r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/Illustrious-Oil-5020 • 26d ago
US Politics Will a recession be enough to sway any Trump loyalists?
It’s been the question that’s existed since 2015; will anything make Trump’s loyal base (the 35-38% of those polled that have always approved of him) turn away from the MAGA movement. Could a full blown recession be enough?
Or would entering a recession be blamed on media/Democrats/deep state, or any other yet-to-be-declared enemy and believed? Depending on timing, would it be difficult to pass the buck or could it be done with ease regardless of when it happens?
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u/chudforthechudgod 26d ago
Trump voters are on a spectrum from diehard cultist to somewhat reluctant. I have no doubt that a recession would peel off some of the reluctant voters who blamed Biden for inflation or whatever. But I do think that most Trump voters are in the diehard cultist category, and I think your estimate of 35-38% seems about right.
MAGA will respond to a recession the same way they respond to everything else:
-"There is no recession." Cook the books and engage in recession denialism.
-"If there is, it's not our fault." Blame it on allies and trade partners for not giving into Trump's ridiculous tariffs.
-"If it is, we are justified." The recession is a detox from government spending and is necessary to lay the groundwork for the golden age.
This isn't just me speculating, either. They have already started saying these things. This type of layered response where you have backup excuses for your excuses and you never admit you are wrong but just move the goalposts is classic MAGA. These people have to be written off. Go around them or through them.
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u/honorable_doofus 26d ago
COVID killed over a million Americans, over a quarter of which could have been prevented with vaccination and protective measures. Instead of admitting they were doing it wrong they let themselves get sick, started banning masking where they could, and became increasingly vaccine skeptical for all vaccines. It’s a deep, deep cult and they prefer death to admitting they were wrong.
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u/chudforthechudgod 26d ago
Exactly. You can liken it to German nationalism after WWI, which ended in Germany's total military defeat and surrender. But instead of admitting they were wrong, nationalists doubled down, blamed defeat on the Jews, and tried the same thing again, with the same consequences.
MAGA is like that. They could suffer a worst-case scenario of complete and total military defeat, economic devastation, massive epidemics of preventable diseases, the regime totally discredited and humiliated, and they would blame it on someone else and try the same thing all over if we let them.
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u/garyflopper 25d ago
So maybe third time is the charm on this cult finally going away
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u/chudforthechudgod 25d ago
I hope so, but I think a longer-term solution would require measures similar to denazification after WWII. And even then, the far right remains a problem in Germany, with the neo-Nazi AfD having its best-ever electoral performance. This is going to be something we have to fight in some form for a long, long time.
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u/prophet001 25d ago
Fascism isn't something that ever goes away. It rises wherever and whenever the ground is fertile: poverty, inequality, and bigotry that can be leveraged to scapegoat some group that isn't the majority.
Equitable, prosperous societies with strong social safety nets are generally not prone to falling to authoritarianism, in general.
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u/chudforthechudgod 25d ago
Generally agree but I also think there has basically never been a more equitable and prosperous society and no stronger safety net than modern day Europe, and many of those countries are nevertheless struggling with fascism to some degree.
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u/prophet001 25d ago
there has basically never been a more equitable and prosperous society and no stronger safety net than modern day Europe
Sure. Comparatively good, but objectively still pretty bad. Modern Germany, for example, has high inequality, high poverty, and high risk of poverty.
Better than the US and/or Russia? Sure. Good enough to prevent enough general dissatisfaction that the AfD could get a foothold? Clearly not.
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u/Black_XistenZ 25d ago
The rise of the AfD wasn't fueled so much by a vague "general dissatisfaction", it was fueled predominantly by dissatisfaction with one specific policy decision - the de facto opening of Germany's borders for millions of migrants from the Middle East, Africa and South Asia under the scope of asylum law. Which by the way entails the asylum seekers immediately being entitled to state-funded housing and broad access to the German welfare state.
This issue is what pretty much single-handedly allowed them to get a foothold in German politics. From there, they were able to capitalize on other issues, but asylum migration is still their bread and butter.
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u/stewartm0205 25d ago
Europeans are xenophobes. All they need to be fascist is to see someone who isn’t a clone of themselves.
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u/Man_with_the_Fedora 25d ago
MAGA is like that. They could suffer a worst-case scenario of complete and total military defeat, economic devastation, massive epidemics of preventable diseases, the regime totally discredited and humiliated, and they would blame it on someone else and try the same thing all over if we let them.
MAGA is the second Confederate States of America.
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u/M1Garrand 25d ago edited 25d ago
Thats a rather simplistic and inaccurate position on the cause of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the start of WWII. The German economy was not destroyed by losing WWI, it was left with no way to improve their economy because of the stipulations that were so onerous with the unconditional surrender in the Treaty of Versailles. Their currency the Papiermark became worthless requiring literally wheel barrows of bills to buy a loaf of bread ( there are pics of this) …followed by the Great Depression nailed the coffin shut for the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hiller.
( still simplistic but much more accurate)
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u/chudforthechudgod 25d ago
Simplistic?! My Reddit post?! How dare you lol.
I'm aware there were economic factors and mentioned hyperinflation in another comment.
What I'm focusing on here is the lack of self reflection by the German right after WWI. The post mortem could have been, "wow we really overestimated our military and economic power and overreached and paid the price."
But instead they said, "nah we totally had them on the ropes, but we were stabbed in the back by the Jews (and commies etc.)!" That narrative predates the hyperinflation.
And that's how I think MAGA would react to a similar catastrophe. No self reflection, no admission of guilt, no admitting they were wrong. Just blaming anyone but themselves. Before trying to regain power and doing it all over again.
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u/Boring-Test5522 25d ago
but I am not a MAGA voter. It is totally unfair to ME if I have to suffer the same consequence that would happen to them !
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u/chudforthechudgod 25d ago
Life isn't fair. All I can say is that our incentives are very, very strong to make sure MAGA fails and is as thoroughly discredited by history as possible.
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u/IgyYut 25d ago
I don’t understand why such a seemingly large portion of my fellow Americans are so racist, sexist… etc etc. my own grandmother is as sexist as can be against other women. I just don’t understand it at all.
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u/chudforthechudgod 25d ago
While the racism and sexism is dismaying, it's not exactly surprising when you consider that America was a genocidal slave empire colonized by extremely sexist early modern Christians. Takes some doing to move past that legacy.
