How can Trump inspire such loyalty in the GOP?

[andym]

Nixon would not have resigned if Republicans of his day were more loyal to him than the nation. Something has happened to the GOP since then. Many of that era fought in WWII, perhaps that is the difference. Modern-day Republicans identify more strongly as Republicans than Americans.

[mr_lebowski]

1. Two sets of two words ... Fairness Doctrine and Citizens United (nt)

[Peacetrain]

2. +1000

[SoonerPride]

3. They are scared of him. They are weak.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. They're not as scared of him as they are of his base.

One negative tweet from His Lardship and the MAGAts stop voting for them and start phoning in death threats.

[Kid Berwyn]

4. Blackmail

[Arazi]

26. This

[SammyWinstonJack]

33. Kinda looks like Malaria is repulsed by the Maggot.

[PubliusEnigma]

5. By encouraging them to be as bad as they want to be.

[Aristus]

7. By inspiring loyalty in the beer-bellied, spit-spraying, gun-toting rednecks.

The ones who pledge to make the streets run with blood if Trumpy doesn't get exactly what he wants when he wants it.

The Republicans are afraid of them, not him.

I don't know why. If a number of Republicans pledged to bring back "Duck Dynasty", or whatever piece of drivel currently serves as the opiate of the unwashed masses, we'd never hear from them again, and we could go back to being a country, instead of a plaything for a shit-fingered man-baby...

[Mike 03]

8. He's given certain special interest groups legitimacy and favors they've

been craving for decades, especially the Christian Nationalists and Alt Right.

I also agree with others who've said that there's a lot of fear, because it's unclear how much power he will retain after leaving office.

Also, the "shared enemies" theory. Some people like him because he hates the same people they do.

[Chainfire]

9. I don't think that they fear Trump any more

What they fear is his mad-dog followers.

[Chicago1980]

10. When you're getting everything you wanted...

why’d they give that up?

They’re soulless bottom feeding vipers.

[liberalmuse]

11. 70 million voters

That's how.

[andym]

20. Nixon had 47 million votes in 1972 which is a greater percentage of the American electorate

than anyone since (33.5% of the voting age population). By contrast, Trump with 73M has 28.6% and Joe with 79M has 30.9%. Yet Nixon's GOP abandoned him when it was clear he had acted unethically and committed crimes.

[Thomas Hurt]

12. Avarice, stupidity and gullibility

[unblock]

13. They are the authoritarian party and that's what it means to be a part of it.

Until a new king comes along, the current king is the king and that's that. Doesn't matter how rotten they are.

If someone else like rmoney or cotton or whoever emerges as the new de facto leader, they'll transfer loyalty to them. That might not happen until the next presidential primaries.

[Cosmocat]

32. This

They are pathetically servile.

[dchill]

14. Trump Vodka. Trump Steaks. Trump University.

They bought it all.

[Hotler]

15. It is all about the hate for democrats and liberals. tRump was their weapon with which to hurt

and own us. Earlier in the year some of his minions were cry-bagging about how his policies were hurting them also and not hurting the libtards enough.

[Arthur_Frain]

16. To be fair, republicans have always 'closed ranks' better than democrats have, or do.

I think it’s because really it’s not a “big tent”. We have all of the splinter groups and competing interests and we backstab and infight to our detriment.

Nothing but rats down in their hole. Sure, occasionally, rats eats or screw one another when their numbers get too high, but there’s still nothing but rats in those holes.

[kysrsoze]

17. Because he rubber stamps everything they want and is willing to cheat to keep them in power.

It's as simple as that. Think about it... does anyone here think he had a hand in appointing Betsy DeVos as Sec of Ed, or Gov Goodhair as Sec of Energy? All he is there for is to have an audience and make himself richer, so he lets them run the show while he golfs or sits on the toilet and tweets, or shoots his mouth off at super spreader events.

They're not afraid. They welcome everything he breathes. He's got a base of lunatic supporters who are willing to die for him, and if they play along with him, they benefit from the rabid base as well.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

18. They're all flat out fascists. and Hitler wannnabe Trump is their beloved Fuhrer.

They worship him.

It's time for everyone who is not a fascist to face the fact that vast majority Republicans are simply not decent, honorable, honest human beings.

