# Why Trump Supporters Think He'll Win **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [July 30, 2016, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305 "2016-07-30T17:05:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/1 "2016-07-30T17:05:44Z")
I don’t know if this has been posted here already – there’s so much great stuff on this forum I can’t keep up with it – but this [opinion piece](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/backing-donald-trump/493619/) from The Atlantic did a lot for me in explaining Trump’s support. My take-away: 1. Some of his support is (no surprise) rampant sexism: > [@](#): > > In our America, the gender gap closed a long time ago – and then went into reverse. Obama in the Oval Office was humiliating enough. But Hillary will be worse: We’re going to lose any idea at all that leadership is a man’s job. 1. Bust mostly, it’s that they don’t give a shit about who Trump is or what he’ll do for them. What they really care about is that he’s sticking it to people they hate: > [@](#): > > Donald’s a scam artist, you tell me. You’re from _The Atlantic_? Read that great book by one of your former colleagues, Jack Beatty, about Boston’s Mayor Curley, _The Rascal King_. Curley was a scam artist. The Boston Irish loved him for it – even when he scammed them, too – because Curley pissed off the people the Boston Irish hated and who hated them. [snip] It’s going to be just that way with Donald. I admit that even though I kinda knew this already, reading about it was chilling. “Who cares about what will happen to our country? Who cares if we get embroiled in another war? Who cares if we lose our allies so that when we do go to war, we’re fighting it by ourselves? We’re sticking it to The Man!” ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/2 "2016-07-30T17:11:50Z")
Some people just want to watch the world burn. ---
**Author:** ![DonLogan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@DonLogan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DonLogan)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/3 "2016-07-30T17:16:52Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > I don’t know if this has been posted here already – there’s so much great stuff on this forum I can’t keep up with it – but this [opinion piece](http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/backing-donald-trump/493619/) from The Atlantic did a lot for me in explaining Trump’s support. > > My take-away: > > 1. Some of his support is (no surprise) rampant sexism: > > 2. Bust mostly, it’s that they don’t give a shit about who Trump is or what he’ll do for them. What they really care about is that he’s sticking it to people they hate: > > I admit that even though I kinda knew this already, reading about it was chilling. “Who cares about what will happen to our country? Who cares if we get embroiled in another war? Who cares if we lose our allies so that when we do go to war, we’re fighting it by ourselves? We’re sticking it to The Man!” What does any of that have to do with why they think he’ll win? They think he’ll win because they never talk to anybody who doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/4 "2016-07-30T17:29:46Z")
I read the entire piece. While that may be the thinking of his hardcore supporters I have a hard time believing those people make up a majority of the voters who will turn up at the polls in November. More and more traditional Republicans are realizing they can’t vote for Trump under any circumstance and that number will be increasing the closer we get to Election Day. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/5 "2016-07-30T17:33:50Z")
> [@DonLogan](#): > > What does any of that have to do with why they think he’ll win? > > They think he’ll win because they never talk to anybody who doesn’t. A lot of the article was about why they think he’ll win. And I admit, it’s bizarre – they don’t need a “proper campaign” – people will go to the polls to vote for Trump because his message is exciting. Republicans will all vote for him because he’s now the boss of the party. White men will vote for him. He’ll do at least as well with Latino men as Romney. He’ll do better with black men that Romney did. Every time people demand he shows respect for Hillary and then laugh when Hillary disrespects him, more men will vote for him. I find it interesting that the men who are quoted in this piece don’t see any difference in personal attack on someone vs. attack on their words and/or actions. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/6 "2016-07-30T18:20:49Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#): > > I read the entire piece. While that may be the thinking of his hardcore supporters I have a hard time believing those people make up a majority of the voters who will turn up at the polls in November. More and more traditional Republicans are realizing they can’t vote for Trump under any circumstance and that number will be increasing the closer we get to Election Day. I hope so, but ultimately I expect ‘my party, right or wrong’ to win out over doing the right thing in most cases. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/7 "2016-07-30T18:29:06Z")
Trump supporters think he’ll win because between **all of them** , they have the IQ of a stunned tuna. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/8 "2016-07-30T20:09:50Z")
They just think that they’re the majority because they’re _louder_. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/9 "2016-07-30T20:48:55Z")
> [@Anny\_Middon](#): > > … But mostly, it’s that they don’t give a shit about who Trump is or what he’ll do for them. What they really care about is that he’s sticking it to people they hate … An approach that might get through to that type of person: “Don’t you care that the entire world will be _laughing_ at us if we elect Trump? He’s widely regarded overseas as a fool and a buffoon.” It’s not so much fun to “stick it to the man” if by doing so you make _yourself_ the butt of the joke. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/10 "2016-07-30T20:53:03Z")