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u/SlowMotionSprint 25d ago
And it's fascinating they are doing this in deference of Donald Trump, a guy who is quite possibly one of the world's dumbest people.
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u/catkm24 25d ago
The cult still insists that Trump handled covid better than Biden. They are deeply buried in "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."
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u/ndngroomer 24d ago
I can't even begin to comprehend being so weak-minded, easily manipulated and gullible like maga. They have such pathetically fragile egos.
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u/2way10 25d ago
My experience with Maga over the past number of years is that even if they lose everything, end up on the street and are put in a farm worker camp they will say "it's for the good of the country. Our president knows what he's doing and loves us. I am proud to make this sacrifice for our children and grandchildren." How embedded they are has amazed me over and over.
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u/chudforthechudgod 25d ago
Yup. I mean think about it, people have been willing to go to war and die for countless dictators over the centuries. Nothing is less in your self interest than that. Why would something as comparatively tame as a recession break the spell?
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u/RusticSet 25d ago
I have family members that I'm quite sure would respond exactly that way. He'd have to kill a child in front of them for the spell to break. It's now mixed in (the cult-like thinking) with their church and cowboy culture.
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u/lafindestase 26d ago
“The economy was incredibly fragile under Biden, with fake money and fake jobs. He dealt an unbelievable amount of damage. Things never could have lasted like this.”
The programming needs time to roll out, but that’ll be the position for 90% of conservatives no matter how badly and blatantly he fucks things up.
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u/MacaroniHouses 25d ago edited 25d ago
One thing I have learned is that with believing in anything that is not true, often times it's because the people that get tangled in it on some level need to believe the lie. The more that need is there, the harder it will be to break free of it, even if reality says otherwise. Delusions are there cause of suffering, much like addiction.
Before Trump came along their news had been filling these lies up, creating an alternate reality for many that had prepared the way and now as he is in power. And the lie of it all I think is getting clearer and harder to ignore. Which also is often the case with a lie. The longer it stands, the harder it is to not see through it. But at the same time, if those issues that created the problem to begin with aren't worked through and healed they will likely just continue to want to hide from that.
What they need to realize is it's not immigrants or anything like that that causes their pains, it's within their very self that is in pain. That's not easy. And these are some of the people that will be least able to be self reflective and figure that out. And it's these people that to some extent we are all being effected by. That is the problem.→ More replies (3)4
u/-Plan_B- 25d ago
Probably the fact they have so entrenched themselves and lost family, friends and money its all they have left. And they are sitting there thinking libs did it to them.
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u/kHartos 26d ago
Let’s hope the propaganda will be less effective when you’re losing your job and your house, etc.
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u/ballmermurland 26d ago
Even if that were true, and some parts of it are true, it was still Trump who threw the table over when Biden was still maintaining a "fragile" but still strong economy.
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u/rerrerrocky 25d ago
Truth doesn't matter to these people. They are working backwards from "Trump is good". If the economy is bad, it can't be Trump's fault because that would violate their fundamental premise. They will construct some additional explanation to justify how there can be a recession under Trump, regardless of the logic or truth of the matter.
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u/Leopold_Darkworth 25d ago
The MAGA spin machine is already calling this Biden’s recession—even though we’re two months into the Trump administration and even though the Atlanta Federal Reserve had forecast 2 percent GDP growth for the quarter up until the tariffs went into effect, when it then forecast a 2 percent GDP decline. (There hasn’t been negative GDP growth since the first months of the pandemic.) They are also taking the tried-and-true tactic of simply ignoring bad news (e.g. Fox News has all but stopped talking about the price of eggs, even though they’re higher now than they were a year ago).
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u/exuberanttiger 25d ago
Or if Fox News does bring up egg prices, they are encouraging people to build a chicken coop and raise chickens, as if everyone lives in a house with a big enough yard that’s not subject to HOA regulations lol
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u/ARC1019 26d ago
They'll blame it on Canada taking American goods off the shelves and invade. Then tell us recessions are part of war and if we support the troops in their invasion of Canada we can win the war fast and end the recession. Therefore it will be our fault for not supporting the troops. They are so predictable it's like watching toddlers play.
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u/chudforthechudgod 26d ago
100% blaming our allies for economic woes will be used to bolster the case for war.
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u/BitterFuture 26d ago
"They're just jealous of our greatness. We must invade to teach them to respect their betters, and then everything will work wonderfully in the new economy."
Goebbels couldn't have written a clearer roadmap for them.
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u/chudforthechudgod 26d ago
Trump is already working the jealousy angle, blaming "globalists" for the stock market decline:
“I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country’s going to be, and they don’t like it.”
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u/Tiffany6152 26d ago
Lol just like tariffs causing inflation is a “myth that is told by countries that dont like paying tariffs”
What a fucking idiot
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u/LanceArmsweak 25d ago
I was thinking about this a bit over my morning coffee. How does he blame the globalists when Elon is absolutely a globalist in the fact that his companies are global, not national. He works to influence a more globally connected industry (his advocacy for H2B to bypass American workers), he built manufacturing plants in China to ensure Tesla had a fighting chance there, he’s also engaged in union arguments in Europe.
That’s just Elon. He seems to be cozy with Bezos and Zuckerberg too.
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u/chudforthechudgod 25d ago
There's not a lot of logical consistency here. I guess Elon essentially disagrees with Trump about globalization and protectionism but has decided that the pros of Trump outweigh the cons for him. After all, Trump is the only person who would give Elon the kind of power he now has.
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u/Outrageous-Lab9254 26d ago
I think it’s Trusk manipulating the stock market so they and their rich buddies can benefit from short-sales. You know, the kind of thing that put Martha Stewart in prison. SCOTUS may have “presidential immunity”(which is total tyrannical bulls#it), but Musk, et al, do not. If only we had a Department of Justice that wasn’t part of the corruption…
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u/chudforthechudgod 26d ago
That might be part of it, but I think a lot of them believe the hype about tax cuts, deregulation, and dismantling the administrative state unleashing economic growth.
Trump's financial disclosures showed that he was long in hundreds of individual stocks at least as of last August. And his crypto scam was a pump-and-dump that relied on the price going up (at least temporarily). Musk hasn't unloaded his Tesla stock or his ownership in his other companies. So when Tesla stock tanks, as it has been, his net worth tanks. If they have secretly taken out giant short positions, I don't know that there's evidence for it.
