Seriously, what the f*** is keeping Donald Trump in this presidential race?

It's simple. Bigotry and greed. Trump plays to people's fears that "others" will soon have the same rights they do while also assuring his rich handlers that he will make them richer. He's convinced the poor to cut off their nose to spite their face.

Conservatism is a mental illness, it can't be defeated with logic and reasoning

If the race were between The Literal Devil (R) and Jesus Christ (D), the vote total would be 45%-55% just based on the letter they choose to run after their name.

Policy doesn't matter when people base their entire personality on their political party identification.

Nothing I've read has ever explained Trump's appeal like this article.

https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about

Nothing in there makes a cute soundbite. "They're racist!", is far easier than having to digest what the author lays down.

Seriously, read it. It's important.

I remember the summer of 2016, when I was playing Pokemon Go in the parks and people I had never talked to and that lived nearby were playing it next to me. We were all celebrating when we caught a pokemon when we were after, and comparing which ones we'd caught with each other.

At the time I thought...who would buy Trump's conman routine? Who actually thinks that the country is in a terrible enough place that we need to elect this person who seems to actively hate the country and seemed to want to set the entire thing on fire?

I left my Californian home and went back to my original state to visit my family. We went to several different areas of the state in fall of 2016 because my wife was from a rural area and I originally grew up in a slightly more suburban area. I saw the signs in the yards, I saw the discontent, and I saw how people did not seem to be reacting the same way to his craziness. I saw how casually they would put on his rants in the background while talking about other issues. I saw how some of them were amused by his antics. It had been a couple of years since I had last been back and it once again struck me how much worse the area appeared to be from the last time I was there. I was in a rural area when the "Access Hollywood" tape dropped. People seemed to visibly shrink at even the mention of the news. I thought he was done for, and that this was a bridge too far for his supporters to cross. That people would vote third party, or not vote at all. I did not get the sense that my thoughts were shared by those around me.

When I came back to California, people were talking about the debates. It was sunny and nice out, and people would talk about the projects they had going on in their houses, or they'd talk about work related affairs. People were sometimes amused by Trump's antics, but everyone uniformly thought it was impossible for him to win the election. Having seen what I had seen in the weeks prior, I was no longer one of these people. "They'll never let him win", one of my co-workers said. I was stunned....who are "they"? Does the rest of the country actually believe this?

It turns out quite a few of them did. Many people thought there was just simply no way that Trump would win, because either the system was already rigged against him and would not allow him to win, or because the country was just not in dire enough straits to elect such a madman (as I once thought).

Hindsight is 20/20 but when I thought it was bizarre that he was even a viable candidate at one point in 2016, and I saw the decaying state where I grew up, I thought "if he wins the election, then we are in a much worse state as a country than I thought". And we undoubtedly are.

Of course he won, but the reason that I have this somewhat rambling response to this question is that the answer to "why is he still in the race?" ultimately comes down to the overall state of this country.

He is in this race because this is where we are as a country: barely able to imagine a possible future that is brighter than the present, because we are still caught up in degenerative non-sense that keeps us thinking that our broken down towns, and our poor social bonds are caused by some horde of "others" instead of their true causes: our ever-widening wealth inequality, our ever-decaying moral responsibilities to each other, and our national instinct to absolve ourselves of our responsibilities by claiming that not only is it correct to be forever self-serving, but that even the idea of altruism is a lie.

You're in a media bubble. It feels like there's no way anyone could see it differently. The people who disagree with you are also in a media bubble and don't understand how you could believe what you do.

For everything you said they

• don't believe happened
• think it was a deep state plot
• believe it's good actually and believing anything else means you want to kill babies or destroy the economy
• have never heard of it

Reality may have a leftist bias but most people don't live in reality. Most people live in a reality constructed by corporate media. Social media is largely derivative of it.

I live in Taiwan and met a guy yesterday who is moving to Taiwan because Austin is a "liberal hell hole".

When pressed on any issues about Trump, his answer was that Biden is worse than Trump. When I asked about Harris, he just mentioned she will just copy Biden.

The funny thing is that Taiwan is by far more liberal and more progressive than Austin Texas. He seemed to like the universal healthcare and the many social services. He didn't mind the high corporate taxes companies have to pay.

My assessment is that he is only basing his vote on vibes and feels alone. Judging from the conversation, he is more of a Bernie supporter.

Many Conservatives have been conditioned to stop looking for facts and believe what the TV tells them. Trump admitted as much during the debate. When challenged on the cat thing, he dismissed the reporter's research and said that he believes it because he saw it on TV. His voters will, too.

Roger Ailes was Nixon's media consultant during Watergate, and the lesson he learned was that if the media was on Nixon's side, he could have gotten away with it. Ailes went on to run Fox News. That is no accident.

Did everyone just collectively agree to forget 2016? The polls were all favoring Clinton by a dramatic margin. CNN famously had a headline where they predicted Clinton had a 99% chance to win off of the polls.

And what ended up happening? 538 (before bought and neutered by ABC) gave the odds 65-35 or so, in Clinton's favor. Trump ended up winning that 35%. This year, according to polls, Trump's odds are better than in 2016. Kamala has the upper hand, but

A) lots of things can change suddenly before the election (like the Hilary emails thing)

B) polls are not the ultimate arbiter of who will win an election- actual real votes are

C) Trump more than likely has some "extracurricular plans" in store, much like Jan 6th, that has a chance of working.

