Yeah that's important, that it didn't start with Trump or his supporters 4 years ago. I don't know, we can judge people many different ways and against many different standards. I do try to understand why people choose as they do, even if I can't really comprehend what they think they're getting out of it. I don't want to write them off as simpletons whose concerns don't matter.
I know many Trump supporters on a personal basis. Some are even family members. It's just a fact of life living in a rural area. I do not know them to be especially racist, amoral, childish, etc. They prefer Trump because of the usual bland vagaries that people support any candidate for, including Biden. Bring jobs back to america. Improve the economy. Stop such and such regulations. Repeal ACA. Get tough with china. Sure beats voting for the other guy. It's just talk. It's fucking football or the weather. They weren't looking to preserve white power or tip over the whole table. That describes 80% of his supporters. And also that describes both parties but with different issues. People don't have these big ideological reasons for why they vote. It would never cross their minds to go to rallies or marching or hassling BLM.
I can't say they're doing anything more childish or moronic than anybody does when they vote for a president in this country, expecting that showing up one day in November every four years will result in a sort of legal autopilot. It's all smug, self satisfied groupthink when your guy gets in. Doom and apocalyptic darkness when your guy doesn't. That's normal, unfortunately. In a relative, baseline sense, they're normal. Our situation is such that we're subjected to a "might makes right" style democracy, and a republic that insulates the politicians from "king mob". That's where the wild swings and overreaction comes from - everybody feels under threat at all times from normal people, even if it's mostly imaginary and those normal people were put up to doing this at great effort and expense by the assholes we've elected, each promising to protect us from our normal boogeymen neighbors. Politicians benefit. Media benefits. Regular people hate each other. So that's cool.
This whole thing is a shitshow on so many levels it's hard to see what's even happening or who is responsible. But just like we wouldn't blame a bank failure on a teller not being friendly enough, it's hard for me to blame little people for making the wrong choices when there weren't any right ones. This is a non-partisan system level issue at the top, not the bottom. What we see today is the result, not the cause. It's a bad tree, not bad apples.
Now, why they didn't drop their support while he ramped up his stupidity and twitter antics? Because it further reinforces the idea that he's not professional, not polished, not marketable, not the least bit reasonable, not a politician. So it's like they chose to have a little break from the normal system. Like having a substitute teacher for four years. What we can really learn from this is that a large number of people, given any option but those 20 candidates in the primaries, said "anything but these people." Maybe childish and irresponsible? It's hard to say. It's less a reflection of the players being bad, but the game being so bad it wasn't worth preserving. This problem long predates Trump. I can't really say they don't have their kernel of truth. I just think it's better to try to understand where they're coming from instead of writing them off, because then we learn nothing.
Also I kind of disagree that this is truly a coup attempt in any meaningful way because some dude going paramilitary cosplay is not the same as overthrowing the government. The breach is surely embarrassing, but A. that city is a zoo on its best day, B. the military and police presence is not going to have a serious problem with this. They have literally zero chance of success. This is not a military takeover or a CIA plot. We can call it a coup, but it's a gigantic exaggeration. I see lightly armed bearded people. The dogs who caught the car with no idea what to do with it.
I'm gonna go play Stardew Valley for a bit.
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