How did Donald trump become a serious candidate for President?

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Most people I know who complain about "political correctness" are responding to criticism of their use of racial slurs, sexist remarks, etc. As far as Im concerned they can stay on the right.

Most people I know who complain about "political correctness" are responding to being told they are guilty of the actions of people they never met and are long dead. They are responding to being told they have privilege when they are actually barely hanging on from paycheck to paycheck. They are responding to being called inherently racist by implication based on their own skin color and inherently sexist by implication based on their gender.

 

[laughing dog]

Most people I know who complain about "political correctness" are responding to criticism of their use of racial slurs, sexist remarks, etc. As far as Im concerned they can stay on the right.

Most people I know who complain about "political correctness" are responding to being told they are guilty of the actions of people they never met and are long dead. They are responding to being told they have privilege when they are actually barely hanging on from paycheck to paycheck. They are responding to being called inherently racist by implication based on their own skin color and inherently sexist by implication based on their gender.

Maybe in California it is different. But those aren't the whiners about PC I see where I live.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Most people I know who complain about "political correctness" are responding to criticism of their use of racial slurs, sexist remarks, etc. As far as Im concerned they can stay on the right.

Most people I know who complain about "political correctness" are responding to being told they are guilty of the actions of people they never met and are long dead. They are responding to being told they have privilege when they are actually barely hanging on from paycheck to paycheck. They are responding to being called inherently racist by implication based on their own skin color and inherently sexist by implication based on their gender.

But how much does it actually harm them to be told that they have privilege? They can easily ignore it. Really seems like they're just being whiny bitches. There are some people who think I'm evil, just because I don't agree with the conservative ideology (those people are very likely to be Trump supporters, and obviously many conservatives think that way). Am I going to whine about that? Sounds like they need a safe space.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Most people I know who complain about "political correctness" are responding to being told they are guilty of the actions of people they never met and are long dead. They are responding to being told they have privilege when they are actually barely hanging on from paycheck to paycheck. They are responding to being called inherently racist by implication based on their own skin color and inherently sexist by implication based on their gender.

Maybe in California it is different. But those aren't the whiners about PC I see where I live.

Maybe in Minnesota it is different, but those are the whiners about PC I see where I live.

Most people I know who complain about "political correctness" are responding to being told they are guilty of the actions of people they never met and are long dead. They are responding to being told they have privilege when they are actually barely hanging on from paycheck to paycheck. They are responding to being called inherently racist by implication based on their own skin color and inherently sexist by implication based on their gender.

But how much does it actually harm them to be told that they have privilege? They can easily ignore it. Really seems like they're just being whiny bitches. There are some people who think I'm evil, just because I don't agree with the conservative ideology (those people are very likely to be Trump supporters, and obviously many conservatives think that way). Am I going to whine about that? Sounds like they need a safe space.

Hm. That's an interesting point. Let's reverse it and see if it still holds.

But how much does it actually harm them to be called racial or gender epithets? They can easily ignore it. Really seems like they're just being whiny bitches. There are some people who think I'm evil, just because I have the wrong skin color, gender, or sexual orientation.

Doesn't sound nearly as enlightened. Sounds downright pig ignorant bigoted.

I'm sure that example will mean nothing to you.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Doesn't sound nearly as enlightened. Sounds downright pig ignorant bigoted.

I'm sure that example will mean nothing to you.

So you're saying I should whine about being called an evil librul? I'm not sure I see why it should impact my life so much.

 

[credoconsolans]

People are stupid,

People were just as stupid 4 years ago. This seems more like a perfect storm of an Establishment without any old school or new school talent.

Yeah, but Trump wasn't an option. The candidates we had were above the level of the schoolyard.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Doesn't sound nearly as enlightened. Sounds downright pig ignorant bigoted.

I'm sure that example will mean nothing to you.

So you're saying I should whine about being called an evil librul? I'm not sure I see why it should impact my life so much.

