I think what Covenant is trying to get at is that people don't take the arguments made by Trump's supporters seriously. Sure, Trump goes on about his wall bullshit and other idiocies, but the average voter (going off of exit polls, high-school educated white males in low income jobs) for Trump deals with a few things in their perspective:
- The erosion of the middle class
- Increased Hispanic immigration, particularly to areas such as the southern states
- The slow but steady collapse of industrial jobs in the US due to lower labor costs oversees
Except that's not the arguments his supporters are making. Their arguments are as much smoke and mirrors as Trump's policies.
They typically wind up being one of the following:
1. "He's already rich, so he can't be bought."
2. "He says what he means."
3. "He's made a fortune as a successful businessman, so he'll make America a success too."
4. "He's an outsider, so it won't be politics as usual."
5. "He's gonna purge America of filthy mud people and restore our sacred Anglo heritage."
(Okay, it's only a small minority of people making that last one, but it should be noted that they seem very positive on that one.)
The thing is, absolutely none of these has any basis in reality.
1. I have yet to see anyone so rich as to be beyond corruption. Especially when you have Trump saying, "I'm going to be greedy for America!"
2. "He says what I want to hear"/"he says things that piss off people I don't like" != "he says what he means"
3. Yeah, I remember GWB touting his business experience too, and saying that America should be run more like a business. Remind me again how that worked out?
A country is not a business. You can't offshore your citizenry. You can't downsize to save money (at least not without war crimes). You can't spin off failing ventures (unless he decides to give Puerto Rico independence).
Moreover, the President doesn't run America -- he runs the American government. Which is also not a business, nor should it be run like one.
4. Even if he is an outsider, he has to work with 535 politicians (most of whom hate his guts at this point) and a host of bureaucrats. Unless he's planning to rip up the Constitution, it *will* be politics as usual.
5. Yeah....the fact that Stormfront loves the guy speaks volumes to me. And while I don't think Trump is himself a Aryan supremacist (or else he wouldn't be using Eastern Europe as his dating service), he's canny enough to try and dogwhistle his way past it so he keeps their support.
The fact that the guy is such a blatant panderer who frankly doesn't give a shit about the vast majority of people doesn't bother me. That's to be expected. The fact that so many people buy into it hook, line and sinker does.
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Topic: Murrican Politics Megathread 2016: There Will Be Hell Toupée (Read 1578415 times)