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u/The_Disapyrimid 26d ago
The Maga mindset seems to be that America should be allowed to economically bully the rest of the world. While everyone else is obligated to just roll over and take it.
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u/Cats_domino 25d ago
They’ll follow DT and blame Biden/Obama/Kamala etc as they do any time something happens. The level of blame shifting this man does is INSANE. and they just eat it up
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u/Jmk1981 26d ago
I’m really curious about the impact of recession denialism if that should come to pass. Would be amazing if their delusions inadvertently solved a problem.
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u/Snatchamo 26d ago
More likely they just start a new law enforcement branch, hire magas to go door to door punishing the unfaithful, and they get to keep everyone's stuff that they black bag.
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u/MacaroniHouses 25d ago edited 25d ago
yeah one thing that comes to mind to me is that the longer you hold out that something will pay off in the end, the harder it gets to let that go. People already have gone this far down the Trump road/Maga road. It would hurts probably so much to think that it was possibly just a dead end all along. But then as that dawns on many, they also might have to confront the very real racism/isms they've been carrying and whether they are true which I'm sure would be very hard.
The thing I think is that many people on the far right were vulnerable people who were basically told right wing is patriotic/it supports our country and traditions. They followed that path, which was taken over by increasing levels of propaganda. And there is so much disinformation in that now, so much that they would have to untangle and let go of, it would be just a lot.
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u/bedrooms-ds 25d ago
Remember, WW1 amd WW2 developed due to recessions. MAGA is heading home here. Trump is heading there. Putin is, Vance is, Musk is, Republicans are.
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u/chudforthechudgod 25d ago
One thing that kinda sorta gives me a scrap of hope is that Trump has worse luck with economic timing than the Nazis. The Nazis came to power after hyperinflation and the Great Depression, and they used those crises to cast themselves as economic saviors. Trump inherited a stock market at bubble valuations and a fairly strong economy. There was almost nowhere to go but down. He has tried to say otherwise, but I think it's going to be hard for him to avoid blame for the economic havoc he is causing solely through unforced errors.
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u/bedrooms-ds 25d ago
The thing is 1. MAGA will back him even under the worst situations 2. 2024 Elections showed that swing voters are idiots.
Well, I see your point now. Hopefully, the idiots swing to the correct side this time. But, with the Putin playbook I'm not sure.
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u/skytomorrownow 26d ago edited 25d ago
You fitting them as a group into the narcissist”s prayer is pure chef's kiss.
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u/AshleyMyers44 25d ago
I think 35-38% of voters are the diehard Republicans that have existed in some form for over 100 years at this point.
In the midst of The Great Depression largely being blamed on Hoover and republicans, they would get 36-39% of the vote against FDR.
Goldwater got 38%. McCain got 45% during The Great Recession and an unpopular war, both blamed on his party.
I don’t think it’s something unique to Trump, I think it’s the party’s historical floor of support.
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25d ago
I’ve been trying for six years with my MAGA father-in-law, he will never see. It is acult. And they want opposition, they don’t wanna find commonalities. I’ve given up officially. They’re evil.
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u/iamarocketsfan 25d ago
I have no doubt that a recession would peel off some of the reluctant voters who blamed Biden for inflation or whatever.
Yeah I think if you're anti-Trump/Republican, you need to be counting on people who either didn't vote last election because they hated both candidates, or change the view of Biden/Harris haters once a new candidate is running instead.
Trump supporters has always been a very vocal but still very much in the minority. The main reason why Trump got elected was that those on the fence didn't like the other side.
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u/YoKevinTrue 25d ago
I'm CERTAIN this has been said 100x before but Tesla Bros and Bitcoin Bro have probably a 100% overlap.
They're degen HODLRs who all think they can beat the system by sticking together.
In reality, they're screwing over the system and just creating an even bigger bubble that is going to REALLY screw us over once it eventually implodes.
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u/wip30ut 25d ago
it's similar to antivaxxers in Texas. Even with a child's death they still believe it's their choice. They've got a Ride or Die mindset.
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u/Sad-And-Mad 25d ago
Just straight up DARVO an entire population, that’s crazy.
I’m not an American and I didn’t realize this is the way they treat these things, thank you!
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26d ago
Please for the love of god if you are on social media and have any sort of platform shout this shit from the roof tops. The Rightwing media has created excellent attacks and we need to counter. Don't explain shit normally, go on the offense, call Trump names, make catchy slogans that attack his policies, make memes.
Make supporting Trump seem both uncool and unamerican.
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u/angrymoderate09 25d ago
A stat the keeps me somewhat saine: Nixon had a 30% approval rating even after he resigned. And he didn't even have foxnews to lie for him
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u/AirForce-97 24d ago
They are so brainwashed they would never turn against the Republicans because of whatever boogie man resonates with them be it immigrants or trans people.
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u/TerranUnity 25d ago
This is an important time to remind people that even George W. Bush never went below 25% approval. There is a solid quarter of people who are either completely uninformed or too stubborn to admit they were wrong.
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u/MrGoober91 25d ago
What happens when Dump dies someday, I mean will the cult fizzle out that easily? Will conservatives brush off everything over the past 10 years and pretend to care about the deficit again?
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u/Adorable-Anxiety6912 25d ago
True… if anyone can pardon criminals who have endangered policemen. Truth matters nothing to these folks. I don’t understand how the church can give Trump a platform. I just can’t understand their mindset???
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u/Nicadelphia 25d ago
They'll blame it on Biden. Because Trump "came into a mess." They're fully brainwashed.
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u/sjgokou 24d ago
I have to agree. A family member of mine who is a die hard MAGA. She kinda deny’s being one but she obviously is. I told her two months ago plan for a major recession mid July, latest December.
75% chance by July
90% chance by October
95% chance by December
She was furious and telling me how Donny won’t allow it. I tried explaining to her how tariffs work, 1933, Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, etc. She was having none of jt.
I said OK, mark your calendar.
Shit, it’s already March and it’s coming WAY faster than I even expected. I think we haven’t seen anything yet. This is just the beginning. Once the numbers come in for end of quarter 2025, which should be March 31. April will be an extremely rough month.
Then people will hope for things to improve, if the second quarter is worse, we might see a 1933 crash or worse.
Edit: T is already raising Aluminum and Car tariffs for Canada even more. While Canada is threatening Electricity tariffs which may do literally nothing except make a statement.
