Trump is such a divisive figure that it is unreasonable to expect people to reach a consensus on much of anything related to him nowadays.
But it seems to me irrefutable that Trump is only able to get away with his excesses because he’s a straight white male. A philandering, tax-evading, foul-mouthed, immoral, anti-intellectual, bloviating blowhard could only become US president if they were a straight white guy. Members of other demographics would have been laughed off the debate stage if they had possessed just a fraction of these traits.
Do you think this is an irrefutable position?
I’m curious if Trump supporters share this opinion. If they do, do they also share the belief that American society is a meritocracy or at least should be? How does the existence of President Trump square with this concept?
Here’s how I imagine a Trump supporter might respond:
[hypothetical Trump supporter]
Why do you always have to be making everything about race or sex?
You sound like a resentful sibling: “Why does Donny always get away with everything?”
[/hypothetical]
Then they’d give examples of women, or people of color, or non-straights, who have said or done (what they see as) outrageous things and “gotten away with” them.
There isn’t a single motivation for supporting Trump. Some just support him out of knee-jerk partisanship, and end up as the apologists we see here on this board. They know he’s a piece of shit, but can’t bring themselves to really face up to his utter uselessness. And they know that meritocracy gets thrown out the window when stacked up against Trump’s (white male) identity politics. They’re just too intellectually dishonest to admit it.
Other Trump supporters are simply dupes, who really believe his bullshit. So of course they think he’s the best president ever, and that he’s suddenly turned the country around from the horrible state it was in just because Obama was Obama. Part of their motivation may be white male grievance (activated by Trump), or just stupidity–probably some combination of both.
Then there are the outright ethno-nationalists. They don’t care what any president does, as long as their cause gets promoted.
With that array of supporters, do you think any one of them is going to recognize or care about the double standard? Don’t bother.
I would challenge the premise. Herman Cain is black and says wild things and he was popular in his heyday because he pushed all the right right-wing button talking points. Michelle Malkin, a minority woman, is the same. Even a gay man, Milo Yannapoulis, is considered to be in the right by Trumpers.
Trumpers love liberal tears. They’d vote for anyone who could deliver that, regardless of race/gender/bloviating/tax dodging/philandering. Indeed, some even think a minority/woman would be the BEST to “stick it to the libs.”
Philandering - Alpha male who is maybe a 5 sleeping with 9’s and 10’s because he is powerful and rich. Tax-evading - He’s beating the system. Foul mouthed - Talks like they do and doesn’t care who hears it. Immoral - Nobody telling him what to do. Fuck the PC police. Anti-Intellectual - Over educated elites can kiss his ass. Bloviating blowhard - When he talks, people listen. White - Finally, an ethnic victim they can identify with.
He’s their folk hero and an aspirational figure. He’s everything they would like to be and he’s given them permission to be themselves.
McConnell for instance is not just strong rich and clever. That wouldn’t be enough at all to describe it. The sauce on it, the spice in the recipe is “antisocial”. “You are a dick to those upon whom I project my unwanted emotions so you will have my vote. All other politics is naive”
None of these people have ever been president of the US. In fact, they are all political has-beens who have a zero probability of ever being elected for dog catcher.
We have no evidence that these people would ever elect someone who is a non-straight white male to major political office.
I think you’re both right: There are plenty who would happily vote for a woman or a minority who said what they wanted to hear, but probably enough others who never would to keep it from happening.
Some of them might be under the right circumstances, but don’t expect it to happen over night. I’m someone who used to vote Republican. I know there are other posters who’ve said the same. For me, it was Iraq and the increasingly dirty rhetoric and politics coming from the right, rhetoric suggesting that people who opposed Bush hated the troops and were un-American. I’m guessing there are other Republicans that have their tipping point as well
This. My own mom admitted that Trump could murder her grandson, BBQ him on a spit on front of her and she’d still vote for him.
While she rants about the usual right wing stuff: welfare queens, food stamps cheaters, illegals, et al. I think her two biggest issues are:
Columbus Day ‘We’ve gotten too damn politically correct !!’
Comfort animals on planes. Any news story about someone bringing an unusual animal on a plane as a comfort animal has her foaming at the mouth for hours.
So, yes owning the libs is far more important than his policies or character.
An asshole that can say anything they want. Trod on those that they feel are inferior, and have Gold Diggers at their finger tips (yeah, gross, but thems the facts).
What’s the point of these “Why do trumpers/conservatives do X?” if almost every answer is by an opponent saying “cuz dey dumb”? Is the self-congratulatory circle that entertaining? How do you fight ignorance if you’re so sure about the answer that you don’t need to hear it?
If you have a better answer this would be the thread to post it in. I find the answers here so far pretty much reflect what I’ve seen in real life, but I would love to hear whatever counterexamples you may have.
Cult members are not know for objective thinking. This cult is no different. There are roughly 30% of the people who think he is infallible. Let them be, they can’t change. Work instead on those who can be persuaded. Yes only straight white (ostensibly) Christian males can get away with what he does. It’s baked into the culture of the cult. He can be defeated if people of conscience get off their butts and vote.
Like many people, particularly outside of the US, the support for Trump is difficult for me to fathom. He does and says things virtually every day that should be absolutely disqualifying.
But over these years I start to understand some Trump supporters, and there are two primary factors.
The first is ignorance. I don’t mean this in a pejorative sense, we’re all ignorant of many things. But trump supporters necessarily get their news from a narrow spread of sources. Many trump supporters I know think the worst thing Trump has ever done is some mean tweets; they are unaware of anything else. They think mueller cleared him of any wrongdoing, and probably now think the impeachment trial did likewise. And they hold plenty of readily debunkable false beliefs.
The second, and the reason I am agreeing with the OP, is that they relate to him. Trump is ignorant (and this time I mean it in the pejorative sense, as willful ignorance) in popular ways. His knee-jerk uninformed opinions line up well with many American’s knee-jerk reflexes (but don’t play so well abroad, where we have our own blind spots). And the lack of nuance is a positive.
He sounds and looks like one of your pals. And this is where some of the love affair aspect comes in; he’s one of the boys, one of us, telling it like it “is”. It must be pretty exciting and fun to feel like one of your pals is now president.