Explaining Diehard Trump Supporters
I can understand most conservatives that voted for Trump. It’s the diehards I sometimes have a problem with. The ones that still believe, or ever have believed the lies and blatant spin that comes from him and his administration. Most conservatives I talk to can admit that Trump is the worse, but we got caught up in the scare of the big bad wolf that was Hillary. All of us conservatives now have to take our turn at the poop buffet for our part in putting in this blowhard in office.
It’s the ones that cannot admit that Trump has ever been wrong or give some long winded explanation of what Trump actually meant when he calles someone a fat pig on Twitter. The ones that listen to Alex Jones and Sean Hannity and start to nod their heads in agreement instead of shaking their heads in unbelief. These are the crazy ones. These are the dangerous ones. Usually they are the older generation.
I found this comment on a tread about Trump (surprise!) on Reddit that kinda explains the mentality of a Trump supporter a bit more. Warning it’s long, but I think quite interesting.
What do they need so badly from him that they're willing to distort reality itself?
Ok...so imagine you're a white middle-aged plus low to middle education voter. You grew up in a time of relative fiscal ease (1950's to 1990's) and opportunity. Which, in economic terms basically refers to barriers to entry. They were low. College was relatively inexpensive...and even then diplomas were not a requirement for so many jobs. Tradeskill professions paid well.
Further, the labor market was decent. Wage growth was fairly decent. Home prices were relatively low. Basically shit was pretty good and it wasn't that hard to establish oneself.
Fast forward to today, college debt is massive. Home prices are soaring in most markets. Wage growth is flat or negative relative to inflation. Basically, our labor markets are all fucked up.
Why are they all fucked up? The real answer has mostly to do with a fundamental shift in the economies of first-world countries away from production and toward services and investments. This is great in a lot of ways. However, it sucks if you aren't an executive-type employee. It sucks worse when everyone starts realizing this and floods the American university system with applicants (see e.g. late 1990's to 2000's) only to realize that the market for executive type labor has only marginally increased and the number of people competing for those jobs is soaring. It sucks worse when that begins to flatline low level executive compensation. It sucks worse when those jobs become fungible due to a flooded labor market. So basically, you can get a job...but you have to spend a bunch of time and money to get there and when you get there you find yourself not as valued and deeply in debt. It sucks even worse when those people who are valued in the new economy decide that real estate is a great investment strategy and start inflating the markets by purchasing income properties which raise prices, which cause them to raise rents and thus decrease the ability to achieve meaningful living wage status. The inflated market creates incredible barriers to entry for even moderately skilled workers, thus ending the American homeownership system and creating more long-term renters than at any time in history. This leads to aggregation of wealth and to historical levels of paycheck-to-paycheck existence largely predicated on debt service and rent (neither of which are wealth generators).
Economic drivers are no longer reliant on moderately skilled labor. Economic drivers are now centered on investment, service and highly skilled labor. This is causing a heavy distortion in real wage growth and massive economic inequality. This inequality creates a huge social problem. Economic insecurity and flat wage growth aren't that bad when everyone's down...but when Pete gets a new Ferrari and drives it down Main Street while Fred is struggling to make it to the 15th...Fred feels really bad about himself...in a way he wouldn't if Pete was nursing his last BMW through year 14. This economic insecurity is terrifying. Economic hardship is a leading cause of depression, anxiety, familial distress...and amongst males is the single leading cause of suicides...the rates of which are also steadily increasing.
Bottom line: Nowadays you have to go to school for longer and spend more money to get a worse job, which then doesn't even guarantee you a modicum of economic security. People are mad and scared. It seems fundamentally unfair.
If only there was some solution to this cyclical problem that would both make me feel better about myself, have someone else to blame and be incredibly simple.
Immigrants. See? Isn't that an easier explanation. We would be so much better off if we didn't have any. Labor market is messed up? Immigrants competing for wages. Housing market is messed up? Immigrants flooding our cities. "We" could have such a great society that fits our nostalgic economic view if only "we" weren't burdened by leeches who drain our country's resources and cost us jobs.
Now see? You're part of a club now! Proud White Americans standing up for their traditional values (code for nostalgic economic view). And you're better than them! This club is great! We know things no one else knows, we get to feel better about ourselves and we have someone else to blame for our problems! Further, we know exactly what we're looking for because we saw it 30 years ago. This club is great! It's more than a club, it's like some sort of...clan or something.