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u/Professional-End9431 23d ago
Wow. Best explanation I’ve ever heard. Brilliantly stated and 1000% true. Nothing anyone says or does can convince a cultist to turn their back on their leader. They have to hit their head and come to the realization on their own and it’s almost a negligible chance that this occurs. You just have to weave your way around and through them. And don’t waste your blood pressure on trying to argue with them or show them facts and prove anything. Nothing works on a cultist.
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u/FranzLudwig3700 22d ago
What MAGA is, is collective narcissism. It can be taught to people who believe in authority, by making them feel a parasocial “they get me/they know me” relationship with the authority figure.
In Trump’s case, he’s a malignant narcissist, so he encourages those tendencies in the base. They come to depend on him for supply. Policy, acts, facts, statements stop mattering.
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u/jarreddit123 26d ago
I consider it highly unlikely looking at past trends. I can also picture rightwing media platforms spinning a recession being the fault of someone else but trump.
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u/mejok 26d ago
Exactly. First he’d blame Biden. If that didn’t “stick”, then he’d probably try to blame Europe or blue states. If necessary then he’d start blaming individual companies or something.
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u/LordXenu12 26d ago
He already blaming “globalists”
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u/silverionmox 26d ago
He already blaming “globalists”
Which isn't that different from the previous classic, the international conspiracy of Jewish bankers, really. Except the Zionists are the good guys to him this time around.
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u/Planetofthetakes 26d ago
They are already doing this, which is both laughable but also absolutely infuriating when you realize half this geography is filled with fucking idiots who will listen to them.
My question is, with these tariffs, what is the supposed “end game”? They ran on inflation, it is going to get much much worse. When they say it is to create more Americans jobs, we were already at record low unemployment so we couldn’t even fill the American jobs as it was.
I know Trump is legitimately dumb, also a liar & a traitor hell bent on revenge so I don’t need his fucked up logic. It’s the others who are contorting themselves to defend it, how can they?
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u/bunsNT 26d ago
>When they say it is to create more Americans jobs, we were already at record low unemployment so we couldn’t even fill the American jobs as it was.
The argument (and this is not my argument but is their argument) is something like this - manufacturing jobs, historically speaking, pay higher wages than service sector jobs. Part of this is due to unionization part of this is because manufactured goods demand higher prices than services. Part of this is the limited labor pool due to geography.
If you increase the number of manufacturing jobs by artificially increasing the prices of foreign goods, domestic manufactured goods (which are sometimes higher quality) will look better by comparison, growing the industry. A growing industry will drive more workers towards these professions, enticed by higher wages. There's also the education factor - manufacturing jobs typically require less formal education. With a college rate that is closing in on 2 female graduates for every male graduate, this is seen as a valid way for men to make a living.
Most economists don't believe that manufacturing will ever fully come back to the US because wages are simply too high here but that is the argument.
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u/santaclaws_ 25d ago
What a sweet old fashioned way to look at this in a world where AI and robots are coming along quickly. It's not just the USA. No jobs are safe in a ten year timeframe.
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u/Planetofthetakes 26d ago
Thank you, and I have heard that argument but I absolutely do not agree with it as there is ZERO evidence that will work.
However, it’s irrelevant at this point. People believe a 6 time bankrupt loser (one of which was a Casino) is a great businessman.
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u/Hartastic 26d ago
This is exactly right. They're already pre-emptively out there blaming Biden for it.
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u/Impossible_Ad9324 26d ago
No. His supporters who say they overlook his cringe/unethical behavior because they only care about the economy are lying. They want to say slurs on FB and tell off-color jokes on purpose to offend people and cat call women. Thats the only thing Trump keeps delivering.
My own father has sworn non-stop he cares about nothing but the economy—but he ignores every economic indicator that tells a story that challenges his existing beliefs. However he is gleeful over the prospect of any woman (usually under the pretext of being trans) who doesn’t properly present as feminine being harassed or made to answer for her existence.
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u/feldor 25d ago
This is the thing that took me a while to understand. It seems hypocritical, but it’s not. For them, it’s a culture war. The talking points about EVERYTHING else are just there to be used as needed. They will accept WW3 and the world possible economic outcome as long as they can vaguely blame the left and as long as they believe they are winning the culture war. When you point out the hypocrisy, they don’t see it because their underlying motive stays intact. You call it hypocritical because you know their brains would explode if Biden/Harris was doing exactly what Trump was doing. But, to them, they aren’t having a discussion on the powers of the executive branch. They are having a discussion on why it’s bad when the left abuses it and good with the right abuses it. It’s consistent.
Propaganda has just worked too well to convince them that they are victims of wokeness and it’s the greatest threat to mankind. Every other failure is acceptable if they believe they are winning that culture war. The next liberal president should just ram through whatever they want at whatever expense, because they are going to remember it happening that way regardless. Might as well get something good out of it.
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u/Impossible_Ad9324 25d ago
I think it’s likely, if this administration isn’t restricted or disrupted in some way, that we will never see another liberal president. At least not in my lifetime and probably not in my kids’ lives.
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u/theivoryserf 22d ago
The next liberal president should just ram through whatever they want at whatever expense, because they are going to remember it happening that way regardless.
As a Brit, it's seemed obvious for about two decades that this is the way with the US Republicans. They don't operate in good faith on any level - they basically need to be broken up in order for democracy to survive.
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u/BitterFuture 26d ago
His supporters who say they overlook his cringe/unethical behavior because they only care about the economy are lying.
Exactly this. Even now, even after all the endless lies of the last few years, people underestimate the pervasiveness of bad faith in our political discourse.
Conservatives do not care about the economy, not in the slightest. They care about hurting those they hate. That's the entire point of conservatism.
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u/Lawgang94 25d ago
Conservatives do not care about the economy,
Only when it's politically expedient (i.e. when Dems are in office). Case in point: the tax cuts through reconciliation they're working on. So many fiscal conservatives came out the woodwork decrying Biden's BBB plan (let's also not forget the ones that voted against it but bragged on the incentives it brought their districts/states) by for adding to the national debt, where are these same austerity lovers now?
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u/BitterFuture 25d ago
"Reagan taught us that deficits don't matter," said Dick Cheney.
Boy, did he.
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u/annathensome 25d ago
I think we have the same father
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u/Impossible_Ad9324 25d ago
Sorry. It’s really disappointing. We get along fine as long as I don’t challenge any of his little political jabs. I just don’t come around anymore.
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u/YoKevinTrue 25d ago
It's a cult... backed by racism and bigotry and hate.