Tldr: don't get drunk on positive news. Keep a level head and you'll see this election is still very close to a coin flip

We have the baby boomers on the edge of dying. They are afraid of it, but there is nothing that can be done - so those fears shift to other things that "could" be dealt with.

-Immigrants destroying the culture they grew up in (that culture went away for other reasons),

-Gays and trans people being happy (The closeted Senator Graham saying there is no happiness in real life - why did gays of old have to suffer and hide if it was all for not?),

-The worst economy in the history of the US! (They are in their 80s, don't have a job, and running out of money, so it is bad for them)

-Small town on the edge of dying (because there is no jobs or amenities because they didn't want them in their town)

Trump speaks their insecurities and offers a path to fix things that no other politician dares to go down: "Burn the system to the grown and the people you hate will be hurt". Because modern Republicans care more about hurting the ones they hate than helping themselves, either because of self hate or a illusion that they won't get hurt in the process.

Seriously, how the f*** is this guy still in the race?

Some very deep pockets.

People want to say it's just racism, but we have to stop ignoring how much of this is happening because of obscenely wealthy media moguls who don't give a damn about the future of the country and are only worried about ratings, and holy shit, Trump brings in ratings. The crazy fucks who vote for him are deeply influenced by this media, like Trump, they believe everything they see on TV.

It May Not Be Good for America, but It’s Damn Good for CBS

-Leslie Moonves, CBS CEO in 2016, on Trump

I worked in local television news from 2000-2010ish. I watched it spin out of control during the Bush years. I remember the President of Dinsey-ABC (waaaaaaaay prior to Disney+) claiming she would nail a TV to her child's dorm room wall since her child had expressed she didn't need a TV because she had a laptop.

“You’re going to have a television if I have to nail it to your wall,” she told her daughter, according to comments she made at a Reuters event this week. “You have to have one.”

-Anne Sweeney, President of Disney-ABC in 2009

These fucking dinosaurs did fuck nothing for twenty fucking years while the internet ate their lunch. The only idea they ever had was doubling down on insane shit to grab views. They never once considered becoming a better source of news or providing any kind of real local value to communities.

It's the money, especially the money in traditional radio and television media, that is propping him up. He's truly the last gasp of a dying generation, desperate to keep control over people who are way more informed than ever before and the only tool they have in their toolchest to fight that is misinformation and disinformation.

The same deep pockets that were able to kick Joe Biden off the ticket. They didn't give a fuck when people like you and I said Biden was too old, but once the folks with the money started talking about it being an issue, Biden got curbed.

Unlike Biden, conservatives are in a cult and losing Trump would lose their voters. They're attached at the hip and they can't dump him in the same way without essentially just admitting they will lose hard this year.

My take:

Americans are either republican or democrat.

If you're a republican then you're going to vote for your guy. They see everything he does as just bullshit and bluster. "He says things to rile up the lefties but that's just his brand." They see the legal issues as politically motivated, or "maybe he's a bit dirty, but all politicians are".

I think it really is that simple. The vast majority of the population is not making a decision of whom to vote for based on their research regarding each party's policies. They will just always vote the way they've always voted.

Many good points on here. I'd also suggest watching "Get Me Roger Stone". In it, Stone basically details his secrets to getting the 'silent majority' to pay attention. He says that fear is a bigger motivator than love. He says that the uneducated can't tell the difference between entertainment and politics. There's so many lines in that documentary that will make your ears perk up and be like, damnt, this was exactly how they did it.

1. if you are rich and souless

2. if you are a moron. I am tired of people saying trumptards are "misguided" or some bullshit like that. If you voted for him in 2016, sure, you could have been misled. But after his trainwreck of a presidential run, if you vote for him, you are just stupid. Straight up a dumbfuck.

Republicans have been taught to ignore reality and give in to their hatred.

Trump was elected in 2016 because he got on twitter and was a birther dickhead.

Democrats ran Hillary and that was just a bridge too far for some Americans.

Democrats ran an old white man in 2020 and won.

2024 Democrats are running a black woman. Is that a bridge too far for Middle Amerikkka?

The same thing that is powering most other political figures, all of which can be termed "Populists"

People are angry about a number of things. The wealth gap is very large, they are constantly told that the reason they aren't doing well in life is because of their own failings, whilst they watch elites with political access get away with things they can only dream of. They're being told immigrants and/or AI's are coming for their jobs. They're being told they can't have what their parents or the wealthy had because Climate Change, or because inflation.

This generates a great deal of friction, which in turn pushes people to radicalize their beliefs. You can't continue to sell a liberal, centrist viewpoint of the world when it simply isn't working for them. They might cotton on to "dumb" ideas, but this does not mean that they are stupid. It means that they are angry. This is is demonstrative of a deeper problem that is being very deliberately ignored or papered over, because those in power have a vested interest in keeping the gravy train running for as long as possible. The sheer scale of the problems we now have to deal with are exceeding the kinds of moves and actions most Western politicians have learned over the years, so we aren't getting appropriate results out of our political apparatus.

In times such as these, many people will look to the past for ideas on how to deal with their current situation. They sometimes come back with bad ones, sometimes they come back with good ones, and the pre-existing power structure will do everything it can to resist both of them, because to change is tantamount to completely losing grip on power for many of the people invested in the way things are. They cannot adapt, and once gone they will never get it back.

So we have a kind of a worst-case situation with a maladaptive leadership, extreme public resentment and actual natural/physical catastrophes forming a kind of crucible that this civilization needs to endure.

The trumps/erdogans/farages/orbans/lukashenkos/putins/meleis of this world are symptoms of these issues.

