Nothing Donald Trump can do will drive his voters away: If last week didn't do it, what will?

[DonViejo]

Multiple convictions of his inner circle, with more coming. Personal insults to a Republican hero. Nothing changes

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
AUGUST 27, 2018 12:20PM (UTC)

With Donald Trump's political woes being overshadowed by the news of Sen. John McCain's death over the weekend, one might think the president would be relieved to have a change of subject from his no good, very bad week. Yet Trump seems to be fulminating at all the praise and attention for his nemesis, as even his beloved Fox News gives its airwaves over to paeans to the man Trump loathes above all others.

The Washington Post reported that Trump even refused to issue a laudatory tribute to McCain's years of service to the country, insisting instead on a flaccid tweet sharing thoughts and prayers for the family. After which he tweeted some standard insults about the Mueller investigation, threw out some economic news, complained about social media censorship and whined that President Obama gets too much credit for the economy. Even some of his defenders, who evidently expected him to step up and act like a normal president in this circumstance, were disappointed.

Link to tweet

Of course, that didn't deter the veteran Fox News anchor from shrugging his shoulders and carrying on as usual. He went right back to defending the president, retweeting a Washington Examiner story that claimed "Robert Mueller's 'win' exposes how the media never cared about Russia 'collusion'" and linking to a story entitled "How Anti Trump Hyperbole Fosters Insanity."

Hume has known John McCain for decades and seemed to genuinely grieve at the news of his passing. He was also once a respected newsman, even during his early years at Fox. But his allegiance to Trump is so central today that even when the president behaved like a petulant child at a moment that demanded grace and dignity from political leaders (all of whom rose to the occasion except him), Hume didn't miss a beat before going right back to rationalizing and excusing his childish behavior. Not that anyone should expect otherwise. Trump's degradation of McCain's years of torture as a POW is well known, yet massive numbers of Republicans still adore him.

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https://www.salon.com/2018/08/27/nothing-donald-trump-can-do-will-drive-his-voters-away-if-last-week-didnt-do-it-what-will/#close

[redstatebluegirl]

1. They want their tax cuts so bad, and the other group is so racist, they love him.

[empedocles]

6. I agree, hate and greed; powerful, nasty motivations.

However, I suspect/hope that with most of traitortrumps 'bad behaviors', the latest being the WH flagpole, in some way, there is some kind oflittle erosion of support. Especially, as more information about these 'behaviors' trickle down to the low information, post Labor Day voters. The next Manafort trial will draw fresh blood, as does the drumbeat of negative trump stuff. trump being trump, there is quite a bit more to come.

[LonePirate]

3. Remember that "c" word the deplorables uttered ad nauseum n 2016? If 45 were to become one ...

Then his supporters might start abandoning him.

If he renounces his racism and drops his support for his wall, that might cause some of his supporters to flee as well.

[gopiscrap]

4. a forced abortion on a poc minor

who he impregnanted?

[LisaM]

5. Actually, I saw him lose one over the weekend.

I know the reason my friend voted Trump is that her family - especially her BIL - are military (she didn't admit to voting to Trump, but I figured it out through her sister).

Well, Trump lost her over the weekend over the White House flag being raised from half-staff so quickly. She's upset about it. I thought about commenting on it, too, then I thought, why? She's already disillusioned, I don't want to swing her back to him.

I know of two people who've soured on Trump, one is her, and the other is someone who was disgusted by his animal rights (or lack of animal rights) policy. Both of these people are white women from conservative families. Politics never used to be an issue with them at all.

I don't know a whole lot of Trump voters, so that fact that he's peeled off two from the small group I know - all on his own, with no help from anyone else! - is encouraging.

[struggle4progress]

7. We don't need every vote. We only need more votes.

[ecstatic]

9. My observation is that they regularly give up on dump, then return for more abuse

like an emotionally abused partner in a codependent relationship. There are several factions of dump's base that regularly renounce their support of him, and for various reasons:

Not destroying Mueller and the deep state.
Tweeting too much.
No wall.
Too much attention to black & latino employment.
Missile strikes.
Trophy laws.
Tariffs.
Etc.

The only way the polls can make sense is if the same people are giving dump multiple chances. SMH. When will they stop, you ask? I assume giving him chance after chance will grow old at some point. We'll just have to see. In the meantime, I feel we should make it super embarrassing to be associated with trump & his minions.

[0rganism]

10. some of the salon site comments on the article are interesting

i found this one provocative:

Thomas Walter

Yep, Trump has his solid supporters. Get used it because his base is energetic and they have plans for the future of the USA.

Trump's people are going to vote in 2020 and give Donald a second term.

Heather does not comprehend why Trump has so much support. Her hate is blinding her and she cannot think clearly. She cannot even understand something so simple as popular support for a president and his policies. The title reveals her frustration and subsequent lack of understanding!

Heather, you need to stop indulging in hate and spite and spittle all of the time. Your story today is shallow and farcical. Get some peace, love and joy into your life already. The hate you spread is not good because hate is never good.

aside from the obvious condescending media-bashing, i think this raises a few fair points.
- we (progressives) don't understand the depth of the Trumpists' support for Trump because we haven't normalized him in our thinking, which leads to some of the frustration and discontentment that the Trumpists find so amusing.
- the Trumpists are not blank slates, they have one or more agendas and president Trump is part of their plan(s).
- we will need extremely strong leadership in 2020 if we want to have a chance at defeating Trump. so far, that leader has not emerged, and perhaps (imho) that is for the best, as s/he cannot be smeared yet. look what they do to Rep. Pelosi's public image, look at what they're still doing to HRC's, there's definitely some value in letting them swing in the dark until after the primaries.