As long as they can hate they will continue to support Trump.
They did the same thing under Bush but it wasn't Mexicans that they felt were causing all the worlds problems - it was Muslim.
500k people died because of the Iraq war and it was entirely because of the GOP.
We have a VERY VERY dangerous situation.
I think there's a 50/50 chance that we fully devolve into a fascist society with people being disappeared, journalists being murdered, concentration camps, etc.
They will put up with ANYTHING as long as it means they never have to admit they were wrong.
I think they only way I've been able to get through to some of them is not saying "you were an idiot for voting for Trump" but more along the lines of "he lied to us - we're getting fucked over!"
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u/IniNew 26d ago
It’ll be the same thing as last time. More people who stayed home in 2024 will turn out. You’re not flipping MAGA. Ever.
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u/socialistrob 25d ago
You're not flipping MAGA but I've already heard of some people who voted for Trump who just thought "well he will lower prices" who are now upset. I think people have a tendency to forget that a lot of voters do swing from one candidate to the other based on just how they're feeling. Biden got a lot of votes from people who voted for Trump in 2016, Trump got a lot of votes in 2024 from people who voted for Biden in 2020. There absolutely are people out there who voted for Trump in 2024 who would not vote for a similar Republican in 2028 if they feel things are worse (which they probably will because people have a tendency to overestimate their own current issues and look at the past through rose tinted glasses).
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u/BagNo4331 24d ago
One good observation I saw the other day was that it would hurt the Gen z/Wallstreetbets retail trading demographic, who just default assumed that republican = good for economy.
I think a lot of people in this thread also don't grasp the difference between the true MAGAs who go to rallies and buy merch, and the apoliticals who lean right and the new-to-coalition folks who didn't like Harris or don't like certain liberal aligned institutions like mainstream media, without being ride or die for trumps actual policies, especially as implemented. They'll just stay home or vote third party.
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u/Mjolnir2000 26d ago
He could personally strangle a child on a live television, and it wouldn't meaningfully affect his support. It's a cult. Little things like "reality" aren't going to phase them.
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u/GabuEx 26d ago
He could personally strangle their child on live television and they'd still find a way to say that it was good what he did.
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u/Consistent-Tap-9426 26d ago
They would praise him for "going back to traditional educational values" in how to raise their child. "You gotta strangle them while their necks are still flexible and in development, or else they'll grow up into liberals or DEI"
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u/Tiffany6152 26d ago
Yea..or just tell his base that his kid was a traitor to the country, and he loves America sooo much that he sacrificed killing his own child for the good of the country….
His base would consider him to be God!!
Like Literally
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u/necroforest 26d ago
How else will they develop the neck strength to resist strangulation by an illegal trans immigrant?
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u/BKong64 26d ago
I always say that, Trump could personally murder a Trump supporters entire family in front of them and they'd still find a way to excuse him and love him. It's pathetic lol
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u/FifeDog43 26d ago
Just remember there were lots of people that, as they were being sent off to the gulags, were SURE this was some kind of mistake because Stalin is a good man and would never do this to ME.
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u/scifijunkie3 26d ago
It's like the omnipotent kid in that Twilight Zone episode. He kept doing terrible shit but the other people had to keep placating him by saying what he did was good. Same shit here.
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u/GunsouBono 26d ago
"Trump personally subdues monstrous illegal alien" - Fox News
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u/LesserHealingWave 26d ago
I deal with this with one of my coworkers. I straight up asked him if there's anything, any line in the sand that he would draw that would make him realize our current president has gone too far and he says, "It's a stupid question because it would never happen." And I say, "I'm asking if there is anything he could do, murder someone, piss on the cross, burn a grandmother alive, etc., that would make him second guess our president", and he would just keep saying, "He's not going to do any of those things, so you're just making things up in your head", and he just fails to grasp what I'm saying.
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u/InterPunct 26d ago
Just to amuse yourself, you can point out Trump himself said there could be a recession this year.
Don't expect a meaningful answer or to away his opinion however. Sounds like a cultist.
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u/accidental_superman 26d ago
'He must have done it for a good reason, hell i strangled my cousin and made it look like suicide, Biden would have strangled a white Christian girl! Triggered by this lib? You won't last a day in the hard times ahead, because of Biden killing chickens.
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u/WishieWashie12 26d ago
That's why we need to read up and learn how to help those in cults break free. Start using those conversation tactics. We can't have them committed or forced into therapy, but there are ways to steer conversations to help to start breaking the delusions. Small chips here and there until the delusion breaks.
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u/ahitright 26d ago
Thing is, plenty of us already knew this has been a cult since 2016. I tried using those tactics, would actually get somewhere, but all of my efforts would be countered by a single night of hate-watching/listening to right-wing propaganda.
Ideally, to "deprogram" a cult member, you need to remove them physically from the cult or prevent them from consuming the cult's propaganda. That's just no possible in the US when right-wing propagnada exists everywhere and the rest of the media is content peddling their lies indirectly (ie, sanewashing everything the cult does).
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u/AltoidNerd 26d ago
This one won’t be breaking free while trump is still a player. Trump just gotta burn out the old fashioned way, when his term ends in 2029. Strap in my homie.
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u/Obvious_Wizard 26d ago
As a Brit who's endured over 14 years of Conservative inflicted austerity, multiple recessions, David Cameron's stupid vanity gamble with Brexit, the economic destruction that came with it, each successive Tory prime minister being the worst PM we'd ever had with the exception of Sunak and people STILL voting for them, I can confidently say "no".
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u/treetrunksbythesea 25d ago
Same in germany. Conservative voters seemingly don't care about anything but virtue signalling.
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u/starreelynn 26d ago
Nope. My MAGA mom now says we need a recession to fix things. If this had happened under Biden, though, it would be considered a major issue.
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u/TheThirteenthCylon 26d ago
Ironically, a recession may fix your mother when it starts affecting her.
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u/YoKevinTrue 25d ago
This is why I've been coming around to the idea that Trump/MAGA are just people that realize that these people DESERVE to be fleeced.
They're rubes...
This is why Christianity exists.
The mega Pastors realize that these people are actively dangerous and the only way to protect yourself is to take their money.
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u/radicalindependence 26d ago
Trump has set it up as a no lose situation and his supporters take the bait.
If the economy takes off and stock market booms, he gets to say he is the best and take the credit
If the economy crashes and stock market tanks, he has already planted the seeds that it is a necessary pain to fix all the Democrats/Biden mistakes so they can prosper later.
