Basically for the people with little to lose, who for the last 30-40 years have been increasingly screwed over by the wealthy and the political elite (and the media who serve them) Trump is a nothing but a Molotov cocktail to throw back.
Whether he’s on their side, lying, or a net negative is irrelevant. Things steadily getting worse for the poor and lower-middle class is nothing new, but things finally not going the way the elites want and seeing them seethe is cathartic. The fact that nearly everyone who is responsible for the erosion of the middle class hates him is reason enough put him in power, because what else can the average voter do to make those who hold all the power feel the same uncertainty they have.
That’s what people don’t understand about a significant part of who they think is his “base”, who in reality just consider the enemy of their enemy to be their friend.
>That’s what people don’t understand about a significant part of who they think is his “base”, who in reality just consider the enemy of their enemy to be their friend.
Trumpists have been telling everyone, everywhere, precisely this at every opportunity, on every platform since before Trump was even elected. We know. They won't fucking shut up about how badly they want to burn the country down and piss on the ashes just to spite the elites. And the wokes. And the city dwellers. And the gays. And the transgenders. And the immigrants. And every woman who wouldn't return their texts. And everyone else they have a grievance against.
But the thing is, the country is full of poor and lower middle class people who are suffering but also haven't turned into the Joker, even, apparently, including a lot of Trump voters. Maybe it isn't the country, or the elites, or the wokes, or the city dwellers, or the gays, or the transgenders, or the immigrants, or the women who are the real problem. Maybe it's them. Maybe they're the assholes.
Maybe. Or maybe you have no frame of reference for what it’s like to be born in, graduate high school in, or spend your whole life in a small town where one factory or one industry is the only thing keeping the entire place alive. Then you watch it disappear, not because people didn’t work hard enough or because the business wasn’t viable, but because it was cheaper to ship everything overseas to exploit workers who have no rights, or because some top-down regulation made it easier and more profitable to do just that somewhere else.
Of course maybe it’s not just losing a job. Maybe it’s watching your whole community fall apart piece by piece. Maybe the tax base dries up so the schools get worse, the local stores shut down, the houses rot, and the kids who can leave bounce the moment they’re able to. Maybe the ones who can’t are left behind with no real options and no way out leading to all the shitty outcomes one would expect. And maybe… none of the people responsible for any of it have to live with the fallout. The politicians, the executives, the media, none of them are losing sleep over it. Their towns don’t get gutted. Their futures don’t disappear. Their kids aren’t overdosing.
But hey, it’s probably easier to just write off 70 million people as brainwashed idiots who joined a cult for no reason. Occam’s razor certainly suggests that your internalized caricature courtesy of r/politics is far more likely than any of these far-fetched hypotheticals right?
>Then you watch it disappear, not because people didn’t work hard enough or because the business wasn’t viable, but because it was cheaper to ship everything overseas
That's fucking capitalism, the thing these voters dick suck all the time. They are constantly afraid of any government control of the economy or socialism in general
>Maybe it’s watching your whole community fall apart piece by piece. Maybe the tax base dries up so the schools get worse, the local stores shut down, the houses rot, and the kids who can leave bounce the moment they’re able to. Maybe the ones who can’t are left behind with no real options and no way out leading to all the shitty outcomes one would expect. And maybe… none of the people responsible for any of it have to live with the fallout. The politicians, the executives, the media, none of them are losing sleep over it. Their towns don’t get gutted. Their futures don’t disappear. Their kids aren’t overdosing.
No. No, it really isn't.
Because your sprawling victimhood narrative describes the situation of many in the US to some degree or another, but not even that of most Trump supporters. And not even most Trump supporters voted for him just for the catharsis of seeing the people they hate suffer. Although again, many did, and will admit so openly so I'm not the one engaging in caricature here. I never mentioned "brainwashed idiots" or a cult, although Trump does have an actual, literal goddamn cult so I don't even know what you're objecting to in that case.
It isn't my fault that the more you try to defend these people, the worse they come off.
What exactly do you think the -ist part of “Trumpist” is referring to?
And no, it’s not everyone. It doesn’t need to be to win the election.
If it makes it easier to maintain your narrative of being on the good side, go ahead and pretend everyone who doesn’t agree with you is an asshole. Cheers.
Whether he’s on their side, lying, or a net negative is irrelevant. Things steadily getting worse for the poor and lower-middle class is nothing new, but things finally not going the way the elites want and seeing them seethe is cathartic. The fact that nearly everyone who is responsible for the erosion of the middle class hates him is reason enough put him in power, because what else can the average voter do to make those who hold all the power feel the same uncertainty they have.
That’s what people don’t understand about a significant part of who they think is his “base”, who in reality just consider the enemy of their enemy to be their friend.