Don't Fear "The Base", Republicans

[NanceGreggs]

We’ve heard repeatedly that you Republicans won’t remove Trump from office because you fear a backlash from his ‘base’.

Well, that problem is easily solved. Trump’s ‘base’ consists of low-IQ voters who will believe anything they’re told.

The undeniable proof thereof is the fact that you told them a lying, thrice-married adulterer with a foul mouth was a ‘good Christian’ – and they believed it.

You told them that a man who’d blown the millions he’d inherited, and who launched one failed business venture after another, was a successful businessman – and they believed it.

You told them that a man who can’t put two coherent sentences together was an absolute genius – and they believed it.

You told them that a man who has absolutely no clue about history, geography, or domestic and foreign affairs was capable of governing the most powerful nation on earth – and they believed it.

Ditch Trump and make up any excuse you want for doing so: he’s tired of being ‘pResident’ and begged to be removed, he’s decided to leave politics and become a golf pro, he wants to pursue his life-long dream of being a Chippendale’s dancer.

No reason you give would be too outlandish, too unbelievable, too over-the-top for the ‘base’ – because they’ll obviously believe anything.

You’re welcome.

[TwilightZone]

1. They don't believe the GOP. They believe Trump.

I'm not sure I'd agree that their fear of Trump's base is an unfounded one. If they tried to tell his base that he's tired of being president or otherwise wanted to vacate the WH and were contradicted by Trump, my money's on them believing Trump uber alles.

That's generally what has happened when there's been an occasional difference of opinion between Trump and a GOPer. Someone contradicts him, he throws a tantrum, and his base piles on the offending party.

[NanceGreggs]

3. My point is ...

... that people who are so easily persuaded by one thing are just as easily persuaded by another.

That's why the GOP is flipping out over the anti-Trump articles in Christian magazines. They know it doesn't take much for the easily-led to be led in the opposite direction.

[TwilightZone]

5. I don't agree when Trump's involved.

They're persuaded by anything he personally says. That doesn't mean they'll believe anything anyone says, especially if it contradicts Trump. They're gullible, certainly, but it's relative, and whatever Trump says goes.

He is the Messiah, after all.

There's little evidence that anything anyone else says ever moves them in the least. His approval ratings are historically stable. Inexplicably, yet remarkably so. It has all the hallmarks of a cult, including disavowing anything anyone outside the cult says about the cult.

[NanceGreggs]

6. Not every Trump supporter ...

… is a member of his cult. Some voted for him because they always vote Republican. Some voted for him because they’d rather have anyone in the WH other than a ‘librul Democrat’.

Some voted for him because they believed his campaign promises – Mexico will pay for the wall, the middle-class will get a huge tax-break, he’s going to come up with a plan that means healthcare coverage that’s cheaper and covers more people than Obamacare, he’s going to bring back the coal industry, etc.

And quite frankly, I don’t trust those alleged ‘approval ratings’ ...

[TwilightZone]

7. "I don't trust those alleged 'approval ratings' ..."

Sure, some voted for him for any or all of those reasons, but those reasons haven't been changed by anything he's done or said. If they always vote R, they're not going anywhere. If they'd rather have anyone other than a Democrat in office, he's their only option. Lots of people disapproved of him in 2016 and voted for him anyway.

The vast, vast majority of people made up their minds about Trump years ago and there isn't much that is going to change that. If they were already OK with a sexist, racist, lying fraud, why would anything he's done since sway them? It's just more of the same. The only difference is degree.

Denial isn't going to help us in November. We should probably just acknowledge that he's lost basically zero support in the three years he's been president and literally nothing anyone says or does is going to change that. As it was in 2018, turnout is going to be key and only by out-voting them can we get rid of him.

[NanceGreggs]

11. If you want to insist ...

… that every Republican voter is a racist, xenophobic, misogynist whose minds will never be changed, that’s your prerogative.

It’s no different than saying all Democrats are latte-drinking elitists who would vote for someone exactly like Trump if he had a (D) after his name.

[Brother Mythos]

4. What you have written is all too true.

[Jade Fox]

2. Trump is Bad Boy to his base....

the guy who is and does everything wrong, and still gets away with it. His very outrageousness makes them love him. The more bad things you tell them about Trump, the more they like him.

It's not so much they are stupid as immature. They have no real sense of the consequences of Trump's actions, because they don't live in the real world of adults.

[SMC22307]

8. They're getting what they want -- Lamar Alexander admitted it.

Nothing you wrote matters to them and they're certainly not going to ditch Trump.

