Why Trump Supporters Are Angry — and Loyal

[elleng]

'Ted Cruz’s big win in Wisconsin Tuesday was an important moment for the Never Trump forces that hope to keep Donald Trump from amassing the delegates he needs to win the Republican nomination outright. But Mr. Cruz’s supporters remain seriously frustrated anyway, to the point where they have begun denigrating and demonizing Mr. Trump’s supporters, a tactic that can do neither Mr. Cruz nor his party any good.

Wisconsin was a big Midwestern contest that provided Mr. Cruz with the opportunity to show he can appeal to a broader constituency than just the hard-line and evangelical conservatives who have been his main strength.

But the results showed that many supporters in Mr. Trump’s most steadfast constituency, non-college-educated whites, stuck by him. Exit polls show that Mr. Cruz won 48 percent of this group, but more than one-third of them still voted for Mr. Trump. This confounding fealty is maddening to some Never Trumpers, who have turned their anger on the people who have stayed loyal to Mr. Trump.

Erick Erickson, a conservative commentator, calls Trump supporters “Branch Trumpidians,” and appears to spend much of his time retweeting insults of them. Last week Mr. Erickson wrote that the only people who love Mr. Trump “are white supremacists, neo-Nazis, a white victim class of mostly blue-collar workers, a group of white folks who have failed at life and blame everyone else for their own bad decisions.”

Yet who, really, has let these people down? For several election cycles — most prominently Pat Buchanan’s presidential bid in 1996 — Republican politicians have played on class- and race-based resentment to win elections. In loyalty to wealthier voters, they, including the extreme Mr. Cruz, have cut federal safety-net programs and done little to address problems of job training, wage stagnation and drug addiction that affect the lower middle class, both minority and white.

White working-class Republicans, reeling from the recession and declining as a proportion of the population, entered this election year driven by that betrayal. Mr. Trump divined their fear and rage.'>>>

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/opinion/blaming-the-white-victim-class.html?

[pampango]

1. "He played to the party’s angriest members, and offered a con man’s hope to its most desperate."

For several election cycles — most prominently Pat Buchanan’s presidential bid in 1996 — Republican politicians have played on class- and race-based resentment to win elections. In loyalty to wealthier voters, they, including the extreme Mr. Cruz, have cut federal safety-net programs and done little to address problems of job training, wage stagnation and drug addiction that affect the lower middle class, both minority and white.

White working-class Republicans, reeling from the recession and declining as a proportion of the population, entered this election year driven by that betrayal. Mr. Trump divined their fear and rage. He was there to shout the despicable things other Republicans had merely insinuated, and rewrote the rules of the blame game they invented. He played to the party’s angriest members, and offered a con man’s hope to its most desperate.

This has been a source of annoyance and envy for Mr. Cruz, who had spent most of this year wooing Mr. Trump and mimicking his anti-immigrant, antiminority views in the hope that Mr. Trump’s base would migrate to him. But since great numbers of them have failed to do so, some pro-Cruz pundits have taken to blaming them.

Con men, of course, do not offer real solutions - just 'solutions' that sound good, might work and, at least, teach those OTHERS a lesson by punishing them for your problems.

[dembotoz]

2. do not see him as a con man here....he found a good chunk of the gop base

the folks who left the dems in the 60s because of the civil rights and voting rights struggle done by LBJ.

the is not con but there is a who lot of angry bigots....and trump is sweet as honey to them

[sendero]

3. from the article...

...."Wisconsin suggested that Republicans have begun to understand that Mr. Trump is playing supporters like Mr. Moss for suckers."

No, the whole Republican party has been playing its electorate for suckers for decades, it's just that Trump is better at it.