# Why do Republicans think a convicted felon, and a rapist should be President? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [July 11, 2024, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035 "2024-07-11T05:25:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [July 11, 2024, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/21 "2024-07-11T15:21:31Z")
Actually, the title was fixed by the Mods to be more accurate, and I thank them for doing so. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/22 "2024-07-11T15:24:07Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > The people who say that E. Jean Carroll must be believed, are, by and large, the same people who spent decades ignoring or attacking Bill Clinton’s accusers, and who have spent years ignoring Joe Biden’s accusers. Joe Biden’s accusers, plural? Were there any other than the Pravda editor? It’s simple: Every rape allegation should be taken seriously, and investigated. That doesn’t mean that every one of those investigations will reach the same conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/23 "2024-07-11T15:26:27Z")
The most convincing explanation I’ve heard is that it’s become a tribal thing: this is my group of people, and we all vote for X because we all for X, and that is one of the ways you know we are a tribe. Just like we are all Christian Nationalists. My tribe is right because it is my tribe. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/24 "2024-07-11T15:57:37Z")
As much as I like the “owning the libs” theory, I think the bigger problem is that folks in the MAGAsphere live in a completely different world than the rest of us do. I don’t mean that they have different idea of what policies should be but that their viewes are based on a skewed idea of what is real and what isn’t real. They live in a scary world of shadowy conspiracy theories. They genuinely (maybe) believe that a conspiracy against Donald Trump and Republicans in general exists to take him down. Any crime he’s indicted for or civil suit he’s involved in is just that conspiracy, the Deep State, out to get him. I say maybe they genuinely believe because I’m not so sure. When a MAGA supporter tells me the January 6th “protesters” were non-violent I can’t tell if they really believe that or they’re just trying to protect their side. At best they’re dangerous fools and there’s a good change they’re just dangerous liars. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/25 "2024-07-11T16:09:16Z")
I once heard a sports fan analogy of MAGAs: It’s like being a Steelers fan who gets more pleasure and satisfaction from a Ravens loss than a Steelers win. Even though Trump’s stated policies will screw over the average clueless MAGA, he’ll be owing the libs. I can’t remember the writer who made the observation and I seem to recall it was about minorities, but to paraphrase: A MAGA would be satisfied living in a cardboard box under a bridge down by the river cooking pigeons on a curtain rod spit as long as the lib next to him didn’t have a curtain rod of his own to use. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/26 "2024-07-11T16:18:34Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > . They genuinely (maybe) believe that a conspiracy against Donald Trump and Republicans in general exists to take him down. Any crime he’s indicted for or civil suit he’s involved in is just that conspiracy, the Deep State, out to get him. Might I suggest that when the left attacks Trump by hyperbolizing the dumb and/or evil things he’s said and done, they lose more than they gain? And that while it may have no effect on those who believe that everything is a conspiracy that is out to get Trump, it can be counter effective on those who might be persuaded? Or just annoy those who already know better and are looking as much for an excuse to not vote as a reason to vote? ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/27 "2024-07-11T16:20:07Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I think that is going overboard. He was proven in court to have committed rape. We unfortunately lack a good word for that concept. But it is understandable that some people mistakenly use “convicted.” He is an adjudicated rapist. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/28 "2024-07-11T16:21:49Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I can’t remember the writer who made the observation and I seem to recall it was about minorities, but to paraphrase: > > A MAGA would be satisfied living in a cardboard box under a bridge down by the river cooking pigeons on a curtain rod spit as long as the lib next to him didn’t have a curtain rod of his own to use. > Or, as commenter Davis X. Machina phrased it: > > “The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of who will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it.” > **[Balloon Juice - Open Thread: Lagging Lexicon Indicators](https://balloon-juice.com/2009/10/07/open-thread-lagging-lexicon-indicators/)** > > WordPress still won’t let me change so much as a misplaced comma in the Lexicon. Actually, WordPress is only allowing me to read the site about 60% of the time this week, just in case anybody thought the secondary front-pagers got some kind of... ---
**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:** [July 11, 2024, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/29 "2024-07-11T16:22:47Z")
The problem isn’t the supposed hyperbolizing. The problem is the underreporting, under the guise of “Yeah, we already know that Trump is bad, but that doesn’t sell papers or bring in viewers”. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/30 "2024-07-11T16:29:45Z")
