What is fueling the Trump movement?

This is natural, since we were all born as liberals, screaming for our breast or bottle of milk. Conservatism is learned over time, and everybody is at a different point in their journey through life. I once listened to NPR every day, feeling enlightened with the Aaron Copeland music passages and relaxing wisdom that they broadcast. I was an all out liberal with NPR, water bottles and granola bar wrappers present in my car, and I loved it. I eventually evolved to being a conservative over the years to a position as far to the right as am aware of, and it happened as a result of more life experience and more education.

Remember Winston Churchill: "Show me a young conservative, and I will show you somebody with no heart. Show me an old liberal, and I will show you somebody with no brains".

I would be much more concerned to see an ex conservative running as a liberal. I have seen a few folks claim to have switched from conservative to liberal, but this is rare and very questionable behavior.

 

Your experience with the Democrats is an important part of the journey, and may be a big part of an evolved political stance in your future. It may not mean much right now, but it may have big meaning later. I would caution that if you are not a conservative and are running for a conservative position, it may be more apparent to the people who it matters to than you may realize. To many people, it is not possible to be neither liberal nor conservative. Non partisan, defaults to being liberal in the eyes of many.

 

Showmanship in lieu of statesmanship, and a preference for reality tv over reality.

He tells angry, alienated folks what they want to hear how they want to hear it - with a conspicuous lack of specificity, detail, or practicable tactics for achieving any of it.

Only if the Constitution were trashed and unlimited powers surrendered to the Trump could his whims ever be given a shot.

Fantasy has its allure.

 

I think people are just drawn to his rebellious behavior. He bucks political correctness and says bombastic outrageous things in a direction that the folks who support him must like. I think to a certain extent he makes politics entertaining for some because afterall, he is very much the showman.

I think he'd love to be president, but I think he's also intelligent enough to know he won't get to be. But that doesn't mean he can't still play the game, and maybe the issues he's being outspoken about are things he actually honestly does care about. It's hard to tell because he's a showman. I mean, I think I've seen him in more movies and TV shows, as himself, than all the last few presidents combined. And that's including real life footage of the presidents too, not just cameos.

 

Of course, Winston Churchill never said any such thing, but conservatives stubbornly persist in pretending that he did.

Folks in the best-educated states are more knowledgeable about such things than those in the worst-educated ones. and that is reflected in other aspects of life, such as their voting patterns.

 

The lack of proper campaigning by anybody else worth mentioning. Trump is filler news. The people supporting him by and large won't ever turn out at the polls.

 

Ya know... As much as I am behind Trump, I actually do not trust ANY candidate. I have voted for Republicans and Democrats in my time, and they ALL seem to make promises that they can't keep. I think many of them actually have genuine intentions as they make their promises, but inevitably they cave into what the people who paid for them to be in office want. I agree with you that fantasy has its allure, so I have one eye open, even to Trump. I would recommend that you stay suspicious of your pick as well, no matter how much you like him or her. The other trap that I really like to keep my eyes on is left or right dogma, which is really easy to slip into. Once we succumb to left or right dogma, we have a hard time even realizing that we are there.

 

I followed your link for the Churchill quote, but the quote that it took me to was different than the one in question. If Churchill did indeed say what I have quoted, the link that you provided would still be correct since those are different words. I did a Snopes search, and could not find anything that indicates that the quote that I provided is a myth, which indicates that there probably is not be evidence that my quote is untrue. If there was evidence that my quote is untrue, Snopes would most likely have it, even if it was almost evidence. Do you have a link to where my specific quote is proven a myth?

 

Politicians today campaign by telling the people what they want to hear. They will even tell one group they are for something and another group they are against it if they think that is what that group wants to hear. They promise everything knowing darn well they can't deliver on but perhaps 10% of it if that.

Then once elected and in office, they do exactly what they want to do. They turn a deaf ear to the people. Sure most of the time they will listen to their base, then go through the motions as acting to do something their base wants. But most of it is just for show. As my son says, Washington is going to do what Washington wants to do regardless of the wishes of the people.

My opinion Trump will be no different. Once in office Trump like everyone else elected will do exactly what Trump wants to do. Most of the things Trumps talks about doing, he has to get congress to go along with it. Congress holds the purse strings. Congress has to pass the legislation Trump wants. That means getting it through the senate. Perhaps a bit easier if the Republicans remain in control, but the GOP has 24 seats to defend this election cycle to just 10 for the Democrats. Even if the Republicans remain in control, there is the filibuster the Democrats can employ to stop his legislation.

