# Democrats have not tried infiltrating MAGA en masse from within **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [January 28, 2025, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529 "2025-01-28T13:39:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2025, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/101 "2025-01-31T22:44:51Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > I’ll just say I wish more people noticed when they overstep. Yeah everyone; try to be more like me 😄 (…or don’t do the snark in the first place, apologies @DrDeth. Although I am keen to hear some elaboration). ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/102 "2025-01-31T23:00:27Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > (…or don’t do the snark in the first place, apologies @DrDeth. Although I am keen to hear some elaboration). No problem. And- that post was a bit of a hijack, and how many times have I been Mod Noted for going along with a hijack and hijacking it even more? I said what was needed, and dropped it. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/103 "2025-02-01T18:10:10Z")
> [@Mijin](#): > > Well I’m not sure the point you were trying to put to me in [post 51](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/51) then, because no-one is trying to infiltrate MAGA; it’s a suggestion by the OP here. To recap my contribution to this thread: Democrats have not been successful infiltrating or otherwise convincing Trump voters because Democrats disparage Trump voters and it is difficult to win votes from people you’re disparaging. Remember the “basket of deplorables” incident? That gaffe _alone_ may have been enough to push Mr. Trump over the finishline in 2016. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/104 "2025-02-01T18:23:06Z")
Still waiting for evidence that the opposite approach actually works. ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/105 "2025-02-01T19:44:55Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > Remember the “basket of deplorables” incident? That gaffe _alone_ may have been enough to push Mr. Trump over the finishline in 2016. 1. It was a very close election and there were a number of any single things that could have swung the result. 2. She was absolutely right, as is being proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, when [she said](https://time.com/4486502/hillary-clinton-basket-of-deplorables-transcript/): > “You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right?” Clinton said. “The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic—you name it.” So she was just “telling it like it is”. That’s the kind of straightforward talk those other half Trump voters appreciate, right? And about that other half: > She said the other half of Trump’s supporters “feel that the government has let them down” and are “desperate for change.” > > “Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well,” she said. Except that other half would rather look the other way while fascists take over the country. Not exactly a profile in courage, are they? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/106 "2025-02-01T19:51:09Z")
> [@duality72](#): > > She was absolutely right, as is being proven beyond a shadow of a doubt The question isn’t whether her claim was _correct._ The question is whether it was a good idea for her to _say so,_ right then. Do you believe that she concluded — soon after having, uh, said so — that she shouldn’t have said that right then, and that it’d be a good idea for her to backpedal on it? ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/107 "2025-02-01T20:03:36Z")
And the point was that those voters who appreciate leaders “telling it like it is” should have flocked to her, or at least acknowledged her correctness in hindsight. But for some reason they haven’t, nor will they. Trying to appeal to voters that ignore basic facts is a fool’s game. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/108 "2025-02-01T20:12:17Z")
Do you think her saying that made things _worse_ for her election odds — or better, or that it made no difference? Because it seems to me it’s entirely possible to have a situation where (a) like you say, one can’t really build up a bigger appeal; but (b) one can still keep from making things _worse._ ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/109 "2025-02-01T20:17:40Z")
Long run, little to no difference. No one promised this story has a happy ending. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/110 "2025-02-01T20:30:48Z")
The closest animal we’ve had in the US to Trump is Huey Long. Nothing stopped him but a bullet. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2025, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/111 "2025-02-01T21:57:05Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > To recap my contribution to this thread: Democrats have not been successful infiltrating or otherwise convincing Trump voters because Democrats disparage Trump voters and it is difficult to win votes from people you’re disparaging. > > Remember the “basket of deplorables” incident? That gaffe _alone_ may have been enough to push Mr. Trump over the finishline in 2016. More likely what helped Trump was all the people bashing her for it, just like they bashed Tim Walz for calling them weird, and for anything other than abject submission to the Right. Because _absolutely nothing_ is going to convince the Right to vote for anything other than bigotry and cruelty, but constantly groveling to the Republicans does a good job of driving away potential Democratic voters. And encourage both the Republicans and their base since they _accurately_ see it as a sign of weakness. The Democrats haven’t convinced the Right because nothing and no one ever convinces the Right. They will remain intransigent and hateful until the day they die. The Right is defeated or worked around, but never _convinced._ They are only ever outmaneuvered, forced into compliance or outright defeated in war. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2025, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529/112 "2025-02-02T14:11:41Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > More likely what helped Trump was all the people bashing her for it, just like they bashed Tim Walz for calling them weird, and for anything other than abject submission to the Right. Right. Let’s also remember that Clinton used the expression “open borders” once, in a private meeting with business leaders, and was clearly talking about open _trade_. Yet it remains one of the most successful (and recurring) attacks in modern US politics. My point being, the 2016 election was based on a right-wing that had been throwing mud at Clinton for many years and now was escalating the disinformation machine in the new media landscape. In the alternate universe where Clinton had not made the deplorables comment there would have been something else that they would have spun as Clinton being elitist. And _you can show her_ you’re a true-blood american by voting for the golden toilet guy! 'murica! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/democrats-have-not-tried-infiltrating-maga-en-masse-from-within/1013529.md?page=5)