I spared you this picture on Thanksgiving, but today your luck has run out. This is why Kamala lost: because Trump fans are nuts. The remarkable thing is that shrines like this aren't even uncommon. I see them regularly. There's something about Trump that makes a lot of people see him not just as a Republican politician, but as the savior of the nation. It's crazy.
I still say too many liberals just haven't acknowledged Trump's charisma. How else could a childishly stupid TV show like The Apprentice become a hit?
So, yah. Rabid followers. Like Swifties, but more racist.
His shows success was due more to the editors than it had to do with Trumps charisma or talent. Besides quality and popularity aren't the same thing.
Which was more popular. Survivor or celebrity apprentice. Presumably survivor because they didn't have to go with celebrity survivor and its still going strong. Celebrity apprentice would have been canceled for low ratings even if Trump hadn't quit to run for president.
"I still say too many liberals just haven't acknowledged Trump's charisma."
I think the problem is that people want to avoid saying "nice things" about evil people.
The M in freedom is obscured. What an odd coincidence.
The central question for me is: What is it that Trump is going to do for them? Most of what I've seen from MAGAs is incredibly vague.
I mean, do you expect him to bring back steel mills to the US? Start up mining more coal? Bring back Jim Crow?
And since most of the other commenters here, like me, are liberal, I challenge you to not give some glib caricature based on Othering.
The MAGAs are acting out of very real human motivations, and yet are terribly reluctant to articulate those motivations.
You can't even get a MAGA to tell you why Kash Patel is a good pick for FBI Director. And so on.
Some may believe Trump. Others probably think their life couldn't get any worse. I think many of his supporters are in for a shock. The sad thing is there are some that will either still believe him or refuse to blame him for their lives not improving. It's a cult.
Someone told them they had to use Latinx, and now they don't have to.
Liberals tend to be scolds, so a large part of the nation responded by acting like a spoiled brat.
+1
There are too many people whose emotional age is far younger than their chronological age.
And I've had some complain: "Why do I have to press 1 for English?" Like their fingers can't stand the strain. Mainly they're repeating tag lines that they've heard somewhere else. Normally people would immediately recognize how ridiculous they sound, but when they're bombarded day after day with this stuff, it starts to sound normal.
In this part of the country, the term is "Hispanic." Probably why it's a blue state.
Then there are no Brazilians in your state?
Liberals tend to be scolds?
It’s right-wingers who are forcing 10-year old girls to give birth to the children of their rapists, banning books, shrieking hysterically about trans people, and demanding that court rooms proclaim “I am the LORD your God, you shall have no other God before me.”
Right-wingers suck.
"I challenge you to not give some glib caricature based on Othering."
Most of what I've heard has fallen into one of two categories:
1) People with a dislike of politics in general think it's neat to disrupt the system ("it can't get any worse than it has been--all the politicians are just there to fleece you")
2) "My [business/income/the economy] was better under Trump, and he'll bring that back."
Neither of these things makes much sense on an empirical basis, and partially for that reason I'd guess that a lot of it is actually a form of brand affinity. Being MAGA is fun (for magaheads) in a way that voting Democratic in general or being a Harris supporter in specific isn't.
My take is that they essentially don't want the liberal vision of the future and Trump tells them there's an alternative that works. On some level this makes sense to me, while liberals offer a lot to rural areas, at best our plans will manage rural decline rather than recenter US on small towns and rural communities. Our paths forward for these areas would result in fundamental changes to them. We emphasize different sets of relationships among people and different ways of interacting with each other and are open that we found the old ways alienating.
Trump comes along and tells people that liberals are really cheating and that the older ways are better. They don't have to get educated to be successful and they shouldn't have to acknowledge liberal concerns about how people are being treated, they were right all along and liberals are wrong. He provides a narrative that promises them a different way forward and will show liberals that they were wrong all along.
I don't believe any of this, his assertions are based on nothing, but I can understand how this can appeal to someone that finds they trade offs liberals are saying are unavoidable as unacceptable. I think time will show we were right about those trade offs being unavoidable but that won't make them acceptable to this group.
What you seem to be saying is that there was a way of existing in the world that is becoming difficult, if not impossible, to sustain, and there are lots of people who resist adapting to the changes that are coming at them.
I very much agree with that.
I can't stop those changes any more than anyone else, but I think we should be talking about de-urbanizing, about de-centralizing. We have developed methods for getting communications and physical stuff anywhere in the country overnight. Why do we need to build giant corporate beehives for workers? Why do we need skyscrapers? Why do we need high-rise condominiums? Did we ever think that was a good way to live. We can put up with it, yes, and cities have their very up side, but we can and should look at policies that make it easier to decentralize.
"Did we ever think that was a good way to live. We can put up with it, yes, and cities have their very up side, but we can and should look at policies that make it easier to decentralize."
Except cities are far more economically productive (network effects are real, and we don't yet live in the metaverse so meatspace matters) and far less environmentally harmful than spreading people out.
We shouldn't let rural areas be poor, but deliberate policies to depopulate cities seems backwards to me. People *like* living in cities--that's why they are willing to pay more to do it.
Yes, urbanization is good for anyone who doesn’t want to subsist on network TV, frozen burritos, and boxed macaroni and cheese.
You want good food? Sports, Music? Drama? Art? A mechanic who can work on your muscle car? Or, God forbid, a gay bar, a Jewish temple, or a Russian Orthodox church.
These things don’t exist outside of cities.
The US has always produced a lot of steel (still the number 3 producer in the world).. What happened too Pittsburgh steel mills was that the technology they used became obsolete and they were replaced by arc furnaces in Chicago and other parts of the country,
Thank you all for the very thoughtful answers. I appreciate it.
What is Trump going to do for them? He gives them permission to express all their racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and anti-intellectualism. He tells them it is not only okay, it's actually great.
I has posted on Facebook right after the election that I wondered what I was missing. This is what one person I know replied, "I don’t know what you guys are so worried about or so afraid of don’t you want a strong, powerful, prosperous, safe and secure country where American citizens come first?! don’t you want world peace?! Trump is going to eliminate income taxes. Don’t you want more money in your pocket Trump‘s gonna cut the corporate tax down to 15% so that corporations will come to the United States and make their products here and have higher pay jobs for American citizens. Don’t you want that?"
None of that is true though. I don't think they would enjoy
the real consequences of Trumps idiotic policies. Say goodbye to Medicare, Social security and Medicaid. He's selling them a reality that's not even remotely possible.
There’s a reason Trump loves the poorly educated.
Kindasorta looks like a life-sized cuckoo clock... or perhaps koo koo klock...
I live in rural California and our local burger establishment has for months a banner over the entrance "God, Guns, Trump".
Can't beat that enthusiasm!
BTW - Trump looks like a South Park figure in that diorama! Very appropriate. LOL.
+1
He's nearly a caricature of himself already.
So, are the lights all Made-In-China LED, or are they all incandescents as pleases God? ...
Was in the OC and heard two ladies in a gift shop: "Big Daddy's back in the White House and things are gonna be great!"
Big Daddy. Crikey....
I took one look at your lunchtime photo and promptly tossed my lunch…. Thanks Kevin
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