Trump's My Man

Is It Fair To Call Trump Supporters Fanatical?

Trump once said, “I could shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters”.^[1] Now before any Trump supporters get mad at me for calling them fanatical, I didn’t. Your candidate did. Any other candidate would have lost their primary (or at least had to apologize). For Trump, many just laughed.

Now, I realize anyone would object to being painted as fanatical, and we have a lot of people with real frustrations and problems that only the Trump Candidacy seems willing to address. I get it. I really do. In fact, I feel some of it.

Now if you support Trump and have read this far, you are not a fanatic. As it is, also, unfair to me to label any one block of people in such a way. So, let me try to be more thoughtful here.

If you don’t see him as the threat, you can reasonably vote for Trump. Perhaps you just don’t like Hillary. If you are sufficiently concerned about the direction of the country, in particular foreign policy and trade, and you don’t see an issue with his approach to terrorism and immigration, then there is no fanaticism either.

Sure Trump has rallies. Obama had rallies. Sure Trump has supporters that argue past what seem obvious criticism. But, they can easily show this happening with past and current candidates. Again what is different?

Trump supporters have not been violent or even exceptionally vocal. They’ve just had fun at rallies.

Consider that when Goldwater and Perot ran they had a lot of specific. (For Perot, a lot of charts. A whole lot of charts). You could ask someone why they were voting Goldwater or Perot and get specifics. (Often too much specifics). Ted Cruz’s supporters are definitely passionate. But, they follow him because of his proven adherence to Conservative Principles.

So does the Trump Candidacy have supporters that see him as we would any candidate, offering a plan of government, or are they^[2] blindly inspired by him. The numbers matter too, because every candidate has some fanatics in their ranks, just not enough to raise concern.

I’m not sure we can know until after the election. We have to see how support is affected when Trump disappoints (as in changes policies to other than promised or loses the election). Voters will turn away. Fanatics will stay.

However, recently there is a new twist.

When the Trump Candidacy starts saying “if I [Trump] lose, it’s because the election was rigged.”^[3], this attacks the legitimacy of our democracy. In other words, this is the rationale of revolution. Now, me saying that is inflammatory. More likely this is just a way for Trump to preserve his ego and start a television network. But, the legitimacy argument stays out there, and intentionally or not, the movement can grow where they only see Trump (or his successor) as legitimate. Even if this takes a while, remember there is Eric Trump.

If you are a Trump supporter and have gotten this far, let me take the opportunity to make a plea to you. Don’t fall for this.

For the last 16 years (at least) the Republican party has been successful at getting what they want in trade and tax cuts, but have failed in any of the social goals promised. While the Democratic party has made offers to help, they have also largely failed you. I would be angry too. But take a moment and think back. Think back to when you were excited about Bush, Romney or even Obama. Does it feel any different than it does with Trump?

Now he’s suggesting that any loss is not his fault. You know what’s next right? Watch his TV network. Buy his book. Give him money. Give him power. Now what is more likely? A grand conspiracy is afoot by the same institutions you know are incompetent, or that Trump is playing you and covering for his failure?

Only a fanatic would fall for that?