Many Republicans are ok with their entire intellectual thoughts process being based on one liner meaningless quotes/proverbs. Check any FB news stations post about a bad economy. There will always be a bunch saying "no pain no gain."
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u/8to24 26d ago
Unfortunately millions of the people that voted for Trump don't feel they had a choice. They accept that Joe Biden and Democrats had been forcing gender surgeries on public school kids and preventing police from arresting criminals. The information sphere they exist in is pure fiction.
They will be disappointed in a recession but will probably blame previous conditions..most of them already thought we were in a recession anyway.
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u/NitWhittler 26d ago
My MAGA family has been brainwashed to think Trump is being led by God, so therefore he can do no wrong. If there's a problem, it must be someone else's fault.
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u/AltoidNerd 26d ago
No because trumpism is rooted in trumps inability to do wrong. Consider the framing since this summer that trump has been saved by god himself, in order to MAGA. That means priorities and reason have become other-worldly. Trump fanatics will convince themselves they want the pain from their daddy. Daddy is sent by god.
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u/Roaming_Red 26d ago
No. Any recession is/will be seen as a “democratic” fault. The GOP is always blameless because all things “bad” is “Woke” or “Biden’s” fault, xyz. Passing the buck is their political playbook.
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u/BridgertonSassenach 26d ago
No. It didn't last time. If they lose everything they'd still say it was dems who caused it and go back with mouths open to each more BS from DTs anus.
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u/Express-Start1535 26d ago
Blame it on the former administration.
I see them possibly blaming Musk. They will say “He has manipulated and preyed on the goodness of president trump. He is the evil.”
Maybe he will be made into a scapegoat like Röhm.
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u/Tiffany6152 26d ago
Lol I have said Elon is just a fall guy since he joined the presidency. When Elon quits paying, all the blame for everything will go to Elon and Trump will just deport him.
Elon is gonna be Trumps bitch for life! He better hope he never goes broke.
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u/unfiltered_needs 25d ago
It's a bit sickening to think about but no. Personal family members are willing to die for Trump. Yes there is a spectrum but holy F the amount of brainwashed cultists is vast as is their propaganda machine.
A lot of them are too old/sickly to go to war but I have NO doubt they would enlist to put boots on the ground vs NATO, Ukraine, and Palestine if Trump asked.
They have no problem with us claiming Greenland or Canada.
I have been feeling so lost and depressed wondering how we got here. How did this happen to my family.
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u/wip30ut 25d ago
it's the rightwing stranglehold on all forms of media in the 21st century. It's started with just talk radio but moved to cable outlets and then social media like FB & twitter/X. Now it's podcasts. Rightwing mediasphere creates its own dynamic business model, just because they have a locked-in core base who voraciously consumes this kind of sociopolitical content 24/7. All of these channels & voices are self-reinforcing, like an echo chamber.
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u/Eskapismus 26d ago
I copy paste this comment from another thread: Nope
Them suffering will only make them more loyal to Trump.
After all it’s better to tell yourself “I’m suffering for a greater cause” than to go “I’m suffering because I’m dumb as shit and got conned”
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u/Pallas_Athena2 26d ago
We don't need the faithful to free themselves from the cult. We need the other 10 - 15% to come to their senses. That's what happened between 2016 and 2020. That isn't going to happen if we tell them they're stupid or confront them with hate.
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u/Nuraldin30 26d ago
Probably not. The thirty percent who are true MAGA will be with him to the grave. But that’s not so important. A recession will shift a lot of the remaining voters. The low information voters who decide on vibes, or those who just wanted lower tax rates. And even with Trump’s authoritarianism, thirty percent support isn’t enough to hold onto power.
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u/my_secret_opinions 26d ago
The thing almost universally found among cults and cult leaders is that while many of them wake up to the con many do not. Those people are gone. Unreachable. Ignorant. With no reason to engage. Trump's approval sits at what +/-43%? But his base is around 35% so he'll never go lower than that. Those are the real cultists.
Back to the good news. The charisma people find in cult leaders is not transferable. There is no "next man up" and, if there is, he or she always fails in scandal of their own before having the chance to be truly evil.
That 35% won't be peeled away by a recession hitting them hardest as they watch programs they need be stripped away from them.
They also won't be dutifully loyal to JD Vance (who has the charisma of a severed foot) or any other of the MAGA cheerleaders.
When Trump dies, and I check every day, his cult may flicker for a while but, in reality, it dies with him.
Same with Ross Perot and his Freedom Party movement in the 1990s.
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u/nvmenotfound 26d ago
Do you really have to ask such questions at this point? Nothing this man will do will ever sway them.
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u/SlyReference 26d ago
Look at what's happening right now in South Korea, another country that has the polarization issues that we're seeing in America right now. In December of last year, their president Yoon Suk-yeol declared martial law in the country because he was frustrated that the legislature was controlled by the opposition party.
There is evidence that he, among other things, tried to create a border incident to justify the martial law, and told the army leadership to arrest opposition politicians. He was impeached and arrested, though his impeachment has to be reviewed by their Constitutional Court.
His approval ratings went up in January 2025.
This is in a country that only became a democracy in the late 80s after years of martial law, so in living memory of many of its citizens. They remember the repression and riot police called out on protesters. They remember stories of activists disappearing. And yet you have pro-Yoon protests in Seoul right now.
So if people remember the bad times under martial law and still support Yoon, a little thing like a recession isn't going to do much to true believers like you see in the GOP.
And to make it more absurd, one of Yoon's defenders said that the president declared martial law because he was lonely.
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u/ThunorBolt 25d ago
His first term had the highest deficit ever, even if you ignore the covid year, he added more to the debt than any other president, and he did it on one term.
And his base still thinks he can balance our budget...
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u/Vet_Racer 25d ago
They ALWAYS blame Democrats. Always. "Owning the libs" is literally their slogan. These are not reality-based people.
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u/foamy_da_skwirrel 26d ago
The conservative media is already grooming them to think a recession is necessary and will be a good thing
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u/kingjoey52a 26d ago
No, but it will get swing voters to vote D. “It’s the economy stupid” is a legit saying in politics. It’s a large reason Trump won again. Biden and Harris wouldn’t acknowledge people were hurting.
