They know Trump is a liar. They know he may go to jail. But they’re voting for him anyway.
By Mark Sumner for Daily Kos
Daily Kos Staff
REPUBLISHED BY:
Anyone watching a Donald Trump rally knows that some portion of his supporters consist of true believers. The ones who think he was sent by God. The ones who think he’s here to stop the child-eating, pizza-parlor-dwelling lizardmen. The ones who are just itching to slip into their great-grandpappy’s Confederate grays.
But another kind of Trump supporter may be the most numerous. They know Trump is a liar, that he lost the 2020 election, and that many of his ideas are bad. They support him because they’re just tired and disappointed with their lives. They believe Trump will change things. They really don’t care how.
In past cycles, some of these voters talked vaguely about “economic anxiety.” But this time around, they seem even less focused. They don’t know what’s wrong, and they don’t know how to fix it. They know only that they want things to be different. Even if, for some, that means burning it all down.
One of those voters, an Army vet interviewed by Politico, is absolutely aware of what he will get from Trump.
“Our system needs to be broken,” he wrote to the reporter, “and [Trump] is the man to do it.”
This isn’t someone who thinks all Americans are behind Trump, or that Trump will heal the nation’s divides, or that Trump even has some policy that will help him personally. He’s looking for the opposite of all that. He’s looking for damage. He’s looking for people to hurt.
“He breaks the system,” he said, “he exposes the deep state, and it’s going to be a miserable four years for everybody.”“For everybody?” I said.
“Everybody.”
And then? There is no “and then.” No happily ever after. This voter expects Trump to take the country and “pull it apart.” That’s the goal, and he’ll vote for that.
Other Trump supporters, like those interviewed by CNN recently, aren’t as explicit. They know Trump is a liar. They know he may go to jail. But they’re voting for him anyway.
One man whom CNN spoke with calls Trump “ignorant and rude.” Then he explains how he put a Trump flag on his house even though it made his wife angry. When she told him he was “ruining Christmas” and took the flag down, he put it back up.
Another woman admits that Biden won the 2020 election, then says she’s not a fan of Biden because he’s “been caught in a lot of lies.” The incongruity of these statements doesn’t seem to bother her. She explains that it’s okay for Trump to lie because “I don’t like politicians” and she doesn’t believe Trump is a politician. “I don’t think he plays the game.” So lying, including trying to remain in office after losing the 2020 election, is okay—so long as it’s Trump.
One man is asked about Trump’s theft of classified documents and the possibility he will go to jail. “Then he goes to jail,” the man says, with a shrug. “And I guess he won’t be president.” But until then, this man is voting for Trump because “he is definitely different.” He goes on to admit that Trump comes with a lot of drama but says that doesn’t bother him, either.
“No, because we have other branches of government that deal with it,” he says. “They can keep him in line. He can’t have everything he wants.”
This man and another blue-collar worker go on to defend the idea of Trump giving a tax cut not to them but to their bosses. “If you hit [the bosses] harder with taxes, that takes away from me,” says one of the men.
This belief in trickle-down economics—even as CEO salaries have skyrocketed, unions have been destroyed, and productivity increases have not been matched by salaries—is the central conundrum that Democrats have faced for decades. Despite all the evidence, people still believe in the debunked theory. Giving a tax break to their bosses is the only specific policy named by any of these voters other than a generic “close the border.” They don’t see Trump having awarded a massive tax break to the wealthy as a bad thing. They want more of that.
What all these stories have in common is that they center on people who have only the vaguest idea of what Trump might do for them. He’ll “work on the economy,” they say, or “help fishermen.” But none of those interviewed seemed concerned about the details. And yet the details are unfortunately what will hurt them—and everyone else—the most. After all, Trump is telling us exactly what he will do, including how he will prevent those other branches of government from impeding his quest for absolute power.
In the end, the voter who voiced his desire to destroy the nation and generate misery for everyone seems to be the only one who knows what he wants—and what he would get from Trump.
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