A number of high school classmates are Trump supporters. These are highly educated people in the DC area who have done well in life. They don't care about the adultery, foul mouth, inheritance, lack of government experience, etc. The economy is doing well for many and they're getting what they want. They're not low-IQ, they're turning a blind eye. Democrats need to understand the difference.

[tiredtoo]

9. Agree with most of what you said

However i disagree with the statement "Trump's 'base' consists of low-IQ voters who will believe anything they're told."
Personally know a few trump supporters who are not low-IQ. A chemical engineer, a Dentist and a financial writer for Wall Street Journal to name a few. Now these fellows may not be his base, but they all still support him.
Imho the Evangelicals have more possibility of being low-IQ individuals based on what they believe.

[k2qb3]

16. It's not that they're stupid, necessarily...

It's certainly not only stupid people who're evangelicals, it's just that dogma is a malignant cancer of the consciousness. It's a software problem, a maladaptive operating system that leaves people with a diminished capacity for reason and for incredulity. Rationalization is how it metastasizes and what passes for intellectual activity for the afflicted. Trump is good at manipulating people who've wired themselves that way because they're the natural prey of a con man.

Everyone has a certain level of flexibility in what they're willing to support as the lesser evil, but the act of support commits you to the position, and you become more like the leader you're following. I've seen that happen with every presidency of my lifetime, the party base reflects the president.

To be part of the Trump base at this point you have to accept the vast left-wing deep state conspiracy to make Trump look bad. If you don't believe everyone critical is part of it you're probably part of it too. The people I see waking up late are the ones who respect somebody or something the apologists are forced to character-assassinate.

I do think the whole impeachment saga has had more of an impact than it would seem. Not so much because of what Trump did, but because of what the party did in his defense. I think the GOP actually has a problem now because their credulous base expected defense witnesses, and the prosecutions of conspirators the FOX narrative demands.

[rusty quoin]

10. I wish you are all correct, but they are not all low-IQ.

My niece unfortunately cannot have a political conversation with her mom or dad. Her mom is my wife’s sister. Their whole family grew up poor and Democrats. My whole family are Democrats.

So in an environment like that, the smartest one, my niece, has fallen into the Trump gang.

Her cousins, my kids are polar opposites. They are Democrats.

I always figured that low IQ easy, but cults also trap smart people too. It’s complicated.

[tclambert]

12. I dunno, Nance. If they tell their base Trump wants to leave to spend more time with his family,

who would believe that? They've all seen his family. Other than the one daughter he wants to date, who'd believe he wants to spend more time with any of them?

[H2O Man]

13. Recommended.

[Perseus]

14. "of being a Chippendale's dancer."...Nance, I read it a few minutes ago and I am still cracking up

Wow, was that true and funny.

I know I have said it before, and I know I have said before that "I have said it before", but you are a genius. Thank you.

[NanceGreggs]

15. The scary part ...

... is that he probably looks at himself in a mirror every day and thinks, "Yeah, I could definitely be one of those Chippendale guys."

[denem]

17. Cruelty is not a bug, it's a feature.

The base' may be base, but some of them are anything but dumb. I'm thinking plenty would qualify for the SS.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

18. Russiapublicans fear Putin first

The "base" will go anywhere trumPutin tells them. Without the propaganda, that coalition of evil would crumble. The Republican party is all-in with Putin because he delivers the "base". The Republican party is likewise all-in with the sociopathic oligarchs they've nurtured since the era of Reagan. If they turn on Trump, they're afraid of losing both the propaganda that holds their voters together as a pack, and the funding it takes to supplement that propaganda.

[kurtcagle]

19. Yes, but are there the same number of Republicans?

There's a certain degree of reinforcement in the polls. You're seeing more and more people who were former Republicans who now identify as independents, and the independent numbers have generally been going against Trump as time passes. As that happens, the only way for the number of Republicans who believe that Trump is "Great" to keep stable is for the size of the Republican base to be shrinking. I think this is happening.

[NanceGreggs]

20. Exactly so.

We have heard from the many who voted for Trump, but now feel betrayed. Many of them no longer identify as Republicans, and are therefore not counted in surveys restricted to Republican voters.

As I've posted before, we have heard from many Trump voters who regret their support - coal workers who were promised the return of their industry, farmers who have declared bankruptcy due to Trump's tariff wars, people who are losing their food stamps and other social assistance under Trump, etc.

When was the last time you heard someone say, "I didn't vote for Trump in 2016 - but now that I see his accomplishments in office, I'll vote for him in 2020"?

That "Republican base" is getting smaller every day - and being told what percentage of that dwindling number still support Trump is becoming increasingly meaningless.