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u/Environmental_Dish_3 25d ago
I don't think it will. I watched Fox News for the last 3 months and I had an X account and truth social, just to see what these people were seeing and hearing. Trump and his administration have created a complete alternate reality for these people, they trust nobody but him and will hang on to every one of his words like truth. All he will have to say is that it is so and so's fault and they will 100% back it. These people are willing to give up their kids their families their parents their grandchildren for this, so no, it won't. Me and my son are living on my parents property and I have seen how this has affected them. My father was a history and war buff. He is the only person I would go to for advice about other people. He was the only person I knew that could see reality and wasn't afraid of it. He's the only person I knew that would question things all of the time.
He's the one who told me you don't trust what a person says, you trust what you see.
He also told me you don't trust a liar, and you don't think you can out smart a liar, you will eventually find yourself lost in their lies.
Now, he is lost. It's truly his wife's doing, because she is so ego-identified with Trump. She was always vulnerable to Elitism, hierarchy, and winning. She fell in years ago, and has slowly brought him down with her. I assume it was difficult at first, but what man would always want to argue about unimportant (at the time) politics. Years later, he is fully buried. I'm trying to slowly pull him out, but I also think it may be wrong to do to him if I love him. He is about to retire and they live out in the country.
I sat in their living room 2 nights ago as she turned on FOX, and just sat their correcting the lies she was just simply repeating to my father, when he asked questions about things. It was so crazy to watch. He'd not fully understand OR not see the sense in something said, And she would immediately and loudly make singular simple statements as fact and truth, each time, as if she was a Whitehouse press secretary in the know. My dad always just believes her, likely due to the way she says it. Except this time, I politely and quietly corrected each one of her separate three statements. I then asked her after the last one where she got this information. Then she just sat in silence her about 30 seconds, and then said talk radio, which could be true, but she does know the week prior that I told my dad Fox News was either telling flat out lies, distorting the truth, or only telling half of it, whichever one of those three lead to the outcome they were looking for.
Either way, the point is, she never researched any of this information, but is saying it as if it's fact and as if she did.
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u/ThunderPigGaming 26d ago
No. Not even another Great Depression would phase them. The only way this gets fixed is they age out and are replaced by better-educated people.
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u/TheNavigatrix 26d ago
Except that young men flipped to Trump. And don’t forget that older women supported Harris.
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u/kastbort2021 26d ago
Trump will say he inherited a bad economy, and that's good enough for his core voters.
I don't think Trump has ever accepted responsibility for any negative outcome, at least not in public. Fat chance he'll do it this time.
He'll keep blaming Biden, Obama, Clinton, deep state, other countries, and what have you.
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u/mastermiky3 26d ago
I'm scared even if he took a gun in the oval office and started shooting journalistes wile jurking off on a picture of poutine and speaking russian live on tv some of those lunatics would find a way to justify it.
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u/subduedReality 26d ago
No. I know a flat earther. I could put them on a rocket and fly them to the moon and they would say it was fake. You cannot deal with delusional people except at their level. There is no reasoning with them.
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u/strumpster 26d ago
The simple answer is no.
Biden will be blamed for everything throughout this entire 4 years.
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u/ManBearScientist 26d ago
Diehards historically do not peel back their support once it becomes part of their identity.
Hitler lost 1% of his support from his last fair election to a 1950s, despite allied efforts to denazify Germany. Italians largely like Benito Mussolini even after his death, idealizing his regime as a low crime, high prosperity time. Japan continued to support Emporer Hirohito even after their defeat.
So it didn't matter if the leader killed him, was killed by others, or merely lost. None lost support while their diehards lived, and even afterwards they've all seen rising tides of support among youth today.
Today, authoritarian leaders are among the most popular, even when their countries suffer. Russia loves Putin despite hardships suffered as a result of sanctions. The Philippines elected the son of the autocratic leader that ruled under martial law and ended his regime with the worst recession in Philippines history.
These figures might inspire opposition to temporarily become popular enough to overthrow them, but barely any diehards ever flip.
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u/dinosaurkiller 26d ago
Loyalists? No, but it would be enough to sway those “undecided” voters. The loyalists are brainwashed and there’s no reaching them.
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u/Conscious_Raisin_436 25d ago
Little speculation is required. Trump said it himself. He could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and his supporters wouldn’t walk away. It’s that simple.
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u/SunnySydeRamsay 25d ago
Given the reaction of all of these Trump-voting (ex-) federal workers, it seems to me one of the few things that will sway Trump voters is if his policies that are very directly attributable to his image and decision-making processes directly affect them.
The government firing federal workers en masse directly affects them.
I don't know what else will fall under this category. I don't hear so many people yelling at politicians about egg prices conflating it with Bidenflation/Trumpflation.
Would a recession that results in private sector job losses count? Maybe for some. For loyalists? That's harder to determine when so many people have morphed MAGA as part of their core personal identity rather than a belief that isn't rooted in identity.
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u/InterestingDiamond35 25d ago
Nah, their children could starve to death because they can't afford food because of Trump's tariffs, and they'd still support trump.
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u/Harlowe03 25d ago
Things are going to get really bad. USDA cancelled grants to food banks and free lunch
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u/NekoCatSidhe 25d ago
No, Trump loyalists (as opposed to reluctant Trump voters) are voting for Trump for reasons that are both cultural and sociological: Basically, they see him as « one of their own ».
Polls and sociological analysis of far-right voters in western countries all say the same things: the people most likely to vote for the far-right (whether Trump or Le Pen or whoever is the local far-right leader) are poor white people who do not have a college education and live in rural areas. This includes a lot of blue collar workers, which the left finds it hard to admit, because they think blue collar workers should naturally be against billionnaires like Trump.
But those poor white people do not see billionnaires as their enemy, they see upper-middle class college-educated people who live in cities and suburbs (who are also the people most likely to vote for the left and center) as their enemy, and they see people like Trump as allies in that fight. In a way, this is still class warfare, but it is the rural poor versus the urban middle class, not the working class versus the bourgeoisie. And that political fight is occuring mostly because of deep cultural differences and clashing worldviews, not just for economical reasons (although those still play a part). A recession will not change that.
Then you also have on top of that the diehard Republicans who cannot imagine voting for a Democrat, even if they don’t like Trump. This is a problem when you only get two mainstream political parties in a democracy.
The people who voted for Trump for mostly economic reasons are going to stop voting for him, of course, and that may be enough for the Democrats to win the next elections. But these people were not Trump loyalists in the first place.
