"There were literally thousands of 'regular folks' who just want a better America."
Political commentary often distinguishes between people who merely vote for Republicans and people who are deep into MAGA.
MAGA people are generally understood to be people deep in their own information silos. MAGA people don't just accept Trump, they are thrilled by him. They support his efforts to stay in office. His enemies are their enemies: Democrats, RINOS, academic and financial elites, career public officials, the Deep State, globalists, and China. They perceive Trump as a victim of vicious slanders by women and Democrats. Many believe Trump was sent here by God. They constitute the activist core of the current GOP.
The Republican Party is a divided mix. It includes the MAGA segment along with the regular and habitual voters who had happily voted for Bush, McCain, another Bush, Romney, Ryan, McConnell, and both Dick and Liz Cheney. Now Trump and MAGA Republicans consider those old-school leaders to be disloyal turncoat RINOs. Nearly all regular Republicans are go along with the MAGA group. MAGA is where the energy is. I describe the old school group to be mumblers. They don't agree but they don't openly disagree either. They consider themselves bystanders to the crazy, not part of the crazy.
Biden is trying to appeal to the old-school mumblers. He realizes that the MAGA group is utterly out of reach. Why just look at them, with their "Let's Go Brandon" shirts and their "F---You" bumper strips, and signs and buttons calling Kamala Harris a "HO." Surely, those people are an embarrassment to educated Rotarian-Chamber of Commerce-type Republican voters.
A Trump supporter near me in the line for the Trump rally wrote to object to an implication that Trump supporters are rude, flamboyant know-nothings. We are skeptical, not rude and ignorant, he told me. We are reasonable, informed, and broad minded about our sources of information, which is why we go beyond the Mainstream Media.
My correspondent says I must not use his name, and to call him 603Deplorable. I would characterize him as a normally-dressed, normally-groomed, man in late middle age.
Guest Post from 603Deplorable
It was nice to meet you at the Trump rally last Thursday. I stood in line with you for about 20 minutes.
I read with interest your account and was looking for an acknowledgement that the crowd was overwhelmingly made up of normal regular everyday types who work hard and believe in traditional American values. You asked my friend and me for our points of view on current issues and I think you got reasoned responses from us. I didn't see that kind of reporting relayed to your readers. After browsing through the comments, I see the bulk of your readers think we are part of a cult, brainwashed dopes who blindly follow Trump because we lack the ability to see the truth.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm guessing your readers follow MSM [Mainstream News] news religiously and blindly believe everything they report. When you asked me where do I get my news, I honestly told you I don't get it from MSM and haven't for a couple of years. Once I un-coupled from those platforms, the truth about events became clearer and clearer.A perfect example of this is what you experienced attending the rally. Where the big news groups highlighted the flamboyant Ms Olson, there were literally thousands of "regular" folks there who just want a better America.
If you're honest, you'll agree. MSM doesn't show that, but if you tap into free platforms, you'll see examples of such clear thinking patriots who are banned for daring to comment against the approved narrative.We here in New Hampshire have a unique opportunity to see national candidates up close because of our first-in- the-nation primary status. We get to see them in small venues where we can interact directly with them -- look them directly in the eyes and observe their body language as they answer our questions. I saw Mr. Trump eight years ago in Henniker when he was doing town halls, and after I talked with you last Thursday, my wife and I went to see Nikki Haley in the same room. I've done this for years and can tell you that what we hear and see in person is very different than what the MSM puts out on the airwaves. I learned to not trust them a long time ago.And I'll leave with this parting thought - just because a majority of people believe a narrative does not mean it is true. Not too long ago a vast majority would have never believed the CIA was complicit in the assassination of JFK but now that the records have been declassified, we know it to be so.
33 comments:
Thanks to this blog I now know the CIA was complicit in JFK being killed. As a consumer of the dreadful lie filled mainstream news, I didn’t know that. Those MAGA folks really are well informed. I’m probably wrong in thinking Trump is a rapist, liar, cheat, despicable human being as well.
Perhaps Ultra MAGA is simply dumb white trash with a big megaphone, which is social media.