He's still in it for the fascist coup.

This is a serious answer so it's gonna get down voted to hell, but whatever.

There's a huge portion of Americans who are suffering. Their personal lives are kind of awful, they live in communities that are impossible to get ahead and the communities are often that way to due the direct actions of the political establishment in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Above all else, these communities don't really feel heard by the liberal establishment. They feel as though their concerns are dismissed by what they see as the powers that be. They feel that their anguish is belittled as a personal failure, and often downright mocked. They also feel as though a lot of entities that fucked them are liberally coded.

To these people, Trump is the guy who makes those people seethes and tells them to fuck off. That endears them to him and offers extreme loyalty. They often dismiss the allegations against him because at some point every single conservative has been implied to be a disgusting person in popular culture.

Ironically I think a lot of Trump's worst actions solidified the support of his base, because of where America has been at since his political ascendency. The US culture war has been raging for a decade now, and both sides have a habit of taking extreme positions while vilifying their opposition. That is naturally going to cause people to get more aggressive, which in turn villifies Trump.

An example I love to use is vaccine skepticism during covid. There were two huge groups of vaccine skeptics in America: rural whites, and black Americans. Both had suffered greatly at the hands of an aloof medical establishment, and both had their suffering ignored. While the Black community's wounds run deeper, the rural white community was fresh off the opioid crisis. They had every reason to be skeptical about big pharma lying to them for profit, because that's literally what happened just a few years prior.

The liberal response to the black community was understanding and outreach. The medical community made a huge effort to reach out to black community members and popular figures in black culture. There was a direct acknowledgement of the medical establishment's bigotry in the past. There was not a culture of shame for people who did not choose to get vaccinated. This was also reflected in news articles and social media posts.

Their response to the rural white community was basically the opposite. The medical establishment's outreach was extremely limited by comparison. The opioid crisis was written off as a failure by the Sacklers as opposed to any systemic issues that the medical establishment needs to address. Vaccine skeptics were repeatedly and aggressively shamed, with open discussion in regards to simply enforcing vaccination via mandates. Basically every MSM article talked about how the vaccine hesitancy was a character flaw. Social media went even farther. Not only did they call conservative vaccine skeptics things like death cultists, but there were forums dedicated to making fun of antivaxxers dying of covid. People would post private Facebook posts of people they knew by two or three degrees of separation, and then liberals would more or less celebrate their demise. You even had the return of the word "sky fairy" on reddit to describe when these people prayed to God.

Trump, for his part, encouraged people to get vaccinated. He stated multiple times at his rallies that vaccines could end covid, and that they were making him look bad by not doing so. He was, at his own rallies, booed so loud he had to stop talking. He quickly changed his tune.

A consistent trend in liberal circles is the belief that they have complete moral and intellectual authority, as well as the belief that this authority gives them the ability to treat people who don't conform like shit. I'm pretty sure I'm voting for Harris, but there are also times where I felt like I should just say home. It's completely fucking insufferable, and ironically has a ton in common with evangelical christian politics that dominated the US in the 1980s. So long as that mentality is there, you'll have people like Trump gaining undeserved support.

What's keeping him in the race is the delusional nature of his supporters. Think about all those points you wrote about what a horrible person he is. How many other candidates could survive even one of those controversies? He lives in an imaginary world of his own creation where whatever he says he believes to be true, and his cult like followers are so brainwashed that their perfectly smooth grey matter just soaks it up like a sponge. There's precious little he could do or say at this point that would have his base leave him.

A cult of fanatics who worship him due to his ability to let them display their complete lack of empathy as well as their extremely racist and misogynistic views.

Rhetoric about scapegoats that distract people from the real causes of their issues, a cult of personality, and lots of money. Additionally, a lot of his voters thought he started to expose the truth behind how things actually run in the government instead of seeing how he is playing them for fools just as much (or more than) other politicians. Mostly though, it's the money.

What keeps him in the race? The lack of alternatives. No Republican candidate but Trump has even a chance to win. The GOP has no viable political program that could create a victory, all they have are the blind and dumb masses of Trump followers.

It's propaganda.

Everything you listed is a "Democrat lie" if you were to ask a Magoo. Fox news, Newsmax, and the like spend an enormous amount of effort in creating a reality where Republicans are always the victim, and they point to the population to say "you're next!"

Anything they can't say is specifically a lie, they'll say "well you did it too so it's not bad." Anything else just isn't a concern to them since people like Hannity tell them what to think.

I think the phrase is, "It's the economy, stupid."

The economy had been trending upwards under Obama, and it peaked under Trump. If you're a Keynesian, you might gripe that Trump increased spending when the economy was doing well rather then saving for a rainy day. Then, the rainiest of all rainy days hit with the pandemic, which shot spending through the roof. That caused rapid inflation that became most noticeable after Biden came in. Most Americans either don't pay enough attention or attribute cause and effect to more or less random factors, so the experience is, Trump economy good, Biden economy bad.

Second, skepticism of the government is a facet of American culture, fed into from the national mythos regarding the Revolutionary War, by anticommunist propaganda about how the government doing stuff makes things worse, and also from experience with getting disillusioned from politicians not delivering on promises and the government generally not acting in people's best interests. Kamala comes across more as representing the political establishment, and her messaging doesn't tap into that dissatisfaction or contrarian nature.

