# Trump Supporters are Flawed People **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 10, 2016, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345 "2016-11-10T10:27:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chargerrich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chargerrich/32/5399_2.png) [@chargerrich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chargerrich)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/1 "2016-11-10T10:27:28Z")
I found this post on another forum that - to me - accurately describes the typical Trump supporter, most of which are good people with flawed logic. * * * I had a phone call this morning with my parents who are Trump supporters in Alabama. Dad: Well, I’m sorry son. I know you’re disappointed with the results. Me: How do you know who I voted for? For all you know I found “Grab 'em by the pussy” to be a very compelling campaign slogan. Dad: Now you know we don’t hold with all that stuff. Me: You know he can’t really deliver on his promises. Dad: Well, maybe not, maybe not. But if he can’t do the important ones, then there was never any hope for a real good life for you or our grand kids anyway. Mom: Yep, if Trump can’t fix the country then I hope he just shoots nukes until Jesus comes to us or we go to Jesus, because this world is the Devil’s. Conclusion: You just can’t build a decent world composed of flawed people while upholding liberty. It’s a pick-two situation. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/2 "2016-11-10T10:36:37Z")
And of course Hillary voters are flawless. Sorry, it doesn’t work like that. People are a mixed bag whatever their political persuasion. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/3 "2016-11-10T10:45:01Z")
Trumpets now gleefully sign their correspondence with “The Basket of Degenerates”. You can’t win people over by condescending to them - it only pushes them away further and creates permanent enemies of your ideology. If you actually want the Democratic party to continue to exist and have any power at all in the future, your approach to such people needs to change drastically. You need to let them know that they are valued and appreciated members of society, and why a Dem candidate/policy better represents _their_ interests. ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/4 "2016-11-10T10:46:07Z")
Yep,that’s a real conversation. Typical of those folks in hicksville, Alabama. Over 30% of Hispanics voted for trump. Would you sore losers just gt over your prejudices and stop with the stereotyping. The system is broken. Think about the fact that working class people in their droves voted for a Republican because the democratic nominee was so strongly associated with wall Street and vested interests. People were pissed off at being ignored, used, not valued by their own representatives. They voted for self respect and dignity. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/5 "2016-11-10T10:51:26Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Trumpets now gleefully sign their correspondence with “The Basket of Degenerates”. You can’t win people over by condescending to them - it only pushes them away further and creates permanent enemies of your ideology. If you actually want the Democratic party to continue to exist and have any power at all in the future, your approach to such people needs to change drastically. You need to let them know that they are valued and appreciated members of society, and why a Dem candidate/policy better represents _their_ interests. Okay. So we lie to them? ---
**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:** [November 10, 2016, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/6 "2016-11-10T11:20:17Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Okay. > > So we lie to them? There was no “right” move to win them, so let’s stop playing this game of “It’s YOUR fault you couldn’t convince them that Trump is an habitual liar who is lying to them to get what he wants, just like he has lied to everyone else in his lifetime of doing business.” Let’s quit pretending that we didn’t see what we saw at his rallies: White men holding up “Blacks For Trump!” and “Women For Trump!” signs. Let’s not forget the chanting carried out by them and _encouraged_ by Trump to jail his political opponent the instant he gains control of the White House. Some people can be convinced…but some are hateful little idiots who think that Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are news reporters, and that “The Truth” is something that can be created by saying the same thing over and over again in a loud enough voice. Trump is their “inner animal” that they have been told to repress, and he has shown them that it is o.k. to release it, that it is o.k. to be rude, crude and socially unacceptable, that you can actually come out ahead by succumbing to your basest emotions and hatreds. He gave his supporters exactly what they wanted(but maybe not what they needed, considering that he can’t deliver on his promises), so those of you who claim that we approached them wrong: Please spell out what the “right” approach might have been, considering Trump already did the equivalent of telling them that he was going to take them all to The Big Rock Candy Mountain? ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/7 "2016-11-10T11:25:03Z")
To the OP: I simply cannot believe than anything more than a microscopic group of Trump voters, if at all, would rather he start WWIII than leave without solving all problems. Trump lost about 1 million votes to what Romney had in 2012 Hillary lost 6 million. She didn’t convince her own people. > [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Okay. > > So we lie to them? Thinking like that is what got the Buffon-in-chief in the White House. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2016, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/8 "2016-11-10T11:30:17Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > They voted for self respect and dignity. And they voted in an habitual liar who knows nothing about either. Maybe you’ll answer this oft-asked(but yet to be answered) question: Considering his life-long habit of making deals, getting what he wants, then doing his best to back out on his end of the deal, what makes you think that he has suddenly turned around 180 degrees ethics-wise and will even attempt to keep any of the promises he made to get the power he wanted? In short-_WHY do you trust him?_ ---
