Reasons People Vote Trump

[Kishkumen]

I can think of a few reasons:

1. They want lower taxes
2. They are Christian nationalists
3. They are happy about the overturning of Roe v. Wade
4. They are frightened by the "Woke Mob"
5. They hate Democrats
6. They mistake Donald Trump for a patriotic man because he humped an American flag
7. They have authoritarian tendencies and think we need a strong leader
8. They are isolationists and believe that the world will be OK without American interventions
9. They are tired of "the establishment"
10. Watching the "right" media has sanitized Trump for them and they don't believe accurate reports of what he has actually said and done

[honorentheos]

I would put, "They feel aggrieved and view Trump as avenging them" at the top of the list.

The grievance narrative is the common thread uniting the various factions that have taken over of conservative politics in America which has become all too willing to see democracy replaced with a strong authoritarian leader. To be fair, the conservative narrative fed this and made it possible so some of the never Trump movement is behind this grievance narrative taking hold in the first place.

[Some Schmo]

All of your reasons can be blamed on decades of right wing media polluting people's minds.

[honorentheos]

All of your reasons can be blamed on decades of right wing media polluting people's minds.

Yep. While I find much of their messaging effective, this is why I can never get behind the folks at The Lincoln Project. They played with fire before and look where it got us.

[Molok]

I would add that in order to vote for Trump, racism is, at minimum, not that big of a deal to you.

[Some Schmo]

I would add that in order to vote for Trump, racism is, at minimum, not that big of a deal to you.

Not to mention immorality, lack of character, criminality, immaturity, no accountability, or dishonesty. Those are only a big deal if it's a Democrat, because hypocrisy is their favorite.

[Gadianton]

Don't forget the reason Veritas pointed out a while back of "voting with your wallet". That's a big number. The "Wallet" people use the "outrage" people to prop themselves up. Most of these people probably just think Trump is full of crap and will do as he's told by his handlers in regard to low taxes etc.

To give you an idea of how pervasive this is, my fellow misplaced libertarian forced to be Democrat friend is a little more vocal than I am with people in the neighborhood. He had a run in a few weeks ago with a gay couple. He asked them who they were voting for and they said Trump, because they figured he'd be better on taxes (they all live on the ritzier side of the community). So my friend is like, "Do you have any idea what his plans for you guys are?" and proceeded to talk about Project 2025 or whatever, and they we're like, "really? wow, we had no idea!"

[Kishkumen]

I would put, "They feel aggrieved and view Trump as avenging them" at the top of the list.

The grievance narrative is the common thread uniting the various factions that have taken over of conservative politics in America which has become all too willing to see democracy replaced with a strong authoritarian leader. To be fair, the conservative narrative fed this and made it possible so some of the never Trump movement is behind this grievance narrative taking hold in the first place.

Indeed. Good point.

[Res Ipsa]

There has been lots of ink spilled on the topic of why citizens in a democracy choose to vote for an authoritarian leader. A common theme seems to me to be the loss of, or threat of loss of, something important to a person’s core sense of identity. Looking at the most recent American Values Survey, Trump voters cluster around “white” and “evangelical.”

Predictions that white folks are demographically destined to become a minority in the US have been around quite a while now. Anxiety over that is demonstrated by the backlash against affirmative action, DEI, and voting rights, as well as the emphasis on excluding black and brown immigrants.

The percentage of self-identified Christians in the US is also declining. Christians have exercised de facto political control in the US since the country was founded due to their majority status. I think we see fear of loss of that political control manifest itself in today’s Christian Dominionism and Nationalist movements.

Fear or anxiety about the loss of majority status in a democracy is something that I think we should expect. Our system of government is the will of the majority limited only by natural rights. But, as the history of our country has shown, it is really, really easy for the majority to trample the rights of the minority.

It’s easy to support our system of government when groups important to our core identity are in the majority. It’s lots tougher when those groups lose minority status, as our winner takes all system can effectively exclude minority groups from any representation at all in government.

What authoritarian candidates do is to prey on that sense of anxiety and insecurity. They intentionally present the country as doomed. They assert that only they can restore what has been lost — in our case, political control by white folks and Christians even when they lose their majority status. They ramp up and amplify people’s natural fear and anxiety to the point that they become willing to reject our system of government in favor of permanent minority rule.

The fear and anxiety are perfectly natural — it’s how we are wired. It can be rationalized in all sorts of ways — that’s also part of what brains are wired to do. Sadly, our advances in understanding human cognition and bias have been weaponized against us. in my opinion, that’s the greatest threat to our system of government.

That’s why demonizing Trump supporters as stupid or bigoted or cruel is self-defeating. All that does is reinforce the fear and anxiety that is driving them to support an authoritarian. It might make us feel good to take out our own fear and frustrations by using Trump supporters as a whipping boy, but the effect is to make the problem worse.

If there is a solution, I think it must involve making people less afraid, not more.

[Bret Ripley]

If there is a solution, I think it must involve making people less afraid, not more.

I want to embroider that on a pillow.