The common clay of the new West.
Yeah, it’s like all the people who rant about how awful “Obamacare” is and want the Republicans to destroy it; but love the ACA not realizing they are the same thing.
I can understand coming up with an excuse to deflect criticism of their actual reasons, but why come up with such an obviously delusional reason? There are some actual policy issue differences they could pretend to latch onto instead, that I’d disagree with, but wouldn’t make me think they’re literally insane. Like, foreign policy. How to deal with Iran, Russia, Israel, and China are areas of fundamental disagreement, in which it’s not immediately clear who is actually right or wrong. I know I have my opinions on these issues, but I’m self-aware enough to admit that no foreign policy has been super-successful in the last 30 years or so.
So just latch onto that as an excuse.And we could come up with other examples. Abortion, taxation, climate change policy, are all clear areas of disagreement that don’t look utterly delusional on their face.
People think about about what matters to them. And they talk about what they think about.
All those other topics are things for educated people with curiosity and time on their hands. Folks with no curiosity and not much education pretty well focus on what directly affects their daily life. Which is consumer prices & crime in their neighborhood.
Now they may not have any accurate factual info on consumer prices nor on local crime. But if they are given 20 soundbites on 20 political topics, those are the only two that won’t be ignored just like “blah blah Ginger blah blah blah”.
Exactly, they don’t have a broad range of sound alternative explanations or excuses at hand. Just the ones that were targeted at them. And as far as they are concerned that is all that it was about because it’s all they grasped.
Well, look, these people clearly gave those reasons — but those replies presumably got reported because they make for an interesting story. If twenty people give answers that aren’t especially provocative, and two give provocative soundbites that’d spark the sort of response that you just had, then: why not relay the quotes that are likely to widen eyes and drop jaws?
Depends on whether/ how much the media’s goal is clickbait or responsible journalism. A trade-off as old as journalism itself.
What changes from time to time is where the socially acceptable middle of that range lies.
Agree.
But lest I sound excessively elitist about the unwashed masses falling for the ol’ “price of eggs” gambit …
I know many people who’re in the mass affluent to no-shit rich category. For many of them their thought process amounted to
I only care about the stock market. Rs are the party that makes it go up. Ds make it go down. I vote R.
Despite the fact the market historically performs better under Ds than conventional Rs, and the definitely unconventional trump intends to upend trade, taxation, and alliances, while mangling much of the federal government. The market thrives on stability & hates uncertainty.
So they voted for trump. WTF were they thinking? My answer: they weren’t. It was all blah blah Ginger to them except mentions of tbe stock market. And a single locked-in unshakeable preconceived notion. That happens to be false.
Yeah, that also killed me. My mutual funds have done better the last four years than ever before. How can anyone with a large amount of money in the stock market not see that?
Because many people believe what they’re told, not what they see.
Every time Trump told his story about the snake, I kept thinking, “He’s the snake!” When Trump supporters complain, I’m going to ask them, “What did you expect? He’s a snake.”
I couldn’t agree with you more about this. I think this perfectly describes the thinking (or lack thereof) of many of my non-MAGA but relatively affluent in-laws, acquaintances, and co-workers who voted for Trump. I think I put more thought into writing this post than they did in deciding who to vote for.
(Then there are the other people I know, including members of my extended family, who are thoroughly MAGA with their Trump signs still sitting on their front lawns a month after the election…)
I categorize the first group as selfish and the second group as racist. What they have in common with each other (and most Trump voters) is that they are also brainwashed, misinformed, and/or just stupid—at least where it comes to politics.
I had the same reaction every time I heard this story. Trump has more projection than a 24-screen multiplex.
I live near a tourist beach with lots of eateries & impulse purchase retail.
Back about September a pop-up trump merch store appeared in an otherwise dead storefront. Loud music, all sorts of random merch inside: shirts, hats, plaques, giant posters, you name it. All of it worshipful of the trumpenführer. Very tiresome & frankly inappropriate for a recreational area.
When the election happened the store closed up and all the merch disappeared, as did their temporary banner sign. Yaay! Good riddence.
Not so fast. The store re-opened around Dec 10, fully restocked with new trump merch and is still going strong as of yesterday. Will it wrap some day soon here after Christmas or will it become a permanent temporary fixture to give the masses their daily dose of trump adoration?
We shall see. But color me less than optimistic.
Most people with real money know that the president has little impact on the markets. So they don’t really think the Dems are worse for their holdings.
They DO, however, think that Republicans like less regulation and lower taxes, and that’s good for people with big money, no matter where it’s kept.
FWIW, I personally know two billionaires from my time working with PE shops (I was Biz Dev for a PE owned company). I know them well enough that they will take my calls. Both love Trump, and it’s exclusively about the money.
Oh, he has plenty; usually negative since it’s a lot easier to do damage than it is anything else. But have an effect they do. Which is why it was stupid (but expected) for such wealthy people to support Trump, he’ll make big steps towards wrecking the very system that gives them their privileged and comfortable position in the first place. Including wrecking the market.
With “real money”?
That doesn’t explain the people with some money who won’t ever see those benefits (and most of whom never have), including under the first Trump term. Not all of them, not even most of them, are billionaires.
Irrational expectations (fewer regulations and lower taxes for people wealthier than us will trickle down to us! hooray!) combined with ignorance of past market performance does explain it, though.
This is one reason I’ll never be a billionaire. If I had that kind of money, I wouldn’t worry about the tax rates. I would have plenty after taxes. More than plenty.
Exactly. I could make sizeable donations (to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in particular, and whatever local charities I could find), and pay taxes, and have more money than I could ever spend.
I wouldn’t be surprised if just about every profitable PE manager is pro-Trump. They benefit spectacularly from the favorable tax treatment of carried interest that Republicans support, and I assume Trump even to a greater degree.
I work regularly with large and small stock and bond managers (along with a few hedge funds and PE managers) and I’d say less-than-half support Trump, although they would never say it publicly. Same goes with bankers and cash managers, who have a major stake in who determines monetary policy.