**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:** [November 10, 2016, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/9 "2016-11-10T11:36:53Z")
For those that claim that the moronic mouth breathers were just a tiny percentage of his supporters, I challenge you to show me a Trump rally that wasn’t filled with them and where he didn’t pander to them. Any rally where he spoke above grade-school level about actual issues to a group of people that didn’t look like they were on their way to a destruction derby. Actual diversity in the crowds(as opposed to white guys holding up “Women For Trump!” and “Blacks For Trump!” signs) would be a nice bonus. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/10 "2016-11-10T12:17:03Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Actual diversity in the crowds(as opposed to white guys holding up “Women For Trump!” and “Blacks For Trump!” signs) would be a nice bonus. Why would “actual diversity” matter at all when the stats show there were more than enough white and Hispanic voters to carry him to victory? Trump didn’t get much support among black and Asian voters, but that didn’t matter for shit (though he _did_ get a lot of women who didn’t automatically side with Hillary because vagina, as they were expected to). ---
**Author:** ![up\_the\_junction](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f1d935/32.png) [@up\_the\_junction](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/up_the_junction)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/11 "2016-11-10T12:29:11Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > And they voted in an habitual liar who knows nothing about either. > Maybe you’ll answer this oft-asked(but yet to be answered) question: > Considering his life-long habit of making deals, getting what he wants, then doing his best to back out on his end of the deal, what makes you think that he has suddenly turned around 180 degrees ethics-wise and will even attempt to keep any of the promises he made to get the power he wanted? In short-_WHY do you trust him?_ They don’t care. He actually spoke to their concerns, the reality of their lives and offered them the prospect of dignity and self determination. Save Sanders, no one else has done that for decades. That someone acknowledged they existed was enough to cause them to actually vote again. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/12 "2016-11-10T12:40:13Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > Thinking like that is what got the Buffon-in-chief in the White House. So again, we should lie to them? I realize these people resent the “elitism” of the left, but at a certain point the fact that there’s a clear intellectual divide here is just not something that can be ignored. The left is legitimately smarter than the right. Their policies are more clearly thought out, their candidates are qualified and know what they’re doing, and their policies represent, to a large degree, the best and most up-to-date evidence. The right nominates Donald Trump and supports policies which are simply wrong on the evidence. What the fuck do you do about that? What do you do when such a large portion of the populace is clearly wrong, but any attempt to educate them is met with “that’s elitist!”?! Just give up and sink to that level? > [@Czarcasm](#): > > There was no “right” move to win them, so let’s stop playing this game of “It’s YOUR fault you couldn’t convince them that Trump is an habitual liar who is lying to them to get what he wants, just like he has lied to everyone else in his lifetime of doing business.” Let’s quit pretending that we didn’t see what we saw at his rallies: White men holding up “Blacks For Trump!” and “Women For Trump!” signs. Let’s not forget the chanting carried out by them and _encouraged_ by Trump to jail his political opponent the instant he gains control of the White House. > Some people can be convinced…but some are hateful little idiots who think that Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are news reporters, and that “The Truth” is something that can be created by saying the same thing over and over again in a loud enough voice. Trump is their “inner animal” that they have been told to repress, and he has shown them that it is o.k. to release it, that it is o.k. to be rude, crude and socially unacceptable, that you can actually come out ahead by succumbing to your basest emotions and hatreds. He gave his supporters exactly what they wanted(but maybe not what they needed, considering that he can’t deliver on his promises), so those of you who claim that we approached them wrong: Please spell out what the “right” approach might have been, considering Trump already did the equivalent of telling them that he was going to take them all to The Big Rock Candy Mountain? This. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2016, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/13 "2016-11-10T12:40:31Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > They don’t care. He actually spoke to their concerns, the reality of their lives and offered them the prospect of dignity and self determination. When did he do this, again? Was it when he was calling out Mexicans and Muslims? Maybe when it was when he was yelling out about “Jailing Hillary!”? Perhaps when he was hinting about “2nd Amendment solutions?” I’m so fucking tired of Trump surrogates, both official and unofficial, telling us what he said when what he said is out there for all to hear. Please link to the speech where he talked like an actual adult about adult concerns, the prospect of dignity and self-determination, a speech that wasn’t filled with jingoistic slogans that pandered to basest of the base. If he truly gave a speech like that, there will be no need for an interpretation of what he “really” meant. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/14 "2016-11-10T12:42:47Z")
> [@up\_the\_junction](#): > > They don’t care. He actually spoke to their concerns, the reality of their lives and offered them the prospect of dignity and self determination. Save Sanders, no one else has done that for decades. > > That someone acknowledged they existed was enough to cause them to actually vote again. And meanwhile he had no concrete plans to actually help them. Clinton did. They just didn’t care. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2016, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/15 "2016-11-10T12:47:52Z")
