Simple farmers. People of the land. The common clay of the new West.
You know…
Who’s happy? Republicans.
I can’t find any results from April, but an NBC review of polls have shown only a slight drop in Republican support since the beginning of the war. Three of four Republicans approve. That’s in line with Trump’s general approval among Republicans, which remains over 80%.
Nothing can or will happen until these numbers drop below 60%, or even 50%. Congress will panic first, since they face midterm elections. Trump shows no evidence of caring; dropping numbers may even edge him to greater extremes. We thought that wasn’t possible just a month ago, remember, but we were wrong. A cornered rat is proportionally more dangerous.
Who’s happy with all this? Donald Trump, his offspring, and his innermost cire of associates.
Lindsay Graham. The hold trump has on this guy is truly remarkable. Graham called him the greatest commander in chief we’ve ever had.
I can’t believe it took that many posts to get this comment. I came here to say the same exact thing.
Let’s not discount 10 million Trump voters in New York & California
Nor that there were more Trump voters in the North East than in ND, SD, NE, KS & OK combined.
Liberals, moderates, and normal people are unhappy with higher gas prices, higher import taxes, and a pointless war. MAGA Republicans are ecstatic: 72% thought the country was heading in the right direction in late March, compared with 27% overall. Cite. Why are they so happy? Well 71% of MAGA think the Trump administration has been giving the public accurate information about how the Iran War is going, compared with 25% for the overall population. That’s quite something, given the way Trump contradicts himself within the same half-hour, but I won’t argue with conservative feelings. They are what they are.
Furthermore a full 92% of MAGA approved of the way Trump is handling his job as President. A week earlier the Pentagon announce that they wanted $200 billion more for the Iran War (estimates less than a month earlier pegged it at $50 billion). Gas prices were up and Trump spent the weekend of March 20-23 in Mar-a-Lago. Mentions of Trump in the Epstein files were mostly under wraps. So MAGA conservatives had good reasons to be joyous, given their proclivities I suppose. Not sure how else to put it. The survey reported overall Trump approval of 35%, which was below the trendline average for polls, but still reflective of the views of normal people.
I would question whether this really reflects their inner feelings though. I can’t extrapolate my parents to cover an entire demographic, but I’ve known them and other Trumpers to have the concept of “polling face.” That is to say, they gripe a lot about Trump and MAGA in private, but when it comes to answering questions from pollsters, they know the importance of showing a united, resolute front. So they may dislike a lot of Trump policy but tell a pollster they approve, just to make loyalty show up in the polls.
While polling suggests that MAGA are living the good life, there is some evidence that they have become quieter about it. Rawstory:
According to the store owner, sales shrank after the start of the Iran War. She thinks that her former customers felt that wearing Trump gear now might invite unwanted questions. So they are happy and perhaps a little ashamed at the same time. Who knows?
Every R I know is happy about it. They’ll make any excuse to justify His actions. I have a couple older family members who are full on drinking the flavor-aid. The 2 responses I get:
“That’s the price of freedom.” (Huh??? What is??)
“Actually higher prices is a sign of a healthy economy.”/“I disagree that tariffs work that way” (Denying reality)
Anytime I challenge these ideas, I get a ‘you won’t get it’ or ‘we’re going to get no where talking about this’. When I ask for a cite it only bears worse results. These people are 100% committed and facts have been out the window for the past decade.
“Satan laughing with delight,
The Day,
The Music
Died.”
A recent CNN poll had Trump with a 100% approval among self-described MAGA voters. So, MAGA is happy. This is the world they want.
Poll: MAGA 100% behind Trump, despite war, rising costs | RISING
As has been mentioned in other discussions, for too many it’s all at this point a non-falsifiable faith-based posture. What he’s doing or saying at any given point is right and good because it’s right and good, any apparent contradiction is because our understanding is limited and any distress is something we just have to bear with for the sake of what’s right and good.
It’s a full on cult at this point. Dear Leader is always right, even if he says two completely opposed things in the same minute. He was right a minute ago, and the new thing he says is right in this moment.
It’s the worship of a deity now.
Trump recently complained that 93 to 97% of media coverage about him is negative. But, he argues, since he won the election “in a landslide”, the media must be lying. This is the kind of bizarrely twisted “logic” that the cultists buy into.
Remember that in 2016 Graham was saying things about Trump just as nasty as the stuff Vance said about Trump. Access to power is some people’s only goal in life, triumphing over all moral qualities. Secondhand access to power, i.e. MAGA, is as close as average people can ever get, so they jump upon and refuse to let go.
Vengeance Politics. It isn’t what he can do for his supporters-It is what he can do to his “enemies”.
I find it remarkable, but in the opposite direction: it’s like finding out that only 71% of neo Nazis are fans of Hitler, or that 29% of Branch Davidians do not think that David Koresh is the Messiah. MAGA is defined by loyalty to Trump. If more than a quarter of the cultists are doubting his word, that is cause for hope.
I have the same experience when I deal with my wife and her Mom’s side of the family.
The best way I can describe it is they have a stupid sense of pride that comes from an ignorant, isolated view of the world. They all live in these small towns on the NJ/PA border where all of them could have been one of the trees for all they’ve accomplished in life (except for my inlaws who at least managed to create a hot daughter). I guess it’s sort of driven this negative view of the world where they see the world through all these external antagonists.
And when I mean “negative view of the world” I mean like pathologically negative. Everything is a threat. Everything is dangerous. All change is bad.
Like last year there was some sort of shooting in the nearby town of Stroudsburg, PA. I guess there are some bad parts, like anywhere, by by and large it’s considered “one of the most beautify small towns” in the “heart of the Poconos”. But in their minds it’s a crime-ridden hell hole because I guess it was economically depressed back in the 80s. And then apparently all this crime appeared because “of all the NYers moving in”.
With respect to this shooting, I asked “what makes you think they are from NYC vs Newark or Trenton or even nth generation Sroudsfolk? My wife and I came from the city. We’re not violent criminals. Our neighbors are a doctor and his pharma rep wife. Who are all these violent gang-bangers who decided to leave the inner city to buy homes in the Poconos?”
Well the responses I tend to get are:
“We don’t mean you people.” (true Scotsman fallacy)
“No, the culture has DEFINITELY changed” (that’s not facts, that just you restating your aunt’s position)
“You should be a lawyer or something.” (ad hominem attacks)
“Lets talk about something else.” (which is really just "I want to believe what I want to believe and don’t want to be challenged).
It’s the same dumb lack of thinking they apply to Trump.
It’s not all rural hicks though. I have a college friend who is very successful and supports all these Libertarian / Right Wing causes and has been to Mar A Lago. In his mind, people like him have done everything right and became successes. But there are these Leftist wierdos who constantly attack him for his beliefs.