Electile Dysfunction (Current students plz look!)

[G.Irish]

First off, I love RJ. Always have, always will. But, coming from one of the most conservative hard red parts of the country, I want to say this. If the left is so angry at name calling and negative language, referring to the POTUS in the above terms, or any of the other derogatory terms in this thread, hurts your argument. Calling someone names and deriding them, while deriding them for doing the same, hurts your argument. 

Ok, for one the president is supposed to be held to a higher standard. George W. Bush got a lot of flak and negative media coverage but you never heard him lash out with vulgarity and insults for those who criticized him. You didn't see Bush insulting former cabinet members like when Trump call his former Secretary of State 'dumb as rocks'.

Secondly, a lot of those same people who love Trump for 'telling it like it is', 'he's unfiltered', and 'he says what we're all thinking' are clutching their pearls when people call them names the same way Trump insults others. People cheer Trump for not being politically incorrect when he says and does things that are racist, then they get offended when people say 'hey, that's racist'. Or people say 'you're racist if you support that'.

I don't really get off on calling Trump supporters names, but it puzzles me how people who are totally on board with his insults and demagoguery get a case of the vapors when people call them names in return.

As for this, I don’t think it’s so much that it doesn’t matter to his base of supporters, but; more like, they don’t care. Everyone wants outrage at what Trump has said, which is deserved, but the vast majority of his supporters (who live all around me), could give two shits about day to day politics. The vast majority of his supporters don’t care what he says, who he offends, or even watch the news.

I don't think there's any distinction being made here. Most of his supporters don't care who he demonizes, don't care who he hurts, and some actually cheer him on for his cruelty to migrant children. As long as that cruelty is happening to those other people, they're cool with it. They don't care if he is damaging our democracy or trafficking in violent rhetoric. They can all turn a blind eye to it.

And it's not like a lot of those supporters don't see this stuff. They may not be familiar with every outrage, but they see a lot of the stuff he does, but aren't bothered by it.

Is the economy good? Yes. Is unemployment down? Yes. Are they being largely left alone? Yes. 

Obama presided over the recovery after a massive economic crisis. The economy was good when he left. Yet a lot of Trump supporters had/have nothing but hate for Obama. So clearly it's not just about the economy being good and unemployment being low while they're largely being left alone.

Hate me for it if you want, but I think the outrage over not being upset is dumb.

I for one, don't feel outrage that Trump supporters aren't upset over what he does. I just feel deeply sad that there are a number of people who I'm friends with who simply don't care that this man is making this country more dangerous to live in for people like me. It makes me sad that other Americans simply shrug their shoulders and continue supporting a man who is actively making America worse for a lot of us. I guess I thought I lived in a better country than I actually do.

We're going further and further down a dark path that has led to atrocities in other countries and a large portion of America is cool with it. And because they still continue to support him after all of this stuff he does, he will feel emboldened to keep dragging us to new lows. And all of those GOP'ers in Congress either are fully onboard with it, or they're scared that they'll upset his supporters.