Because that's a term which was coined by Kentuckians and if you're subjected to seeing some elitist out-of-stater come along and appropriate their culture like Hitler would have wanted to do, it will put you into such a tizzy that you'll need to rush out and get a decaf latte and a motivational tape in order to self-actualize.

The PTSD you'd experience from having to live through that kind of negative experience is a real thing and you should feel ashamed at the way you trivialized psychological illnesses by dismissing it as if it were nothing.

 

[lpetrich]

Most people I know who complain about "political correctness" are responding to criticism of their use of racial slurs, sexist remarks, etc. As far as Im concerned they can stay on the right.

Most people I know who complain about "political correctness" are responding to being told they are guilty of the actions of people they never met and are long dead.

Like how?

They are responding to being told they have privilege when they are actually barely hanging on from paycheck to paycheck.

Like how?

They are responding to being called inherently racist by implication based on their own skin color and inherently sexist by implication based on their gender.

Like how?

 

[RVonse]

It's true that Hillary is not a great choice, that she's a criminal and a conniver, a constant triangulator and phony. But Trump is not an acceptable alternative.

It is very rare to be able to vote for someone who completely represents a particular individuals best interest, there is always some compromise with voting. Best prediction is a contest between Hillary vs Trump and I don't want Hillary. So that means I am voting for Trump.

We know for certain that a Clinton passed NAFTA and his wife is up to her eyebrows with TPP. I'm done with Clintons forever.

Yes, Trump may turn out to be a louse but he is atleast sounding like some kind of change from the status quo.

 

[RVonse]

I get your point about Hillary but why would you expect Trump to be at all better for unions/labor?

He says that he wants to get back jobs from China, Mexico, and Japan. That sounds a hell of lot better to me than what we know Clintons have done with NAFTA and TPP.

Rick Scott self funded too. His time in Florida has been spent getting his investment back and further selling out Florida to a handful of big companies. Crooked as hell. Self funding is not an automatic qualifier.

Both Clinton and Trump have been on public display for some time now and its pretty obvious to anyone paying attention who the real crook is. And I'm not voting for her.

 

[SimpleDon]

It really isn't hard to understand if you actually talk to people who live in the middle of the country.

Couple of streams

1. Government is broken on the left and right and is unresponsive to the needs of huge swaths of Americans. This also includes the all forms of mainstream media. These people see themselves as left behind, Trump speaks to that anger.

The right and the left are unresponsive to huge swaths of Americans, the racists, the misogynists, the homophobes, and the xenophobes, because these are horrible people. These people see themselves as left behind, without the self awareness that they deserve to be, Trump speaks to this anger.

2. Some people are REALLY sick of the political correctness around many issues. They see Trump as the ultimate troll of the political establishment and press.

While I too tire of the left's postmodernism and constant identity politics it is hardly helderding the end of civilization as we know it. Most of what is condemned as PC is nothing more than good manners, which are in short supply today. The constant references to PC seems to me to be the answer to the question how can we fly our racism flag high without being called racists?

3. Some people are supporting Trump because he seems like a giant bomb to blow apart the political establishment in the hope that what comes out of it will be more libertarian vs authoritarian instead of this phony left vs right.

?? Pretty close to word soup. Please explain.

4. Some people just want to put breaks on "progress for the sake of progress" and would like to get back to more traditional values.

You mean conservatives. The fear of change, and progress, is the defining characteristic for them. The question that we should be asking is why should we be listening to them? They are always wrong about the problems that we have today.

Trumps popularity has nothing to do with ideas or policy, it is complete political revenge on the establishment. The funny thing is that once Sanders goes away, you will see some Sanders voters voting for Trump....

I really doubt this. Is this the product of the same brilliant thought process that produced the conclusions above or do you have some more concrete evidence that this is the case? Say polling?

I am sure people here completely HATE Milo Yiannopoulus but
he actually explains why people support Trump in this video:

I can't hear well and I have to rely on the Youtube closed captioning which is usually unintelligible. In this case it seems to be word soup similar to yours. I have never heard of this Milo Yiannopoulus. Why am I suppose to credit his opinion?

Honestly, the left is as equally guilty as the right in creating Trump.