Even so, will what Trump does and want, will it be the will of the people? I think Trump will be no better or worse on this than any other politician ever elected. Trump will have his agenda and he will push his agenda even if it is not the majority of American's agenda. Such is politics in Washington D.C.

 

I have been concerned about what happens once Trump gets into office as well. First, whether or not if he will in fact carry out the will of the people, but also whether or not he CAN. Obama has tilted the power of the three branches in favor of the executive branch, but it will still take leadership and charisma to carry out the will of the people. You are correct that Trump's financial position is no guarantee that he won't roll over like the rest of them, but it certainly seems like it is worth quite a bit.

It will be interesting to look back someday and be able to identify what fuels the success that Trump is seeing right now.

 

"There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president." Kurt Vonnegut

I accept that politicians are what they are, and the exigencies of office place restrictions on what they claim to be their intentions as candidates. Nevertheless, intelligence choices are still possible within those realistic constraints. No politician merits unbridled enthusiasm, some qualified support, at best.

 

Conservatives apparently feel better about themselves when they think they are quoting Churchill, even though there is no documentation of his having ever said it or anything like it.

Such self serving pronouncements abound. http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/24/heart-head/


What Churchill did actually say, that “if you tried your best to live an honourable life and did your duty and were faithful to friends and not unkind to the weak and poor, it did not matter much what you believed or disbelieved” transcended political dogma. (http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Winston_Churchill#Religious_Beliefs)

In reality, pragmatism always triumphs over ideology.

 

I would imagine these people who understand what the corporate owned GOP is now, for Trump has shined a spotlight on it, will not vote at all if trump does not make it to the primary. When the House was trying to pass TPA, not only did democrats flood the phones and email of their congressmen, telling them not to give TPP a chance, but the GOP voters did too. Neither side of the voters wanted TPP, and did that matter at all? Of course it did not. And voters are beginning to finally see that neither the GOP or the Dem. Party represents them, but only represent the banking cabal and the MNCs.

But this great awakening was happening when Obama ran the first time. And it has only grown since then, for Obama didn't turn out to be what many people thought he would be, in standing up for the middle class. So we are seeing the awakening now not only on the left, but the right as well. This is an issue that the left and the right could unite on, free trade, that we can clearly see has devastated America, and the oligarchy will fight it like we have never seen them fight. This election will be one for the record books and we are watching something unfold that may be on the scale of what happened with FDR. The times are very similar, as we had just seen 20 years of neoliberalism crashing the economy and then the joblessness. The only thing that has allowed this madness to go on as long as it has is that unlike in the 1930s, we have safety nets, even as the GOP constantly whittles away at them. If not for the safety nets, we would have already stopped the rape and pillage of this nation by the banking cabal and MNCs.

What people seem to ignore or forget, is that when you allow such a growth in the disparity of income, withering away your middle class, a revolution will inevitably take place. It will either be at the ballot box or in the streets. So the conservatives that you see here, who are perfectly fine with the growth, that continues, with the income and wealth disparity, as they hate their own working people and want to blame their hard times on them, will hopefully get schooled on just how far out and disconnected their ideology is that they are so proud of. The intelligent ones will relearn a lesson that their ancestors should have learned the last time neoliberalism wrecked this nation, but obviously didn't. So Trump or Sanders are in the position to once again save capitalism from the greed that can so easily turn capitalism into something that leads to revolution. I prefer sanders of course, for I think he would do it better, and more complete. But only if the people stay behind him and follow this through. I want to see some bankers in jail, and then these too big to fail institutions broken up again. I want to see the power wrestled back from both the bankers and the MNCs, for the people are supposed to run this nation, not a cabal of a few rich men.

 

During the 2008 primaries I was in support of Dennis Kucinich who had it right on the issues, but Obama fever took hold and the rest is history. I had no problem voting for Obama as opposed to the alternative, but it was obvious that Obama was not a Progressive and the Republicans made sure that Kucinich was eliminated from a particularly important debate on a ridiculous technicality.

 

If Trump doesn't gain the presidency the GOP is over and a new party will arise in it's place. I can see the writing on the wall. I have German blood. Pre war of course, no need for alarm.

 

Absolutely correct about the success of Forza Italia, it was a predictable consequence of the judicial revolution started from Milan. Bribery and corruption in government parties were at a no more sustainable level [Not only Christian Democracy, but also the Socialist Party imploded because of it]. The curious aspect was that the former Communists [in those years PDS, Leftist Democrat Party, with the Communist Symbol in its own symbol] weren't able to take advantage from that, they were sure to win ... Berlusconi came ...

