Willful obstinance
My coworker is your typical right-winger, with zero give on his opinions (both politically and otherwise). Nothing new there, and we've learned to turn all conversations away from politics as those discussions always devolve. No big deal, we get along fine otherwise, even though he's a Vikings fan and I'm a lifelong Packers fan.
This morning, I walked in to find he and our boss discussing a new Universal Basic Income initiative in Chicago (where the boss is from). We had a nice discussion about this, and actually agreed in our concerns about the viability of a UBI. (That's not what this post is about, so I'll leave that discussion for another time.)
As the conversation started to turn to other areas of a political nature, I asked my coworker his opinion of Trump's performance yesterday. Much to my surprise, this otherwise very intelligent man, said he was in total agreement with Trump and that we need to make friends with Russia. He completely downplayed any negativity from Trump's remarks, and practically ignored me when I suggested Trump threw his own NDI and intelligence apparatus under the bus. After that, and knowing the discussion was not going to go anywhere positive, I dropped it.
I think I knew this was the situation, but it was then that it really sank home. There are a large number of people in this country - and not all of them are overt racists - who don't care what Trump says or does, but will back him no matter what. It felt like yesterday's Onion article with the GOP's moving goalposts. They will not be turned away, and Trump could get on national tv and piss on the flag and they would not care. He's their guy because he's "draining the swamp" or whatever other bullshit they tell themselves.
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