This is the source of loyalty. Trump makes them feel superior. Trump makes them feel like part of a club. Trump gives them an easy explanation for a complex set of economic and social problems. AND! As a bonus, Trump gives cover to the ruling economic class because in Trump's racial-blame permission structure, no one is lifting up the rocks they're hiding under and seeing that some of the real drivers of economic insecurity are hiding there.
tl;dr Racism can be fun! That's why, sadly.
It’s the ones that cannot admit that Trump has ever been wrong or give some long winded explanation of what Trump actually meant when he calles someone a fat pig on Twitter. The ones that listen to Alex Jones and Sean Hannity and start to nod their heads in agreement instead of shaking their heads in unbelief. These are the crazy ones. These are the dangerous ones. Usually they are the older generation.
I found this comment on a tread about Trump (surprise!) on Reddit that kinda explains the mentality of a Trump supporter a bit more. Warning it’s long, but I think quite interesting.
What do they need so badly from him that they're willing to distort reality itself?
Ok...so imagine you're a white middle-aged plus low to middle education voter. You grew up in a time of relative fiscal ease (1950's to 1990's) and opportunity. Which, in economic terms basically refers to barriers to entry. They were low. College was relatively inexpensive...and even then diplomas were not a requirement for so many jobs. Tradeskill professions paid well.
Further, the labor market was decent. Wage growth was fairly decent. Home prices were relatively low. Basically shit was pretty good and it wasn't that hard to establish oneself.
Fast forward to today, college debt is massive. Home prices are soaring in most markets. Wage growth is flat or negative relative to inflation. Basically, our labor markets are all fucked up.
Why are they all fucked up? The real answer has mostly to do with a fundamental shift in the economies of first-world countries away from production and toward services and investments. This is great in a lot of ways. However, it sucks if you aren't an executive-type employee. It sucks worse when everyone starts realizing this and floods the American university system with applicants (see e.g. late 1990's to 2000's) only to realize that the market for executive type labor has only marginally increased and the number of people competing for those jobs is soaring. It sucks worse when that begins to flatline low level executive compensation. It sucks worse when those jobs become fungible due to a flooded labor market. So basically, you can get a job...but you have to spend a bunch of time and money to get there and when you get there you find yourself not as valued and deeply in debt. It sucks even worse when those people who are valued in the new economy decide that real estate is a great investment strategy and start inflating the markets by purchasing income properties which raise prices, which cause them to raise rents and thus decrease the ability to achieve meaningful living wage status. The inflated market creates incredible barriers to entry for even moderately skilled workers, thus ending the American homeownership system and creating more long-term renters than at any time in history. This leads to aggregation of wealth and to historical levels of paycheck-to-paycheck existence largely predicated on debt service and rent (neither of which are wealth generators).
Economic drivers are no longer reliant on moderately skilled labor. Economic drivers are now centered on investment, service and highly skilled labor. This is causing a heavy distortion in real wage growth and massive economic inequality. This inequality creates a huge social problem. Economic insecurity and flat wage growth aren't that bad when everyone's down...but when Pete gets a new Ferrari and drives it down Main Street while Fred is struggling to make it to the 15th...Fred feels really bad about himself...in a way he wouldn't if Pete was nursing his last BMW through year 14. This economic insecurity is terrifying. Economic hardship is a leading cause of depression, anxiety, familial distress...and amongst males is the single leading cause of suicides...the rates of which are also steadily increasing.
Bottom line: Nowadays you have to go to school for longer and spend more money to get a worse job, which then doesn't even guarantee you a modicum of economic security. People are mad and scared. It seems fundamentally unfair.
If only there was some solution to this cyclical problem that would both make me feel better about myself, have someone else to blame and be incredibly simple.
Immigrants. See? Isn't that an easier explanation. We would be so much better off if we didn't have any. Labor market is messed up? Immigrants competing for wages. Housing market is messed up? Immigrants flooding our cities. "We" could have such a great society that fits our nostalgic economic view if only "we" weren't burdened by leeches who drain our country's resources and cost us jobs.
Now see? You're part of a club now! Proud White Americans standing up for their traditional values (code for nostalgic economic view). And you're better than them! This club is great! We know things no one else knows, we get to feel better about ourselves and we have someone else to blame for our problems! Further, we know exactly what we're looking for because we saw it 30 years ago. This club is great! It's more than a club, it's like some sort of...clan or something.
This is the source of loyalty. Trump makes them feel superior. Trump makes them feel like part of a club. Trump gives them an easy explanation for a complex set of economic and social problems. AND! As a bonus, Trump gives cover to the ruling economic class because in Trump's racial-blame permission structure, no one is lifting up the rocks they're hiding under and seeing that some of the real drivers of economic insecurity are hiding there.
tl;dr Racism can be fun! That's why, sadly.
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