Yep, that’s the quote I was thinking of. Thanks for the link. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/31 "2024-07-11T16:31:13Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > Might I suggest that when the left attacks Trump by hyperbolizing the dumb and/or evil things he’s said and done, they lose more than they gain? Other than jumping on Trump for making gaffs I think anyone might make at speaking events, I don’t know what you’re referring to. Trump spends a lot of time attacking others, some of them his political allies, for being too old or stupid. Does Bird Brain ring any bells? The MAGAspere eats that stuff up. It’s perfectly fair for Trump’s opponents to point out every stupid and evil thing he says. Trump says a lot of stupid and evil things and someone should point those out. He lies a lot as well, but I don’t know if anyone but me has noticed. Those core MAGA followers aren’t going to be pursuaded. If any of them come out from the cold I’ll happily embrace them and give them a nice mug of hot cocoa. But I am not going to waste any time trying to convince them to change their minds. They’re a lost cause. Dangerous fools at best, and demented followers at worst. The same goes for “undecided” voters who are leaning towards Trump. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2024, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/32 "2024-07-11T16:32:33Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Other than jumping on Trump for making gaffs I think anyone might make at speaking events, Are you kidding me?? It is far too late in the game to play that card. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/33 "2024-07-11T16:38:07Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Other than jumping on Trump for making gaffs I think anyone might make at speaking events, I don’t know what you’re referring to. For example, Trump never told anyone to drink bleach. He asked a rather dumb question showing he understands nothing about biology, but he never said “go drink bleach”, despite what a lot of people on the Internet like to say. He says a lot of very stupid things. I try to ignore the garden variety stupid things, gaffes, malaprops, and so on because it would be very easy to point at Biden’s long history of the same. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/34 "2024-07-11T16:39:38Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > They feel that people have just chosen to have a belief in climate change and that collective belief is what is causing weather problems. If these people would just stop talking about climate change then people would stop believing in climate change. And when people stopped believing in climate change, it would disappear and temperatures would go back to where they should be. Really I have not heard **that** from any regular Trumpist. But some of the top conspiracy cranks believe the weather is being manipulated. But what the core do “believe” is **that there should be no need to change how we live** and that a contrary belief is being weaponized to force them to change what energy sources they use, what vehicles they ride, where they live, what products they consume. They want to believe that if it’s getting hot all you need to do is drill, baby drill so you can fuel the power plants and crank up the AC, and if we all believed that then we could carry on happily ever after, but the scientists want to force you to go green so they can control you. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/35 "2024-07-11T16:47:11Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > They want to believe that if it’s getting hot all you need to do is drill, baby drill so you can fuel the power plants and crank up the AC, and if we all believed that then we could carry on happily ever after, but the scientists want to force you to go green so they can control you. In essence, the “You’re not the boss of ME!” mindset for anything that upsets their particular applecart. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/36 "2024-07-11T17:07:19Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > They genuinely (maybe) believe that a conspiracy against Donald Trump and Republicans in general exists to take him down. Oh, the conspiracy is real. I have [evidence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_States_presidential_election#Results_by_state) that over 65 million people conspired to keep Trump out of the White House, but they failed. It took a conspiracy of over [81 million people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_presidential_election#Results_by_state) to kick him out. Who knows how many are currently conspiring to prevent his return. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/37 "2024-07-11T17:14:43Z")
I think there are two types of Republicans- MAGAciles and those with functioning cerebrums. For the MAGAciles, they love love love love love DJT because he hates the same people that they do, wants to oppress those same people, and is every bit as stupid as they are. They hate people with education and will believe some crackpot on TikTok rather than those who have spent their lives in a particular field of study. Give up their gas engines to stop global warming? No way, just deny the science. Roll back tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy? No way, they might be rich someday. They’re the dumbest people on the planet and they support Dumb Donald because he could be the idiot in any village. The old Republican guard knows that DJT is a moron, they know he’s a sociopath, they know he is a crook, they know that he doesn’t give the slightest shit about the country. But they support him because of his total control of about 1/4 of the population and if elected, he’ll keep nominating right wing crooks to the Supreme Court, he’ll keep cutting taxes for the rich, and he’ll keep gutting environmental regulations. It helps their bottom line, morality and the future of democracy be damned. ---
**Author:** ![Sylvanz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Sylvanz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sylvanz)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/38 "2024-07-11T17:48:02Z")
Oh no, he never suggested _dinking_ bleach, he just suggested that it could be, “introduced into the body” possibly by injection. Really, that is _so_ much betterbthan drinking it. /s Oops, not aimed at you @Czarcasm ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/39 "2024-07-11T19:34:39Z")
…because he has an (R) next his name. Which is mind-bogglingly delusional since it is objective, empirical fact that NO person with an (R) next to their name should ever be elected to ANYTHING (and in fact it’s a sin to facilitate that happening). And (to lift a line from the America-hating fuckstick) everybody knows it. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2024, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035/40 "2024-07-11T20:06:33Z")
I’ve also heard that its hubris to think that man could have any affect on the weather, since that is god’s domain. The unusual weather that the US has been having in the last few years is far more likely to be due to its tolerance of gays than it is to Co2. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-republicans-think-a-convicted-felon-and-a-rapist-should-be-president/1004035.md?page=3)