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Members of Donald Trump’s inner circle understandably want to interpret the election results as a prescription for extreme right-wing policies. This includes mass deportations. and crush their political enemies.
But how many Trump supporters think that’s what they voted for?
Many people don’t seem to deny it. It is not only Trump’s negative qualities and the extreme views of his advisers. But also the idea that they will implement policies they don’t agree with. daily worker This seems to think that mass deportations will happen only to people they consider to be criminals. Compared to people like Trump adviser Stephen Miller. There is a restaurant owner and a former asylum seeker. Who told CNN? Deportation of law-abiding workers “It would be unfair” and Trump would not “throw (them) out. They didn’t fire[them].” They are not deporting people who value family.” Trump voters supporting alternatives who do not believe he would impose drastic federal restrictions on abortion. Voters who supported the Affordable Care Act, however Pull the lever for the party who wishes to cancel.–
This denial suggests that voting for Trump is not an endorsement of those things. Instead, it was a rebuke of the incumbent party for what voters saw as a sluggish economy. The main consistent points here are: Trump’s advisers have a very clear authoritarian and discriminatory agenda. It’s an agenda that many Trump voters don’t believe exists. Or as harmless to them as there is, that’s amazing, alluring, and terrifying. But it’s not an order.
During the last week of the campaign When I traveled to the South to talk to Trump voters. I’ve found that there’s a tendency to deny easily verifiable negative facts about Trump. For example, one Trump voter I spoke with asked me why Democrats “Call Trump Hitler” The reason is that one of Trump’s former chief of staff Retired Marine general John Kelly told a story about Trump wanting He called it “the kind of general that Hitler had” and said that “Hitler did some good things”.
“Let’s look back at the history of Donald Trump, who they tried to call racist,” said one Georgia voter named Steve. who refused to give me his last name. “If you ask someone, ‘What did he say that was really racist?’ Usually they can’t think of a single thing. They will say everything And it was like, ‘No, what?’ Just because the media says he’s racist doesn’t mean he’s racist.”
I find this extraordinary because the list of racist things Trump has said and done in the past year alone is long. Including slandering Haitian immigrants and slandered his former opponent, Kamala Harris, as a DEI employee who pretended to be black. He expressed his opinion about immigrants. “Poisoning the blood of the nation” And there are “bad genes,” which are a loose proxy for race. Trump’s rise to the top of the Republican Party began when he became a key champion of the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama wasn’t actually born in America.
This is consistent with Trump voters ignoring or ignoring facts about Trump that they don’t like. Democratic pollsters say new republicGreg Sargent “Voters did not hold Trump accountable for appointing overturned Supreme Court justices.” Ro v. LuiThis is something Trump openly boasted about during the campaign,” Sargent added. “Undecided voters don’t believe that major events will happen. That happened during Trump’s presidency. Even if they view these things in a negative way. It’s his fault.” North Carolina Trump voter named Charlie Who didn’t tell me his last name. Told me he was annoyed with the price of gas. That compares to the lowest prices when he hit the road in the final year of Trump’s first election term. That year, energy prices unexpectedly plummeted due to the pandemic.
Many Trump voters appear to be simply rationalizing negative stories about him. which was created by unreliable media trying to understand him. This points to the effectiveness of right-wing media not only in presenting a positive image of Trump. but also in suppressing negative stories that might change his perception. And because these measures helped prevent many of the worst-case scenarios during Trump’s first term, Democrats may therefore be victims of their own success. Many may be inclined to view warnings of what might happen as exaggerated. Instead, it’s a real possibility that could still happen.
Watching Trump “change from someone who is loved in circles to someone who everyone knows about.” It’s extremely hateful…in the media it’s complete. I don’t understand at all. It doesn’t make any sense to me,” another Georgia Trump voter, who declined to give his name, told me. “And in general Things that don’t make sense are solved with the simplest answers.”
This speaks to the dynamic of Trump’s victory: Many people who voted for him believe he will do only the things they think are good (such as improving the economy) and none of the things they think are bad. (such as acting as a dictator )—or if he did those terrible things. Others will be burdened, not them. This is the problem with political movements rooted in deception and denial. Your own supporters may not like it when you do the things you really want to do.
All of this might be questionable if Trump succeeds in pursuing an authoritarian regime that is not accountable to voters—in many liberal governments. The election continues but has not yet been contested. By design, if his voters are allowed to do so. Some may change their minds once they realize Trump’s true intentions. However, election results suggest that If the economy remains strong For the majority of voters Democracy may only be an afterthought.
