No Stupid Questions

Is there any possible way you'd ever vote Republican? If not, remember that there are people like that on the opposite side. You're always going to have single issue voters. A huge example is anti abortion advocates voting Republican. If someone genuinely believes abortion is murdering a baby they aren't going to care how good a candidate looks in a debate.

I dunno wheres my 20k in student loan forgiveness?

5% pleasure

50% pain

100% his reason is so we remember his name (🤮)

I'm not from the US and so it's officially not my business. But from what I've seen around the webs is that he has gathered a loyal following all around the US. Seems he has enough loyals on his side to stay in the race. But I don't know a lot about the political system in the US. Excuse me if I'm wrong here.

To Paraphrase George Carlin "You get the exact type of politician you diserve."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFgcqB8-AxE

Also, some people see abortion as a really big deal. The Vatican says they see abortion as an assassination, but also likes Harris allowing immigrants to come in.

1. if you are rich and souless

2. if you are a moron. I am tired of people saying trumptards are "misguided" or some bullshit like that. If you voted for him in 2016, sure, you could have been misled. But after his trainwreck of a presidential run, if you vote for him, you are just stupid. Straight up a dumbfuck.

What keeps him in the race? The lack of alternatives. No Republican candidate but Trump has even a chance to win. The GOP has no viable political program that could create a victory, all they have are the blind and dumb masses of Trump followers.

My naive understanding of the GOP candidate selection process is that there's no way to select a new one after it's been decided. Also, I think there are states where the deadline to be on the ballot has passed. So that alone is enough that Trump can't be forced out of the race.

Then there's his cult, the money invested in him, and the "loyalty" of the GOP to itself above all else.

The same thing that is powering most other political figures, all of which can be termed "Populists"

People are angry about a number of things. The wealth gap is very large, they are constantly told that the reason they aren't doing well in life is because of their own failings, whilst they watch elites with political access get away with things they can only dream of. They're being told immigrants and/or AI's are coming for their jobs. They're being told they can't have what their parents or the wealthy had because Climate Change, or because inflation.

This generates a great deal of friction, which in turn pushes people to radicalize their beliefs. You can't continue to sell a liberal, centrist viewpoint of the world when it simply isn't working for them. They might cotton on to "dumb" ideas, but this does not mean that they are stupid. It means that they are angry. This is is demonstrative of a deeper problem that is being very deliberately ignored or papered over, because those in power have a vested interest in keeping the gravy train running for as long as possible. The sheer scale of the problems we now have to deal with are exceeding the kinds of moves and actions most Western politicians have learned over the years, so we aren't getting appropriate results out of our political apparatus.

In times such as these, many people will look to the past for ideas on how to deal with their current situation. They sometimes come back with bad ones, sometimes they come back with good ones, and the pre-existing power structure will do everything it can to resist both of them, because to change is tantamount to completely losing grip on power for many of the people invested in the way things are. They cannot adapt, and once gone they will never get it back.

So we have a kind of a worst-case situation with a maladaptive leadership, extreme public resentment and actual natural/physical catastrophes forming a kind of crucible that this civilization needs to endure.

The trumps/erdogans/farages/orbans/lukashenkos/putins/meleis of this world are symptoms of these issues.

Money

The american people do not own the elections like people think. It is big bucks to run an election and very very few politicians are supported financially by the people. Trump grifts sure but he's paid by people because he'll get the most votes, they think.

What's keeping him in the race is the delusional nature of his supporters. Think about all those points you wrote about what a horrible person he is. How many other candidates could survive even one of those controversies? He lives in an imaginary world of his own creation where whatever he says he believes to be true, and his cult like followers are so brainwashed that their perfectly smooth grey matter just soaks it up like a sponge. There's precious little he could do or say at this point that would have his base leave him.

1. Polls are unreliable and the press will always make it “horse race” because not to do so means foregoing revenue.
2. Nearly all the major media outlets are owned by people who have said they’ll vote Trump.

In other words … follow the money.