# Co-opting Trumpism **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 3, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589 "2016-10-03T19:56:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![UberArchetype](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/2bfe46/32.png) [@UberArchetype](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UberArchetype)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/61 "2016-10-06T23:43:32Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The first ten of those were all cocaine dealers - who knows how much - who got 20 year sentences. Which seems a bit excessive. Makes me wonder how he’d even have time to review all that, not to mention consider rational decisions, what with ya know, other President job stuff to do? [Obama commutes record total 774 sentences](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/10/06/obama-commutes-xx-more-sentences/91685468/) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/62 "2016-10-06T23:45:18Z")
> [@UberArchetype](#): > > I believe as a moderator, you should set a better example consider yourself obliged to answer my question. What question was that? The “Trump phenomenon”? I answered that. A fairly small segment of the society prefers seeing the world as being on the brink of collapse. We have always had such people among us: the Moral Majority, the Silent Majority, the John Birch Society, (the KKK). Fox News made it a point to cater to the paranoia of that group for years and Trump has now tapped into it. Trump has never had an approval rating as high as 40% His poll numbers are slightly higher because a certain number of people are adamantly opposed to Hillary Clinton, but he is not really a popular candidate. The majority of people supporting him for president seem to be opposing Clinton more than supporting Trump. And are you going to provide a post of any substance or simply continue posting one-line rants with no substance? As to your odd fear mongering about the commutation of sentences, (in which you appear to have linked to a subscription page instead of the actual article), that is old news. The people whose sentences have been or are being commuted are people who were found to have possessed a tiny amount of drugs that managed to cross the line of our draconian laws regarding presumption to sell. They tend to be people who have not actually been caught pushing drugs, but only having made the mistake of buying too much for their own use. The effect of his commutations will be to allow a rather small number of drug users to return to their families. ---
**Author:** ![UberArchetype](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/2bfe46/32.png) [@UberArchetype](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UberArchetype)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/63 "2016-10-06T23:49:34Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > What question was that? Is your factually-supported endorsement of Liberalism the “takeaway from the Trump Phenomenon?” A simple yes or no will do. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/64 "2016-10-06T23:54:49Z")
> [@UberArchetype](#): > > Damn deplorables, they are. You do know, (on reflection you probably only listen to the Trump campaign and so you don’t), that Clinton did not call all Trump supporters deplorables. She referred to the half of his support that is driven by racism, misogyny, religious bigotry, and other negative qualities deplorable. The other half of his supporters, the frightened ones, she said we should listen to their complaints and try to reach out to them. > [@UberArchetype](#): > > Funny thing is, most of the people who are going to vote for Trump in a landslide next month don’t do polls, and probably haven’t even spoken to others much about their feelings towards this government. Ahh! The “_I am going to sit in this dark closet and pretend that the world is the way I see it instead of actually looking at the numbers produced by scientific polls_” defense. You do know that you are pretty much exactly repeating the claims of the Romney camp in 2008 that the “real people” did not pay attention to polls, that the polls were wrong, and that Romney was going to sweep into office. All those “real people” are who elected President Romney. . . oh, wait, no they didn’t. Landslide? I will not claim he cannot win, but there will be no landslide in this election. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/65 "2016-10-07T00:00:20Z")
