Who Are the Hardcore Trump Supporters?

[Revoltingest]

Most people dislike Trump. This isn't a new phenomenon.

I dislike him too, but I don't base approval & disapproval
of policies based upon who a politician is. But then, I'm
not a Democrat. (I'll occasionally vote for one though.)

 

[Mister Emu]

There are a lot of notions about who are Trump's hardcore supporters, and what they see in him.

The idea that his "core supporters" are one group that can be identified and sectioned off by themselves is absurd. Trump formed a coalition. Authoritarians almost certainly make up a segment of that, people who want a strong leader to guide them always exist. The blue collar workers you mentioned are a key group in the movement that won the election and continue to support his economic policies. There are others: anti-immigrant racists, social conservatives rabid for any victory after 8 years of leftist social authoritarianism, libertarians who see him as the least invasive President in regards to rights, etc.

Trump is a fascist president

You clearly don't even know what the word fascist means.

They may have legitimate concerns about their nation's immigration policies or crime and disorder or government corruption and income disparity.

However, they are entirely betting on the wrong horse with sociopathic moron, Donald Trump.

They bet on that horse because it was the only one willing to address the touchy aspects of immigration, crime, corruption, and economic policy. When you drive the reasonable people away with racial hysterics you get only Trump, and people want those issues addressed so you see him elected.

I want those issues addressed, meaningfully. If it is between a president that wants to build a wall and a president who wants to continue the same ineffectual practices or worse, I'll pick the wall. If it is between a president who allows free trade to continue to destroy our blue collar sector and middle class or a president who ignites tariff wars with our trade partners, I'll choose the tariffs.

Again, when you facilitate and support the scenario where only a Trump is willing to address the issues, then you run the risk that a Trump is the one going to be addressing the issues.

 

[Riders]

I don't know his true followers. But the night before last night at the Libertarian group I was told 2 of them voted for Trump even though they hated his guts and still can't stand him just because he was the lesser of the evils. They said if he gets reelected it will because people vote him in as the lesser of the evils.

 

[TheBannerofHomuraAkemi]

Let's remember this is personal. Those who continue to support Trump are personally invested. Why? Because they are angry. They are angry that the principles they hold are beginning to erode. Manufacturing is being replaced by tech and outsourced by billionaires on wall street.

But you can't yell at Wall Street on Twitter.
You can't call a CEO a libtard on a forum.
You can't boycott Apple, Amazon, Microsoft.
You can't tell Bezos and company to go pound sand.

The common enemy we all have is a protected class and unlike other political ideologies who seek to undermine that class, the conservatives who continue to support Trump seek to go after the lower hanging fruit. Never mind that fruit isn't the right fruit, that doesn't matter. It simply offers an outlet for that anger and frustration we talked about before.

I can hardly blame these folks, really. If your entire life was in blue collar work and all of a sudden that blue collar work went somewhere, you would be upset, too, right? The problem is the Republican machine that financially benefited from those jobs going somewhere else began a narrative that painted the opposing party as the bad guys instead. Now all of a sudden you have a bunch of under employed, vulnerable people who are looking for answers. They have been told it is the fault of the poor/women/gays/immigrants. When in reality it is the elite that continues to bend them (and everyone else) over a barrel.

It isn't entirely their fault. This propaganda machine is good... it's scary how good it is. The very same voters who tend to vote red are the same folks who would benefit the most from the social/financial equality initiatives being talked about. But remember those are the blues! They are the bad guys, screw them, right? After all, the leadership is telling us that is the case so it must be true!

I am not saying other political parties are amazing. But what I am saying is that I can't remember other forms of American leadership stepping around the Constitution to the cheers of the masses. I can't remember a time when other forms of American leadership created a hate campaign against transgender individuals over a bathroom.

But that is where we are. Those are the hot spots that are being created by a large collection of people who would rather "stick it to em" than seek a solution. Detaining those poor kids will not impact one.single.Trump.supporter. Not one. But that doesn't matter, does it? It never mattered. What matters is that the propaganda machine said those people with brown skin are the enemy. THEY took your jobs, remember? THEY brought in drugs, remember? (Never mind the fact the reason drugs are even an issue is because upper class white people want those drugs but, again, being angry at Hispanics is easier.)

What makes this so damn frustrating is all of us common folk have a common enemy. But we would rather build a billion dollar wall, incarcerate toddlers, and patrol bathrooms.

Welcome to America. Enjoy your stay.

This is the most poetic piece of writing I read all month.

 

[Gallowglass]

Most of my town voted for Trump. My very rural area is economically very bad off. When Trump came, he preached about bringing the steel back, about supporting the farms, about every man being able to have a good job and a way to pay his own way. In an area where 75% of the kids in public schools qualified for free lunches, and 64% of people were on food stamps, with an additional estimated 22% who qualified but did not seek the service (myself included), it sounded great. Especially when so many people in my area are racists.

And no, that's not me calling all Trump supporters racists, that's me knowing my town where we've had cross-burnings in the nineties and a Hispanic family run out of the borough by actual Neo-Nazi skinheads. Neo-Nazi skinheads that campaigned door to door for Trump, but that doesn't make all Trump supporters racists or white supremacists.

Instead, dairy farms in the state are closing, pheasant farms are closing, Novolipetsk Steel PAO, ArcelorMittal, and American Keg Company are all laying off steelworkers with $600 million investments in steel plants in Pennsylvania and Indiana being cancelled, including $400 million of which was going to upgrading one plant in Farrell. That plant in Farrell? Is 1/5th of the towns tax base, and the lay-offs there are huge. At my father's work, where they work in metal fabrication, they've already laid off or fired ten people, and it's not a large company.

I honestly think most Trump supporters were just people who believed he could honestly make some of the things go back to the way they used to be. Did some people vote for him because they were bigots? Absolutely, but I don't believe that was the majority.