No Stupid Questions

I think the phrase is, "It's the economy, stupid."

The economy had been trending upwards under Obama, and it peaked under Trump. If you're a Keynesian, you might gripe that Trump increased spending when the economy was doing well rather then saving for a rainy day. Then, the rainiest of all rainy days hit with the pandemic, which shot spending through the roof. That caused rapid inflation that became most noticeable after Biden came in. Most Americans either don't pay enough attention or attribute cause and effect to more or less random factors, so the experience is, Trump economy good, Biden economy bad.

Second, skepticism of the government is a facet of American culture, fed into from the national mythos regarding the Revolutionary War, by anticommunist propaganda about how the government doing stuff makes things worse, and also from experience with getting disillusioned from politicians not delivering on promises and the government generally not acting in people's best interests. Kamala comes across more as representing the political establishment, and her messaging doesn't tap into that dissatisfaction or contrarian nature.

Third, people feel like they're getting fucked, and Trump offers a clear, simple narrative of who is fucking them. And the narrative scapegoats people at the bottom of the social structure, who are least able to push back against said narratives, and who already have negative stereotypes about them. If you're not going to do that, then you either have to tell people they're not getting fucked, or you have to blame the people who are actually doing the fucking, who are at the top of the social structure, who are most able to push back against your narrative. Imo, in order to employ the latter strategy most successfully, you need a sense of solidarity, a sense that everyone is included in your movement and you won't allow anyone to be scapegoated or sacrifice anyone for your own advancement -and it's kind of hard to do that with the whole genocide thing going on.

Many good points on here. I'd also suggest watching "Get Me Roger Stone". In it, Stone basically details his secrets to getting the 'silent majority' to pay attention. He says that fear is a bigger motivator than love. He says that the uneducated can't tell the difference between entertainment and politics. There's so many lines in that documentary that will make your ears perk up and be like, damnt, this was exactly how they did it.

Conservatism is a social cancer that primarily affects unintellectual people and sociopaths.

This cancer metastasizes as fascism. Social progress is sometimes an effective treatment, but a permanent cure is long overdue.

Spite is a powerful motivator. Both for Trump himself, and also for his supporters.

Rhetoric about scapegoats that distract people from the real causes of their issues, a cult of personality, and lots of money. Additionally, a lot of his voters thought he started to expose the truth behind how things actually run in the government instead of seeing how he is playing them for fools just as much (or more than) other politicians. Mostly though, it's the money.

The GOP's desperation for relevancy in a world where literally every problem can be blamed on Republicans

probably the same drive that will make him a candidate in the 2028 election. 😁🙂

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(this posted 06:01 UTC (2:01 AM EDT), 13 September 2024)

Half of America wants a fascist state, unfortunately.

We have the baby boomers on the edge of dying. They are afraid of it, but there is nothing that can be done - so those fears shift to other things that "could" be dealt with.

-Immigrants destroying the culture they grew up in (that culture went away for other reasons),

-Gays and trans people being happy (The closeted Senator Graham saying there is no happiness in real life - why did gays of old have to suffer and hide if it was all for not?),

-The worst economy in the history of the US! (They are in their 80s, don't have a job, and running out of money, so it is bad for them)

-Small town on the edge of dying (because there is no jobs or amenities because they didn't want them in their town)

Trump speaks their insecurities and offers a path to fix things that no other politician dares to go down: "Burn the system to the grown and the people you hate will be hurt". Because modern Republicans care more about hurting the ones they hate than helping themselves, either because of self hate or a illusion that they won't get hurt in the process.