I understand why 2016 voters might not have liked Hillary Clinton. I thought she was about the worst possible candidate the Democrats could have put up. The fact that a know-nothing blowhard like Donald Trump beat her supports that view.
I also understand why many voters would give up on both parties and vote for an outsider pretending to be a populist. For decades, leaders of both parties have abandoned average Americans for the alluring rot of neoliberalism. Obama promised change, but he under-delivered and misdirected.
We might be able to identify four groups of Trump voters. There might be others, and there are certainly overlaps, but consider these four:
- Some voters opted for Trump because, given the longstanding bipartisan abandonment in evidence, what did they have to lose?
- Some voted for him because they believed him when he said everything they wanted to hear, despite a lifetime of evidence that it was mostly lip service.
- Others voted for Trump because they agree with his racist mindset and other prejudices.
- Still others voted for him because they knew they would benefit from the ensuing corruption.
That was then. This is now.
After nearly four years of the Trump presidency, groups 3 and 4 must be ecstatic, but the others? By now, it should be painfully obvious to group 1 that they had a lot to lose, and they’re losing it still. By now, group 2 should have figured out that Trump says a lot of stuff that he doesn’t mean or can’t remember from one tweet to the next. Know-nothing blowhards are like that.
The fact that groups 1 and 2 would still support Trump at this point is baffling. Which leads me to this Twitter thread summarized below. Read the thread to the very end.
Q: Why do liberals think Trump supporters are stupid?
A: Other explanations are less flattering.