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Maybe, just maybe, they're political Luddites, wanting to throw a monkey wrench into the machinery of government, and Trump's their monkey.

kinda makes you wonder how the GOP will do in future elections once Trump leaves the scene

Americans love to root for the underdog, but they vote for perceived power and wealth.

You mean stupid people.

I admire candidates with law degrees who give nuanced answers. I have learned that most voters do not. Clinton, Obama won in spite of their educational backgrounds. We need to learn to flood the zone and nominate young, on-message celebrities, not Johnny or Jane Lawbooks.

fix the map: dirt don't vote. and btw, the site refused my msg...

Not sure that’s groundbreaking to the rest of us.

Non-progressive reactionaries

600 thousand border crossings into US last year Absolutely any country having an election would choose the guy that was going to theoretically stop it I know he's a racist child, of course he is, but yeah, people don't want refugees flooding in Biden reduced the number, but the racist guy won

Cambridge Analytica was just the proof of concept.

I rarely admit that I watched the first few seasons of The Apprentice, but I recall that one contestant from (I think) the second season was a deeply unwell trump sycophant, and I think about him every time someone wonders what the attraction to Trump *is*.

Low-info, low-propensity voters...

intersectionality but for stupid

He is the mythical candidate who pulls off identity politics but for stupid people.

It's not mystical. He says stuff they like. He watches Fox and then repeats the talking points. I'm saying this because there can be another trump. Could be someone we already know about or someone we've never heard of. If we believe it all ends with him, we'll just get complacent again.

He fulfills their belief of “I could run things better than the politicians” because for every horrible thing Trump is, politician ain’t one. They are living their best “you think you’re better than me?” lives vicariously through this idiot

I hope America will become less sexist someday, but it ain’t gonna happen by 2028.

Sadly, I believe you are right.

Trump kills with lead poisoned Americans.

like moths to a flame

It’s one reason to think this isn’t replicable is that there’s no other politician who had 30 years of ubiquitous “this guy represents wealth and success” pop culture going into a campaign. Closest comparisons are all either billionaires or pro athletes

Not a mystery, really. The combo of star power and the poor man's idea of a rich man enchants low-info, low-propensity types every time. Along, of course, with persistent xenophobia.

Then, there is Gen Z and the alphas, who have nothing nice to say about him.

I think Trump is a return to the political methods of the 30s and 40s--before TV. With a fragmented, robber baron-led comms landscape and the death of mainstream news, we're much closer to that era than we are to the 60s and 70s.

Others can do some of this: unambiguous, declarative statements that you will do X that will benefit people. "I will keep you safe." "I will stop inflation." Not "I will summon a commission to examine the possibility of..." Trump does not demand policy knowledge--he just says he'll make it better.

📌

There's a long history of the airwaves trending to RWNJ shows that continues to this day. This excellent podcast from @onthemedia.bsky.social delves into it. www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...

I mean, it's not rocket science. Dems need to learn to go to where folks really are (irl & online) and engage with them in a language and demeanor they get. I'm teaching a class on podcasting politics rn and our finding over and over is "be authentic"-not a sterile, CNN-friendly robot of yourself.

You could also say that these people just want change and aren't picky about how it comes. Look at the data, these are low-propensity voters, people without strong political ideology. Of course they were going to vote for the anti-establishment guy who promised them lies over "but the GDP went up"

Low-info voters are strongly anchored to his decades-old fake persona of "successful businessman" that his opponents can't crack.

