Why Trump fans ignore his lies
It’s a shambles in the United States.
Covid-19 is spiraling out of control in many parts of the country. "Black Lives Matter" protests disrupt cities and are themselves sometimes disrupted by counter-protests. The gun control debate continues across the country, with tornadoes, hurricanes and fires appearing to increase in number and strength every year.
Could the situation get even worse? Yes, it is possible, in large part because of Donald Trump's base voters.
Who are these people and why is it possible, if not likely, that they are making the situation worse?
The roughly 20 percent of Americans who follow Trump no matter what, unlike just over 20 percent of the population who vote for him because they're Republicans or think he'll cut taxes, are mostly forgotten, ignored people who do not feel respected.
At the turn of the 20th century, people in the southern and western United States were unhappy with the federal government, which was largely controlled by politicians in the northeast.
The West was underpopulated and felt ignored; the South was angry at its defeat in the Civil War, the harsh conditions of Reconstruction and the end of slavery, which had long supported its economy.
The West, particularly California and Texas, is an economic powerhouse today and no longer feels ignored. Among southerners, however, there is still resentment that their views are not reflected in national policies. Trump tried to fuel this resentment by defending the statues of Confederate heroes and keeping the names of Southern officers on military bases.
Evangelical Christians
Trump supporters form a diverse alliance. Southerners who feel ignored are just a faction within a broad alliance of citizens who feel that the national government is not meeting their needs. Another easily identifiable group in this alliance is Evangelical Christians.
People who do not live in the United States are generally unaware of the place of evangelical Christianity in this country and are often bewildered by the many references to God in political speech, especially that of federal politicians.
They refer to the idea that Americans are God's chosen people. However, this is not a homogeneous group, despite generalizations presented in the media. Not all are against abortion and homosexuals, but many feel that their country is going through a moral setback.
This explains why part of this movement supports a president who is almost certainly a die-hard infidel: his speeches and actions correspond to their concerns.
Trump was the first president to participate in the annual March for Life last January, and his supporters have praised his appointing social conservatives to the Supreme Court, which could make it possible to overturn the Roe judgment against Wade, who legalized abortion.
The xenophobes, those economically disadvantaged
Another group of die-hard supporters believe the United States is under attack from foreigners, such as Central American nationals crossing the southern border. They also mistakenly believe that the Chinese sent Covid-19 to kill Americans.
Sixty years ago, these partisans would have been in the "my country, rightly or wrongly" camp and would have supported American participation in the Vietnam War. They see them as supporting traditional American values, free enterprise, hard work, and white society against destructive change.
It is for these people that Trump promised a wall along the southern border to keep "rapists" out, that he often talks about the "Chinese virus" and says nice things about the counter-Protestants, excusing even the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, this young man accused of killing two people during a "Black Lives Matter" protest in Wisconsin.
Among Trump's supporters, the ones who are often offered the most attention are the dumped in the economy. When Trump was elected, some media rushed to argue that his supporters lacked education and were unable to understand that Trump was lying, embellishing the truth, and stoking bigotry.
This statement is unfair on several fronts.
On the one hand, as companies outsource their production and the US economy increasingly relies on high-tech jobs, workers in West Virginia coal mines or in industrial areas in the Midwest found themselves unemployed.
It's only natural that they support a president who imposes tariffs on foreign countries, including China and Canada, in the hope that manufacturing jobs return to the United States.
It's no surprise that people who believe in the death of the American dream of "work hard and you will succeed" are fed up with politicians on Capitol Hill who seem to care only about power. So they turned to a populist, someone who seems to understand them. Many of them don't care about Trump's lies; all they want is for him to talk about their problems.
People who have financial difficulties are not just factory workers or industrialists with a low level of education. Middle-income workers have also been hit by the industry crisis, which has led to a regional slowdown in the economy.
The information industry
Fifty years ago, a significant portion of the American population listened to the news every night on one of three television stations where a trusted presenter read the news to them. Today, many choose CNN or Fox, which in many ways is reminiscent of the 19th century newspapers that supported a political party and presented the news in a way that favored it.
Obviously, this approach reinforces the opinions of the public about what is happening in the United States. Traditional networks have lost their large audiences of years past and most local newsletters now feature infotainment.
Many people, even those who did not watch the news in the past, will now be drinking on the internet, the source of much of the "fake news" that President Trump says circulates in the mainstream media, but which actually originate from Internet fraudsters.
How many times, for example, have we heard that Covid-19 is a Chinese biological weapon sent to destroy the American population?
Can Trump's support be attributed to lack of education when the worldview of educated people is also reinforced by what they see on the internet or on a cable news channel?
Add to that a number of advocates for reduced government and lower taxes, and you get some die-hard Trump supporters.
Is violence possible?
Many of those who identify with these different groups fall into several categories, such as those evangelical Christians who are angry with the deindustrialization of the United States.
Why do Trump supporters risk making things worse in the next election?
The answer is pretty obvious. When a group feels it has been denied something essential for a long time, its members protest. If the protest still does not bring about change, some or all may resort to violence in an attempt to force change.
Among Trump's supporters are those who will just vote for him, those who will demonstrate for him - which Trump is encouraging - and those who will use violence to secure the re-election of the man they see as their only one. potential savior. Violence is a real possibility as the campaign progresses.
If Trump loses to Joe Biden, the new president will have to quickly show sympathy for the economic issues the pro-Trump movement is fighting for and empathy for the more contentious goals of Trump supporters, otherwise it is almost certain that the violence will intensify.
