In a linked series of tweets, @hilzoy offers an empathic, incisive explanation for the rise and rise of Drumpf.
The GOP leadership spent decades "destroying trust in press, experts, basically everyone people don't know personally" while " amping up importance of politics by telling people that America is being destroyed." The conundrum: now you're deeply worried about something no one person can possibly understand, and you also can't trust what the press tells you, and meanwhile, GOP politicians have been dismantling your quality of life and shipping your jobs overseas. Enter Drumpf:
Anyways: in world w/o trust, gestures are everything. In world in which GOP leaders have lost trust, they can't give those gestures.
Which leaves field wide open to Trump: He can't be bought (ha ha), speaks his mind, etc., etc. One big signal of authenticity.
And by destroying trust in everyone who might speak against him, party has destroyed all paths back to sanity.
Who is going to tell voters that Trump's ideas are nuts, *and be believed?* The MSM? Experts?
The ppl who might help are either ppl who have lied to the base, or ppl they have been convinced are liars or worse.
And this is *entirely* the GOP's own doing. ENTIRELY.
This is 1 reason (of many) why I never wanted to demonize GOP voters. They need a route back. Hard enough w/o encountering contempt.
Republic Disaster [Hilzoy/Twitter]
(via Making Light)
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