Republican voters don't care about Trump's corruption -- and here's why

[Demovictory9]

Republican voters don’t care about Trump’s corruption — and here’s why
Republicans have convinced themselves that Democrats are dirty, so they feel entitled to be even dirtier

T
he past couple of weeks of the news have served up a hefty reminder not just of the deep corruption of Donald Trump, but of the entire Republican Party. On top of the headline-dominating story about Republicans ignoring all sorts of ethical concerns to place Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, there was also a blockbuster New York Times report showing that Trump amassed his massive fortune not through hard work or business acumen, but old-fashioned tax fraud and corruption. Meanwhile, there's a pileup of stories indicating that Republicans intend to shore up their prospects in the November midterms through blatant and racist cheating, using a series of Jim Crow-style strategies to keep black and Native American voters from the polls in November.

To add to this already disturbing situation, there's the shady behavior Trump is displaying around the disappearance and likely murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist who has run afoul of Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia and big buddy of presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner. Saudi Arabia is widely believed to be behind the attack, but Trump — who himself is overtly hostile to the free press — seems reluctant to do anything about the situation, citing his unwillingness to spike an arms deal with Saudi Arabia. It's a stance made even more disturbing by the fact that arms deal isn't even real, but more like a fantasy unlikely to come to fruition. There is also reason to believe that Trump is personally enriching himself off the Saudi government, which likely factors into his decision-making.

Despite all this, in a story that's become all too predictable, Trump's approval ratings don't budge, lingering a few percentage points north or south of 40 percent. He's not popular and never has been, but it's clear that the 40 percent of voters who love him really do not care if he's a crook. And despite the GOP's widespread corruption, FiveThirtyEight still gives the party a four-in-five chance of holding a Senate majority in the midterm elections.

It's easy to chalk off this widespread indifference to criminality and corruption among Republican voters as evidence that such voters are themselves amoral. But that reading is overly simplistic. It's highly unlikely that 40 percent of the country thinks it's no big deal to cheat or steal or lie under oath or shrug off a murder likely ordered by your son-in-law's friend. Nor is it satisfying to simply blame partisanship. Democratic voters are also highly partisan, but don't seem to have nearly the same tolerance for immoral behavior being conducted in their name.


Instead, the likeliest reason for this willingness of Republican voters to indulge all sorts of wicked behavior in pursuit of power is that they've convinced themselves that the "other side" does it just as much. It's an attitude called "what-about-ism," and it allows Republican voters to tell themselves that their side can be as shady and corrupt as they want to be, because Democrats do it, too.

Of course, the fly in that particular ointment is that Democrats do not, in fact, do it too. Barack Obama did not put an accused sexual predator on the Supreme Court after that person repeatedly lied under oath, nor did he shrug it off when an American journalist was killed because he happened to be fond of the alleged murderer. Democrats are not trying to steal elections through widespread cheating. Hillary Clinton was no tax fraud and was able to prove it by releasing her tax returns, something Trump continues to refuse to do.

https://www.salon.com/2018/10/12/republican-voters-dont-care-about-trumps-corruption-and-heres-why/

[manor321]

1. No need for that long article

Republican voters want only white conservative Christians in power. Period. It's that simple.

[jayschool2013]

2. It also explains Fox News

"Why, those liberals have been skewing stories for decades at the Times, Post, etc. It's high time WE had OUR media."

[Power 2 the People]

3. I just hope one day there will be an arbiter of truth that they believe

Where is our Edward R. Murrow to stand up to and take down Fox News?

[Corgigal]

4. They believe being white

means all the bad things that will happen to others won't happen to them. Yeah, it will , but it will just take a little longer. They have to steal everything, white middle class America just can't see. Can't even imagine. It's a horror show, and none of them ever read a history book or shown a curiosity in any other country. It's all about their four walls to include only their home.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

5. whataboutism was rampant in 2016

The press didn't admit its role until the damage was done.