Normal people are baffled that despite everything, Trump holds an unwavering 40% approval rating, and 90% approval among Republicans, essentially unchanged. Despite impeachment and a failed Coronavirus response, leaving the country ravaged with180,000 deaths and millions unemployed, while the virus rages on in America when other countries have brought it under control, it has almost no effect on his approval ratings.

Trump hasn't delivered anything substantive, none of his promises, no infrastructure, no healthcare; he didn't get rid of the deficit; Mexico didn't pay for a wall; he didn't bring back manufacturing; none of it. But none of that ever mattered, really. What he did promise is "We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning." And this he has delivered, from their perspective. He understands that "winning" for them is having license to hate democrats, hate liberals, and be racist, out in the open, spewing right-wing talk radio vitriol as official positions.

When that lady in red told John McCain at a town hall that Obama was a Muslim who wasn't born in this country, they didn't want him to be the fact checker, and tell her she was wrong, to tell them that Obama is a good family man who they simply disagree with about policies. Oh no. That won't do. What they wanted is how Trump would have responded to that lady, how he has responded to all sorts of abhorrent behavior from right-wing media, from far-right groups, white-supremacists, and worse, from birtherism to "they're bringing rapists" to "very fine people on both sides" to "shithole countries" to the new Biden/Harris birtherism, to embracing a 17-year-old murderer as a hero -- this is what "winning" means, as far as his deplorables are concerned.

They don't really care about the rest of it. They pretend to, but they don't really. Until COVID-19 hit, when you talked to a Trumper about morality or lies, they'd say "sure, he says some stuff, but look at the economy!" (the economy he inherited from Obama, by the way). But now that unemployment is sky high, they offer something else; it doesn't matter what. Because it was never about policy, or jobs. When they speak of being "left behind" it's not really about jobs or manufacturing. It's about white-supremacy, or at the very least, white-privilege, even if many would never admit it, not even to themselves. The world is leaving behind these attitudes and "values" (can we call hatred a "value"?). That's what they're pissed off about. They want to be racist, dammit. They want to shit down the throat of liberals because liberals don't share these values. They literally wear "liberal tears" t-shirts, because that's what they really care about. Every time Trump repeats a Fox News or Twitter right-wing crazy lie, they love that stuff. That's "winning" -- and they're getting a belly full of it from Trump, so they love him. Biden, can't fill that need.

They will die on this hill too. Make no mistake. Trump has given them this new license to be "a good patriot" telling them their racism isn't racism, but just being a good American. And now killing liberals, BLM, antifa, is all embraced and admired by the president himself. You think they're going to give that up and go back to being seen as the ordinary folks, on the wrong side of history, they really are?

And it's sad because they're being manipulated to hate liberals, and vote against their own interests, instead of pointing that anger to those who are actually holding them down: Trump and his cronies, along with Democrats too, rake in billions of dollars, while giving out a measly one-time tax deferment here or some one-time payment there to the rest of us. Trump's people will vote for anything if it keeps Trump or others like Trump in charge. They will end social security, medicare, unions, better wages, healthcare, their own rights, as long as Trump sings the Fox News hysteria talking-points and keeps ramping up the cruelty upon their enemies. This is the new GOP. They can't go back from here.

He realized this when no one else did. He gambled that Fox News viewers had turned a leaf, that they had become radicalized. He was right. Everyone else was wrong. Biden can't satisfy this element. He will never get their vote. And if he wins anyway, watch out. This 42% are not going to go quietly. They are the "unpersuadables" and it's almost half of the country.

We refer to them as "Trump 's base" but really that "base" the true #cult45 bunch, that roughly one-third that won't go away, is simply a cadre of racist, sexist, homophobic, folks. They were there before Trump, and more importantly, they'll be there after Trump (assuming there is an "after Trump").


They are essentially white-supremacists who fear losing their privileged position in society. Trump didn't invent them. He activated them and gave them a voice. Of course he doesn't really care about them, and in fact, deep down I think even they know that. They know he lies and he is mostly full of shit and they probably even know he is basically incompetent and a Christian faker - in fact, many evangelicals have said as much. But they support him anyway, because he successfully tapped into that fear and racism. He may be an idiot, but on this he beat them all.


Consider this exchange between Jeffrey Toobin and Rick Santorum, where Toobin claims "Donald Trump could hang on the ceilings having sex with anybody he likes" and "all that talk about character we heard about Bill Clinton and the role model to Americans, that's all nonsense, right?" and Santorum can only reply that "it's very disturbing to me and I don't like it" but he still supports him, to make Toobin's point.


Few of them will admit that they're racists, and in fact many sincerely believe they aren't racist; that's how denial and cognitive dissonance works. But it comes through clearly in their words and actions, sometimes subtle, often direct and outspoken. We keep wanting to say it's not about race; we want to deny it because we wish it were not so. But it is about race to a very large degree.


It's certainly not all Trump voters. Hillary Clinton took shit for it and continues to but she was absolutely right when she said "half of Trump's supporters" (not all) really could be put into a "basket of deplorables" -- that basket is out there now and they aren't ever going to change their mind about Trump because he let them climb out from under their rocks and claim their white-privilege proudly. They feel safe with their racism now being more blatant. They still use coded dog-whistle language and (supposed) "hoaxes" like the white-power OK sign, but the winks are out there in plain sight. White-pride, white culture, white identity movements, these are all part of the discussion now.


This is not going to end with Trump.