Explaining Trump Support to Liberals
No, it’s not all bad faith, it’s just different perspective
I see liberals across the vast internet sea and within my own personal space aghast that anyone could vote for Trump, and similarly aghast that the Republican Party has been captured by psycho grifters and charlatans. These liberals seem entirely befuddled why anyone would support Trump in the 2024 election. Were these liberals to pause the media firehose for a moment, stop, and think from another’s perspective, I believe they might get it. Herein, let’s discuss why someone might vote for Trump, by first defining something liberals don’t think about.
The Regime
I don't think the labels "liberal" and "conservative" currently mean anything. It's Regime vs anti-Regime. I often find myself in dialogues which roughly approximate this:
Me: The Regime is a combination of neoconservative war hawks, the military industrial complex, populist socialism, and a veneer of pop star sparklepuss to obscure it and glue it together, and the Democrats have become the face of The Regime.
Them: That's all bullshit, prove your thesis.
Democrat Vice President Candidate Tim Walz: The Democrats are the party of Bernie Sanders, Dick Cheney, and Taylor Swift.
Me: …
Please be clear, I do not fault anyone for voting for The Regime. I think voting for The Regime is fine. There are many reasons one might choose to vote for The Regime, and since I don't actually think voting matters anyway I will never hold anyone's vote against them no matter their voting preference.
Trump Explained
The Regime picked Trump to run against in 2016. This was exposed by the Wikileak in Podesta's "Pied Piper Plan," which correlates exactly with the timing of Bill Clinton calling Trump and convincing him to run.
The entire point of the Pied Piper Plan is to allow The Regime to elevate their own awful sock puppet candidates because the alternative is so much worse. This election represents nothing more than the slow played after-effects of the 2016 Pied Piper Plan. Hillary couldn't reap the reward, Biden sorta did, and now Kamala especially is.
That explains the existence of Trump as a political node, but the reason he's so popular depends on which flavor of supporter to which you’re referring.
Trump Support Explained
Trump support comes from three distinct groups.
There are a huge number of rural or rust belt folks who have been decimated by globalism and by the rise of Silicon Valley and the coastal elite banking centers. I support globalism, generally speaking, and I believe that globalism makes things better on average, in the following way. My tech friends make good money from developing online underwear buying internet contraptions, underwear factory pollutants spill into Chinese skies instead of mine, Chinese underwear employees are pollutant sucking wage slaves who have been duped by their party masters into believing they’re part of a grand communist program, and I get cheaper better underwear by buying Chinese Ice Silk on Amazon instead of Hanes garbage. And Hanes probably isn’t made in the USA anyway. Everything about this is good except for the guy who gets fired at Dalton Georgia Plant 6 down the street from me. That guy takes the hit, and no amount of welfare or minimum wage monkeying is going to make that guy’s life better, and if a rich coastal techbro Democrat mansplains to him that “he’s not voting in his best interests” Mr. Dalton GA Plant 6 will get very angry because he doesn’t want to move into a trailer. This is not a new discussion. We've been having this discussion since NAFTA at a minimum. Rich coastal urban Democrats almost universally got rich via some connection to globalism, and Trump is "fly over state" revenge.
There are a huge number of midwits who have been disenfranchised by politics forever because they're midwits, and Trump shaved Vince McMahon's head in the ring of the WWE, so he's someone they identify with and will vote for. This is not only democracy at work, it is no different than a black person voting for Kamala because she’s black, or a woman voting for her because she’s a woman. And if you dislike midwits finally voting then you must recalibrate your opinion of democracy itself, because democracy is rule by midwits.
