Help me understand...WTF is happening?

[renie408]

I haven't been around here for the last couple of years because arguing about politics on top of some other pretty big life changes just got to be a little much.

But I am seriously starting to freak out. I have some conservative friends that two months ago told me Donald Trump was a bad joke who are now supporting him. They have apparently done some fairly impressive mental gymnastics and now he is ok. He is fiery and gosh, their party needed that!

This fucking crazy. How is this happening?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

1. The comedy has become a horror movie.

In short.

[enough]

2. Wall to wall media coverage has legitimatized him. (nt)

[daleanime]

26. +1

[DawgHouse]

3. He makes racists and bigots feel comfortable.

[hfojvt]

4. what it is

ain't exactly clear

There's a man with a gun over there

telling me, I've got to beware.


What is the big surprise?

1. Trump is rich and famous (which gives him two immediate advantages over other candidates)
2. Trump has been promoted and praised by the media
3. Trump actually says a fair number of things that lots of people agree with, (especially conservative people) generic things like
a. make America great again
b. defeat Isis
c. support veterans
d. get rid of Obamacare
4. Republicans and conservatives, despite initial misgivings, will generally unite around the Republican nominee because they know how horrible it would be if Hillary was elected President.

[GreenEyedLefty]

5. I might add, he says he can't be bought.

[annabanana]

18. But he ALSO thinks everyone CAN be bought

if he dangles enough in front of them.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. I took Trump seriously from almost the begining

it did not click until I cozied up to some of Hitler's speeches... right after the launch. What is happening is that we are having a good ol' fashioned base revolt, plus anger at DC, plus people who are afraid, plus a minority majority country... and we have been on this road since at least 2000.

I tis a really toxic soup

[subterranean]

7. Probably because he's winning.

My guess is that a few months ago, your conservative friends didn't think Trump would win the nomination. Now that it looks like he will, they're looking past his many flaws and jumping on board with him. If he wasn't winning, they'd still think he was a bad joke (which he is).

[bhikkhu]

8. Most everyone is against public masturbation

...and would say so readily. But if someone with notoriety did it and got cheers and media coverage and more cheers, and then more and more people did it and got more cheers and attention and approval, pretty soon a lot of people would think masturbating in public was pretty cool.

(hint - replace masturbation with hate. Both feel good, subjectively)

[DJ13]

10. - replace masturbation with hate. Both feel good, subjectively

And both make a mess when released without thought.

[clarice]

12. oooooooooooooooooooo. nt

[haele]

9. A significant number of people who thought they were comfortable found they were

redundant and the country basically left them behind. Being a "big fish" in a "little pond" can no longer pay the mortgage or the rent, and these people aren't capable of being much more than average to begin with. As the Kevin Williamson article mentioned in another thread here in GD indicates, their neighborhoods and towns are dead (just not buried), and there's no rescue for those communities other than to start over with a totally different economic model. And that's not going to happen when a community loses its wealth and most of its youth.
In a capitalist society where the ability to sustain competition and continue moving "forward" to be granted a modicum of respect or consideration, these people are so far behind that trying to catch up will require they give up everything they've gained over generations and start all over with nothing but whatever skills they were born with.
Trump tells them what they want to hear. That they're important, that they have power, but someone else has taken it away from them. Doesn't matter that he's lying, it only matters that he tells them a quick and simplistic way to regain their dignity - a way in which they can also punish someone for their degraded state (whether that group has anything to do with their pain or not).
He's just like any other street drug. Trump is the second coming of Crack, just not in the inner cities this time.

Haele

[VOX]

13. Excellent analysis and spot-on. n/t

[renie408]

11. This /

This is what I have been missing. This is sad as well as scary.

[RedCappedBandit]

14. This is who republicans are.

This election is exposing them.

[renie408]

16. No, it isn't. Its who SOME Republicans are.

And that kind of thinking does us no service.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

22. I think it's who most republicans are capable of becoming.

As the conservative friends you mentioned seem to be exhibiting.

[RedCappedBandit]

23. Please.

He's the front runner and will get the nomination. Time to face reality. This is what the Republican Party is and pretending otherwise does everyone a disservice.

[renie408]

25. This post on FB has been shared by Republicans

[Johonny]

19. Pretty much

Some Republicans pretend to be above Donald Trump, but honestly Trump is no different than any of the countless elected Republicans.

30 years ago it was Welfare Queens with a Cadillac and they pretended a vote for Reagan wasn't about his racial buzz words too...

[RedCappedBandit]

24. The only difference is his brazenness.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. Trump is a lousy human being. And the others are worse. nt

[tabasco]

17. America is in the whirlpool, circling the drain which leads to fascism.

Hoping for someone to pull her out to safety.

[hamsterjill]

20. Because of reality tv.

People have grown to accept reality tv as "entertainment" when it is trash. I'm sorry, but that's what it is.

Now, that the Duggars are off the air and the Kardashians are getting boring, well, there's The Donald.

[sendero]

21. People who are paying attention..

... have realized that we cannot do much of anything to curb the ongoing looting of the middle class, or stop the endless "wars" or save our economy/jobs, so they are settling for the next best thing.

Extending a large middle finger to the establishment politicians.

[underpants]

27. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd

and free publicity helps a lot.

[3catwoman3]

29. I heard on Thom Hartmann's show...

...this morning that Trump has received the equivalent of over $1 BILLION in free air time.

[underpants]

30. That sounds a bit high but it has been a lot

Considering that he is on every single newscast simultaneously maybe it's not that far off.

[alc]

28. his enemies are endorsements

A lot of people hate almost every politician and both parties and the media. And disagree with most people supporting BLM, China, illegal immigrants, health care, Islam, ....

Any time someone in these groups says Trump is unacceptable/dangerous/Hitler, they assume Trump must be ok if "that person" hates him so much. And when another person say Trump is dangerous because he will do ABC or undo XYZ (which they want undone) then he's someone they want. Trump doesn't even have to state an opinion on ABC or XYZ, someone just has to make the claim and they can ignore the "inconvenient" claims since Trump didn't say it.

On top of that, unless they want Bernie's Democratic Socialism (these people don't) or trust Hillary (many think she's corrupt) there isn't a better option in either party. He's the lesser of 6 evils at this point.

Scott Adams has some interesting blog posts about Trump's persuasion techniques:
http://blog.dilbert.com/
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/139541975641/the-trump-master-persuader-index-and-reading-list