Third, people feel like they're getting fucked, and Trump offers a clear, simple narrative of who is fucking them. And the narrative scapegoats people at the bottom of the social structure, who are least able to push back against said narratives, and who already have negative stereotypes about them. If you're not going to do that, then you either have to tell people they're not getting fucked, or you have to blame the people who are actually doing the fucking, who are at the top of the social structure, who are most able to push back against your narrative. Imo, in order to employ the latter strategy most successfully, you need a sense of solidarity, a sense that everyone is included in your movement and you won't allow anyone to be scapegoated or sacrifice anyone for your own advancement -and it's kind of hard to do that with the whole genocide thing going on.

Brainwashing most simply.

Edit: I found the image that I was thinking of when I posted this...

Conservatism is a social cancer that primarily affects unintellectual people and sociopaths.

This cancer metastasizes as fascism. Social progress is sometimes an effective treatment, but a permanent cure is long overdue.

Your mistake is to consider an election is a rational competition. It's not. Not anymore, because medias make it impossible to know the truth. So it is more like a football match. People have the team they support, and for most nothing will change their mind because there's too much propaganda. When almost everything is propaganda, you get to choose the reality you "prefer".

So the point of the campaign is more about convincing people to vote in order to defeat the opposing team. Or to persuade the other team to concede.

Trump's ego and desire for self preservation (throwing a sitting president in prison never happened) is unmatched in US politics. And don't forget, there is still a lot of new gerrymandering shit that is going on that will still swing in his favor no matter how demented he gets.

Money

The american people do not own the elections like people think. It is big bucks to run an election and very very few politicians are supported financially by the people. Trump grifts sure but he's paid by people because he'll get the most votes, they think.

Trump could be rolled out drooling and leaking brain fluid from his ears and 40% of voters will fully go behind him cause he's a republican. And the "undecided" voters will somehow see it as a strength. By the way, anyone still claiming to be undecided on Donald Trump in 2024 is full of shit

If he doesn't win he goes to prison, possibly for the rest of his life.

Is there any possible way you'd ever vote Republican? If not, remember that there are people like that on the opposite side. You're always going to have single issue voters. A huge example is anti abortion advocates voting Republican. If someone genuinely believes abortion is murdering a baby they aren't going to care how good a candidate looks in a debate.

Why is he still in the race or why are his supporters?

For him I think it's obvious. Narcissism and the fact that he has a lot of federal crimes in the courts that he can stop when he is elected.

His supporters are more complicated. He pretty decently still owns the GOP so even if they are getting cold feet, they don't seem to have a plan to overthrow him. I feel like they are planning on just stonewalling for 4 more years and then try to win the next one and cut the checks to the billionaires then.

I got nothing on his base though. I haven't understood them for 10 years now. Not sure I ever will.

If you can believe it, Trump supporters will accept the Ohio immigrant pet eating story as true.

Somehow media is pitching the "moderate position" as halfway between anywhere within the normal range of political positions and the crazy positions.

Whole two party system, we vs them sport mentality has fucked their brains up.

Judging by some of my distant acquaintances it’s something along the lines of HURR DURR GASOLINE WAS CHEAPER 8 YEARS AGO. They focus on a global commodity of all things.

Seriously, the only stuff I’ve seen from them that even approaches a policy comparison rather than “lol black lady is a ho” caliber stuff revolves around money. And some of that might actually be a valid discussion if it were correct and if it weren’t for the absurd amount of other issues.

It’s just a low-information team sport, regardless of how insane reality is.

"Donald Trump makes me, a white christian, feel like I'm important."

I would look into the “polls” and how realistic they actually are and who has paid for them.

Also don’t forget that the media has great interest in trump since he creates so much news with his bullshit. Newspapers don’t sell with headlines like “politician does something normal and expected”.

Fuck the mainstream media, they will love a trump administration and its utter depravity.

Best thing I’ve heard all week is Swift siding with Harris. If the young actually vote, whatever this form of the Republican Party is will be dead.

The GOP's desperation for relevancy in a world where literally every problem can be blamed on Republicans

Lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% (lowest in history).

Obvious tax cuts for the rich.

That's all his financiers hear.

Constantly attacks marginalized groups.

That's all his voters hear.

Everything else goes in one ear and out the other, muddied up with enough "whataboutism" and "both sides" rhetoric from the financiers to keep the voters from actually considering alternative options.

Amerikkkans.

Welcome to the post truth era. Nothing matters except the way it makes you feel. Ignorance is strength and rage is fuel. If it feels good it's true, if it challenges your paradigm, it's fake news. This phenom is not exclusive to Republicans but they sure do excel at it.

the only reasonable answer, is literally fascism and a deluded right wing in america.

See my previous comment on another thread for additional context if you please.

probably the same drive that will make him a candidate in the 2028 election. 😁🙂

​

(this posted 06:01 UTC (2:01 AM EDT), 13 September 2024)

It's easy. They don't believe Harris will do any of the things she has said, and they don't believe trump has done any of the things you've said. Additionally, some of them don't like the things Harris is saying she'll do, even though they're positive things to you.

We Taught This Chimpanzee to Understand the American Political System and He Hanged Himself

1. Polls are unreliable and the press will always make it “horse race” because not to do so means foregoing revenue.
2. Nearly all the major media outlets are owned by people who have said they’ll vote Trump.

In other words … follow the money.

Because his voters don't believe any of the points you make about him. Trump is able to dismiss any criticism of him as "fake news." You can make any legitimate point about him and they will never believe it.

At one time it would have sounded like a conspiracy theory, but you don't get here without a massive disinformation campaign.

