In reply to: I'm starting to feel personally put out posted by El Kabong
That is directly from the tweet of the House Freedom Caucus that you think does not consider McConnell Romney et al to be no differrent than Biden and Obama.
Our thoughts are with our Democrat colleagues in the Senate on the retirement of their Co-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-Ukraine).
No need to wait till November… Senate Republicans should IMMEDIATELY elect a *Republican* Minority Leader.
and Trump as a real Republican. It doesn't matter that these men have been members of the GOP for 60+ years. They're not real Republicans. The end.
What their definition of honesty is, I do not know.
a far more personal and down-to-earth tone that resonates with his base. He jokes around (never about himself though), goes off the cuff, etc. His base is made up generally of a voting bloc that has historically been ignored (or at least feels that way) by polished politicians talking about tax brackets, corporate welfare, DEI, foreign wars, "firsts", and other things they don't care that much about. Additionally, it's made up by a lot of underclass white men, a group that society now rightly or wrongly feels is acceptable to mock or (in their opinion) villainize. The amount of times one can hear "that's just the opinion of old white men" or "that's JUST the opinion of 'cis' white men" is fairly substantial. When you take a step back it's actually quite easy to understand that whether intentionally or not he found what can be considered a politically "underserved" population and focused on what made them tick.
I'm not here to defend or justify any of these viewpoints or takeaways, just stating what I've seen. The socioeconomic demographics on this board are extremely different from his base, and it's very easy for all of us to sit in our echo chamber and question the insanity of some of the things we've seen, but these are real people with agency who have felt passed over by a far more globalist political and economic reality, and have latched onto something or someone they at least think represents them in some way.
I have a number of friends in the Trump block, although a good number of them are drifting away given his well-documented flaws. Included in that number is a couple very close to Mike Pence (e.g. he's been at all their kids' weddings).
I'm confident that a lot of what you said here is spot on.
I know what his appeal is. He's a populist. A tale as old as politics.
But he can appear more honest because he's not constantly regurgitating beltway focus-group political word salad. Most politicians aren't. I'll save you the calories and time and already note that you'll respond with something about how he's in a category by himself as it relates to lack of honesty.
One of my only MAGA friends has told me that he realizes Trump says a bunch of dumb shit, but that he's not part of the ruling class that has alienated him and many others. He's not "one of them". He doesn't go as far as calling it the deep state, but I know that's what he means. He has said multiple times that he would've voted for Bernie Sanders over an establishment Republican for the same reasons.
These people don't care as much about policy as they do about sticking it to The Man. How a billionaire, NYC socialite, prep school and Ivy League educated man, who has spent decades rubbing elbows with the elite and powerful of America, is their idea of an iconoclast man-of-the-people... is beyond me. That does speak to some of his only real talents in life- he's a talented showman and con artist.
It reminds me of what I kept hearing during the 2016 campaign “he’ll shake things up”. And do what, exactly?
Mostly the right, mind you, but in a left leaning part of the country I hear about the same borderline horseshoe populism.
Here's an example I heard recently. I don't know if it is literal or intended to be metaphorical, but either way, it illustrates the difference. Mitt Romney would fly his private jet to the Des Moines airport and then have an F150 drive him to the state fair. Trump would land his helicopter in the middle of the state fair and let kids go inside it. Romney was trying to be relatable. Trump has never tried to be relatable but has always been authentic, and I think people appreciate that a lot more.
And by candor, I mean, calling out government idiocy. Irony at its finest.
in 1998. I have no idea if or how much his candidacy might have influenced Trump. I fell for it (and I thought Jesse was authentic when he fed me his stump speech during a lunch early in his campaign), but like Trump, it was ultimately about him and his ego. The concept of "not politics as usual" was very appealing then (Jesse's campaign slogan), and apparently remains so even after 8 years since Trump was elected.
That worked out well.