How smart is The Right? They just put into office a guy who wrote a book about how to get the most out of people without having to pay off afterwards, how to reneg on promises once you get what you wwere after, _and they actually trusted him to keep his word!_ Ever hear the one about the scorpion and the frog? A scorpion asks a frog to carry it across a river. The frog hesitates, afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so, they would both drown. Considering this, the frog agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When the frog asks the scorpion why, the scorpion replies, “You _knew_ I was a scorpion when you put me on your back.” ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/16 "2016-11-10T12:50:29Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > And meanwhile he had no concrete plans to actually help them. Clinton did. They just didn’t care. Why are you so confident that you understand how to help them, and they themselves are clueless on the matter? ---
**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:** [November 10, 2016, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/17 "2016-11-10T12:53:16Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Why are you so confident that you understand how to help them, and they themselves are clueless on the matter? Why would they believe him? ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/18 "2016-11-10T13:08:57Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Why are you so confident that you understand how to help them, and they themselves are clueless on the matter? Well, for one, they voted for Donald Trump, who provided no concrete plans to deal with this, and rejected Clinton, who offered clear, concrete plans. I don’t think a “for two” is necessary here. “How can you tell that the Mercedes I bought for 800 at the dealership is a lemon?” “Because it’s scraping against the ground, doesn’t get above 30MPH, and the sign label on it says ‘Lada’.” What a bizarre question. you saw the same election we did, right? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/19 "2016-11-10T13:18:51Z")
Here’s a point of view: [We, The Spiteful - By Mark Ames - The eXiled](http://exiledonline.com/we-the-spiteful/) — > [@](#): > > If the left wants to understand American voters, it needs to once and for all stop sentimentalizing them as inherently decent, well-meaning people being duped by a tiny cabal of evil oligarchs—because the awful truth is that they’re mean, spiteful jerks being duped by a tiny cabal of evil oligarchs. The left’s naïve, sentimental, middle-class view of “the people” blinds them to all of the malice and spite that is a major premise of Middle American life. > > … > > But what if the Truth is that Americans don’t want to know the Truth? What if Americans consciously choose lies over truth when given the chance–and not even very interesting lies, but rather the blandest, dumbest and meanest lies? What if Americans are not a likeable people? The left’s wires short-circuit when confronted with this terrible possibility; the right, on the other hand, warmly embraces Middle America’s rank soul and exploits it to their full advantage. The Republicans know Americans better than the left. They know that it’s not so much Goering’s famous “bigger lie” that works here, but the dumber and meaner the lie, the more the public wants to hear it repeated. > > … > > This giant flaw in the left-progressive construct, and their refusal to even begin grappling with it, is what keeps the left chasing its tail over the great Kansas mystery, and never getting any closer to answering their question: Why do so many working- and middle-class white males vote against what is obviously their own best interests? > > I can tell you why. They do so out of spite. > > … > > This is why all the talk about “personal interests” is a sham, a delusion that the left needs to get over. Spite voters don’t care solely about their own rational economic interests, nor are they bothered by how “the left talks as if they know what everyone’s best interests are,” an argument you often hear from the whiney right. What bothers the Spite-ists is that the left really does know what’s in their interests. If you’re miserable, you don’t want to be told what’s best for you by someone who’s correct–it’s sort of like being occupied by a foreign army with good intentions. You’d rather fuck things up on your own, something you’re quite good at, and bring others down with you—than live with the shame of having been helped by someone more decent and talented than you. > > Spite voting is mostly a white male phenomenon, which is why a majority of white males vote Republican. It comes from a toxic mix of thwarted expectations, cowardice, shame, and a particular strain of anomie that is unique to the white American male experience. … ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2016, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345/20 "2016-11-10T13:55:45Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > Well, for one, they voted for Donald Trump, who provided no concrete plans to deal with this, and rejected Clinton, who offered clear, concrete plans. You seem to be rejecting the obvious interpretation: they did not agree that Clinton’s clear, concrete plans would be helpful, or specifically the kind of help they wanted. Perhaps you should begin instead with this proposition: say to yourself, “I don’t actually know what they wanted, because I regard them with such open contempt that I have peremptorily decided that I know better than they what’s best for them.” Then, having humbly confronted your ignorance, you can begin your journey of learning and healing. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-supporters-are-flawed-people/771345.md?page=2)