They might be "nice enough" to your face, but they are transfixed (right word?) by a morally, ethically and legally corrupt "leader."
Sorry sir, but this is how cults work. And the people inside the cult DON'T SEE IT.
Ginni Thomas has spoken publicly about being in a cult years ago. Now she is in another one. Some people, sadly, are vulnerable to and attracted to cult leaders. Such as the people who hand over millions of dollars year after year to cult televangelists.
We shall overcome.
Yeah, New Hampshire. This the regular routine of Old White Guys picking our next presidential candidates? To me, that's what's deplorable.
For four years we listened to Trump lie to us every day, sometimes about things that didn’t matter (the inauguration crowd size) and sometimes about things that mattered a lot (Russian election meddling). We watched as he alienated our allies and praised ruthless dictators like Putin, Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping. His hateful rhetoric spurred a spike in hate crimes. We’re still reeling from his mishandling of the pandemic. Then he tried to overthrow the government.
Nonetheless, his supporters see themselves as “normal regular everyday types who work hard and believe in traditional American values.” And by the way, the CIA assassinated Kennedy.
Excuse me if I snort in derision.
Most comments, once again, pile on to condemn the Guest post writer as deplorable. The joke is on you, as he takes on that label as a matter of pride supporting his independent thinking. To both sides: I would trust you more if you didn’t always believe what you think.
Maybe paranoia should be reclassified as a communicable disease. It is a mental illness and it is my understanding that it is more prevalent among older adults. It is also prevalent among people who smoke dope.
There is a difference between critical thinking and paranoia.
I have no way of proving it,but I strongly suspect that in 1935, today's Guest Opinion writer would have been a "Good German", just wanting a better life, and remaining blind to his Jewish neighbors being stuffed into Cattle cars.
The overwhelmingly liberal bias of the main streammedia has been blatantly obvious to anyone whose eyes are open for decades. Look at their coverage of Trump, starting in 2015: the Steele dossier was totally false; the Russian collusion story collapsed with the release of the Mueller report; their coverage just dripped with scorn and contempt and juvenile snark. They collectively suffered from what can be appropriately described as Trump Derangement Syndrome.
It’s no wonder that anyone who isn’t a liberal would come to distrust what they see in the mainstream media. Unfortunately, some of those people ended up listening to equally biased media from the other side. But there are balanced alternatives like RealClearPolitics.
Bingo
This guest commenter wants a "better America" for himself and people just like him:
More guns, more government control of uteruses and businesses, and more government corruption.
The rest if us can get $crewed, right?
Does this guest commenter realize conservative corporations own US media?
He stands with Fox, I guess.
As a born and bred 603 and now a 541 I find the guest colunist as smooth as Tony Robbins, Jim Jones, Father Collins, any of the manifest authoritarian leaders and demogogues throughout history unto this day and those yet to emerge, hiding the real agenda as he proclaims an amorphous wish
for a "Better America" whatever that may be in their mind. I suppose it includes political Party loyalty and obstinacy, a reinforcement of white male supremacy, risking the historical trust in America's word, appointment of three of the most corrupt Supremes ever revealed, a removal , or suppression of constitutional rights they oppose and fealty unto death those passages or excerpts that support their vague unspoken details of a Better Amerika.
I believe it’s essential to know your opponents and the opposition's opinions. Thank you, thank you, Peter.
There is no persuading these people. They've done "their own research." I would like to see more people talk about the journalistic standards employed by the MSM. Don't people remember "All the President's Men," when Woodward and Bernstein were told they needed at least two sources with firsthand knowledge before they could print something? Do people not understand that every mainstream newspaper has fact checkers? When they get it wrong, legitimate sources write a correction. When Trump, Greene or Newsmax get it wrong, they double down.
In the alternate universe of the internet and the dark web, any Russian bot, conspiracy theorist, or just plain old "normal" citizen can write whatever they want, believe whatever they want, and believe only those things that confirm their other beliefs. They will have willing consumers of their nonsense. The person who wrote today's submission no doubt believes I'm the one that's brainwashed. There is no way out of this feedback loop.
