I have some thoughts on why tRump did as well as he did. Bear with me!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

A narcissistic psychopath. That's tRump in a nutshell.

It looks as though he increased his base this time around. How and why?

My husband pointed out that some Black voters turned towards him because he's macho. And they want to be macho too, so they emulate him. And then they vote for him.

More generally, we've described him as a petulant 5 year old, always yelling, always wanting to get his way, and never accepting responsibility for his actions.

I'm thinking that there are a lot of people who want to be like that, and he has enabled them, encouraged them and generally inspired them to imitate him.

We know there are the proud boys, the white supremacists and others like them who have been validated by him. Now that validation has spread to the general population, who then vote for him.

There's probably more to this than I've pointed out, but I think this is where it starts. And I'm not sure how to combat it.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

[doc03]

1. I know a couple Democrats that switched to Trump

they think he is tough. I guess bar room behavior works for some guys.

[blm]

2. Definitely one aspect of his support.

Some really admire an @sshole who gets away with it, just as they’d like to do.

[doc03]

5. I saw a funny yard sign yesterday saying "I am an asshole

but I just wanted to have a sign"

[redstatebluegirl]

3. I think the macho thing has something to do with the Hispanic vote we lost as well.

[alwaysinasnit]

16. For a lot of the religious Hispanic community, it is all about abortion (unfortunately).

[Quixote1818]

4. I think you are onto something. He allows people with issues to feel okay about themselves. nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. That is at the heart of what I was thinking. Thank you. n/t

[doc03]

6. We should run Clifey from Cheers. Carla for VP. nt

[Hoyt]

7. Exactly. trump tapped into the ignorant white wing psyche.

[Wellstone ruled]

9. So agree.

Seeing it first hand here in Vegas plus---many of our Dems who thought Trump would magically open the Strip and get back to pre Covid Business within 24 hours.

People oft times vote against their best interest after being bomb bombarded by Propaganda. Adelson and his RJ newspaper spun covid as the Governor's fault as well as the Dem Party of Nevada.

[dalton99a]

11. The 24/7 Trump Show is garbage to us, but to them it means "leadership"

And Trump knows how to exploit this imbalance of TV time between himself and Democrats ("Biden hiding in the basement", etc.)

[anamnua]

12. The most perceptive (and my favorite) quote about American politics:

Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.

-- John Steinbeck.

[dalton99a]

13. +1

[RKP5637]

14. Exactly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t

[mtnsnake]

15. Excellent. Plus, on a national level Trump gave a voice to racists, stupid people, & simple assholes

who all came crawling out of the woodwork to join in together with him, many of them registering and voting for the first time, and hopefully the last, once their fuhrer is gone.

[smirkymonkey]

17. This country is so f**ked up.

I understand what you are saying, but I cannot account for these people. What the hell is wrong with them? They just need to grow the fuck up and think of the common good! Not just what is good for them, and only them, personally.

[meow2u3]

19. Narcissistic psychopaths are good at one thing

They have an uncanny ability to mesmerize large groups of people to the point that you are seduced into believing that the narc/psychopath is engaging them when in fact they're all out for themselves.

Their utter lack of restraint is mistaken for authencity.

They're convincing liars who trick you into trusting them, hence the con.

They hide their true nature until it's too late for you to get out of their grip. They con you into thinking it's your fault if you were taken in by their con.

This is just a sliver of what half the country fell for. You have to be on guard and know how to resist a hustle because guys like Trump are masters of deception, master hustlers. This is what we did: we saw through his scam, but most of his followers didn't.

Beware.

[mnmoderatedem]

20. some consider him "macho"?

I just don't get this. His a bloated fat ass. Even in his younger days, he was an all bluster and pompousness, always talking a tough game but always in his little protective cocoon surroundings. in any real street fight, he wouldn't last thirty seconds. My grandmother could have kicked six different kinds of dog shit out of him.

[Still Sensible]

21. I think that is a valid point. I think another

major factor is that Trump had a solid ground game. While our side backed off on rallies and door-to-door and the like—to responsibly protect people in a pandemic, the other side basically said fuck it, we need those votes.
The tRump side clearly did a good job getting out the vote on Election Day, but he may have shot himself in the foot railing against mail voting. That, however, is obviously how he’s going to try and create legal and PR chaos.
I assume Joe and Kamala will now win. I am distressed by two things. First that a POS that can’t get past a 44% approval rating is still with a possibility to win... and more than that, if this COVID disaster had never happened, he probably would have been re-elected.