Actually, it may be simpler than that, John. Trump's firehose of lies and scandals all blend together into a normalized background noise that stays constant, and shortens the news cycle. It's only a couple days before we're onto the next lie/scandal. Couple this with people's shortened attention spans and fading memories, and the lies/scandals do not accumulate as you would think they should. I saw Mary Trump mention her frustration with this non-cumulative phenomenon in one of her interviews. It's only when you have a confluence of stories in the news for more than a few days, that you see Trump's ratings budge. It took the combination of increasing infections, George Floyd's murder, and ensuing protests all at the same time and being covered for weeks to have a cumulative effect that tanked Trump's approval. Now that death rates are decreasing and the George Floyd protests are 'distant' memories, we revert back to the mean of steady background noise. Hopefully this Atlantic story and subsequent confirming and follow up claims will stay in the news for a while. Malcom Gladwell's excellent "Talking to Strangers" spends a good deal on 'The Truth Default Theorem' which posits that people will always default to trusting someone until they are presented with enough evidence that they can no longer explain away. As long as Fox or Breitbart is around to sooth their doubts, they will always revert back to trusting Trump.
His floor and his ceiling are both made up almost entirely of white people who don’t believe that Black people should be accepted as full fellow-citizens.
The real question is, *are they a majority of white people?* (i needn’t point out that he won white people and ONLY white people in 2016, right?)
I think the single largest factor here is that at least a third of America lives in a parallel and fact-free universe, victims of coordinated misinformation spoon fed to them (and vast viewerships) day after day by grinning arsonists who are paid fortunes to burn down their own country. As Elizabeth Warren succinctly puts it, "hate for profit". They have no need to face unpleasant facts about corruption or COVID or anything. They just need to turn on Fox and feel comfy in their alternate reality bubble. If America does not dismantle misinformation, misinformation will dismantle America.
I would disagree with one statement. Trump is NOT a Republican president. Perhaps he is the inevitable outcome of years of Republican policies, but Trump is an un-American president...he holds no American values, he is contemptuous of the rule of law and all civil rights...he respects neither workers nor troops...he is uninterested in the fate of the country or its citizens. The real question is whether the electorate wants to retain a country because Trump's end goal is not to be an authoritarian leader...his end goal is to surpass Putin in wealth and hold unrestrained power over others. If that means selling portions of the country to China or Russia, Trump would happily do so. Many Trump supporters, including the 1%, live in the moment....where they are on the winning team, climate change is a future problem, and there are no consequences for lawlessness. They lack the ability to perceive Trump's true endgame. The worse the situation becomes, the more committed they must be, otherwise they would be forced to acknowledge the depths of their own depravity and willful ignorance. Similarly, our media continues to ignore the reality of fascism, normalizing Trump's behavior, and collectively buying into the mythology that they will somehow avoid the fate of the free press in every authoritarian state. Finally. we have the utter failure of Democratic leadership to respond to an authoritarian coup with even the smallest of speedbumps. Instead of focusing on LatinX turnout in Florida, Pelosi directed $20M to keep the ineffective and donor-beholden Rich Neal in office. There are many intersecting forces that have brought us to this point in time. I had hoped against hope that we'd see a dozen or so whistleblowers at the 11th hour, but even that frail hope has died. Early voting has started and only 2 DHS former employees have stood up. In years to come, if Trump is reelected, many will say they never expected X,Y, or Z to happen. The response is that it doesn't matter what they expected. Once the door was opened to Trumpism, everything that happens thereafter is a logical result of their actions or inactions, whether or not foreseeable. The same response given to former Nazis who 'never thought it would come to this'.
The one's I've met, including members of my own family support him because he confirms their biases. He hates the same things they do. And all of that hate is pounded into their heads on a daily basis by a vast host of online scam-artists on Youtube and Twitter.
I'm getting very tired of tr$mp and think the House should impeach him again immediately . I wonder if my ballot will ever arrive. It's said they were mailed out in NC last Friday. John, your column as usual is outstanding. Thank you.
