Yup, not, lol.
Agreed. Even after he dies, MAGA will try for a few more years to continue by other means (“carrying on Trump’s legacy”). The GOP has a long, painful future ahead of it.
That’s fine. But it sucks for decent people.
Let’s be a little less condescending.
Let us assume these folks have an average IQ of around 100 (same as in town) and go from there.
They are not stupid, they are not “being lied to”.
They know where the remote is AND what all the buttons do.
They like what they see.
They like what they hear.
“Telling it like it is”; “hurting the right people”
They want a Christian-nationalist authoritarian state. To them “Project 2025” sounds utopian.
Let’s not pretend these folks do not know exactly what they are voting for. That they don’t know who Fox is shilling for. They might be unsophisticated in your eyes - they are not that dumb.
Well, since you’re gonna contradict @LSLGuy with a different theory, let me go right back atcha with the original theory.
Do you seriously believe that nearly half of Americans want “a Christian-nationalist authoritarian state”? That they agree with the lunatic extremism of Project 2025? That they want a totalitarian theocracy?
Sure, a few do, like the dangerous lunatics who architected Project 2025. But nearly half of all Americans?
Have you seen some of these Trump supporters being interviewed? I’ve seen many. These are not bright people. I don’t know if or how they manage to tie their own shoelaces.
Have you heard Trump’s arguments? He speaks and writes like a 7-year-old, because that’s about his mental capacity.
Have you paid attention to what he actually says? He lies practically every time he opens his mouth. He contradicts himself from one day to another, sometimes from one sentence to another. He’s making exactly the same predictions of apocalyptic doom about Harris that he made about Biden four years ago, using exactly the same words. Only an utter moron completely detached from reality could believe any of it.
These are not bright people. Most of them are morons who have been lied to continuously and are still falling for it. Only a few are True Believers who really want a totalitarian theocracy. A few more are ideologues who will vote (R) regardless of who’s on the ticket. A majority are just idiots – idiots who Trump himself despises; as Stephanie Grisham told us last night, in private Trump refers to his core supporters as “basement dwellers”.
Maybe not all dumb, but certainly incurious. And lacking in empathy, and (as was pointed out in several DNC speeches last night), lacking an appreciation for simple human decency.
I don’t want to get into hijack territory (maybe we’re here already), but most of the Trump supporters I know are not dumb. Many are college grads and have respectable careers. (I used to work at a large bank and was shocked to find out how many of my fellow employees supported DJT.)
They are not the folks who attend rallies and buy the stupid merchandise. But I suspect most of them are closet racists and misogynists. And they’re okay with voting for a moron.
Trump supporter analysis is absolutely on-topic for this thread.
They are a large part of the answer to the question to the OP’s question.
Moderating
Exactly.
Let’s not pretend these are poor misguided lambs.
They know very well what they want and that closely aligns with what they are voting for.
“Telling it like it is”
“Hurting the right people”
Not half. I’d say about a third.
This is exactly right. Democrats think that Trump voters will suddenly understand the threat he poses to democracy and snap out of it. They understand it very well, they hate democracy because it let the blacks get uppity and the gays out of the closet. They tried to overthrow the government and we’re still acting like they can be fixed with a West Wing marathon.
Yes.
That is exactly what I believe.
The facts neatly fit with this.
What other motivation do 30% of voters have to vote for Trump twice?
You think 70M Americans were duped into voting for a guy twice? Give these people some credit - nobody is that stupid.
“
The facts that I set out – about Trump’s mendacious stupidity and the demonstrated stupidity of his core acolytes – directly contradict your belief.
Hoping for a totalitarian theocracy seems to me to be a lot more stupid; in fact, beyond the bounds of belief in a first-world democracy.
To quote Agent K:
“A person in smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”
A lot of the things Trump says sound really stupid to you and me.
This does not mean Trump is stupid.
— I despise the man, but he is of at least slightly above average intelligence —
It is not about giving smart answers to the questions that are actually posed. It is about “flooding the zone” with your sound bites and talking points: the more outrageous the better.
His audience is not you and me. The MAGAs are not looking for the same things you and I want to see. But I think it has been shown again and again that Trump is showing them what they want to see.
It’s possible that his stupidity is an act. I guess that would make him even more reprehensible that I already thought.
Have you forgotten some recent SCOTUS rulings and Jan 6?
It is not written in stone that the USA is a first world democracy.
That’s just it though. When speaking to my MAGA mother, we are so far apart on even the basic facts that I feel as though we’re living in a different world. She can look at me with a straight face and say Antifi was responsible for January 6, that Ashli Babbit was murdered, and hundreds of people have been wrongfully convicted for their actions that day. It’s scary just how thoroughly the cult of the Mango Menace has brainwashed her.
I don’t understand the MAGA mind. I think a lot of them are fools who don’t really understand what they’re doing, some of them just want to watch the world burn, and still others know exactly what they’re doing.
To wit – major national source takes the same “Harris is in trouble” Pennsylvania poll numbers we were kicking around Monday and uses them to dump on Trump’s chances in the state.
The importance of this needs be emphasized. Trump being an existential threat is something we accept or do not belief based to no small degree on our awareness that these facts are in fact facts. Those whose information diet is repeating that these facts are fake do not believe therefore that he is such a threat. They believe alternate fictive facts. And they really do.
It is why the mockery actually works better. Mockery works independent of the facts. It transcends bubbles. His knee jerk reaction to the mockery makes him only look worse. At least to those who are at all reachable.
Agreed. As I say, Trump voters are stupid or evil. Usually it’s a combination: wanting the wrong things (a white Christian nationalist theocracy, aggression against the Other, etc.) combined with willful ignorance. But, like you, what I don’t buy is that they are just goodhearted dumb white people, poor misinformed crackers.
They see the same evil Trump that we do–and they approve. There simply is no excuse for it. None.