Here's one example. I'm a Twitter user and have been told over and over by multiple anti-vaxxers (always MAGA people) that I will be dead in a year because I got "the jab." The first time was at least two years ago. When millions of people don't drop dead, what will be the next crazy thing they believe? It's hopeless. They'll come up with some other crazy notion, like we're all magnetic or sterile or some such thing. If they can't see how ridiculous this is, they're beyond help.
The Mueller Report did not exonerate Trump, notwithstanding GOP assertions to the contrary. It said there was widespread contact between the Trump campaign and Russians, and that there was clear obstruction of justice. It said that the Trump connection to the Russians was not criminal, not that it wasn't present. It also said that the obstruction of justice could not be prosecuted because under the unitary-executive concept of the Executive Branch, a president cannot be prosecuted while in office.
I agree that the mainstream media is harsh on Trump. He has given them plenty to be harsh about.
Peter Sage
It’s true, the mainstream media dutifully reported Trump’s words and behavior, which reveal him to be an ignoranus. As further proof of the MSM's liberal bias, they report issues like climate change and the effectiveness of vaccines, without giving equal weight to “alternative facts.”
On the other hand, maybe it’s reality that has the liberal bias.
Hmmmm...603Deplorable didn't condemn anyone on the Left, or call them names, or disparage their character. Yet, all of the responses, mostly liberal as far as I can tell, did exactly that. If we're judging by the content of one's character, I'd say 603Deplorable wins.
What the Mueller report did not do was provide anything close to a smoking gun with regard to what the mainstream media kept calling “collusion”. Yeah, they found other, much less striking things, but it didn’t exactly turn into Watergate, like all of the liberal talking heads were saying it would.
The report came out, and the next day all of the coverage stopped dead in its tracks. The Mueller report was, in its political effect, a nothingburger.
2015: We got him now.
2016: We got him now.
2017: We got him now.
2018: We got him now.
2019: We got him now.
2020: We got him now.
2021: We got him now.
2022: We got him now.
2023: ?
That's because he didn't need to. 603Deplorable's support for Trump is an implicit condemnation of brown skinned folks, women, Muslims, and LGBT people just to name a few. Basically anyone who isn't a white christian male is not a "real American" in the eyes of MAGA. Support for Trump equates to a giant middle finger to literally everyone who doesn't fit that narrow mold.
On a different note, one of the most remarkable things that Trump achieved was to convince people like 603Deplorable that he is on the side of working class people. He's a self proclaimed "billionaire" (he's definitely fabulously wealthy if not maybe a true billionaire) who has never given one iota of a microscopic shit about anything other than enriching himself and truly giving zero shits about how many people he's screwed over along the way. For the life of me I'll never understand how Donald Trump, of all people, was able to successfully con so many working class folks in this regard.
Woke Guy,
Trump was able to “con“ working class folks because, unlike liberal cultural elites, he does not look down his nose at them; he does not project contempt and scorn at them; he does not call them “deplorables” or “bitter clingers”; he does not irresponsibly and unjustifiably fling the word “racism“ around at those who disagree.
Whatever, if anything, Trump may feel towards the working class, he projects support for and resonance with them. He projects that he is one of them, culturally. He projects attitudes towards woke ideology that match theirs. His pronouns are “fuck you”.
It’s not a con. Trump surfed a rising wave of backlash against wokeness right into the White House. He might do it again if the woke don’t wake up to what the normies in this country think of them and their ideology.
I would actually not like to see Trump become president again. He’s too narcissistic, irresponsible, and incompetent. But wokeness might get him there regardless of my wishes.
It's pretty incredible that people who imagine themselves to be rational continue making excuses for Trump and his supporters. We even have an anonymous commenter passing judgment on the character of others and accusing us of name-calling. Not True. We were pointing out the obvious. For a reminder of what name-calling is, he need look no further than the picture of the button display in Peter's first picture.
Thank you for publishing this piece Peter and to 603 for taking the time to write.
