Why do people vote for Trump, part 2
A reader explains.
A few weeks back, I asked readers of this newsletter who are planning to vote for Donald Trump — or are friendly and familiar with people who are going to vote for Trump — to write to me and explain the “why” behind that decision.
To be clear: I know why the base of the Trump Republican party is voting for him. It is a cult of personality — and they are part of it.
But, there are loads of other people — millions — who will cast a vote for Trump in 5 weeks (or have already done so) that are NOT part of that base. (I always remind people that Trump got 74 million votes in 2020; not every one of those votes was from someone who loved and admired him.)
So, why do those people do it? In response to my initial call for explanations, two people stepped forward — and I published their thoughts here. The other day I got a note from a friend — offering a slightly different take to justify a vote for Trump.
I asked if I could publish it — without his name attached — and he agreed. Here it is:
Under the broad spectrum of political leadership in America ranging from Kamala to Mitt, what we are going to get even in the best case is very, very gradual and imperceptible managed decline.
It won’t affect my grandchildren or maybe even my great grandchildren but it will happen and we will look up in a century and we will be where Britain is today if not worse. There is no chance the mainstream of American political thought can figure out a way out of that box.
With Trump, there is a very, very high chance, maybe 90%, that he will accelerate that decline in a way that is violent and painful and maybe someone in my family will actually feel.
But there is also a not-insignificant chance that he will come upon the combination of policies that might actually reverse the decline and extend our dominance for several generations more.
I am under no illusion that this view — or maybe any view — will change lots of peoples’ minds about who they are going to vote for. That’s not what I am after here.
Instead, I simply want to understand — and maybe help you understand — how rational people with whom you disagree think about the choice before us.
Call me naive but I truly believe that simply writing off 46% of the country (at least) as ignorant or racist (or both) is not going to get us where we want to go as a country. Dialogue and understanding — with people who also value dialogue and understanding — is the way.
I hope you read the above explanation with a generosity of spirit. I don’t expect your mind will change! But maybe it will expand your understanding of Trump voters slightly.
I literally do not understand this person's logic.
Let's take as a starting point their idea that the only satisfactory state of affairs is for the United States to be the supreme power in the world with no equals, not only for generations -- they think that could still happen -- but endlessly, for all time (yes, this does remind me of the "Thousand Year" Reich -- it is far beyond extreme nationalism) -- and that it's important, even at the risk of death or harm to this person's family, for that to happen.
Right there, I am completely baffled. Is this white supremacy? Or English speaking white supremacy, given their apparent belief that the British Empire was a great thing that should not have ended? Or American supremacy, accepting that different Americans are from multiple races (perhaps they do think that)?
Don't they know that for the majority of the US's life as a country it was not a major world power, and that this status of being "the most powerful country in the world" has come and gone for many different nations -- not just the US -- over the centuries without a Blitzkrieg against the rest of the world by a fading power? This is terrifying and irrational.
Second, if for a moment you accept their goal -- which I really can't do, it is so disgraceful -- Why in the world would random, uninformed, and completely ego-driven acts by a convicted felon succeed in making any of that happen? What makes Trump different from "Kamala through Mitt" to them, and better? Is it that he is more willing to slaughter people around the world or crush other countries (even allies) because he doesn't really operate within a moral framework? Or is there some other, non-psychotic aspect of his leadership that this person believes in, but isn't able to clearly explain?
I am stunned by this particular answer to your question.
Respectfully...huh? Character is on the ballot - not policies. I have a friend who says, I hate Trump as a person but I'm voting for him because I want my money (hint: if he has your money, he won't be giving it back). The implication is that markets favor Trump and la-de-dah it was so good before when he was President, it will automatically go back to that. The economy is a continuum - it doesn't start and stop with each administration. It took Obama 2 terms to dig us out of the George Bush economic disaster - Trump inherited that economy on the rise and took credit (as most Presidents would) and then crashed and burned the economy with his inept handling of Covid. Then Biden digs us out and we're on our way and on and on. Trump will be a disaster for this country, there is no hoping otherwise Read Project 2025 then consider your options in a different light.