Do you have any reasoning behind this? Or are we supposed to take your word for it because you watch Milo?

Certainly the left has a lot to answer for. They abandoned their commitments to the working man. They hardly fight for minority rights any more. They seem to be timid to point out the failings of the conservative agenda that has a firm hold on the nation's balls. But equally guilty of creating Trump? No.

 

[lpetrich]

He represents the possibility of a return to patriarchy - Butterflies and Wheels by Ophelia Benson, noting Donald Trump has one core philosophy: misogyny by Franklin Foer

FF:

Donald Trump holds one core belief. ... But there’s one ideology that he does hold with sincerity and practices with unwavering fervor: misogyny.

We have been collectively blithe about this fact. On its face, Donald Trump’s hateful musings about women and his boastful claims of sexual dominance should be reason alone to drive him from polite society and certainly to blockade him from the West Wing. Yet somehow his misogyny has instead propelled his campaign to the brink of the Republican nomination. Each demonstration of his caveman views—about Megyn Kelly’s menstruation, about Carly Fiorina’s face, about the size of his member—produces a show of mock-horror before Trump resumes his march to the nomination. It fits a familiar pattern. Trump rose to fame on the basis of our prurient interest in his caddishness and amusement at his vulgar provocations.

Trump wants us to know all about his sex life. He doesn’t regard sex as a private activity. It’s something he broadcasts to demonstrate his dominance, of both women and men. In his view, treating women like meat is a necessary precondition for winning, and winning is all that matters in his world. By winning, Trump means asserting superiority. And since life is a zero-sum game, superiority can only be achieved at someone else’s expense.

OB responds

To tell the truth, I resent having to pay any attention at all to Donald Trump. I never have before, and I’m annoyed that I have to now. I don’t see why a real estate hustler thinks he’s qualified to be president in the first place, and I don’t see why he doesn’t have even the minimal conscientiousness it would take to realize he should be qualified for the job before trying to get it, and it pisses me off that his lacks force the rest of us to pay attention to him. What a ludicrous infantile setup.

DT was a bad boy from an early age, causing trouble in classrooms.

Back to FF. About DT in his high school,

He began his lifelong practice of advertising his bedroom exploits as a means of demonstrating his authority over the rest of the locker room. Decades later, he’s still trumpeting his sexual exploits. When Tucker Carlson once mocked him on air, Trump called the pundit and left a voicemail: “It’s true you have better hair than I do. But I get more pussy than you do.”

After noting more of DT's bragging about that,

Trump considers himself such a virile example of masculinity that he’s qualified to serve as the ultimate arbiter of femininity. He relishes judging women on the basis of their looks, which he seems to believe amounts to the sum of their character.

Then his involvements with beauty contests.

Humiliating women by decrying their ugliness is an almost recreational pastime for Trump.

Then several examples of his criticizing female critics as ugly.

This is one reason that evangelicals, both men and women, gravitate to Trump, despite his obvious lack of interest in religion and blatantly loose morals. He represents the possibility of a return to patriarchy, to a time when men were men, and didn’t have to apologize for it. While he celebrates his own sexuality, he believes that female sexuality has spun out of control and needs to be contained.

Then the TV show "Lady and the Tramp", which DT developed, but which didn't get aired.

The premise of the show was that Trump would take “girls in love with the party life” and send them off for a “stern course” on manners. “We are all sick and tired of the glamorization of these out-of-control young women,” he told Variety, “so I have taken it upon myself to do something about it.”

How might DT campaign against Hillary Clinton?

When Clinton suggested that Trump has “demonstrated a penchant for sexism,” he fired back by invoking the sins of her husband: “She’s got one of the great women-abusers of all time sitting in her house, waiting for her to come home to dinner.”

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

It really isn't hard to understand if you actually talk to people who live in the middle of the country.

Couple of streams

1. Government is broken on the left and right and is unresponsive to the needs of huge swaths of Americans. This also includes the all forms of mainstream media. These people see themselves as left behind, Trump speaks to that anger.

