Did Donald Trump Win The Nomination Because Republican Voters Are Dumb? (article title)

[SummerSnow]

John McQuaid , CONTRIBUTOR
Journalist
MAY 12, 2016


Everybody’s looking for reasons why all the predictions were wrong, and how a modern American political party could come to nominate a candidate like Donald Trump. Jonathan Chait argues that it’s because most political prognosticators could not accept that many Republican voters are short some IQ points:

As low as my estimation of the intelligence of the Republican electorate may be, I did not think enough of them would be dumb enough to buy his act. And, yes, I do believe that to watch Donald Trump and see a qualified and plausible president, you probably have some kind of mental shortcoming. As many fellow Republicans have pointed out, Donald Trump is a con man. What I failed to realize — and, I believe, what so many others failed to realize, though they have reasons not to say so — is just how easily so many Republicans are duped.

While I agree that Trump is unqualified to be president, and that nominating him is a big mistake, can you really attribute his victory to collective idiocy? Clearly something went wrong here, but you can’t plot the Trump phenomenon as a function of intelligence. Republican voters have had plenty of chances to elect Trump-esque candidates before (e.g., Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain) and they went with traditional, party-minted choices – until this year. Have GOP voters literally gotten stupider in the past four years? Clearly not.

It’s a mistake to look at voting, especially for president, as a rational process of weighing costs and benefits. Most individual voters don’t think much about policies or the practical realities of running the federal bureaucracy, dealing with Congress, or managing international alliances – the stuff Trump is so pathetically clueless about. They don’t put the candidates’ budget proposals in spreadsheets to compare them or see if the numbers add up. Unlike offices such as local mayor or school board member, what the president does on a daily basis is far removed from the realities of most people’s lives. So most of us treat the choice more abstractly. It reflects how people feel about the country, about character. And when feelings run high, policy recedes. Many people, I suspect, think the American political system is pretty sturdy (if paradoxically dysfunctional) and the damage any individual can do is limited. So, you don’t cast a vote for president to implement policies, but to express yourself, to send a message, to jar the system. Trump is the purest distillation of this tendency.

read the rest at the link http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmcquaid/2016/05/12/did-donald-trump-win-the-nomination-because-republican-voters-are-dumb/#33b600886ed4

*willful ignorance*

[tonyt53]

1. He just told the voters who to be afraid of - everybody.

[Johonny]

2. They are what they trained themselves to be

Many GOPers are well educated, but have fed themselves a steady diet of lies, half-truths, and hate as comfort food to an ideology that has become less and less well defined as a real thing. Paul Ryan is now a liberal in their world so don't tell me conservationism is a "thing" anymore. Into this climate Trump was basically bound to arrive and dominate.

[Person 2713]

3. Look how many are dedicated to FOX , or Rush. Yes they are easily duped.

[kentuck]

4. The Republican brand was rotten...

and Trump was different. It didn't matter if he wasn't a conservative. He wasn't a rotten Republican.

[jodymarie aimee]

5. media

Excuse me, the castrated money grubbing media did this. Fairness Doctrine and honesty in journalism gone gone gone.

[trotsky]

6. This is a really good blurb:

So, you don’t cast a vote for president to implement policies, but to express yourself, to send a message, to jar the system. Trump is the purest distillation of this tendency.

Really hits the nail on the head, I think. That does seem to be a very common theme I've seen in Drumpf supporters. "He'll shake things up." Doesn't matter that everything he's said will harm the US or its people.

[gratuitous]

8. Don't forget a very strong motivation

Pissing off the dirty fucking hippies. Republicans, who can barely articulate what they themselves think, seem to think they know all about what animates liberals, and what liberals think and care about. They're not always 100% wrong, but they are usually quite wrong in their estimate of what's going to piss us off. Usually, their antics make us feel sorry for them or cause us to point and laugh.

Republican voters are nothing so much as the Crack Suicide Squad from the Judean People's Front in Monty Python's Life of Brian. After the nincompoops mount their devastating charge and completely ineffectual mass suicide, the Roman soldiers overseeing the crucifixions merely look at one another and shrug. On a good day, Republicans get that sort of a reaction from liberals.

Donald Trump won these idiots over in part because they heard us warning those same idiots that they were making a grievous mistake. The miscalculation wasn't that we were concerned for ourselves; no, we knew we'd be all right. Instead, they saddled their party with this out of control maniac. They did it in part by not testing him throughout the primary process: "Oh, listen to the liberals! They're soooo concerned that we're going to nominate Trump. Well, let's do it!" And so Trump won the nomination with no more trouble than Bo Jackson had with Brian Bosworth.

Now, Trump's getting the scrutiny he should have had all along. And guess what? He's not nearly as good a politician as he thought he was, and he's not ready for the arena. This race will exemplify the difference between a tyro and a seasoned veteran. Experience counts.

[trotsky]

10. Yes, great point.

They especially latch on to those false memes that supposedly display liberal hypocrisy. Like the one the racists love to push - "The Democrats are the racist party! They started the KKK!" Or mocking any liberal who has gotten rich. It's just too predictable.

+1 for the Life of Brian reference.

[Phentex]

11. That's it...

I doubt the major GOP heads really thought it would go this far. They messed up big time. You KNOW they can't stand him but only a few (like idiot Cruz) would stand up and say it. Now they are stuck with him.

[auntpurl]

14. Same reason people voted for Brexit.

Expressing vague but intense anger at "the system".

[MFM008]

7. does the pope crap in the woods?

[salin]

9. In Forbes Magazine, no less.

nice to see.

[leftyladyfrommo]

12. Short sighted, greedy, racist, misogynistic, homophobic.

That's pretty much it.

I would be really embarrassed to say I was a Republican now. It's just a whole list of really not good stuff. And no good stuff left.

[Downtown Hound]

13. The only reasont he Republican Party ever wins an election is because Republican voters are dumb.

Any smart party would have kicked them to the curb years ago.

[auntpurl]

15. Uh...yes? Is this a trick question? nt

[tinrobot]

16. Some are dumb, some angry, the rest couldn't unify.

I think the people who voted for him are a combination of dumb voters and voters who voted emotionally out of anger.

The rest are voters who supported more mainstream candidates. Unfortunately, they couldn't unify around one of the half dozen or so milquetoast alternatives.

So... perfect storm?

[whatthehey]

17. While not a universal truth, fanaticism and intellect are negatively correlated

There are plenty of very intelligent Republicans. They split their votes 16 ways (ok probably 12 or so). There are plenty of dumb Republicans. In all fairness they split their votes too. The theocrazy ones had a couple of godbotherers to choose from. The gonna-be-rich-if-gubmint-gets-off-my-back-except-for-SSDI idiots had a couple of Galtians. But the nativist bigoted trash? They only had one. They finally had one who unabashedly represented them, talked like them, said nice things about them. And when you do that you don't have supporters you have followers, fanatics, brownshirts. That's why he won, and that's why his election "strategy" is to ignore everybody else and maintain their frenzy so every blessed one of them will vote.