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justaprogressive

(3,317 posts)
Thu Mar 27, 2025, 08:55 AM Mar 27

Sadopolitics: Why MAGA clings tighter to Trump the more his policies hurt them - Salon

Donald Trump’s budget cuts and the larger war on federal employees and government are not laser-targeted on Democrats, liberals, progressives or the other people and communities that he has deemed to be “the vermin” and “poison in the blood” of the nation who should be purged. Trump’s approach is broad, the political equivalent of carpet-bombing, and the casualties include Trump’s own MAGA people and red state parts of the country.

Unable to resist the compelling human-interest aspects of Donald Trump’s gutting of the federal workforce and government, the mainstream news media profiles Trump voters who have lost their jobs because of the president’s chainsaw-like approach to gutting the federal government. There are also many news stories about how Trump’s budget cuts and other policies targeting such programs as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, support for veterans and their families, and assistance for the poor and other vulnerable individuals will hurt Trump’s voters.

African American MAGA supporters who feel betrayed by Trump’s whitewashing of American history and other regressive policies have been prominently featured by the news media. I am acquainted with one such Black MAGA member. He was very enthusiastic about Trump’s second presidency. He took on the role of being a Trump evangelist and minister of outreach to the Black people who live in our neighborhood. Last week, my acquaintance was told his job is being eliminated because of Trump’s budget cuts. He is distraught.

And in a classic example of “chickens who support Colonel Sanders,” there are reports of Latino Trump supporters (and their families) targeted by ICE because they were assumed to be “illegal aliens.”


https://www.salon.com/2025/03/27/sadopolitics-why-maga-clings-more-to-the-more-his-policies-hurt-them/

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Alice Kramden

(2,572 posts)
1. From the article - very illuminating
Thu Mar 27, 2025, 09:12 AM
Mar 27

Quote from Timothy Snyder -

"...the logic of sadopopulism is that pain is a resource. Sadopopulist leaders like Trump use that pain to create a story about who's actually at fault. The way politics works in that model is that government doesn't solve your problems, it blames your problems on other people — and it creates the cycle that goes around over and over and over again."

travelingthrulife

(2,038 posts)
11. Miserable and green with jealousy. Even when they get everything they say they want
Thu Mar 27, 2025, 10:32 AM
Mar 27

Like home, kids, brand new gigantic truck, they are still jealous of other people's lifestyle and choices.

Blue_Adept

(6,447 posts)
6. Which is why we need to ignore them and focus on getting millions of others to vote instead
Thu Mar 27, 2025, 09:27 AM
Mar 27

The vast majority of trumpists are unreachable even if they're being hurt by who they voted for.

Fuck 'em. Go after the millions that didn't vote and are coming of age to vote.

BlueTsunami2018

(4,288 posts)
12. You need an inspirational figure for that.
Thu Mar 27, 2025, 10:40 AM
Mar 27

President Obama was able to get a lot of people who never voted before to get registered and vote because he was dynamic, highly charismatic and exciting.

Piss was also able to get a ton of people who never cared about politics at all to register and vote for him because he spoke to them in a way that normal politicians do not. He excites them.

Without an inspirational figure to get these non-voters motivated, they’re just going to sit on the sidelines. There just doesn’t seem to be anyone like that in either party.

This all presumes there will actually be real elections going forward.

Mariana

(15,494 posts)
10. That's right.
Thu Mar 27, 2025, 10:17 AM
Mar 27

For years, we've seen headlines breathlessly telling us that this or that group is turning on Trump - elderly people, Evangelical Christians, white women, etc. None of it ever happened.

valleyrogue

(1,980 posts)
7. They cannot admit they are wrong,
Thu Mar 27, 2025, 09:35 AM
Mar 27

and that every single thing they were raised with is a complete and total lie.

lindysalsagal

(22,623 posts)
8. It's a "must-read" article. It's all the psychology of the magas. Our common reality doesn't effect them.
Thu Mar 27, 2025, 09:57 AM
Mar 27

We can't turn the magas. We can only outlive them.

GaYellowDawg

(4,952 posts)
9. That was a fantastic article - thanks for posting!
Thu Mar 27, 2025, 10:01 AM
Mar 27

This stood out for me:

The cognitive dissonance created by a choice that seemed good at the time and the resulting harm is resolved by reasoning backward and discounting, eliminating, or otherwise rationalizing the negative outcomes as unavoidable, minimizing them, or through some other reasoning that resolves the contradiction.


The phrase in italics is exactly what fundamentalists do with negative outcomes in their life. Did someone's loved one die of cancer? Did a tornado flatten someone's house? Or their friend's house? "It was God's will." "We don't know God's plan." "God makes all things good." "This too shall pass." The religion gives them a mindset where God is given credit for everything good, but somehow escapes responsibility for anything bad. Easily transferred to Trump and the GOP.
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