The Iowa Caucuses

[F1fan]

No. Just your lame ability to recognize a joke.

Trump is a joke candidate that conservative voters take seriously.

 

[Copernicus]

You still can't recognize a joke. He said no he isn't going to be a dictator. ... Why don't you continue with that half completely falsified sentence that ends with, "except for day one". "Drill drill drill"..... Followed by notable laughter.

Clearly a joke.

Here's what Trump actually said.

Yes folks. A joke.

You are correct. The joke part was when he said "only on day one". He has repeated this joke too many times for anyone to take his demurrals seriously when he says that he won't rule as a dictator. In fact, he is now pursuing a court action in which his lawyer insists (with Trump present in the room) that he has near absolute immunity to do anything he pleases, including the use of US troops to murder political opponents. His lawyer was not joking, but he qualified the power that Trump thinks he has. What the lawyer conceded was that Trump would be liable for such crimes only if impeached and removed from office by Congress. Otherwise, if he can get 35 senators to vote to keep him in office, he gets carte blanche to do whatever he pleases. Trump did not object to the lawyer's argument and has not denied the argument outside of court either.

 

[LuisDantas]

We all remember, Trump’s one term was chaotic: sexual assault accusations, fascination with dictators, love of racists, COVID rubbish like bleach and UV lights, COVFEFE??, “my button is bigger” and on and on. But America’s white evangelical Christians largely stood firmly by his side, because, like King Cyrus in the Bible, he was an “imperfect vessel” used by God for a greater good – saving America. Or rather, making it great again.

How was he to save America? Well, by handing political and cultural power back to white conservative Christians, who had watched in horror as the United States became more diverse and less religious.

Trump’s favorability with white evangelicals has hovered at around 70% since 2016, even as an Access Hollywood tape emerged showing Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women, even as he failed to denounce white supremacists who had rallied in Charlottesville, and even when the story of hush money payments to Stormy Daniels first broke, in 2018. None of it made any difference. In the 2020 presidential election, 75% of white evangelicals voted for Trump – hardly a huge drop-off from the 81% who pledged for him in 2016. They “held their noses” and voted for him, and in return got conservative supreme court justices who could, and did, overturn the Roe v Wade decision, removing women’s constitutional right to abortion in the US.

Yes, that was good, but not really what they really support him for. Remember, in his 2016 election campaign, he was railing against Muslims and immigrants much more than he was railing against abortion. He talked of building the wall to keep Mexican immigrants out. He was going to ban travel from Muslim countries. That’s what appealed to the white evangelicals most. That he was going to protect their view of the country.

For decades, white Christians made up a majority of Americans, enjoying the influence that majority allowed – politicians were nearly always white and Christian, as were most top business leaders.

But their numbers began to decline through the 1990s, and by 2017, only 43% of the population identified as non-Hispanic white and Christian, and only 30% as non-Hispanic white and Protestant. That sense of decline and of waning control over the country, as white evangelicals watched a black man elected president in 2008 and same-sex marriage be legalized, continues to contribute to Trump’s support among white evangelicals.

How did a libertine who lacks even the most basic knowledge of the Christian faith win 81 percent of the white evangelical vote in 2016? And why have white evangelicals become a presidential reprobate’s staunchest supporters, as in Iowa? I think we know the answer, now. And those voters would sooner turf their own spiritual leaders than give up on Donald Trump giving them back their birthright to run the country according to their own lights.

So, you think that WASP-oriented identity politics might be a significant factor in the existence of a Trump support base?

Probably the most reasonable explanation so far.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

So, you think that WASP-oriented identity politics might be a significant factor in the existence of a Trump support base?

Probably the most reasonable explanation so far.

Yes, that is what I think. It is, for me, the most rational explanation for the behaviour of his base. And it makes sense in another way, as well. Reading the Bible makes it clear that God always manages to select "imperfect vessels" to do his dirty work. Moses couldn't enter the promised land, and "Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country." So they're accustomed to the notion of icky guys getting them what they want..