I have three serious questions for the author. The first applies to any of us with a stated worldview:
1. What would it take for you to imagine the possibility that you have been deceived, and what measures have you taken or would you be willing to take to challenge your logic and test whether you have been drawn into a personality cult? What's your moral "anchor"?
2. Describe your vision of a "Better America" -by which I assume you mean fair, just, safe, peaceful, and prosperous for everyone.
3. What personal character traits do you see in Trump that you have decided makes him a model of a virtuous, wise and effective leader? Please comment how these jive with his open contempt for virtues that are held sacred by most global religions, and traditional moral values even in secular societies (e.g. humility, integrity, kindness, faithfulness selflessness and generosity)
Projecting support for a group of people that you don't actually support in order to gain their votes is almost the definition of a "con" in the political context. In regards to the relative economic status of many Trump supporters this is certainly true. The list of people who have worked for Trump and then not been paid, or sued by Trump for one "failure" or another, or screwed over in some other way is extraordinarily long. Another amazing thing about Trump is the fact that literally anyone is willing to work for him at all given the sordid history.
I'm guessing ole Don is paying alot of money up-front these days for any work he's getting done on a property. Unless of course it's someone who thinks that by working for him pro bono is gonna get them some kind of favor from The Big Boss in the future. It's all very wannabe mafia style, and with a similar level of disregard toward the low level lackeys (603Depolorable in this case) that is a characteristic hallmark of mafia bosses, and those who fancy themselves one, aka The Donald.
All that being said, I do agree with you Mr. Trigoboff that Trump does share a cultural connection with his followers. At the risk of sounding woke, it's remarkably easy for small-minded folks to gather together in a like minded band of deplorable these days thanks to the great connective force of our times: the internet.
Seriously (I swear I'm not making this up) the Fox New comment forums are chalk-full of "beer" enthusiasts who are deeply offended by the fact that their piss-water "beer" made a one-off can for a trans TikTokker they'd never heard of until 2 weeks ago thanks to the actually and legitimately insane Right Wing Media Echo Chamber!
OMG BUD LIGHT IS BEING DRANK BY A TRANS PERSON! #IamFreakingOutNow
That, Mr. Trigoboff, is the sort of folks who are glad-handing with Mr. Trump. Fortunately for all our sakes, the side of woke seems to still outnumber the side of Trump so conversations like this get to still happen.
Peter Sage's Trump lady he met thinks Pence should've been executed for "crimes against Trump" and she isn't alone in that line of thinking by a long shot.
Mr. Trigoboff, you're obviously a well educated if not smart person... time to come out and join us on the anti-Trump team, or pave your road to Trump's fascist hell with all your good intentions.
Woke Guy,
Your derogatory comments about (some of) Trump’s supporters show that you have named yourself well. I could make similar comments about the far left idiot fringe.
Ron DeSantis, who has made a point of being anti-woke, won his last governor’s election by 20%. We will see how popular wokeness turns out to be in 2024.
I have set a number of times that I do not want Trump to be president again. But I will never join the woke team.
Come on Michael join us! You have no idea how much fun it is to laugh at the crocodile tears of the racists and Nazis we've just canceled while sipping Bud Lights at a drag show. You might just really like it, ya never know till you try!
That's right, Woke Guy. As the unwoke see it, Ron DeSantis is tackling the single biggest threat to the American way of life: Mickey Mouse.
You know something's happening,
But you don't know what it is,
Do you, Mr. Woke?
I'd to click the link, but it doesn't work for me :-(
Maybe I'm too much of a special snowflake to see it?
@Mike: that's right! Mackey Mouse is grooming children! I wish I was making it up that there's a cohort of people who literally believe that to be true.
Blowing the lid off who killed JFK…..you’d think that would make news somewhere. Thanks to your ‘new’ colleague who just reinforced everything I think about maga’morons.
Woke Guy,
I checked around, and the link works for a number of different people. Maybe you could try it on a different device? Or in a different browser?
Mickey Mouse might be more of a threat than you think… 😀
I think Donald Duck is a greater threat - he doesn't even wear pants! But if Michael says Mickey, it must be true.
Ducks are actually quite a threat — to each other.
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