Believing Qanon is just a symptom of the disease...and expected
Most conservatives will vote Republican, regardless of it’s Donald Trump, Abe Lincoln, or Foghorn Leghorn on the ballot.
I see this when I spend time out in rural SC and FLA with my in laws and their neighbors. Most of them of them are old, working class to middle class income, never travel more than 25 miles and all are white. The more affluent ones may have gone to state schools, but most are nth tier college educated at best. And they’re all kinds of casually racist. If this is representative of small rural towns across the US, I can tell you why these people will vote for Trump - based on their conversations:
They love him because he hates the same people that they do.
Most conservatives will vote Republican, regardless of it’s Donald Trump, Abe Lincoln, or Foghorn Leghorn on the ballot.
I see this when I spend time out in rural SC and FLA with my in laws and their neighbors. Most of them of them are old, working class to middle class income, never travel more than 25 miles and all are white. The more affluent ones may have gone to state schools, but most are nth tier college educated at best. And they’re all kinds of casually racist. If this is representative of small rural towns across the US, I can tell you why these people will vote for Trump - based on their conversations:
- They are kind of racist. They don’t care about BLM or immigration rights. What they see are violent anarchists torching storefronts and future sales clerks who will frustrate them with their foreign accents.
- They associate Democrats and Liberals with high taxes, ineffectual government, wealth redistribution, Marxism, anarchists, crime, corruption, bureaucracy, appeasement, political correctness, cancel culture, gun control, religious persecution, and elitism.
- They associate Republicans and Conservatives with hard work, limited government, success, Capitalism, order, law enforcement, business, support for the troops, American exceptionalism, free speech, gun rights, good Christian values, and the greatness that is America.
- They are kind of dumb, uneducated, and unsophisticated. I mean good luck explaining economic theory to my mother in law.
- They are extremely proud and defensive. Sure, you could explain to them point by point how everything they know about points 2 and 3 is wrong, or at least more nuanced. But they would just view it as a personal attack on their beliefs and just dig their heels in further. It’s why Fox News is so effective. It creates a reasonable doubt so that conservatives can reconcile the horrible things Republican leaders do with their own values by saying Democrats are worse.
They love him because he hates the same people that they do.