A Republican is a Nazi waiting to happen. What they are doing right now is a disgrace, but not at all surprising. Americans who fought in WW II would be stunned to see that the same fascists they fought to stop the spread of fascist hate are now trying to disregard the will of the people and overthrow democracy and the US government at the command of the corrupt, unspeakably evil fascist pig Donald Trump, the Republican Hitler.

[OAITW r.2.0]

19. My theory.

For close to 40 years, the GOP has been selectively breeding their elected Representatives on the following criteria-

* No critical thinking skills or conscience.
* Candidates must demonstrate moral weakness that is potentially compromising.
* Willing to always vote Party line in exchange for personal financial benefit.

That's what the modern day Republican Congressperson has become and the typical Republican voter becomes dumber as the herd is culled of any intelligent dissenters.

[andym]

24. It's not just financial benefit, some GOP pols are wealthy like Sen. Scott

perhaps personal political benefit=power is even a greater cause.

[OAITW r.2.0]

28. Or protection of that wealth.

See also Perdue and Loeffler. Nothing like an insider's "heads up" when you are in DC.

[Cosmocat]

31. Yep, they have guzzled their own cool aid

that they feed their zombie base like beer blasts at kegger parties.

[beastie boy]

21. He's got a large chunk of their base on his side.

The chunk that makes or breaks political careers (as well as careers in media, religion, punditry, etc.) at his command. This is the phenomenon known across the world: minority of a minority in a fractured political landscape having sufficient leverage to overrule the majority. Career politicians of all kinds are susceptible to this kind of... well, let's call it what it is: blackmail.

[Oneironaut]

22. Imo,

People wanted something new in 2016. Trump sold himself as “not a politician,” pouncing on the anti-government zeitgeist. People lapped up the snake oil and admired his phony displays of power - especially against “the establishment.” Republican congressmen/women didn’t want to be primaried, and completely disgraced themselves rather than doing their job as the guardrails of Democracy.

None of them like Trump. They foolishly believe that they can control him, or that he’s only a temporary means to an end. lol Instead, they are allowing a Fascist movement to flourish like a disease in our country.

I’ve been arguing that we don’t even know the true damage Trump has caused yet. It has yet to bubble to the surface.

[Windy City Charlie]

23. Simple

Deep down, the Republicans probably can't stand him....but he provides a base of voters. They don't care about what's right....they only care about getting re-elected.

[mtnsnake]

25. It's more for their self preservation than it is out of loyalty

Anytime it comes to them being re-elected, they have to choose between catering to Trump's base or catering to swing voters to win re-election. Which option do you think they will choose?

Plus, the Republican Party is no longer a Party. It has become a cult, and in a cult you will be shunned by the rest of the cult if you dare go against the cult leader.

[moondust]

27. Confederacy of Economic Royalists

FDR called them "economic royalists." They don't like democracy or equality and thus have much in common with the old confederates in the South.

I thought this was a pretty good description...

Economic royalist: An advocate of a system in which social privilege and political authority derive from wealth.

Trump is King of the Economic Royalists who want to rule permanently for their own benefit without troublesome elections and accountability. I've long wondered if many Europeans didn't come to America because they wanted to be kings but didn't not belong to a royal family in Europe. In America they could get rich and be treated like kings simply because they had money. Like Trump.

[ibegurpard]

29. Because they're the same

The only thing some of them don't like about him is how crude he is. They're on board with everything else.

[andym]

34. I have an answer: Trump is a modern day PT Barnum

Last edited Sat Nov 21, 2020, 07:17 PM - Edit history (2)

Why did people visit his museums and shows and believe in obvious fictions like the Feejee Mermaid or the 161-year-old woman?

Because people want to believe someone rich, powerful, and successful cares about them. That such a person can show them the world in a way they never imagined possible--secrets. In Trump's case, they want to believe that an egotistical liar, who is perhaps the greatest public confidence(con) man of his generation who in reality has been running various suspect businesses, like Trump University and who is a poor enough businessman to have casino resorts he bought go bankrupt because he couldn't calculate how the loans he took out could never be repaid, even with the built-in profit of the businesses. Trump then tells them a narrative about the world that they want to hear, that they've been primed to hear. Primed by a right-wing echo chamber.

A Right-wing propaganda-sphere that insists that only they peddle the truth with ready-made alternative reality narratives, like climate change does not have a significant human component, and all other news sources in the US and from around the world are fake, and Trump is a real-life Simple Simon for some.

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