I know that everybody here would not vote for Trump. Pat and Marc were the last couple of guys left around here that were guys that would vote for Trump and honestly, like most Trump supporters I've encountered, they were not saying they voted for Trump because jobs were shipped overseas or really because things had been taken from them, or because their financial life was a disaster. In fact Marc, I believe, said he was doing quite well. Pat also always seemed to be doing fine and always had a good job. Of Trump supporters I have met or know, not a single one has said they voted for Trump because of jobs or financials. Not one.
Self-harm I think is what comes of voting for Trump, sure.
Asked point blank why he voted for Trump, Marc told me to "throw the grenade" meaning to destroy our government. Marc was well off, I believe, so it wasn't about money. He did think that somebody was going to take his guns, so there was that. Pat never really gave a straight answer, I don't think, on why he was voting for Trump. I got the impression he was voting for him because he always voted Republican, no matter what. So, seemed a loyalty thing for Pat, not a jobs thing or a money thing.
Most of the Trump voters I've talked to in person, the first thing they list is "He will close the border, Democrats invite them in." which is a total fairy tale, but it is what Trump has never stopped repeating even though he never was going to do that.
I'm sure there are people that have had a bad time in life and they want to blame someone for that but if you look at who goes to Trump rallies it does not look like people that are going because manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas. They go dressed up in Trump gear, they buy more Trump hats, shirts, signs, at the stands outside the rally, they act like they are going to a party...to see a concert, to go to a sporting event. They go to listen to a rich guy whine and moan for hours like he has the hardest life on the planet.
They wallow in his whining and grievance porn. Trump literally gets a crowd of people to listen to him whine, the same whines about how he is getting picked on over and over...and he throws in how nothing but rapists, drug dealers, and people released from mental hospitals are pouring over our borders. People cheer that. He tells them if they are coming for him, they are coming for them. But nobody is coming for them because they have not committed any of the crimes Trump has. It's a festival of fantasies. Trump tells them Democrats are fascists, communists, Stalinists, vermin, that they are the enemy...they cheer that. That teachers teach their kids to be gay, that they teach them lies about race, that teachers are evil.
The Trump ideology is fueled by grievance and hate. Trump stokes that, promotes that those that are not filled with that hate must be destroyed...are not even human...are evil that god wants them wiped out.
Trump destroys his Republican opponents in polling for a few reasons but one of the big ones is, the more crimes he is charged with, the more times the media points out he is quoting Hitler, or saying whatever rotten or ridiculous lie, the more it confirms to his followers that "they" are out to get him and they think, because he told them over and over, they are next.
It's a giant mountain of bullshit, that's what MAGA is built upon.
