Imagine Trump drops all pretense of not being racist, and explicitly declares himself a White Nationalist that opposes immigration because he wants to keep the country white.
What happens to his approval rating? I predict that it would either hold steady at 42%, or at most it would drop 35%, but in no case would it drop lower than that.
The same people would be cheering. Only louder.
KKK member and Nazi David Duke ran for senator in Louisiana and got 43% of the vote. You can probably figure out which party he was a member of for that race.
For intents and purposes, hasn’t this already happened?
They would publicly disavow him…but still vote for him. The ends justify the means for the Modern Republican, and lying is just another tool.
This.
How would your hypothetical be any different than what we have right now?
Some of his supporters would cheer him saying white nationalist things while other supporters would pretend like he wasn’t saying white nationalist things.
Just like now.
There’d be tut-tuts of disapproval from McConnell and Ryan and the other party leaders.
I don’t think that there would be any real change among his supporters, even the ones who claim that they themselves aren’t racists.
They would just justify it and rationalize it and bothsideism and whataboutism until they manage to convince themselves to be okay with it.
Those who do not warmly embrace him for being open about supporting their hatreds, anyway.
Very, very little would happen. Most Republicans in office would just further twist themselves into knots to excuse this, and most supporters long ago decided the things they like about Trump are more important than opposing racism or sexism, or have a blind spot and are unable to recognize such bigotry. IMO, of course.
He’d lose a trivial number of low-information supporters and gain a smaller number of low-information extremists.
Anyone who follows the news enough to know the name of the Vice President knows what the Donald thinks about people of color.
Yeah, you’re probably right. Trump and the GOP are greatly stepping up the racialized appeals. It’s hard to even call them dog whistles anymore, because they are so explicit. But what if used the N-word? What if he appeared on stage with David Duke and Richard Spencer?
This could be IMHO, but really it’s probably better in the Pit.
Moved from Elections to the Pit.
[/moderating]
It would skyrocket among his really hardcover worshippers (and don’t kid yourself; that’s what they are) and in the meantime, he would deny ever having said anything when confronted with the evidence.
Does that make sense? It doesn’t to me either.
I suspect there will not be a very wide range of responses to the OP’s question, but I’ll have a go anyway.
I don’t imagine his approvals would increase, as I have to think that the number of people who feel Trump is insufficiently bigoted is negligible. I’d more agree with the poster who figured his approvals would drop to maybe 35% or so. Certainly not lower than that. Trump’s cult of personality seems to have develop to the point where the majority of his supporters would say something like, “Well, if my man here thinks publically announcing he’s a white nationalist is sensible, maybe there’s something to it after all”. I mean, these are people who, if they are willing to say anything critical about Trump at all, it’s along the lines of “He Tweets too much”, as if the mere act of Tweeting is the problem, rather than the utter bollocks that make up the vast majority if its content.
What do you mean “if”? The son-of-a-bitch explicitly stated he’s a nationast. His other ponouncements already proved he’s a white supremacist. There’s no fucking if or imagining here. And plenty of morons are cheering vociferously about that.
I think he would lose most of his support. From what I have seen, a fairly large portion of people who are his supporters are very welcoming of minorities. They pretty much hate undocumented immigrants, communism, socialism, and - probably more than anything - “liberals”. Some of his supporters are racist, I am sure, but their views are fairly unwelcome in any mainstream groups that support Trump that I have seen.
As difficult as it can be to believe, his supporters want the unity in the country, they believe that in order for the country to be strong it must have a citizenry that is united under a few common basic beliefs. Skin color has nothing to do with beliefs, in fact, there is probably more overlap in common values and beliefs between your average Trump supporter and a random minority than a Trump supporter and a highly affluent white person from a blue are.
This isn’t to say that his supporters are not misguided, or that Trump’s record on minority issues is anything but very problematic. It is clear, if you look at what his supporters say, that they do believe Trump is the one to unify the country. Racists like Trump too, but his support goes far beyond white supremacy type racists. If Trump came out as 100% undeniably racist in the OP sort of way, he would still have some support, but only David Duke levels.
What are you talking about?
HardCORE, not hardcover.
:smack:
Yes. It has.
It would drop.
The trick is to be a white nationalist without actually being labeled as such. It’s more effective to use dog whistles and clarion calls for white nationalism and market the schtick as plain nationalism. But the moment he calls it white nationalism, his coalition crumbles. He needs some percentage of his base to believe that his white nationalism is the kinder, gentler type.
I’m not entirely convinced that Trump understands what a ‘nationalist’ is.
CMC fnord!