Don’t know about Latinos but the problem in rural America, as far as I can tell, is Dem voters. Not the politicians, the voters. Listen to how Democrats who live in urban areas talk about people in rural areas & then realize that those voters are the only constant exposure to Dems most rurals get

But also a lot of those Latinos were happily punching down at immigrants who "didn't wait their turn" and never imagined that Trump would use his power against them as soon as possible

From my perspective, the evangelicals have embraced the Latinos. The same evangelicals firmly believe that he is a praying man.

while it's tempting to grab people by the lapels and scream YOU FUCKING MORONS at them, it's more ignorance than malice I think. and that is downstream of a completely fucked info environment (and yes, some extremely poor personal choices)

Huge gains? He still lost the Hispanic vote to V.P. Harris. He added both a small portion of black and Hispanic voters as to his white base. It was a small coalition that won by 1.5% in a low turn out election. 6M who voted for Biden-Harris in 2020 did not vote in 2024.

But did they actually hear it? I’m betting that the only thing they were allowed to hear was that Trump wanted to deport criminals. That Trump thought all Latinos were criminals probably got filtered out of whatever news these Latino voters consumed.

Do you place any merit in the premise that young Latinos want to be and see themselves as assimilated into our society and don’t want to stick out/be different from whites??

This directly refutes your previous comment about Sanders, his whole point is you need to actually have a consistent message of positive change which the Dems refuse to do because they don't want any change

I know some folks that went there. I don't know where they were getting their info, but it was like they were locked in a spell. We'd try to reason with them, but they were completely unable to see things otherwise at the time.

Who else were the gonna vote for when the Dems spent 23 and 24 trying to pass Trump's immigration plans. No alternative plan was presented

It is deeply intertwined with net culture: All the Bad Info is Subsidized (usually by grift)

if only people would listen to anyone on the ground in Texas

This one is really hard to understand. Trump somehow convinced people he wanted to deport people but not people like them. Many people really seemed to believe that impulsive Trump was going to go through records with a fine tooth comb and only deport “bad” people.

I mean, Dems pretty much jumped on the “deport all Latinos” bandwagon, too. Let’s not forget that they have been trying to position themselves as GOP lite for a few years now. That’s not to say they aren’t a billion times better on almost every issue than the GOP,…

Wasn't there a big conservative push in spanish language social media personalities? It seems like Dem strategists neglected it entirely. For example - disa.org/pervasive-sp...

I knew the campaign was doomed when they put all their chips on "we will mobilize the youth". They ended up getting like a 3% bump in under-25s. Young people (of all races) disproportionately supported him, but that's just not who votes in primaries.

Exactly- there’s this persistent assumption that all low propensity voters are liberal. They are not. Trump is able to motivate low-propensity conservative voters. That’s the group he can mobilize.

When have they been offered social democracy in the Presidential general election? 1936?

They believe promises to hurt people different from them is more likely to occur than promises to help people like them. It’s a version of the bird in hand effect.

People are overcorrecting into the idea that the non voters are all Republicans, when really it's not that clear who benefits from turnout. Probably it depends

Not denying successful propaganda from the right against social democracy, just listen to any cab driver complain about a lazy acquaintance on welfare. But 1. democrats barely make the case for it 2. Biden cover ups, scolding/gaslighting on economy are not merely media environment issues

being willing/able to frame issues in terms of justice, which bernie is able to do, would go a long way to achieving some mysticism. it certainly seems like a natural lane for pols on the libleft and yet most dems are allergic to anything but technocratic messaging.

LOTS of those Latinos are watching family members snatched off the streets& disappeared. I'm in FL,& tbh have NO sympathy for the same Latino MAGAT voting block that watched with glee Mexican & other babies WERE SNATCHED🤬 But oh NO! THAT LEOPARD CAN'T BE ATTACKING VENEZUELAN AND CUBANS FACES NOW😱

So 13 points the way Catalist reports it. Is that massive? College - non college margin gap is 11, white - Latino difference in Democratic share is 12 (Catalist doesn't give the margin)

Conservatives have been successfully recruiting and radicalizing men. The trend is similar among black and AAPI voters. This isn’t specific to latinos. And the dem response has been to lurch right.

Would be nice if some outlet would investigate whether any regret or at soul searching has transpired among these latino bros after watching people like them (except poorer and non americanized) get renditioned. My guess actually is no

In my neck of the woods (rural South Georgia) I’ll stick with my assessment.

