Sorry To Say, Many Voters Are Morons
Watching the congressmembers getting up for the televised debt ceiling “debate” on Wednesday was… uninspiring. It wasn’t a debate; it was a parade of boring politicians reciting party talking points. It’s hard to imagine that these people get elected to anything. 70% of voters just vote for the party they identify with. But that 30%… how could they vote for any of these mediocre dullards? It’s why the American political experiment has completely turned into a lesser of evils system that, with few exceptions— some spectacular like Jamie Raskin, Bernie and AOC— attracts bottom-of-the-barrel people.
Yesterday this seemed to be dawning on Atlantic staff writer David Graham when he noted with a shudder that “the prospect of a rematch between Trump and Joe Biden has demoralized and baffled commentators… ‘It won’t be pretty. It may not be inspiring. And it will mostly be about which candidate you dislike more,’ warned Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times. ‘How did a once-great nation end up facing an election between two very old, very unpopular White dudes?’ groaned The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle.”
Graham’s column was a look at how it’s possible that Trump’s base still loves him. Graham didn't mention it, but a poll from Navigator released yesterday shows that a very strong majority of Americans know Trump is a criminal— 91% of Democrats, 68% of independents… but just 34% of Republicans. What the fuck is wrong with these people?
Trump, wrote Graham, “has always been unpopular with most Americans and very popular with his base. From early in his presidency through to the present, nothing has changed the fundamental picture. That stability is now the key to understanding the 2024 Republican nomination race… Trump hasn’t lost luster, partly because he never had much luster to begin with. Since March 2017, with a brief exception, more than half of Americans have disapproved of Trump (during his presidency) or held an unfavorable opinion of him (since he left office), according to FiveThirtyEight’s poll averages… One half of the equation is that it’s hard to become unpopular when you were already there. The other half is that it’s hard to become more unpopular when your supporters are so devoted. In a recent YouGov/Economist poll, 84 percent of Republicans had a favorable view of Trump; Quinnipiac pegged the number at 86 percent.”
Even as Trump continues ripping off his own supporters— people who are certifiable morons— they continue to put their faith in him. The “Trump Bucks” websites may have disappeared since they were exposed as scams and Trump won’t admit that he was in on the deal… but he sure hasn’t sued the operators— Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots— who used his name and image to swindle tens of thousands of dollars from simpleminded Trump supporters who bought all kinds of garbage from “Official Trump 2024 Gold Cards to Trump Rebate Banking System (TRB) membership cards purportedly issued ‘by Donald Trump’ himself… In addition to promising that their investments in the products would help propel Trump back into the White House, the ads also falsely suggested that Trump will make the ‘real patriots’ who support him rich. For example, the ads say, a ‘$10,000 Diamond Trump Bucks’ bill purchased for $99.99 can be cashed in for $10,000 at major banks like Bank of America and retailers like Walmart, Costco and Home Depot… [T]he Better Business Bureau has given Patriots Dynasty, Patriots Future and USA Patriots, which use the address of an industrial center in the Denver suburb of Aurora, an F rating. And dozens of complaints have been lodged against the companies on the BBB site and on consumer ratings sites like TrustPilot.”
Is Trump losing supporters? I doubt it. His supporters have very low IQs and can’t think abstractly. It’s a tragedy. When he said he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose any supporters, he knew what he was talking about. After letting Trump define him all year, DeSantis will now try to pulverize him. It could backfire with the MAGA crowd. They have both started using Democratic talking points against each other. Meatball Ron, wrote Shane Goldmacher and Nicholas Nehamas, “called one of the spending bills that Trump signed ‘grotesque’ and accused him of increasing the national debt. He said the way Trump had sided with Disney in DeSantis’s war with the entertainment giant was ‘bizarre.’ He described Trump’s criticism of the governor’s handling of Covid as ‘ridiculous.’ And he dared Trump to take a position on the debt-limit bill pending in Washington… A tricky balancing act lies ahead for DeSantis. All of those comments came not onstage in his first campaign speech before hundreds of Republicans at an evangelical church, but during a 15-minute news conference with reporters afterward. He did not mention Trump by name when he spoke directly to voters in each of his first four Iowa stops, though he has drawn implicit contrasts. The two-pronged approach reflects the remarkable degree to which his pathway to the nomination depends on his ability to win over— and not alienate— the significant bloc of Republican voters who still like Trump even if they are willing to consider an alternative.”
Worse for America, is that Trump’s tactic and style have become “normalized” procedure— at least in the GOP. Trump acolyte Nikki Haley has raised immense sums of money from foreign lobbyists, even while calling for a ban on… foreign lobbyists. Banning foreign lobbying has been part of her stump speech against aid to foreign countries. She’s as slimy as Trump.
Even more like Trump— and a lot worse than most politicians— George Santos’ office has been selling positions. AP reported yesterday that a former Santos aide, Derek Myers, paid Santos’ top staffer, Vish Burra (a crackpot MAGAt and a drug dealer with a criminal record), seven $150 payments to get the job. Santos himself didn’t want money from Myers; he wanted to have sex with him... and is currently under investigation for grabbing Meyers’ dick in the office. Sounds like Trump at all?
