Nearly a year into his presidency, Trump has reneged or faltered on many of his biggest campaign promises—on renegotiating nafta, The Wall, punishing China, and replacing the Affordable Care Act with something that preserves all its popular provisions but with none of its drawbacks. 

He made a farce of his populist campaign by putting bankers in charge of the economy and industry insiders at the head of the federal agencies established to regulate their businesses.

Since the election, well meaning journalists have traveled to Trump country to take the pulse of Trump's base. They have wondered if Trump's ineptness, his serial lying, his lack of coherence have affected the opinion of Trump voters.

CNN did this most recently by interviewing a panel of Trump voters. You may remember that this interview was most noteworthy for a Trump voter saying that he would take the word of the President over one Jesus of Nazareth (AKA the Son of God).

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2017/11/20/trump-voter-panel-camerota-full-newday.cnn


These poor journalists made the same mistake that I did; assuming that Trump's standing among his supporters were related to his competence. We were wrong.

What is important is that Trump's commitment  to remake the country into something resembling an idealized past has not wavered.
He turned his back on promises about the economy, and the opiod crisis. But other campaign promises have been  faithfully enacted: his ban on travelers from Muslim-majority countries; the unleashing of immigration-enforcement agencies against anyone in the country illegally regardless of whether he poses a danger; an attempt to cut legal immigration in half; and an abdication of the Justice Department’s constitutional responsibility to protect black Americans from corrupt or abusive police, discriminatory financial practices, and voter suppression

Economics don't explain Donald Trump's appeal. They never did.
Social and political hegemony of white Christians are at its core, and his supporters have shown few signs of abandoning him.

It was not just Trump’s supporters who were in denial about what they were voting for, but Americans across the political spectrum, who searched desperately for any alternative explanation—outsourcing, anti-Washington anger, economic anxiety—to the one staring them in the face: Racism and white nationalism.

These frequent post-election media expeditions to Trump country to see whether the fever has broken, or whether Trump’s most ardent supporters have changed their minds, are a direct outgrowth of this mistake.

These supporters will not change their minds, because this is what they always wanted: a president who embodies the rage they feel toward those they hate and fear, while reassuring them that that rage is nothing to be ashamed of.
So now they openly hate education, science, experts, immigrants, browns,  LGBT people, and "uppity" blacks.

Disagree? 
OK, then explain why Trump tweets about 100 times more about the behavior of black athletes than he does about economics. Why he promptly comments of terror attacks committed by muslims while ignoring those made against muslims? Why, when he was desperate to change the subject from Russian did he tweet an impromptu ban on transgender soldiers? Why? because he knew that it would work.

Trump supporters may be in denial about their reasons. But Donald Trump is not.

Last edited by Goose (11/26/2017 3:48 pm)