Trump's supporters have been so programmed to accept everything he says at face value or, in some cases, just to ignore what he actually said in favor of the party's updated spin. In all cases, they believe it is impossible that he could do any wrong, so any semblance of incongruity or poor leadership or any negative aspect of Trump at all must be due to lies of his opponents -- even if that means the entire system would have to be rigged against him to an extremely unlikely degree.

The last time the world saw these tactics used to such an extreme extent and with such success required a widespread campaign of so-called "denazification" after a very prolonged war.

Half of America wants a fascist state, unfortunately.

It's as if this nation has deep internal divisions following a badly wrapped up civil war that have metastasized into irreconcilable worldviews.

Spite is a powerful motivator. Both for Trump himself, and also for his supporters.

It's a race between junk food vs. an actual meal. Junk food is easy and self indulgent, real food requires time and effort. It doesn't matter that junk food is a terrible value and lacks any nutrition. The Trump people choose junk, conservatives choose Trump people because the Trump people are mathematically mandatory to maintain their caste.

"It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they've been fooled"

After someone has been convinced of something, it's very hard to convince them that they were wrong because now their ego is on the line. And the longer amount of time they've believed what Trump says then the harder it will be to convince them that he's a lying con man, because they'd have to admit to themselves and their community that they were massively conned. And they would to some degree have to even question whether their entire worldview is wrong.

Questioning your own ideas and trying to determine if you've been wrong about something takes a lot of openness maturity and emotional intelligence, which are things conservatives statistically are not good at

I dunno man. I got nothing. I don't understand it either.

There's a lot of reasons people have already mentioned, but I'll add this.

Your applying logic and reasoning to people who are illogical and unreasonable...

Lead. Like the metal

This video explains it all in 19 words. Democracy relies on intelligent, informed choice. Republican voters typically lack one or both.

Hatred for anything not Republican by MAGA and their brainwashed followers. That's what's keeping Donald T. still in the race.

There are a lot of racist and/or psychotically greedy people in the US.

Like, A LOT a lot.

Either lack of critical thinking or driven by greed.

You get the top to vote for you by ensuring they keep and/or increase their riches. That’s done by immediate things like tax cuts, or other long term strategies like cutting environmental protections and reducing the role of gov’t, allowing businesses to rape the planet and abuse their workforce as hard as possible to increase profits.

As for the rest of his supporters, the “MAGA” crowd, they’re kept in line by keeping them stupid, allowing you to more easily feed them propaganda and influence their emotions to fit your needs. Religion teaches them to be subservient from an early age and take a back seat to a higher power, whether that be god or the charismatic talking head at the alter or on tv, all the while leeching as much money from them as possible without leaving them totally destitute. This helps explain why conservatives/religious turds continue to attack early education (less chance of them learning to think critically and question things), school lunch programs (hinder brain development), libraries (access to other ideas/beliefs), sex education and abortions (keeping those accidental pregnancies from being stopped, thereby ensuring the already uneducated and poor families continue to have kids they cannot support financially and give a good education to). It’s all very sinister when you look at the whole picture. It’s why I detest religion, not so much the concept and practicing of religion, but how evil men have turned it into a weapon, and exploiting the very people they pretend to care about. A lot of the evil they push is all done under the guise of religious beliefs/freedoms.

It's all that side has. Who else would run in his place? Nobody comes close to that sort of name recognition. The Republicans are betting on a culture war to win and who wages that war more than trump?

Hes a dancing monkey that brings in tons of ratings, viewership, and revenue.

So media has a vested financial interest in giving him tons of coverage, especially soft coverage, to get eyes on products. Its also why they have a vested interest in his winning, and are doing everything they can (including a mass hysterical hallucination that Biden was somehow old and incompetent due to having jet lag after a whirlwind 3 day international political trip) to ensure trump remains favorable in the eyes of people who wouldnt vote for him if they got the 100% unfiltered coverage about him.

Thats the biggest issue.

There are other issues, of course, helping this along (and benefiting from the above mentioned media bias) are things like the fact that he is a foreign puppet being manipulated by Putin mostly, and by others less so. Which is why they, especially russia, has invested so much money into the NRA, Republican Packs, and most recently, internet jackwads that balding beanie wearing fuckstick and his ilk. To have a chorus of mouth pieces pushing false news and pro-russian narratives, to undermine our democracy and reduce to outright eliminate our presence on the global stage as a bulwark against countries like Russia.

You also have petty powermongers at home that are sounding his call for dictatorial power so they can get their own petty feifdoms.

And the billionaire conservatives who want the world to be a festering cesspit of poverty so they can sleep on their mountains of gold.. and are using the media they control to further their goals, by lifting trump up and knocking everyone else down.

and finally, you have the lowest strata, his voters, Most of which vote for him because they want their women to be property, and their non-white neighbors to be property too. and they don't care how deep into hell everything goes as long as they can be racist twats who don't have to self censor and are free of repercussions for their twattery.

Theres more minutae to it, and several other layers and strata, but this is kinda the general broad strokes.

The left didn't invade rightwing spaces, the spaces that have been propagandized to since 2014, and present credible arguments against the propaganda on a consistent basis.

So what you have is a decades backlog of brainwashed people Russia and others were paying to spread propaganda to.

It's not that complicated, and it will continue - even after Trump is gone. Koch, Musk, Thiel, Dan and Ferris Wilks, Zuckerberg, American billionaires are in this too, paying nominally conservative people to believe Libertarianism, tax evasion and defunding the nation in the name of "owning the crazy libs" is patriotism.

It's nuts. America is under constant attack, and don't expect the Establishment Liberal majority to fight back outside of election season.

racism. any other questions?