Actually, it may be simpler than that, John. Trump's firehose of lies and scandals all blend together into a normalized background noise that stays constant, and shortens the news cycle. It's only a couple days before we're onto the next lie/scandal. Couple this with people's shortened attention spans and fading memories, and the lies/scandals do not accumulate as you would think they should. I saw Mary Trump mention her frustration with this non-cumulative phenomenon in one of her interviews. It's only when you have a confluence of stories in the news for more than a few days, that you see Trump's ratings budge. It took the combination of increasing infections, George Floyd's murder, and ensuing protests all at the same time and being covered for weeks to have a cumulative effect that tanked Trump's approval. Now that death rates are decreasing and the George Floyd protests are 'distant' memories, we revert back to the mean of steady background noise. Hopefully this Atlantic story and subsequent confirming and follow up claims will stay in the news for a while. Malcom Gladwell's excellent "Talking to Strangers" spends a good deal on 'The Truth Default Theorem' which posits that people will always default to trusting someone until they are presented with enough evidence that they can no longer explain away. As long as Fox or Breitbart is around to sooth their doubts, they will always revert back to trusting Trump.
His floor and his ceiling are both made up almost entirely of white people who don’t believe that Black people should be accepted as full fellow-citizens.
The real question is, *are they a majority of white people?* (i needn’t point out that he won white people and ONLY white people in 2016, right?)
I think the single largest factor here is that at least a third of America lives in a parallel and fact-free universe, victims of coordinated misinformation spoon fed to them (and vast viewerships) day after day by grinning arsonists who are paid fortunes to burn down their own country. As Elizabeth Warren succinctly puts it, "hate for profit". They have no need to face unpleasant facts about corruption or COVID or anything. They just need to turn on Fox and feel comfy in their alternate reality bubble. If America does not dismantle misinformation, misinformation will dismantle America.
I would disagree with one statement. Trump is NOT a Republican president. Perhaps he is the inevitable outcome of years of Republican policies, but Trump is an un-American president...he holds no American values, he is contemptuous of the rule of law and all civil rights...he respects neither workers nor troops...he is uninterested in the fate of the country or its citizens. The real question is whether the electorate wants to retain a country because Trump's end goal is not to be an authoritarian leader...his end goal is to surpass Putin in wealth and hold unrestrained power over others. If that means selling portions of the country to China or Russia, Trump would happily do so. Many Trump supporters, including the 1%, live in the moment....where they are on the winning team, climate change is a future problem, and there are no consequences for lawlessness. They lack the ability to perceive Trump's true endgame. The worse the situation becomes, the more committed they must be, otherwise they would be forced to acknowledge the depths of their own depravity and willful ignorance. Similarly, our media continues to ignore the reality of fascism, normalizing Trump's behavior, and collectively buying into the mythology that they will somehow avoid the fate of the free press in every authoritarian state. Finally. we have the utter failure of Democratic leadership to respond to an authoritarian coup with even the smallest of speedbumps. Instead of focusing on LatinX turnout in Florida, Pelosi directed $20M to keep the ineffective and donor-beholden Rich Neal in office. There are many intersecting forces that have brought us to this point in time. I had hoped against hope that we'd see a dozen or so whistleblowers at the 11th hour, but even that frail hope has died. Early voting has started and only 2 DHS former employees have stood up. In years to come, if Trump is reelected, many will say they never expected X,Y, or Z to happen. The response is that it doesn't matter what they expected. Once the door was opened to Trumpism, everything that happens thereafter is a logical result of their actions or inactions, whether or not foreseeable. The same response given to former Nazis who 'never thought it would come to this'.
The one's I've met, including members of my own family support him because he confirms their biases. He hates the same things they do. And all of that hate is pounded into their heads on a daily basis by a vast host of online scam-artists on Youtube and Twitter.
I'm getting very tired of tr$mp and think the House should impeach him again immediately . I wonder if my ballot will ever arrive. It's said they were mailed out in NC last Friday. John, your column as usual is outstanding. Thank you.