2. Some people are REALLY sick of the political correctness around many issues. They see Trump as the ultimate troll of the political establishment and press.

3. Some people are supporting Trump because he seems like a giant bomb to blow apart the political establishment in the hope that what comes out of it will be more libertarian vs authoritarian instead of this phony left vs right.

4. Some people just want to put breaks on "progress for the sake of progress" and would like to get back to more traditional values.

Trumps popularity has nothing to do with ideas or policy, it is complete political revenge on the establishment. The funny thing is that once Sanders goes away, you will see some Sanders voters voting for Trump....

I am sure people here completely HATE Milo Yiannopoulus but
he actually explains why people support Trump in this video:


Honestly, the left is as equally guilty as the right in creating Trump.

Excellent post.

I don't intend to support Trump, but I do really like the effect he's having on everyone. He is a disruption, and our political process needs a major disruption. I do like Sanders, and he is also a disruption, just not quite as big a disruption.

I love the comparisons with Sanders and Trump. They are so nonsensical. There have been Sanders before in Hart and Dean. None of them ever won, so this is hardly anything new.

Trump defies any political logic. He has said some ridiculous things, but because he is perceived to be so far outside the establishment (billionaire who is on a first name basis with the political establishment in America) he has managed to survive mostly thanks to misogyny, alpha male bravado, and a healthy portion of ignorance of math, science, history, stuff in general.

I'm not aware of a single case of Trump in the US. He is purely a cult of personality. Wallace and Thurmond had segregation. Trump has lambast and arrogance. He hardly has a platform at all. Yet people have flocked to him, much like they flocked to an Alaskan Governor they knew nothing about. But in the Trump case, there seems little doubt in his support. It doesn't matter what he says or does... his supporters are behind him. They support him so much, they can't explain it to even the right wing AM radio talking heads.

The support for Trump is much like a political toddler tantrum, toddlers angry about their parents (the Republican Party) saying they would destroy Obama, yet haven't completely pulled through on it, by passing budgets instead of letting the US default. So the tea baggers are throwing a tantrum and will support Trump no matter what.

There are virtually no parallels between Sanders and Trump at all. Sanders looks to nudge his party to the left a little, Trump is looking to destroy the party of whom he seeks their nomination.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

It's true that Hillary is not a great choice, that she's a criminal and a conniver, a constant triangulator and phony. But Trump is not an acceptable alternative.

It is very rare to be able to vote for someone who completely represents a particular individuals best interest, there is always some compromise with voting. Best prediction is a contest between Hillary vs Trump and I don't want Hillary. So that means I am voting for Trump.

We know for certain that a Clinton passed NAFTA and his wife is up to her eyebrows with TPP. I'm done with Clintons forever.

Yes, Trump may turn out to be a louse but he is atleast sounding like some kind of change from the status quo.

A number of economists who have analyzed his tax proposals have stated Trump's announced plans would create $1 trillion deficits each year. Is that really what you want? Last week, Trump announced he was going to commit choices of Supreme court justices to the extremist Heritage Foundation run by hard right extremist Jim DeMent. Is this what you want? Trumps ideas of torture etc. have already elicited military leaders telling us they would have to revolt against any illegal commands from Trump as CIC in such cases. Is this what you want?

Really, you need to think this out a bit more.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

I love the comparisons with Sanders and Trump. They are so nonsensical. There have been Sanders before in Hart and Dean. None of them ever won, so this is hardly anything new.

Hart and Dean were not disruptions. Sanders is. The reason people don't notice it is because there is an even bigger disruption going on elsewhere.

Trump defies any political logic. He has said some ridiculous things, but because he is perceived to be so far outside the establishment (billionaire who is on a first name basis with the political establishment in America) he has managed to survive mostly thanks to misogyny, alpha male bravado, and a healthy portion of ignorance of math, science, history, stuff in general.

AdamWho clearly outlined the political logic that you say doesn't exist.

