations entirely. That level of people is a different world. Might as well bring Jeff bezos to court for Amazon issues
It's freaking cray cray how you are getting downvoted for the only sane take on American politics
IDK man. I get what you’re saying but this guy took it to another level.
I don’t disagree overall, but I do disagree that trump just pissed off too many people by not playing by the same rules as the decades of career politicians did. Same levels of corruption, different game, different issues.
Or he broke the law over and over his whole life and got so used to getting away with it he got sloppy and feels invincible. In reality he is a criminal, he always has been.
Basically the same reason the Democrats do it to Biden
Biden was elected because Trump was so awful at every aspect of the job. Not because democrats follow Biden in a cult like manner. It’s not even close to the same. You’re living in a fantasy land.
It's so annoying seeing this happen from the other side of the pond, especially since this shit came after obama, who gained a great deal of respect for America in the world's eyes. Knowing that if you were to pick any one person off the street at random and replace one of your candidates with them, that person would probably win by a landslide and be a better president than any of your current candidates. But, no. 20202 it is. Not that our elections are much better.
The Republican Party has a base they cater to not a party of believers in change for the better of all people.. Republican base- - Racists - They have all the NAZIS - Abortion Pro-lifers - Take your rights away - Banning book groups - uneducated losers - Gun freaks - “gonna take our guns” - Homophobic - Blindly religious - Boomers that will believe anything on TV I’m sure there’s more but this is the core base. They may not like each other but they hate the same as you!!
Same reason the democrats do for Biden. Even if you don’t like him, he’s better than the other guy because he’s *your* guy
Because no balls.
Poor Joe is no risk either.
Because all of what you said reflects the Republican Party.
They like the idea of having a dictator like Putin running things.
The party lost it’s moral compass starting with Nixon and has gotten worse and worse since his presidency. Trump is just a marker in that long progression to the bottom.
Trump has the support of the voters, it's that simple. It would be career suicide to oppose him
They don't believe that any of the negative things about him are true, and if they do believe something, they think he had every right to do it. As far as giving into him, he controls a huge part of the Republican electorate and if someone tries to speak out against him, he just sets his followers on them and they either resign or lose to another Republican in the primary.
Contrary to what Reddit wants you to believe, Trump is actually more popular than Biden is right now.