 

[LuisDantas]

Yes, that is what I think. It is, for me, the most rational explanation for the behaviour of his base. And it makes sense in another way, as well. Reading the Bible makes it clear that God always manages to select "imperfect vessels" to do his dirty work. Moses couldn't enter the promised land, and "Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country." So they're accustomed to the notion of icky guys getting them what they want..

Unfortunately, that makes a lot of sense. As an explanation, I mean. It is still insane and immoral behavior, to be sure.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Projection is a psychological phenomenon where feelings directed towards the self are displaced towards other people.

Psychoanalysts regard projection as a defence mechanism of alterity concerning "inside" content mistaken to be coming from the "outside" Other.[1] In psychoanalytic thought, it forms the basis of empathy by projecting personal experiences to understand someone else's subjective world.[1] In its malignant forms, it is a defense mechanism in which the ego defends itself against disowned and highly negative parts of the self by denying their existence in themselves and attributing them to others, breeding misunderstanding and causing untold interpersonal damage.[2] Projection incorporates blame shifting and can manifest as shame dumping.[3] Projection has been described as an early phase of introjection.[4]


IMOP and my experience, as we can see on this page, Left leaning people of all classes are some of the most stuck-up, arrogant people in society!

This is interesting. It appears to be in response to nothing that preceded it, and is self-referential. You're projecting now. Much of Trump's appeal to the right is his elitist arrogance. Only he can fix problems according to him. He's racist. He aspires to be a strongman like his idols in Russia and North Korea over whom he fawns. He wants to arrest or execute his enemies. And this is very appealing to much of America including those Republican voters who prefer a non-Trump nominee. Few disapprove of Trump's personality or politics. They just see him as a loser. If they thought he could win against Biden, they'd support his candidacy. Their second choice was another stuck up, arrogant, fascistic Republican.

In general, every politician that the Left doesn't like they call a "fascist" or a "Nazi" or a "dictator"

Some they just call sexual predators or other types of criminals, as with fallen Democrats like Cuomo and Menendez. Elected Republicans are now mostly cultists fawning over a wannabe fascist, and Republican voters apparently share their values. Collectively, they eschew democracy, the Constitution, church-state separation, egalitarianism, and the rule of law while endorsing and promoting authoritarianism.

You still can't recognize a joke. He said no he isn't going to be a dictator.

You don't recognize when you're being gaslighted. One can pretty much assume it whenever somebody tells him that they were just joking or asks why he can't take a joke. I've never had a joke not understood to be a joke, and have never said or had to say either of those phrases to anybody. And virtually nobody who says that he was just joking was just joking or even trying to make you laugh. Trump and his people say it continually about his gaffes, but Trump doesn't know what a joke or humor are. He has zero wit and zero sense of humor, both of which correlate with intelligence.

The Constitution is too big even for Trump.

The Constitution is impotent by itself, and when those who don't respect it hold power, it's ignored as we saw with Dobbs. Modern Republicans have no respect for it beginning with its Preamble. And about half of Americans support Trump's reelection anyway.

 

[Copernicus]

So, you think that WASP-oriented identity politics might be a significant factor in the existence of a Trump support base?

Probably the most reasonable explanation so far.

The overarching theme in all of Trump's speeches is the sense of victimhood. He styles himself as the epitome of anyone who has ever been cheated, insulted, injured, or hated. There is certainly a heavy dose of empathy there for all of those who feel a loss of social stature, of being pushed aside to give someone less qualified and less deserving some reward or benefit that they should have gotten instead. Most of us have experienced such a feeling from time to time, and there is one emotion that Trump promises in return for support--a settling of scores. He gets away with outrageous behavior, and it drives the perceived persecutors crazy.

That is the attraction that drives Trump's supporters, I think. He offers them payback and vindication for their sense of being ignored, reviled, and humiliated, especially by the liberal elites. They sense themselves to be in Hillary Clinton's "basket of deplorables".