I'm not aware of a single case of Trump in the US. He is purely a cult of personality. Wallace and Thurmond had segregation. Trump has lambast and arrogance. He hardly has a platform at all. Yet people have flocked to him, much like they flocked to an Alaskan Governor they knew nothing about. But in the Trump case, there seems little doubt in his support. It doesn't matter what he says or does... his supporters are behind him. They support him so much, they can't explain it to even the right wing AM radio talking heads.

A cult of personality you say. That is entirely different from, say, Teddy Roosevelt. Or Franklin Roosevelt.

The support for Trump is much like a political toddler tantrum, toddlers angry about their parents (the Republican Party) saying they would destroy Obama, yet haven't completely pulled through on it, by passing budgets instead of letting the US default. So the tea baggers are throwing a tantrum and will support Trump no matter what.

That's kind of like what AdamWho wrote - people are pissed at a political establishment that has nothing better than contempt for the electorate, and on both sides. But the establishment (and those who support the status quo) call it a "temper tantrum" because those silly voters don't know their place and don't know that they are supposed to shut up and deliver the vote to the same old insiders over and over again. Vote Jeb, vote Hillary, do what you are supposed to do, go home and shut up.

There are virtually no parallels between Sanders and Trump at all. Sanders looks to nudge his party to the left a little, Trump is looking to destroy the party of whom he seeks their nomination.

Both of them disrupt the status quo.

 

[Tristan Scott]

A number of economists who have analyzed his tax proposals have stated Trump's announced plans would create $1 trillion deficits each year.

Which makes him fit in with he republicans just fine-a party that has never seen a deficit they didn't love.

 

[lpetrich]

A number of economists who have analyzed his tax proposals have stated Trump's announced plans would create $1 trillion deficits each year.

Which makes him fit in with he republicans just fine-a party that has never seen a deficit they didn't love.

Reminds me of a Tony Auth cartoon from the 1980's about Ronald Reagan. It showed him looking very tipsy amidst lots of empty bottles labeled "Ol' Deficit." He says about them "Shay, thish shtuff is dangerous. Lesh make it unconshtitutional."

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

It really isn't hard to understand if you actually talk to people who live in the middle of the country.

Couple of streams

1. Government is broken on the left and right and is unresponsive to the needs of huge swaths of Americans. This also includes the all forms of mainstream media. These people see themselves as left behind, Trump speaks to that anger.

2. Some people are REALLY sick of the political correctness around many issues. They see Trump as the ultimate troll of the political establishment and press.

3. Some people are supporting Trump because he seems like a giant bomb to blow apart the political establishment in the hope that what comes out of it will be more libertarian vs authoritarian instead of this phony left vs right.

4. Some people just want to put breaks on "progress for the sake of progress" and would like to get back to more traditional values.

Trumps popularity has nothing to do with ideas or policy, it is complete political revenge on the establishment. The funny thing is that once Sanders goes away, you will see some Sanders voters voting for Trump....

I am sure people here completely HATE Milo Yiannopoulus but
he actually explains why people support Trump in this video:


Honestly, the left is as equally guilty as the right in creating Trump.

This is the best argument I have seen for Trump yet. It almost makes a Trump Presidency sound like something that should happen... if it could only last a day or two. But the risk is just way too big of what this guy could do if he got in there. He really is a scary character.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Hey AdamWho,

Thanks for linking to a vid from Ruben. I hadn't found his guy before and I find myself very much enjoying his stance as well as his style of inviting on people who fundamentally disagree with him and letting them talk.

 

[repoman]

My feeling is that Trump also appeals to people with a "Kiss up, kick down" attitude. Like Governor Christie.

This is like being a henchman/woman in a "Mean Girls" situation except for middle aged and older mostly white people. Except they aren't Trumps henchmen, just suckers.

I think humans still somehow think we are still in small troupes of only ~80 individuals when we were chimpanzees.

I really, really, really want to know what Robert Sapolsky thinks about Trump given his knowledge of Baboons (in behavior, genetics, hormones, neurotransmitters and autopsies of brains) and how status effects them in a vicious or virtuous cycle.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/brain-reflexes-that-monitor-the-pecking-order-1449675204