aeneas
1898
Well if he dies on the campaign trail then he can’t lose the election. Take that libs!
Well his base wants him to be President for the rest of his life, so…
sounds of hundreds of bony monkeys’ paws curling in unison
RichVR
1903
I thought there was only one. I THOUGHT THERE WAS ONLY ONE!
Soma
1904
When Trump said he is immune, it was as ridiculous as Kim Jong-il hitting a 38-under-par 34 in golf.
That is right. Donald Trump is officially as full of shit as dictator Kim Jong-il.
Scotten
1905
Why did previous Republican presidents not invoke similar loyalty? I don’t remember people pushing for removing the amendment when Bush left office…
Reagan did (does?). Other than that, most of them didn’t lean into the the personality and charisma side of things.
Menzo
1907
The internet didn’t exist, but Reagan had a pretty fanatical following. So much so that they were still talking about how awesome he was 30 years later.
Trump’s cult of personality is particularly baffling considering his personality. Who finds that charismatic?
If the internet had been around in Reagan’s years, it would have been incredibly culty. I went to a Reagan campaign rally in autumn of '84 at Ohio State University. Not because I cared, but it was free, and I had roommates who really wanted to go. I understand that this is how campaign rallies are in general, but it was pretty insane. Just fanatical, robotic support.
That was also the age of the ‘young republicans’, who all considered Reagan a god. I had plenty of friends who were involved in that.
ShivaX
1910
Racists, idiots and authoritarians.
Yep. The internet plus a major media outlet (Fox) saying “Your President Is A Golden God” makes it easy to brainwash his followers.
It’s only going to get worse going forward…
So I gather, but even then there’s a disconnect. I just can’t figure out what the guys appeal is supposed to be, even to garbage people.
Right but then he, you know, speaks and appears on camera and there’s just this fat, pathetic, insecure, noisy moron. He’d be pitiable if he weren’t in such a position to inflict his anger at all his (voluminous) failings on the rest of us.
ShivaX
1913
Projection. They see themselves. He’s an ugly, stupid, racist person. So are they. He says what they think and want to say. He tells them it’s okay to say and think those things. Add in people treating politics like it’s a sport and there ya go.
Trump is lazy and stupid and not good at anything … and yet he’s rich and powerful and gets to push people around and tell them to fuck off and people can’t do anything about it.
A lot of people find that very attractive, because they are also lazy and stupid and not good at anything and Trump has what they want.
It’s the same reason all kinds of things are popular, from various celebrities who are famous for being famous to Disney princesses: self-insertion wish fulfillment.
In one of the threads about video game RPGs recently - BG3, I think - someone made the point that in moddable RPGs, usually one of the first things added is child murder (usually disabled by the game by default). Frequently some really gross sex add-on’s, too. I’ll add extra blood/gore options as another frequent mod. RPGs are wish fulfillment, and there’s a weirdly sizeable contingent of fucked up gamers who get their jollies off gibbing 9-year-olds and sexually assaulting priestesses, I guess. They sell it as being about “free choice” and “realism,” but truth is, that shit’s just what they think is cool to do when there isn’t anyone there to stop them.
Trump is the IRL version of that category of wish-fulfillment, for all the racist slope-browed wastes of oxygen who don’t realize they could easily have a promising career as That Guy Who Joins Your D&D Game And Gets Pissed When He Is Thrown Out For Immediately Trying to Rob And Rape Another Player’s Character.
KevinC
1917
There will be dozens of us voting against him in 2022 for all this crap. Dozens!