The republican branch of the GRU?

In 2010 a group of unelected theocrats decided that billionaires can put however much money they want into propaganda. That's on top of the most widely watched media in the nation already being a billionaire's propaganda.

They have used this power to terrify their voting base into action. Their voting base are fear-addicted racists who willingly allowed themselves to be brainwashed.

We should all be glad he is still in the race. If he moves over, the republicans will certainly have a better chance to win, and I don't like their agenda at all. But fear of retaliation is what is keeping the republicans in line IMO.

Constantly attacks marginalized groups.

That's a feature, not a bug

Cultists and the GOP that feels beholden to those cultists lest they get primaried

Today I heard the argument that if Trump wins, it will cause massive profits on the bitcoin market. So all the shady bitcoin bros are backing him.

5% pleasure

50% pain

100% his reason is so we remember his name (🤮)

It's his next chance of avoiding prison. Also pride.

What's keeping Trump in the race is the fact that most Americans are working 2-3 jobs to main a basic standard of living and have to actually look at their grocery, utility, and medical bills.

Crazy doesn't seem so crazy when the other candidate promised to make your life better and failed.

Fascism.

People have been lied to for decades and we all know it's going to get worse in the future. The democrats are neoliberals who will continue to exploit people. The news media and social media are all owned by oligarchs. Wealth inequality is getting worse. Climate change won't be solved and will make all things worse. Why should people vote for the status quo? Work hard, get fucked? No solidarity, no rational action, no plan. And nuclear war when?

Fascism and nationalism is not just something to break this but also has the better story. Something the stupid masses can believe in again. Trump is telling them everything they want to hear.

While there may be "No stupid questions", there are many, many "Stupid answers".

Rich donors who don’t want EU like welfare states in the U.S.

Ego + Narcissism.

Kamala Harris running a damn near flawless campaign, with just a month 1/2 of campaigning.

There's a few major flaws:

Trying to out-flank republicans on the right with immigration and crime; instead of counter-messaging that republican claims of migrant crime are false and migrants commit less crime than average, and crime as a whole is declining, her campaign promotes how tough she is on crime. This is essentially campaigning for the republicans. The people who are terrified of immigrants and criminals are voting republican.

Trying to out-flank republicans on the right in foreign policy. Harris can promise rivers of Muslim, North Korean, and Russian blood, and the people who want that will still vote republican. Talking about how lethal the US military will be and how hostile the US will be to other countries decreases turnout. War is not popular. Trump's campaign is already hitting Harris on supporting the genocide in Palestine.

Joe Biden dosent use drones anymore

Huh. Wonder what that US reaper drone was doing over Yemen.

Because people like my idiot brother think “he trounced that ho in the debate.”

Winning, or perhaps losing, is existential to Donald Trump. If he loses, he will most certainly have to face down his legal issues.

Everybody will answer "greed, racism, idiocy, and bigotry" or some such rubbish, because morally and overall psychologically, that's the most comfortable answer.

The real thing is somewhat complex, and most people won't buy it.

Of course, part of it is those things, but there's way more going on here, some of it is cultural dynamics, some of it conscious intent. Those specifics are the symptoms, not the disease (though they may be diseases in their own rite).

• structural weaknesses in the US government, which was barely meant to handle the complexity millions of people, much less tens or hundreds of millions of people. I.e., bandwidth issues. As more people push their views and goals into the system, all of that needs to get governed or implemented somehow. But there is no cohesive operating principle that guides US (and even other western) culture. There is no razor - not even material necessity (staying in-budget, or managing debt effectively) is accepted. There is no means to trim implementation that all parties will be happy with, so things don't get trimmed. They get crammed in, the laws (in the sense of legal structure, not crime) are consequentially self-conflicting, improbable, or impossible to fulfill. This leads to an intrinsically unstable environment, ripe for (and rife with, by all parties) abuse. What you are seeing is, in part, the breakdown of the rule of law. This breakdown can be allayed, to some degree, with authoritarian means, but that only goes so far, even if that authority has a willingness and capability to work with the people as a whole - which none of the active authorities do, anyways, except maybe Bernie, and he's been written off by the authorities because he can't work with them well, and they also have valid concerns that must be addressed. But, in any case, whether centralized or not, this breakdown is to be expected, because the rule of law, unless supplemented with common principle, becomes.. well.. legalistic, and rife with abuse.

• governance that doesn't match underlying principles: we have no conscious least common denominator. People often point to distinct nations and say things like "see? they are doing X right!", but that nation has a cohesive culture, and isn't dealing with anywhere near the level of cultural complexity that any melting-pot nations are dealing with. What is enforceable must be agreed upon by common culture - or you must sacrifice the reality (though not necessarily the pretense) of diversity, and enforce your way. But that has obvious flaws. Instead, it is better, in my opinion, to enforce sovereignty, which is intrinsically what all the different cultures want, anyways, except that they also want to take control of everyone - which they don't get to do in a system with sovereignty as a basis, except by people ascribing to that culture. What you are seeing, is in part, a breakdown of unity due to a lack of agreement about what can be universally enforced. I.e., the system implemented does not address underlying cultural commonalities.

• the need to incorporate raw power and personal responsibility into the governing body. Bending the rules, breaking the rules with impunity, changing the rules, explicit and implicit coercion are all possible, and as such, the existing system or ruling party must be able to address these things, and incorporate them where needed, for the larger good of upholding the spirit of the law. This relates to the breakdown of the rule of law, but is more primal: you know raw power must be met with raw power. That power can be of a different form, but it must be effective.

