trump is a lying sack of shit and nothing he says has any legitimacy. I don’t think the media is capable of adapting to that reality.
Do you believe President Trump should declare a National Emergency if Democrats refuse to negotiate on the wall?
This isn’t remotely a sane thing to ask on a political poll. Are they going to ask if he should march on Rome next?
it’s real
It’s not exactly a political poll. It’s direct mail from the Trump campaign (and sometimes they come from the GOP). No matter how you answer, you’ll be whisked to a page where you can donate funds to the reelection effort.
The chance that Trump will ever read my responses to these emails are not great. But I do it anyway. Once they sent out a poll about what I thought about various Cabinet members. That was a fun one to respond to! And it turned out that many of the people on that poll/Cabinet wound up quitting or getting fired, so maybe someone DOES read them!
At the gym today, running on the track (ok, “moving” on the track, as “running” would imply a higher level of effort than I was actually putting out) which is above the tennis courts, I overheard (because they were talking at earth-shattering volumes, and the distance is pretty short) two gentlemen discussing the SOTU. address. What I heard helped remind me not to stay in my own bubble. “He’s a great speaker.” “It was a great speech.” “I had been a little worried but now my confidence is restored.” “I couldn’t listen to the rebuttal, it made me sick so I turned it off.” “He’ll be re-elected, for sure.”
These were not the stereotypical mouth-breathers or podunk trailer whites people often say are the core of the Trump electorate. These were middle-aged male (white, yes) professionals. I’m pretty sure much of their like for Trump is a mix of hatred for the shifting demographics that make their demographic (which, to be fair, is in many ways mine–white, male, middle-aged) less important and singular, and extreme dislike of changing social norms that make them actually pay attention to what they do and who is around them. They expressed zero awareness or interest in the actual substance of the speech, or of Trump’s policies; it’s as if those things are utterly immaterial compared to the cultural aspects.
Great speaker. LOL. But yeah, I know people exist who say things like this.
They may have said “white speaker” but the acoustics in the gym were bad.
These are the things they tell themselves (and others they know will give them affirmation) so they can continue to pull the lever for “R”/Trump and not have to think about the fact they are all pieces of shit.
I heard similar sentiments all day at work today. This speech really turned people around on Trump. I heard people who have been anti-Trump all along praise him today. I didn’t watch the speech, and I certainly didn’t feel like arguing, so I just stayed quiet today.
It might not be cultural but just simple economics. They probably benefited significantly from the recent tax cuts for top income earners, and while they worry about Trump’s volatility all they need is him not acting like a total insane person for half an hour to calm their nerves and vote R. Of course, this all presumes they have no empathy or understanding for people in situations other than their own.
Huh. So, Trump Derangement Syndrome is a thing after all.
So, (current) Republicans basically?
If they praised him for that speech then I seriously doubt they’ve been anti-trumpers all along.
Yeah, I’m not a liberal like many of you (at least I’m not straight line liberal like most of you seem to be), and I have no idea how anyone could say that was a “great speech.” I get that the guy is “on your side.” But people actually seem to think he is intelligent, and a good speaker. That is different than having the same views as you. I do not share all the same views as Obama or Clinton (or W for example). Obama and Clinton are clearly hyper-intelligent and great speakers. W is not on their level, but he has a natural, homespun nature that makes people like him (witness his father’s funeral, for example - the guy can speak on occasion, even if he does suffer from the occasional malapropism).
I really do not get America’s fascination with Trump. He is just clearly unintelligent and inarticulate. That is so, completely obvious to me, and it makes me think that either I’ve had a stroke or roughly half of America has had a stroke that they actually buy into this guy’s bullshit.
Then again, I also do not get America’s fascination with Dr. Phil and the like, and something tells me that the same disease that makes people think he “tells it like it is” also makes them follow Trump.
Middle-aged white male professionals are absolutely the core of the Trump electorate. All middle aged and older white males are, and the richer, the more core.
Perhaps in some slices of the demographic. I work with a lot of middle aged, professional, white males who are definitely not Trump supporters, however. I would wager that most of these folks in professions other than those deeply rooted in market capitalism are not necessarily Trumpists.
I would bet we have a fair number of white, male, middle-aged professionals on this board who range from “Fuck Trump” to "Seriously, Fuck Trump."
guilty
I am a middle aged white male and by income am rich, if not by wealth. I am in no way a core trump supporter, quite the contrary, so perhaps a more accurate way to say that would be that middle aged white males are among trump’s core demographic. A decent percentage of middle aged white males did in fact vote for Hillary. ‘All’ is just wrong, and continues the ‘us’ vs ‘them’ team sports way of treating politics, when things are much more nuanced in reality. Don’t give up on white middle aged men - lots of us are on the morally and ethically correct side of this.