President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[Jeff Lebowski]

Lol, sadly and unironicly that is the thought process of 1 or 2 people on here.

Frank, I kind of agree with cowboy. I like you and respect you and enjoy your contributions, but you seem to feel the need to continuously call out people for not being sufficiently anti-Trump. As if anything but complete opposition (by your assessment) is a character flaw or a moral failing that you need to call out. Chill out, brother.

[Walter Sobchak]

Frank, I kind of agree with cowboy. I like you and respect you and enjoy your contributions, but you seem to feel the need to continuously call out people for not being sufficiently anti-Trump. As if anything but complete opposition (by your assessment) is a character flaw or a moral failing that you need to call out. Chill out, brother.

The left is broken.

[Sullyute]

...but there's a pretty compelling argument that the single biggest threat to our republic is a tepid economy that plunges us into bankruptcy. If that is true, then a Democrat in the White House is much more dangerous than Trump.

Lol, that is pretty funny. It is pretty obvious that neither party cares about deficit spending. The only time in the last 50 years that the US didn’t spend more than it made was with a Democrat in the oval office. The US will never go bankrupt as long as it’s debt is in US dollars as it can just print money to pay it off. I would vote for either party willing to be financially responsible, but neither are, their pork spending is just in different areas.

[beefytee]

The left is broken.

Totally. You would never find such a mentality from the right.

[Uncle Ted]

The left is broken.

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[old_gregg]

there's a pretty compelling argument that the single biggest threat to our republic is a tepid economy that plunges us into bankruptcy. If that is true, then a Democrat in the White House is much more dangerous than Trump.

[myboynoah]

hilarious

[Walter Sobchak]

Totally. You would never find such a mentality from the right.

The right supported a bullshit Iraq invasion and then re-elected its primary instigator. The right readily embraced conspiracy theories (Pizzagate, Obama birthers, et al). The right nominated and elected Donald Trump. The right has been fucked up for quite some time.

Sure the left has been on the ropes (Bush era), but then bounced back (Obama era). But now the left sees Russians everywhere, blames everyone but its own leadership for its electoral failings, has normalized Bush and embraced Bush-era Iraq War cheerleaders, and just can't seem to NOT take Trump's trolling bait. Trump has broken the left. The left defines itself now by "Resistance" instead of competence and coherence.

[BigFatMeanie]

The right supported a bullshit Iraq invasion and then re-elected its primary instigator. The right readily embraced conspiracy theories (Pizzagate, Obama birthers, et al). The right nominated and elected Donald Trump. The right has been fucked up for quite some time.

Sure the left has been on the ropes (Bush era), but then bounced back (Obama era). But now the left sees Russians everywhere, blames everyone but its own leadership for its electoral failings, has normalized Bush and embraced Bush-era Iraq War cheerleaders, and just can't seem to NOT take Trump's trolling bait. Trump has broken the left. The left defines itself now by "Resistance" instead of competence and coherence.

LOL. Speaking of trolling bait, you ate beefytee's bait, hook, line, sinker, and even tried to chomp off the reel.

But it's like fishing with dynamite with folks like you and Frank and Commando around this place.

[swampfrog]

Frank, I kind of agree with cowboy. I like you and respect you and enjoy your contributions, but you seem to feel the need to continuously call out people for not being sufficiently anti-Trump. As if anything but complete opposition (by your assessment) is a character flaw or a moral failing that you need to call out. Chill out, brother.

Furthering this point of view and expanding on some of these themes:

Understanding Why Religious Conservatives Would Vote for Trump

As with all collective human endeavors, politics are complicated, which requires a view through nuance and compromise.

In my experience, huge numbers of religious conservatives are not proud about voting for Trump. They don’t need any more hot takes denouncing them as irredeemable hypocrites. Their consciences bear a discomfort governed by their love for America and the reputation of their faith. But if these religious conservatives have to choose between the dueling dumpster fires of either Trump or a possible Bernie Sanders presidency, they will vote overwhelmingly for Trump. And anyone who misunderstands this will continue projecting onto religious conservatives the usual tired bromides that refuse to reckon with a complicated situation.

I write as neither a Trump critic nor Trump apologist, nor am I defending a vote for Trump in 2020. I am also not attempting a statistical breakdown. Statistics do not, and cannot, capture the complexity of religious conservatives. Monocausal explanations such as fear, nostalgia, and power are silly. My experience with actual religious conservatives — not the zoo-like Neanderthal depiction that fits the desired stereotype — suggests a lot more is going on behind the craven Trump-devotion caricature. I write to explain what is going on. Progressives will likely not be persuaded that religious conservatives are correct for voting how they do; but perhaps they could better understand the rationale. If progressives cannot, it only confirms the suspicions of many religious conservatives that America suffers from moral balkanization, wherein its citizens are occupying incompatible moral universes.

Most people who vote are not obsessed with politics. It’s not where their identities are found. These are people whose primary identity is that of a mother, father, or employee. Not everything about them can be explained by, or reduced to, their politics. They support a flawed candidate, and aren’t ashamed to say so. They are genuine in their faith convictions. If they vote this way, I’m not going to judge them or impute to them the worst offenses imaginable. Neither should you.

[myboynoah]

Trump is dumb as rocks.

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[Commando]

Trump is dumb as rocks.

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OMG no wonder he hates SNL so much-- every single joke no matter how much of an airball is over his head.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Trump longs for the ability to swiftly put drug dealers to death. Like they do in China.

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But who cares as long as that 401k keeps going up, right?

[falafel]

Trump longs for the ability to swiftly put drug dealers to death. Like they do in China.

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But who cares as long as that 401k keeps going up, right?

Wait, is he really going to do that??

[Pelado]

Trump longs for the ability to swiftly put drug dealers to death. Like they do in China.

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But who cares as long as that 401k keeps going up, right?

Jeff Lebowski is pro drug dealer!