> [@UberArchetype](#): > > I posited a concise reason, theory, or whatever you want to call it on the “Trump phenomenon takeaway.” > > It has not been refuted or otherwise de-bunked. Changing the topic or derailing the thread isn’t going to change that. > > Just seems odd how almost half the stupid population doesn’t see it the way you and others here seem to. Damn deplorables, they are. Funny thing is, most of the people who are going to vote for Trump in a landslide next month don’t do polls, and probably haven’t even spoken to others much about their feelings towards this government. What you said was > [@](#): > > Liberalism’s utter failure, pushing the country towards socio-economic chaos is the “takeaway from the Trump Phenomenon.” Now socio-economic chaos might be obvious to you, but it is far from obvious to me. Given the facts that were shown you it is kind of hard to argue that liberalism has failed. You do remember the crash, don’t you? Was that the fault of liberalism? And don’t say that the big bad government forced mortgage companies to write bad mortgages, because that is crap. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/66 "2016-10-07T00:04:15Z")
> [@UberArchetype](#): > > Is your factually-supported endorsement of Liberalism the “takeaway from the Trump Phenomenon?” > > A simple yes or no will do. If you start with nonsense, you don’t get to demand a specific answer. I challenged your odd claim that the last 8 years have been regrettable. I have taken no stand on liberalism, conservatism, libertarianism, or mysticism. That you wish to assign me a philosophical position does not actually make it a position I hold and I have no reason to answer a silly question based on a false premise. I have twice now explained the “Trump phenomenon” (whooopeee! 37% of Americans, only 3 in 8, like him), and see no reason to provide “answers” to badly posed questions. The takeaway from Trump’s popularity is that any number of people would rather pretend that the world is scarier than it is and can be “fixed” with simplistic and bad “solutions” and are willing to like a misogynistic, racist, narcissistic liar than to have supported any of the reasonable candidates who offered themselves for the Republican Party. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/67 "2016-10-07T00:12:44Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > Rewinding…rewinding…rewinding… > > If I understand the OP, what is being asked is, assuming Hillary wins, what are the key take-aways in terms of motivating issues driving the Trump supporters, and what can be done about actually addressing them in a Clinton administration? > > My concern is that simple divisiveness and party tribalism will prevent any real progress based on objective attempts at addressing any motivating issues. Even if the administration came out and said, “We have discovered the magic bullet that will solve the economy, our immigration issues, and foreign threats, let’s do it!” The political opposition would never ever EVER sign on. Sorry, I am very cynical about this. > > Thus, my question to Trump supporters is always, “OK, I get that you have passionate complaints about real issues. Why do you think that Trump is the solution?” To me, it’s like, “Oh look! My stove is on fire! I’ll get a hammer, that will help!” The real issues aren’t going away. We’re fortunate that the republican party, or what’s left of it, keeps embarrassing itself by wallowing in its own anger, and in the process, they seem to be just as eager to fight with each other over matters of ideological purity and hammering out some sort of coherent platform, as they are their opposition. Interestingly enough, there was a report today overseas about two UKiP delegation members slugging it out while meeting with European officials about the process of initiating Brexit, which seems to underscore the intensity with which the now trans-Atlantic anti-global movement seems to be operating. Anyway, I digress. We’re fortunate in that they have put forward clowns like Sarah Palin and Donald Trump. If we’re lucky, the republicans will produce anything from an open civil war with each other to over-playing their hand and making people realize just how nuts their movement has become. I think Hillary is counting on overt partisanship that will cause a backlash at the polls in 2018 and 2020. But the right type of demagogue, like a Ted Cruz (not necessarily him but someone like him) could be the ultimate nightmare. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/68 "2016-10-07T05:46:10Z")
> [@UberArchetype](#): > > I posited a concise reason, theory, or whatever you want to call it on the “Trump phenomenon takeaway.” > > It has not been refuted or otherwise de-bunked. Changing the topic or derailing the thread isn’t going to change that. > > Just seems odd how almost half the stupid population doesn’t see it the way you and others here seem to. Damn deplorables, they are. Funny thing is, most of the people who are going to vote for Trump in a landslide next month don’t do polls, and probably haven’t even spoken to others much about their feelings towards this government. Listen: while I can’t speak for the others, I’ve been constantly and consistently following the polls ever since Trump announced in the summer of 2015. When it became clear that he wasn’t just a flavour of the month and would be consistently and constantly leading, I predicted his victories in most of the primary/caucus contests as well as his eventual nomination even as everyone else on this board tried to poo-pooh his polling. While polls are by no means perfect, it’s clear they do provide meaningful projections for elections and if they are accurate, then it’s very unlikely Trump will win much less in a landslide. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/69 "2016-10-07T13:08:27Z")