There are a large number of people who just absolutely hate The Regime. This bucket has a lot of very smart people in it who aren't actually MAGA. The Regime called for cloth masks to stop an airborne blood disease when every nurse in the country knows only N95s work. The Regime tried to make a vaccine with a 30% efficacy rate mandatory after lying about its efficacy rate. The Regime closed the schools when all of Europe had them open. The Regime burned police stations and ACABed and sieged the Portland federal building and cut Texas barbed wire to let more illegal people across the border while Abbot was trying to stop them. The Regime gave the Taliban an air force. The Regime backs Israel in acts that half the world considers genocide. The Regime uses Ukraine as a make-work program for US weapons manufacturers and tacitly endorses the bombing of Nord. The Regime endorses 14 year old girls getting mastectomies in order to elevate the virtue quotient of their parents on Facebook by accumulation of 'stunning and brave' points. The regime docks Asians 200 points on their SATs for college applications. The Regime bans gas stoves. Whatever. I'm not going to argue at this time about whether any one of these things are true or false, or valid or not. I’m merely describing what they see. "Boo Regime," they say. "Boooooo Regime!" They see Trump as an incompetent, narcissistic, populist, midwit fuckwad and they can think of nothing more pleasing than to have such a complete bozo in charge of The Regime for four years gumming up the Regime's activities, because The Regime’s activities are completely awful.
This is all the analysis you need to understand Trump support. The anti-immigration sentiment comes from Group 1 really and actually losing their jobs and from Group 3’s heavy skepticism about The Regime’s blatant efforts to boat in illegals. The pro tariff sentiments comes from the Group 1 really and actually losing their jobs and Group 2’s sympathy for Group 1. The anti-Ukraine stuff does not flow from Putin lovers like the left claims, it comes from Group 1 being jealous that funds are being used to prop up foreigners instead of themselves, from Group 2 not understanding what strategic value Ukraine has for the USA, and from the Group 3 wondering why The Regime is funding the war while half of Europe doesn’t seem to care. And so forth. Apply this analysis to every issue and the same thing will fall out. Of Group 1, 2, and 3, most issues Trump campaigns on tend to have agreement among at least two of the three groups, if for different reasons.
As I have stated prior, I don't think any of this matters. I think The Regime is too powerful to be steered by any president. I don't think who is in the presidency today matters, nor in December. I don't think we even know who is making any presidential decisions right now because I don't think anyone's been making them since 2021, and I don't think anyone will be making them again until at least 2028, or perhaps never, and I don't care. As I stated, I view democracy as merely a façade and rebellion suppression trick, because it makes people think they have a say in what their government does, when in fact they do not. The Regime does. And because I’m not a fan of rebellion, I am tacitly ok with The Regime doing this until it’s time to shoot them. Now is not that time, yet.
Your actual choice in November, or tomorrow, or years from now, is to go with the flow or not. I suggest going with the flow for now, no matter who wins, and keeping yourself out of The Regime’s crosshairs. That’s what I’m doing. Vote for whoever you think will be more entertaining. I also suggest preparing for a future when the façade fails.
And finally, I suggest sharing this article with the moonbats on both sides who are screaming at each other over either Haitian Cat Eaters or mysterious bomb threats from supposed European MAGAs who flew to Europe to make prank phone calls about Haitian Cat Eaters and then few home for dinner. They both seem like they need a dose of reality.
"They see Trump as an incompetent, narcissistic, populist, midwit fuckwad and they can think of nothing more pleasing than to have such a complete bozo in charge of The Regime for four years gumming up the Regime's activities, because The Regime’s activities are completely awful."
The Regime is easier to swallow when the people at least seem to be elite. Passing off the old senile man and the worst woman you know in corporate HR as the defenders of democracy is just too much to swallow.
Great post. I have tried to explain to my left of center relatives, friends, and acquaintances that many Trump supporters have legitimate not-crazy grievances and feel unheard, and the left reinforces that constantly by acting like failing to ratify Dem rule is prima facie evidence of bigotry, low intelligence, etc. They nod and then just carry on treating people with differing viewpoints as pond scum that frankly deserve to be rolled right over by society's most powerful institutions, thus proving that those who squawk most about democracy don't actually believe in it at all.