Question about Trump's "base"

[grumpyduck]

Something I've noticed and am curious about, but first a short anecdote to sort of put it into perspective.

About twenty years ago I used to take part in local 5K races, and this one time the race was along a road that bordered a sheep farm. As soon as we started running, all the sheep on the other side of the fence started running with us. We were laughing so hard we could barely run.

So the question is, why are so many people (not lawmakers, but just everyday people) still hanging in there when it's so obvious his policies are crap? I can see a few things. One is anger: they're angry at something (Obama?) and are hanging in there mostly out of spite. Incidentally, I haven't noticed so much anger in this country... well... ever before. Maybe I missed it.

Or maybe it's arrogant ignorance: they refuse to learn the truth because they don't want to accept they made an error in judgment. I've worked with people like this, and the only solution I came up with was to ignore them.

Or, like with the sheep, it's "mob mentality."

Or maybe they're overly influenced by social media and bots (but don't want to admit there are bots).

Or, very likely, some combination of the above.

This leads to another question, but I'll ask in another post.

Anyway, what do you think? Why are so many DT supporters still hanging in there?

[jaxind]

1. I have the exact same question!

I have the exact same question, and another reason I want to add to your list is that some people still believe in him because they watch only Fox News (or listen to Rush Limbaugh etc). If I only watched/heard that garbage, I'm sure I would be a trumpster too!!

[Va Lefty]

2. I think it's a combination of 2 things you identified

First is anger. For many voting for Traitor don was giant FU to us. Their initial reaction to anything is "what would piss off liberals?"
Second is arrogant indifference. As long as they have their little media bubble to retreat to, they will continue to double down and deny responsibility for their actions.

[Cartoonist]

4. Racists have nowhere else to go

They want that wall. They hate brown people. Nothing else matters.

[nolabear]

5. An honest shot at what I believe (leaving my own anger out of it)

The sense of “self” at the most basic level-what makes you YOU, a coherent mind in which things make not a logical but an instinctive kind of sense is determined by many things. Biology is one, and environment, including absolutely everyone and everything to which you are exposed from before birth, is another.

Whether you become congruent with those to whom you have been exposed or live in some variation or reaction/opposition to them is complex, but people incorporate all of those things and seek security from one another via some kind of connection based on them.

45’s people tend to fall into a deeply insecure vein, often for understandable reasons (some peoples’ lives don’t inspire security but they’ve been so shaped by that environment that to leave it would shake that sense of self so hard it would be like dying and the fear similar). They cling hard to the hope that they will become more secure not by relying on themselves-who, remember, were created and raised in a deeply insecure environment themselves and don’t have the resources to rise out of it no matter what their success level-but by being saved and reassured by a powerful other, someone they believe has attained some goal they admire. In their case it’s power, because they feel powerless.

And 45 and other politicians/grifters of his kind are masters at jacking straight into that insecurity and using it. Religion, paranoia, creation of straw men and perceived enemies and problems that “only I can fix” seal them to him in something called a trauma bond. They use him to hang onto the sense of self, not realizing that he’s constantly threatening it in order to then reassure them that he will take care of them. And it’s so deeply ingrained in them to seek security that they grab onto it at a primitive level, below and able to obliterate more rational thought.

They’re terrified and hate what he tells them is frightening them.

It’s an evil, abusive thing to do to them.

[lindysalsagal]

10. THis.

Religion, paranoia, creation of straw men and perceived enemies and problems that “only I can fix” seal them to him in something called a trauma bond. They use him to hang onto the sense of self, not realizing that he’s constantly threatening it in order to then reassure them that he will take care of them. And it’s so deeply ingrained in them to seek security that they grab onto it at a primitive level, below and able to obliterate more rational thought.

Absolutely. It's not intelligence every time: Non-cognition comes from a breakdown in the normal developmental need-fulfillment. Basically, in an emergency, and these people are in perpetual emergency, they'll gladly trade cognition for relief from their confusion and desperation.

When the moment comes to choose the life-boat, you go with the big, strong daddy figure, rather than the scholar you don't understand. They're not ready to deal with any more confusion, and don't want to know what knowlege or expertise renders: They want something they can relate to: Someone like the people from their early childhood. That could easily be a blustering abusive narcissistic sociopath: Grandpa or Daddy.

[nolabear]

12. Absolutely. I can be angry as hell at them but they cant magically change.

And I’m not in favor of doing his job for him by shaming and demeaning them, though I’m deeply angry at them and I do not trust them. It makes it very hard to find middle ground where we stand up to them and dont let them harm us out of their own terror.

[Paladin]

6. They're fucking idiots. (nt)

[oberliner]

7. Have you ever checked out Fox News?

If not, I suggest you do - you will find the answers to most of your questions there.

That channel (and those allied with it) present a reality that is wholly different from the one we live in.

They are, for example, still devoting hours upon hours covering Hillary Clinton "scandals" of various kinds.

[Comatose Sphagetti]

8. Read Altemeyer's, "The Authoritarians."

It's free on the web and it will answer most of your questions.

[Ernesto]

9. As DJT says "haters & losers"

Or as HRC says "deplorables"

[Vinca]

11. Somehow Don has created a cult following. It's probably a mishmash of being a reality TV star

and a giant, loud, pain in the ass. Since half the people in this country couldn't name the Vice President for a million dollar prize, it's not surprising none of them bother to find out what a nightmare Don and his new reality show are.

[Squinch]

13. Boil it down to its most basic level and the reason is that they are bigots and sexists, and he

makes that OK for them. He tells them that bigotry and sexism are good.

All this talk about their fear and their anger stems from the fact that they are frightened and angry that women and people of color are not allowing them all the unearned advantages they used to have. They still have plenty of unearned advantages, but they are becoming terrified as they realize they cannot compete unless they have ALL the unearned advantages. And they think it is their right not only to compete with but to own and control women and people of color.

Bigotry and sexism. Nothing more.

[kentuck]

14. The sheep shall lead them...

They have a negative effect upon our society, in my opinion.

[marlakay]

15. The few I know of which is people at my daughters work

Don't know them personally. They just go to work don't pay attention like we do, watch things on tv that have zero to do with politics, don't believe any news they hear because its fake news or both sides are doing it.

My daughter told me they live paycheck to paycheck and believed he would get them less taxes.

Haven't talked to her lately about it will next week when I visit, all I know is she says she is surrounded by republicans at work.