> [@UberArchetype](#): > > Liberalism’s utter failure, pushing the country towards socio-economic chaos is the “takeaway from the Trump Phenomenon.” Mr. **Uber** ’s complaints don’t seem well-specified. > [@UberArchetype](#): > > Just add it to the long list of bad ideas we’ve been growing for 8 regrettable years. Oh. It’s about that Kenyan who pretends he’s half-white. What is it specifically we don’t like about him? The death camps? His support for Islamic terrorism? Was _he_ the Zodiac killer? > [@UberArchetype](#): > > Makes me wonder how he’d even have time to review all that, not to mention consider rational decisions, what with ya know, other President job stuff to do? > > [Obama commutes record total 774 sentences](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/10/06/obama-commutes-xx-more-sentences/91685468/) Well, at least we’re getting specific! What exactly contributed to the “socio-economic chaos”? The U.S. incarcerates 6.9 people out of every 1000. This compares with Spain (1.3), China (~1.5), Sweden (0.5). Do we need a higher incarceration rate to improve our “socio-economic chaos”? It isn’t the “Makes me wonder how he’d even have time” blather that caused the chaos, right? That was just some drug-addled kitten playing with your keyboard, right? > [@tomndebb](#): > > You have presented no facts. > > You have expressed an opinion and have refused to provide any support for your opinion, relying on meaningless one-liners instead of actual information. Your “past 8 years” remark implies that the reduction of unemployment from 7.8% to 5.8%, the increase in the DOW Jones from 7,949 to in excess of 17,800, the increase in GDP growth from -5.4% to 3.5%, the reduction of the deficit GDP from 9.8% to 2.8%, and the increase in Consumer Confidence from 37.7 to 94.5 are all things to regret. (Note that those are actually facts.) > > (And despite fear mongering from the NRA, he has still done nothing to “take away” our guns.) Thanks, **Tom**. I’ve only skimmed the thread — what was Mr. **Uber** ’s reaction when he learned for the first time the Dow-Jones more than doubled under this chaotic Kenyan? ---
**Author:** ![UberArchetype](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/2bfe46/32.png) [@UberArchetype](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UberArchetype)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/70 "2016-10-07T13:51:35Z")
So what’s the takeaway, then? Lots of pontification about how I’m wrong, yet not indication to prove it. If not Liberalism’s utter failure, then what? Please explain and save the veiled ad hominems for the pit. I’ll see you there later next month. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/71 "2016-10-07T18:43:09Z")
> [@UberArchetype](#): > > So what’s the takeaway, then? Lots of pontification about how I’m wrong, yet not indication to prove it. If not Liberalism’s utter failure, then what? > > Please explain and save the veiled ad hominems for the pit. I’ll see you there later next month. 😛 Your posts are so content-free that they are not even wrong. Just vacuous. ---
**Author:** ![UberArchetype](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/2bfe46/32.png) [@UberArchetype](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UberArchetype)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/72 "2016-10-08T00:06:15Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Your posts are so content-free that they are not even wrong. Just vacuous. So still no answer, but the old veiled ad hominem to avoid mod warning in GD. Looks like The utter failure of Liberalism remains the only legitimate takeaway from the Trump Phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![UberArchetype](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/2bfe46/32.png) [@UberArchetype](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UberArchetype)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/73 "2016-10-08T00:11:59Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > The takeaway from Trump’s popularity is that any number of people would rather pretend that the world is scarier than it is and can be “fixed” with simplistic and bad “solutions” and are willing to like a misogynistic, racist, narcissistic liar than to have supported any of the reasonable candidates who offered themselves for the Republican Party. Right! Because the past eight year’s liberal agenda has pushed the sicio-econimic trend in a direction that makes alot of people Trump supporters. Your value judgments on them outlined above matter not. It’s so simple I can see how it flies straight over your head, lack of content, facts and all. Congratulations for availing us with a bunch of facts and flawless reasoning that has abosultely nothing to do with the fundamental issue. ---
**Author:** ![UberArchetype](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/2bfe46/32.png) [@UberArchetype](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UberArchetype)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/74 "2016-10-08T00:40:23Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Well, at least we’re getting specific! Assuming the veracity of all the pedantic nonsense you’ve presented, it still does not propose, explain or support a takeaway from the Trump Phenomenon. Are we supposed to believe a great economy and low unemployment spurs all the stupid, fearful irrational people to vote for Trump? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/75 "2016-10-08T03:19:02Z")
The Trump phenomenon, and its earlier incarnation the Tea Party phenomenon do tell us that regardless of statistical metrics of how the country and the community is performing, there are still a large number of citizens _for each of whom_ times suck, personally; or the tenor or personality of the national leadership rubs them the wrong way, emotionally; or they just _Have A Bad Feeling About This_ where things are headed, and no reasoned explanation you can give them will satisfy them. Whatever’s up is bad and the solution is to throw the bastards out and put in someone who will be on “our” side. They “want their country back” even though it never went anywhere, they just failed to notice it was evolving right under their feet. The person who himself lost their house and savings in 2008 when the measurable economy as a whole was tanking under an ostensibly conservative leadership, or the other person who has not gotten a good job in 2016 while it is measurably recovered under an ostensibly liberal one, would both tell you that the country is in the wrong track… because THEY are on the wrong track. Similarly on social and cultural issues: it may be that the data does not support what they claim are the things make them feel we’re going to hell in a handbasket, but they ARE feeling it so they want someone to address it. It is their reality, whether or not it looks like it to those not in their shoes, and we would be wise to admit that indeed large numbers of the population feel so – and that they will not welcome our Elitesplaining. Heck, the Trump followers are especially notorious for not caring that he contradicts himself on points of “movement conservative” orthodoxy – economic, geopolitical, religious and cultural. So if it were to be called a failure of presentation of the Liberal case, it must also be called a massive failure of presentation of the actual Conservative case. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/76 "2016-10-08T04:39:43Z")
> [@UberArchetype](#): > > Right! Because the past eight year’s liberal agenda has pushed the sicio-econimic trend in a direction that makes alot of people Trump supporters. Your value judgments on them outlined above matter not. It’s so simple I can see how it flies straight over your head, lack of content, facts and all. > > Congratulations for availing us with a bunch of facts and flawless reasoning that has abosultely nothing to do with the fundamental issue. You keep making snide comments with no connection to reality. You might want to begin by explaining what your phrase “Trump phenomenon” actually means to you. You keep posting as though there was a specific situation to which you are referring, but there are actually multiple phenomena connected to Trump and it is unclear whether you are talking about his xenophobia, (a part of American culture dating back to the 1840s), his reliance on racism and misogyny, (with roots going back well into the 19th century), his appeal to some great unidentified “majority” of people that does not really exist, (such as the above mis-named “silent” and “moral” majorities and similar groups that preceded them), or to something else. As noted above, the ideas and positions, most of them false, many of them lies, that underlie the support that Trump has received began with the Tea Party, not Trump. The original complaints raised by the people who later morphed into the Tea Party began under the presidency of George W. Bush, being formally organized in 2002. If “Liberalism” (or your vision of it) provided the motive for this attitude among a number of people, why did it originate under a deeply conservative president at a time when the U.S., responding to the WTC/Pentagon attacks, was displaying a surge in Conservatism? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/77 "2016-10-08T07:20:49Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Mr. **Uber** ’s complaints don’t seem well-specified. He sure has a lot of 'em, though. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/78 "2016-10-08T17:48:10Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > You keep making snide comments with no connection to reality. You might want to begin by explaining what your phrase “Trump phenomenon” actually means to you. You keep posting as though there was a specific situation to which you are referring, but there are actually multiple phenomena connected to Trump and it is unclear whether you are talking about his xenophobia, (a part of American culture dating back to the 1840s), his reliance on racism and misogyny, (with roots going back well into the 19th century), his appeal to some great unidentified “majority” of people that does not really exist, (such as the above mis-named “silent” and “moral” majorities and similar groups that preceded them), or to something else. Perhaps the “Trump Phenomenon” comes from racism and misogyny (and homophobia) becoming increasingly objected to by society, which makes those who thing objecting to them is just political correctness feel like outsiders and not on the top any more. Trump being racist makes him one of them, unlike most other politicians these days. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/79 "2016-10-09T20:53:36Z")
**JRDelirious** really nailed the economic portion of **uber** ’s poorly expressed demands for an answer. \*\*Voyager \*\*just above gets close to the heart for many of the social aspects. Leftism has failed the working class since ~1980. Rightism has failed the working class since ~1950. History today is failing the working class in the US and indeed all over the first world. They’re not happy for many reasons. Some of which are very well-founded, some of which are just entitled lazy whining, and some of which are socially pathological attitudes and lifestyles that are rapidly becoming entrenched as multi-generational feedback loops. The term “Trumpism” is a misnomer. An -ism is a (mostly) coherent body of thought. Trump stands for exactly nothing. Trump is simply a primal scream. _That’s_ the role he plays on TV. Trump is simply the latest in a long line of rabble-rousers worldwide. He happens to be a particularly talented showman, so his screaming is attractive to the disenchanted and disenfranchised. His being able to start with an existing celebrity brand gives him a yuuge leg up over other would-be rabble rousers who first need to build name recognition. Notice that Beppe Grillo in Italy is the same sort of mad-as-hell celebrity character. There are or have been others both in the US and elsewhere. It \*is \*the case that angry working class folks with economic grievances and angry socially conservative folks with social grievances will not disappear on Nov 9th. No matter who wins. A much more ideal situation would be for the US to have 4 parties split orthogonally along social and economic lines. That would encourage ideologically consistent parties. As it is with our two-party system each party is such a large tent that the real politics that matter is done inside each party and the parties’ overall ideologies necessarily end up somewhere between inconsistent and incoherent. The working class has not been effective at that party internal politics. As an old political saying has it: “If you’re not at the table you’re on the menu.” Working class interests, narrowly defined, have been eaten \*as \*the menu for a long time. I’m not going to propose a solution in this post. But I’ll post this as an outline of the problem and see how much it resonates with the crowd. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589/80 "2016-10-09T21:24:53Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The term “Trumpism” is a misnomer. An -ism is a (mostly) coherent body of thought. Trump stands for exactly nothing. > > Trump is simply a primal scream. _That’s_ the role he plays on TV. Trump is simply the latest in a long line of rabble-rousers worldwide. He happens to be a particularly talented showman, so his screaming is attractive to the disenchanted and disenfranchised. His being able to start with an existing celebrity brand gives him a yuuge leg up over other would-be rabble rousers who first need to build name recognition. Notice that Beppe Grillo in Italy is the same sort of mad-as-hell celebrity character. There are or have been others both in the US and elsewhere. > > It \*is \*the case that angry working class folks with economic grievances and angry socially conservative folks with social grievances will not disappear on Nov 9th. No matter who wins. Remember the Monty Python bit (on an album, not sure if it was on TV) about curing cancer? Trump’s policies in general are exactly like this. Defeat ISIS? Just tell the generals to do it. Bring back manufacturing? Tell Apple to stop making stuff in China. Those who say the solutions to these problems are considered wishy washy by the Trump base. They got set up this way by the Republicans for the last 8 years and by Fox News. Trump saw this, and had the nerve to appeal to them while avoiding having to give any details. It’s not like Trump invented the concept of increasing spending on the Wall and the military and cutting taxes and having the budget be balanced also. He can just spout this crap more convincingly than the rest of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/co-opting-trumpism/767589.md?page=5)