Let's All Pretend To Be Shocked That Trumpers Trust Trump More Than Anyone They Know
Or that the indictments actually make him even more appealing to them!
A poll conducted and published by CBS/YouGov this week has discovered several things about Donald Trump supporters that may be surprising to those who are not completely and totally jaded at this point. The poll showed that, despite the indictments, Trump is still number one in the hearts and minds of American conservatives. Sixty-three percent want him to be the nominee, compared to a mere 16 percent who want Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and single digit support for every other candidate.
In fact, among the more interesting findings from the poll is the fact that 73 percent of them consider all of the indictments against Trump to be a reason to vote for him.
The article accompanying the results calls this a “rallying effect,” but I’d have to imagine that it is a kind of electoral hybristophilia — something like the political version of sending your underwear to Ted Bundy or the Hillside Stranglers. The more crimes he blatantly commits, the sexier they find him.
The poll also found that Trump voters are more likely to believe that Trump is telling them the truth than they are to trust their own family members, religious leaders, and even members of the conservative media.
It actually makes complete sense, when you really think about it. In order to fully commit to Trump, in order for anything he does or says to make any kind of sense, you have to buy in pretty completely. It’s really more religion than politics for a lot of people. It’s taking that leap and believing that the things he says are not bananas that engenders that kind of loyalty.
The more extreme or bizarre a belief, the harder people commit to it and the more it becomes such an integral part of who they are that giving it up would feel like a profound loss. This is why all religions have some kind of supernatural element and the religions that inspire the most fanatical devotion require people to accept things they would otherwise find ridiculous, if not entirely appalling.
Would people who wouldn’t have accepted David Koresh telling them that they could no longer have sex with their spouse because all of the women were supposed to be having sex with him instead have been so willing to engage in a standoff against the ATF? Probably not. Would anyone have committed mass suicide for Marshall Applewhite if he hadn’t told them that the Hale-Bopp comet was coming to take them to The Evolutionary Level Above Human?
Hell, if Jesus were just a regular guy who came around and told people to be nice to each other and not lie, cheat or steal, would that have made any kind of impact? For many people it still doesn’t, but they sure do like the parts about how he’s the son of God, walking on water and resurrecting himself a few days after being crucified.
Cult comparisons are a little tired when it comes to Trump (at least in my opinion), but they are apt in this way. The more Trump asks from his voters, the more blind support he demands, the more devoted they become.
However, on the bright side, it does seem as though there are far less of them than there used to be — an Associated Press/NORC poll found that 63 percent of voters said they probably or definitely won’t vote for him in the next election.
"Wake up, Sheeple!" yell the blind followers of the stupidest Svengali.
Lyndon Baines Johnson had this to say about people who uncritically accept anything their cult leader says: "When two men agree on everything, only one of them is doing the thinking."