They think he’ll win because most of the people they personally talk politics with are also planning on voting Trump. The world they live in, mostly also White and less educated, is what they see, and what they perceive is the vast majority of the country, and how they believe most of the country will vote. They think he’ll win because they believe that the country’s demographics is mostly them and that GOP candidates have only lost because they have been too politically correct. They think he’ll win because their experience is one that choose to view as a dystopic America, as Trump states, and they think that the 40% of Democrat voters and leaners who voted for Sanders see it that way too and will cross over. They think he’ll win because despite how much he should be losing by right now the race is not yet a slam dunk and there is a real chance he could, if only everyone realizes like they do how much a catastrophe Hillary Clinton as president would be. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/11 "2016-07-30T21:06:08Z")
They think he’ll win because they all belong in a rubber room… ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/12 "2016-07-30T21:20:16Z")
I have more faith in America than to believe anyone with enough intelligence to find their polling place will vote for that dipshit orangutan. ---
**Author:** ![Knorf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@Knorf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knorf)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/13 "2016-07-30T22:07:05Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > I have more faith in America than to believe anyone with enough intelligence to find their polling place will vote for that dipshit orangutan. I protest, sir, your denigration of orangutans. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/14 "2016-07-30T23:01:02Z")
In a poll conducted by a local (Nashville) TV station, Trump was voted as “More Trustworthy”. And, dammit, he will likely take this State. I do not approve, but can do _nothing_ to alter that condition, besides my one vote. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/15 "2016-07-30T23:05:21Z")
Nate Silver has it at essentially 50/50 as of today. It was 77% HRC not too long ago ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/16 "2016-07-30T23:54:02Z")
There is no way I’m going to predict a Trump loss. I was with all the folks who “knew” that Trump could never win the GOP nomination. He scares the shit out of me because he seems to have re-written the rules by which we make predictions. My only consolation is that I don’t think he really wants to be be president, and so will not take an active role in the office if, by chance, he does win. ---
**Author:** ![AngelSoft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angelsoft/32/440_2.png) [@AngelSoft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelSoft)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/17 "2016-07-31T00:54:03Z")
I don’t support Trump at ALL but I’m actually starting to get worried he’ll win. He’s gotten such a rabid ‘fanbase’ who doesn’t seem to care what he does or says. And now there’s some outside force working against Hillary through Wikileaks. I just don’t know. I’ll probably pop a valium on election day and sleep it away, hoping to wake up to sanity. ---
**Author:** ![Yersenia\_Pestis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e495f1/32.png) [@Yersenia\_Pestis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yersenia_Pestis)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/18 "2016-07-31T01:01:15Z")
> [@AngelSoft](#): > > I don’t support Trump at ALL but I’m actually starting to get worried he’ll win. He’s gotten such a rabid ‘fanbase’ who doesn’t seem to care what he does or says. And now there’s some outside force working against Hillary through Wikileaks. I just don’t know. I’ll probably pop a valium on election day and sleep it away, hoping to wake up to sanity. Be sure to VOTE before you pop in that Valium - this goes for everyone else here as well, make your voice count!! (No matter what state you live in) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/19 "2016-07-31T03:26:16Z")
I read that article, too. The reporter David Frum put together a composite of statements he has heard from Trump supporters. > [@](#): > > What follows isn’t a transcription—it’s a synthesis of the conversations I’ve had, and the insights I’ve gleaned, presented in the voice of an imagined Trump supporter. It’s well worth reading. The thing I thought was fascinating was that the hypothetical Trump lovers interpreted the absence of Republican leadership from the convention and their general silence as a response to Trump as an indication of their RESPECT for him. But not sincere respect-- it’s the respect you have for someone who can damage you, who is holding you hostage. Holy shit. From the article: > [@](#): > > He’s [Trump is] the boss of the party now, he’s going to be treated like the boss, and if you don’t respect him, he’s going to bring down the hammer. That’s a good lesson for everybody else—and **look how quiet and respectful all those Republicans are now.** Donald knows that Reince Priebus and Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and even Mike Pence want nothing better than to lay him low. But every time they bite their tongues as he takes off the head of Ted or whomever … he makes it that much more impossible for them ever to say, ‘Oh Donald? No, I had nothing to with him.’ They all wear the Trump logo now—and they always will wear that logo, whatever happens in November. My bold. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305/20 "2016-07-31T03:34:58Z")
I absolutely think Trump could win, and if you’d asked me this even three or four months ago, I’d have smugly told you something like “The general election’s different than the primaries.” I should have known better. Trump seems like a crazy candidate and an impossible one, but when you really study American politics, it’s not that hard to fathom a Trump win. I mean, let’s be real here: American presidents have repeatedly been elected on the basis of being a disruptor. It’s like that old Sesame Street song “One of these kids is doin his own thing, one of this kids is not the same.” You have a generation or two of Americans who think the system sucks, they all suck, they’re all the same, both parties do it. Lazy intellectuals. Brain-dead American voters. The chickens are coming home to roost, and if they don’t in this election, they will in the elections that follow. Honestly, Hillary Clinton would be better than Trump - we all know that. But it’s not like it solves the problem of American political gridlock. We’ll just be even more polarized. Nothing will change until we get more educated voters. But that might not happen in my lifetime. So, Cliff’s Notes: American politics in 2016…is the argument for one party rule in China. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-trump-supporters-think-hell-win/761305.md?page=2)