• unconscious cognition of complex truths: or, in some senses, the "vote of no confidence". People understand, or are at least impacted, by the above issues. They have instinctive reactions against external control, and for good reason, as individual sovereignty is the source of a solid collective. But in any case, many people are aware there is a problem, don't see a solution, and are see no option but to let things burn. This may not even be a conscious choice, but simply an overall feeling - and thus, more powerful and deeply-rooted.

• genuine mockery and rejection of opposing views. Nobody gets each other, unconsciously, and everyone else treats others outside their worldview like shit, and pretends that doesn't matter. A lot of the left separated from the "Christian" right due to this - only to turn around and do the same thing to the center and right, feeling just as justified in doing so. But it creates real alienation and aggravates the already deep wounds and rifts that exist. One's personal actions, thoughts, and feelings may not seem to matter, but they resound loudly in the whole - and making personal change does, too. For those who are genuinely growing and facing their hearts and minds - my respect.

All of these contribute to Trump's rising and staying power. Of course, he's just riding a wave of unconscious thought, and if it weren't him, it'd be someone else. But people like to fixate on a face.

The actual thing we're trying to do (integrate diversity into a cohesive whole) requires genuine acceptance and support of differing world views (including non-scientific or non-Christian ones - why do I have to say this?). That means that your group, your ideology, must make room for the people who are "wrong", and wish to live their lives wrongly in abhorrent wrongness - though they never gain the right to enforce participation in their culture, above and beyond what is a natural requisite by birth, upbringing, or other dependency.

That is, each person and organization has a sovereign right to rule their own life and the lives of their dependents as they see fit, but does not have the right to force others to use their system, nor to prevent others from abandoning their system and starting their own or joining another. This integrates the very opposite of federation (well, not in the Lemmy sense, which is actually confederation, but that's a no-no-word because some people thought that confederation did give them the right to force others through slavery - but it doesn't).

But Sovereignty Culture isn't simply confederacy, like Lemmy is, but it heads towards the same things. That which can be federal is only that which we fundamentally agree on. The federal must not be used as a means of furthering ideologies, but as a means of resolving disputes between differing ideologies. It can have as much power as the people grant it, and no more - else it loses the people. By making sovereignty a keystone of culture and governance, we intrinsically grant and naturally enforce rights of others, but without placing a burden on others (except the burden of self governance, which you already have, and can't avoid).

Two party system, some would vote for party x no matter what.

Some voters arestill "undecided" because "both sides are the same" (aka they don't know how to tell fact from fiction)

I'm not from the US and so it's officially not my business. But from what I've seen around the webs is that he has gathered a loyal following all around the US. Seems he has enough loyals on his side to stay in the race. But I don't know a lot about the political system in the US. Excuse me if I'm wrong here.

A technical reason is because he has been a president before

He is a cult leader. More than a decade in the making. Hes the leader of a cult

Seriously, how the f*** is this guy still in the race?

It's depressing as hell that this is where we are.

The repuglicans that need to keep him out front so they can shovel their shit out of sight

ignorance-based fear.

lot of that in a geographically isolated country with poor education.

Ridiculously enough, it's still a neck & neck race and Trump still very much has a good chance of winning. And he really has no incentive to drop out, he absolutely needs to get back into power in order to quash all these lawsuits against him, because at the end of the day, that's the only thing that matters to him. Biden had the humility to drop out for the good of both the Democratic party and for the Country, Trump has no humility whatsoever and doesn't care if he tanks the Republican party or plunges the Country into some sort of Civil War 2.0 (not likely, but it's a possibility), none of that is a priority to him.

This is kind of similar to the Roman Republic in some ways. Holding on to power made some Roman officials immune to being summoned to court while they were in office, and our own Supreme Court has almost brought that practice back (give them a few more years for the rest). So the incentive for shitty office holders is to just keep holding on to office so that none of their illegal shit they do comes back to haunt them. That November sentencing will mean nothing to him if he becomes President again.

Money and bigotry

Racism and cult mentality.

Very stupid Americans, mostly.

I think a lot of Americans like to feel special/different/superior and Trump helps feed that addiction

Many other comments here have a share in the reasons, but a huge reason is he’s looking at more state and federal charges, and more lawsuits (which haven’t going well for him).

He NEEDS to run and WIN so he can make all these cases go away for good.

Greed and jail is keeping him in the race. Followed by narcissism and the drive for power. (The last 2 are a requirements for a politician of any stripe).

Ego. Trump's narcissistic, authoritarian personality won't allow him to retreat or surrender in what he sees as a popularity contest.

Billionaires and their desire to have real wage slavery (even more so than now) and to not have to pay taxes.

Hatred of brown people and Adderall

1. metacognitive myopia explained why people didn't/couldn't update their beliefs about the existence of "weapons of mass destruction etc".
2. dogwhistling the threat of sexual revolution "comrade kamala" (i.e., he's implying hypocrisy when he doesn't understand what lenin's use of the term "prostitute" meant).
3. playing the fool until you can't (i.e., making his base feel insightful and "seen" as playfully serious, homophilically/mimetically charismatic; e.g., his base feels like their inference-making is being promoted based on linguistic sympathy through the aura of charisma).
4. from (3) somewhere in his administration they're letting the would-be "fool" base do the grunt-work and creating cover; see "Optimal Team Formation Under Asymmetric Information".