I know no one wants to hear this, it's so baked into our society we don't even think about it: it's because he's a celebrity. Being on TV is a WHOLE other level of status in this country. People inherently like you, people inherently trust you. And famous people win elections, plain and simple.

The WWE president.

Trump has a near mystical attraction....its called racism. Why do people try to make the easy so complicated.

And he had the twitter data to help him segment the voters and taylor messages to those segments. It also provided him with real time feedback on those messages. He could then use the messages that had appeal in elsewhere on the campaign trail and in tv ads

Remember when he cast an Obama lookalike to play Satan in a Bible miniseries?

I've never forgiven that asshole.

Flipping Michigan would have left Harris with a slightly smaller decisive loss in the Electoral College.

Especially when they are nonwhite, nonchristian, or both.

looks like white status (including among POC who stand to benefit from getting some grant of white status by virtue of job (cop), marriage (to white person), community acceptance (church) etc) # @isabelwilkerson.bsky.social www.instagram.com/isabelwilker...

That’s what many of us mean when we call it a cult.

Dum dums go vote

In other words, ignorant fools.

I don't think that's the correct takeaway because it wasn't a grip he had in 2016 and 2020. It was the inflation!

All part of an engineered op, born from a partnership btwn Steve Bannon & Milo Yiannopoulos to wage psychological warfare by preying on a generation of young men to manipulate them into carrying the torch for the racist, misogynistic power brokers who've dominated the white, male GOP forever.

I don't even think that stuff is breaking through. They think he's a funny guy, a walking, talking middle finger to The System, and they think he's a brilliant businessman who will magically reward them and punish their enemies.

I love "dipshit demographic!" That is a perfect way to describe tRUMP supporters.

They've realized it's all vibes. Simple, anger inducing, negative messaging resonates. They have recognized that is the way to create the vibes they need to attract these types of votes.

especially since it doesn't seem to transfer to other mouth pieces like desantis etc. spewing the same garbage.

"I love the poorly educated!"

“First they fascinate the fools, then they muzzle the intelligent” -Bertrand Russell

It was a reckless, dangerous show at the time. Some of us felt that at only a glimpse of its content. Reality TV is a historic decline in entertainment with roots in the “talk show” era.

I’d assume part of the issue is that culturally Trump was synonymous with wealth for a long long time before he entered politics

"Don't vote for the fascist party" is inspiring enough for me. Democrats whinged? You ever heard a Republican? That's all they've done for the entirety of my sixty-four years. Even now, after they've won an election, they're still whinging.

Some people are even immune to information.

I have a theory that a lot of Trump's success is due to celebrity and having been in the cultural zeitgeist for so long.

they're evil basically. it's like Peter Thiel naming his company "Palantir," he sees Sauron torturing people and goes "I like that, I want to do that myself"

They view marginalized communities as a threat and for that reason it is justified doing anything to keep them down.

Really? You are an adult and you don't understand how people can blame marginalized groups for causing problems? That is basically all of human history.

Women and Black people as his opponent represented.

It’s important to study Hugo Chavez to understand trump

Because he’s one of them. Representation matters.

Ya think? Duh!

The world looks on in awe of what America has done to her people.

Trump's strong point (I wouldn't call it a virtue) is his sheer relentlessness! That can work with inattentive voters and weak opponents...

predisposition for racism and punching down in general. someone is taking something away from ME - that's their motivation - nothing else

The combination of the fractured media environment, the oversized influence of right wing podcasters, and the challenge of running against a candidate who lies constantly is going to be hard to overcome.

Given the press, of course he does

medium.com/illumination...

The fact that the UK is also rapidly sliding to the right makes me think “feeling global hegemony slip away through their fingers” is a huge motivator for fascism, which very explicitly promises a return to greatness.

Interesting, the countries avoiding the slide