Trump's Base

[Sunstone]

I'd say that his ability to appeal to emotion (which overlaps with the first of your points) can't be understated. He's similar to Obama in his 1st campaign in that regard. Both are gifted speakers with a gift for positive imagery (in the eye of the beholder) and ran emotion based campaigns.

Make America Great Again was a good slogan, and Trump was able to make a connection with voters who saw America in decline.

Emotion certainly plays a large part in Trump's appeal. Trump's appeal to authoritarians is a bit more than that, though. Authoritarians have been studied somewhat extensively, and they represent a certain kind of personality, and they are attracted to a certain kind of leader. One of the pioneers of that field of study was Robert Altemeyer, who has an easy to read online book on the subject that's only a little bit out of date. It can be found here.

 

[Sunstone]

Looking down the nose at and dismissing Trump voters as irrational authoritarians is great stuff, keep making the same mistakes, repeat this in 2020 and let's have 8 years of Trump.

Liberal Only section.

 

[Lyndon]

Looking down the nose at and dismissing Trump voters as irrational authoritarians is great stuff, keep making the same mistakes, repeat this in 2020 and let's have 8 years of Trump.

you're posting in a liberals only DIR, i suggest you delete your post before it gets reported

 

[ADigitalArtist]

The ratio of people nosing into the liberal dir seems a lot higher than liberals who post in conservative dir. Wonder why that is?

Anyway, I don't think they're more authoritarian than your average reality TV show consumer. The ones on his facebook amd twitter freeds ive seen...They're just more interested in bumpersticker platitudes and catchphrases than anything like a sensible political dialogue. Or they just really, really, really, really hated Hillary.

 

[idav]

NOTE: This thread is in the Liberal Only section.

The One Weird Trait That Predicts Whether You’re a Trump Supporter

Reprint of an article that was originally in January of 2016 by Politico. Please take a close look at the stats in the article. When you add up the numbers, even roughly, it would appear that Trump's authoritarian base is large enough to win election after election -- if he can turn them out. What, if anything, can be done to counter such a sizable base?

About the notion that authoritarianism is the main factor in determining whether someone is a Trump supporter: I don't entirely buy it. There were several authoritarians running against Trump in the primary election. All lost by significant margins except Trump. I think if authoritarianism were the main thing motivating people to vote for Trump, the primary vote would have been more evenly spread among all the authoritarians on the ticket.

Instead, I propose that Trump's authoritarian appeal was combined with an anti-status quo appeal. Lot's of people are suffering these days and apparently a fair number of them know the economic system is rigged against them. It seems to me that Trump, more than the other Republican primary candidates, addressed their fears and frustrations.

So, I see Trump's appeal as having at least two factors: First, he appealed to voters upset with the status quo. Second, he appealed to authoritarians (especially those upset with the status quo). Other factors may have been present, but were less significant than those first two.

But what do you think? Does that make sense?

Last and most important question: I think it's a fair assumption that Trump will fail to significantly better the lives of his base (although I also think there will be a honeymoon period during which he seems headed that way). So, what do you think will happen when Trump ultimately fails to deliver on his promise to significantly change things in a way that benefits the millions of disgruntled people upset with the status quo? Do you think they will still support Trump? Drop out of politics? Defect to someone else (perhaps someone worse than Trump)? Or something else?

It was an appeal to people who are less satisfied but also an appeal to the type of authoritarian which is anti-islamic but pro theocracy. Trump could have even got some minorities with that rhetoric if they didn't manage to alienate every single minority one can think of. I'm also a bit shocked women didn't show more rejection toward Trump,if Trump doesn't bring out the feminism in people I don't know what will. When even Trumps own party had issues with the whole campaign, hopefully they will be just as vocal when they start trying to pass unconstitutional laws.