He has an army of cultists who are leaving in an entirely different reality to the rest of us.

not making her talking points about her race or gender like Hillary

The difference between someone who lived the struggle and someone who was just trying to represent it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFgcqB8-AxE

Also, some people see abortion as a really big deal. The Vatican says they see abortion as an assassination, but also likes Harris allowing immigrants to come in.

If you really want to know why Trump is still competitive, listen to Anthony Scaramucci, a.k.a. The Mooch. He worked for Trump for a couple of weeks before being fired by him. The Mooch is a long-time conservative investor-type who knows Trump well and can't stand him, so he has been helping the Democrats. Thr Mooch really understands Trump and his followers. I'm pretty sure he helped with Harris's debate prep, especially helping her understand how to get under Trump's skin.

He hosts a great podcast along with Katty Kay called The Rest Is Politics US (as opposed to the parent program The Rest Is Politics UK). https://tripus.supportingcast.fm

In particular, check out the last two post-debate episodes:

#27 Trump vs. Harris: What You Didn't See

#28 Why Kamala Harris Still Has a Problem

how else could the Democrats win?

every election they pander more to the right and if someone does not run that is worse what would they have to campaign on?

progressive politics?

Donald Trump, the Man who called our Soldiers Losers and Suckers while Praising our Enemies and Residing over one of the Deadliest periods for our Secret Agents abroad, is a PATRIOT WHO LOVES AMERICA and KAMALA, who is LITERALLY the Vice President right and never Stole any Top Secret US Documents, HATES THIS COUNTRY!

BILLIONAIRE Donald Trump LOVES the Working Class while Prosecutor who went Lenient on First Time Offenders and Non Violent Offenders Kamala Harris HATES the Working Class!

Donald Trump, who Presided over the DEADLIEST YEAR IN AMERICAN HISTORY, will Protect us while LITERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER Kamalamala Harris WONT!

Inertia?

So this is a community for venting and asking rhetorical questions now?

You have to remember that the voters are human beings, complete with areas of ignorance, prejudices, and logical fallibility. Trump certainly is aware of that and exploits it to the maximum extent.

Why did the cubs have such a hardcore fanbase despite their legendary drought? A lot of people root for their team, not vote for their best interests.

I believe the answer is "A lot of Americans".

Just a small correction, there was no coup attempt in Venezuela that's just dictatorship propaganda from Maduro

To Paraphrase George Carlin "You get the exact type of politician you diserve."

ego

My naive understanding of the GOP candidate selection process is that there's no way to select a new one after it's been decided. Also, I think there are states where the deadline to be on the ballot has passed. So that alone is enough that Trump can't be forced out of the race.

Then there's his cult, the money invested in him, and the "loyalty" of the GOP to itself above all else.

The Overton window has shifted dramatically in the last 10 years. He represents aversion to that

because we allow the 30-40% who will vote for him to exist. they won't change their minds. there's only one solution.

Bigotry, misogyny, and Palestine. If she came out for limiting arms sales to Israel she’d be crushing trump.

Half the things in your list are just wrong falsehoods.

You, being oblivious to why Trump is a desired presidential candidate, is the symptom of isolation from opposing opinions. Likely from absorbing information only from social media, MM, and fellow democrats. It makes you unable to fathom perspectives not derived from these sources.

I've mostly quit social media, including FB, reddit. Etc. For some reason, I can't quit lemme, even though it's a trash heap of ingorant opinions. I believe it may be because this is such a hot bed of socialist, communist, and Marxist rhetoric. It's fascinating and extremely disturbing and at the same time. On one hand, people here worry about dark agent influences working on the American public, but they don't understand this is where it's happening, on social media. This is easy ground for anonymous agents with nefarious intent to sway opinion... anyway, I'm rambling now.

I dunno wheres my 20k in student loan forgiveness?

Why is it so hard for blue maga to understand nobody is excited for the party whose whole platfom is not being trump? the dems haven't accomplished anything for working class americans in over 30 years. dems legacy is no universal healthcare, war on drugs still raging, police violence out of control, unliveable minimum wage, lack of workers rights, extreme warrantless government surveilance, and ongoing support for a palestinian genocide.

Lots of coping in this thread, haha.

Her campaign is not flawless, and I just have to know what you all think about the RINO Republicans coming out in support of her? Congrats, the Democratic party is now the party of Dick Cheney. Hope you're all proud.

The other candidate has basically the same exact politics so it's a 50/50 shot.

People ignore everything their person does if they have the right color banner. Kamala and Biden are complicit in literal Genocide and your post is written as if the worst thing she did is being black.

Your own selective outrage answers your question.

*Trump said "wants war with Mexico's " Drug Cartels"

*Trump never told people to drink bleach during COVID.

• Trump apparently denied the Venezuela Coup

*Israel/Palestine already had high tensions.

*Trump doesn't want war

*Harris didn't wash anyone in the debate, just relied on talking points that had been debunked.

*America has been divided for a while, actually.

*Trump and his team had Intel which asserted that the Iranian General had plans to harm coalition forces.

• "March peacefully" somehow caused a riot. Not like the summer 2020 riots, eh

*Trump was convicted by E Jean Carroll just by her word, nothing else, about something that happened some years ago.

*The 11,000 biden votes that appeared overnight ?

It's obvious that you hate Trump, and if Trump goes away, none of these will be resolved any time soon, and have existed long before Trump. At least people know who they're voting for with Trump. Democrats just vote blue no matter who, which is the epitome of "uninformed voters".

Better policy namely. I mean, the Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot with gun control. Like honestly, do they need medical help?