 

I've actually written a book on my politics(and yes, I intend to publish it.). My political thesis is actually that of the Third Position. With a twist, called Fascist-Technocracy. The two political thoughts created in the 1900's couldn't have been more opposite, but when merged together it eliminates all of the negatives of the Third Position, and creates a Humanist platform for political living. By treating political life the same as individual life, which is a part of the whole component of the human species as a whole.

The only other reason I chose 'conservatism'(apart from 3rd party difficulties) is that the idea of planks/pillars(as identified in the GOP before Radicalization) meets about 40% of these espoused views. Liberalism only compromises 15%(IE: I'm economically liberal, within a set structure). I could never run as a Liberal after what I've experienced. Both politically as an individual, and then since they never did give me that political information I was asking for.

 

Please stop propagating lies, he's against illegals. He specifically said "Illegals".

 

We can but hope, but I don't think it will happen. Trump may very well be in jail by the end of the primaries if half of what I've heard about his business dealings is true

 

Exactly. Trumps popularity is fueled by a general disgust and distrust for our government. Voters at both ends of the political spectrum are looking for anti-establishment alternatives (Sanders & Trump) to candidates like Clinton/Bush/Walker/Rubio...etc.

 

I think and I am no expert or political pundit who thinks even little event or happening is a game changer. But the discontent for those in Washington has been growing I would say from at least 2004 and if Perot's showing in 1992, perhaps even longer. It is a known fact People do not thrust their own government. Today only 23% of Americans trust their government, 75% distrust it according to Pew Research. Only after 9-11 has more than 50% of the people trusted their government since Nixon.

Another thing is the people expressed their will, wishes on this or that and are totally ignored. Time and time again they elect someone one to change things and it turns out it is business as usual. Those elected have their own personal agenda or a political parties agenda, not the peoples or the countries. They are just sick and tired of this. Along the same line as trust, back in 2004 according to Gallup Independents made up 30% of the electorate when it comes to party identification/affiliation. Today independents has grown to 46% and both parties affiliation has fallen below the 30% mark. Another sign of total discontent with Washington regardless of party. This has shown in the voting habits of the people. In 2004 they elect Bush and keep Republicans in power in congress, 2006, they throw the Republican Congress out and elected a Democratic one. 2008 the people follow that up by election Obama and giving him super majorities in both chambers of congress. In 2010 the people rebel against the democrats and give the GOP 63 seats in the House and control of it. In 2012 they are back backing the democrats and in 2014, the people switch once again to the Republicans and give them control of the senate. The people keep searching for someone to make a difference and regardless of which party they try or put into power, nothing changes. Their will still gets ignored.

So first Paul looked attractive, more of a Libertarian, anti establishment. Then Carson, now Trump and lets not forget Sanders from the other side of the aisle. Trouble is it is the mind set of Washington, not so much the party. As my son said and he has never voted in his life and is approaching 50, he asks why vote? Washington is going to do what Washington wants to do regardless of what the people think or want. Perhaps people like Trump, antiestablishment, even anti-Washington and perhaps with Trump, a bit of anti-party provides a ray of hope, that little bit of sunshine coming through those black storm clouds that cover Washington. My guess anyway.

 

The root of the problem is that politicians are beholden to those who foot the bill for their elections, an unchecked elite whose bought legislators have now allowed their masters to hide whilst pulling the strings in furtherance of their acquisitive agenda (Highly successful in recent years judging by the government's radical redistribution of the nation's wealth that increasingly concentrates it in their privileged, bloated pockets.)

The fantasy of electing a billionaire media entertainer who would be dependent on his own wealth would not change the dependence upon money. Trump's boorish caprice is perceived by Trumpsters as a miracle cure, but Trump is merely an acute symptom.

His abrasive and crude demeanor is a vicarious indulgence for the alienated whose fancy is tickled by such an iconoclastic shtick, and his glaring deficiency of a practicable legislative agenda conveniently fails to confront the exigencies of actual governance. (Fantasies eschew such pragmatic necessities, devils being denizens of detail.)

Smitten Trump fans envision him as an omni-potentate whose every tasteless utterance is law, and all grovel in abject obeisance before his every whim.

It's not how it actually works of course, but for the devotee of ideological entertainment media, reality is no impediment.



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Typical Americans are fed up with Obama and all he stands for.

 

I believe the answer is simple, America is sick of moron liberals.

 

Of course, the sniveling pantywaists alienated from America in whose noggins those pesky "liberals!" ever fester are impervious to the reality that the American electorate twice chose the mediocre Obama to lead the nation by popular vote.

The wacko birds are so smitten with their media entertainer, they are clearly irrational.