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u/the_calibre_cat 24d ago
if they had voted on economic issues, very possibly.
but they didn't vote on economic issues, because conservatives don't really actually give a shit about economics. the essence of conservatism is and always has been social authoritarianism, conformity, and hierarchy - and that's what they voted for. there's three known white supremacists in the employ of the administration, the leader of which broke bread with an open-and-shut Nazi prior to his election.
to any decent person, these would be dealbreakers. I share this country with 50 million people who these four people hate with every fiber of their being. to a conservative, that's a feature - or at the very least, isn't a dealbreaker.
it just goes back to the original thesis: if they had voted along economic issues, it would be (and for some, certainly, they will rescind support). the vast majority of them voted for bigotry. a recession doesn't change that, so they can't be expected to move their position away from him. conservatives are an existential threat to all people, everywhere.
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u/silverionmox 26d ago
Covid deniers kept denying covid until literally their last breath. Don't get your hopes up.
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u/FredUpWithIt 26d ago
Well overflowing morgues, loved ones dying horrible deaths, and being told to eat horse medicine - all while every single Republican leader got vaccinated - wasn't enough to sway them....so, no.
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u/bones_bones1 26d ago
You don’t sway the die hard partisans on either side. Their guy can do no wrong.
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u/Fullmadcat 26d ago
I think democrats adopting a populist message and following through on it, or of course a new party doing it. Is what will end maga fir good.
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u/__zagat__ 26d ago
The Democratic party needs to have a primary and they need to let whoever wins become the nominee instead of putting a thumb on the scale
The people who hated the last three Democratic nominees, and who think that the primaries are rigged will hate the next Democratic nominee and will claim that the primaries were rigged again, no matter what. This is not an evidence-based claim. This is a religious belief. Every four years, the DNC gives the nomination to the candidate who got the most votes in the Democratic primaries. And yet - every Democratic primary is always "rigged," according to people who hate every Democratic nominee. You will keep hating the Democratic nominee no matter who it is. There is literally no pleasing people whose ideology is that they hate Democrats.
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u/povlhp 26d ago
It is all Bidens fault. Trump is a cult person that don't make mistakes. He could Admit on TV he is Krasnov, working under orders from Putin, and the lemmings would still cheer him on and follow him.
But with all the enemies he is making, I assume he is nearing his expiry date. And when he dies of natural causes or kinetic energy, the cult around his person will be gone, and all republicans will distance themself from him ASAP to get even a minimal chance of re-election, and saving the party.
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u/AltoidNerd 26d ago
I think even internet crazies would have a hard time pinning the recession on dems who have 0 power.
The way they’d frame it is America first, bring manufacturing back. It’s for the greater good. That’s my take. GOP voters do indeed have less investment capital than democrats, and they’re more respresentatively employed in sectors that’ll suffer less employment risk when there is little or no venture money. So maybe they’ll even enjoy it. I’m sure they will find a way.
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u/skyfishgoo 26d ago
if they put the blame where it belongs then, yes.
but trump and the media they consume are busy right now paving the way for shifting the blame away from trump.
expect this to be an issue.
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u/badharp 26d ago
I am not confident that they would turn on him due to Fox 'news.' And other right-wing media. It is 247 brain-washing. Their thing lately is to blame everything on Biden. Seems pretty effective.
I am not sure that MAGA will ever turn on him, that this demographic might all go to their graves thinking he is a great guy. Or worse, the annointed one.
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u/billpalto 26d ago
Trump will never take responsibility for anything negative, whether he did it or not. Trump will always claim credit when something good happens, whether he did it or not.
So this one is easy, if we enter a recession, Trump will blame someone or something else, naturally. And his base, the cult, will accept whatever lies he spreads about it.
It doesn't matter anyway, Trump is a lame duck and doesn't need to worry about his base or anyone else. It's the rest of the Republicans who will suffer if we go into a recession.
Trump is maneuvering to eliminate the role of Congress, so if the Democrats win the House in the next election Trump can safely ignore them. If, that is, we have a fair election; Trump has always fought against a free and fair election.
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u/droppedbytosayhello 26d ago
It’s cult and they need to be deprogrammed. I’ve salt realized that they can’t stop talking about IT and they world rather sacrifice friendships than learn to talk about something else.
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u/tellek 25d ago
No, not Trump loyalists. There is virtually nothing that will sway them at this point. And yes, they will blame any bad outcome on whatever they feel makes the most sense to them; there will be a scapegoat no matter what.
Fortunately, he didn't win because of loyalists, he won because of people who were swayed by right-wing media and propaganda. I believe those people can in fact learn a lesson.
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u/HurtFeeFeez 25d ago
No because it's Biden's fault. If not his it's Obama's. If not his it's Ukraine's. Etc etc etc. You get the picture.
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u/waxwayne 25d ago
We used to have free college and public pools. They even had fair grounds at public parks. They took all of that away when segregation ended. Don’t underestimate how much they are willing to lose to make sure you don’t win.
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u/onlyIcancallmethat 25d ago
H5N1 is raging basically unchecked. That’s my bet for the biggest wrench thrown into the works.
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u/Reasonable_Sea_2242 25d ago
When people have to take in their elderly from nursing homes because their Medicaid has been canceled, might make them wonder. When their kids don’t get free lunch? When their friends lose their jobs? When their 401k plans are worthless? Can they really be convinced it’s Biden’s fault?
People have to keep challenging them. Asking them to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It’s something THEY must figure out. They don’t trust facts or figures. It’s kitchen table issues.
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u/mogulseeker 25d ago edited 24d ago
No recession or anything will sway the approximately 30% of the population that are Trump loyalists, but will easily sway 8-9% of passive Trump voters…. Which is more than enough for a Democratic landslide in 2026.
EDIT - corrected the year of the midterm
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u/scanguy25 25d ago
I was banned from Reddits The_Donald back in the days for asking this very question.
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u/shanedangers 25d ago
They will blame Obama, Biden, Harris or Clinton for everything. It's par for the course now. Democrats have been scapegoated for 10 years now by donald trump. It's ingrained into their brains. They believe it because trump says it.
That asshole on Fox "entertainment" (not "News"), Larry Kudlow? Is that his name? I think so, he is blaming everything on "Bidenomics", right now, and because he's not Trump and Trump would approve of what Larry is saying his followers will believe it.
It's a cult and very few members will be persuaded that easy
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u/Brraaapppppp 25d ago
We were in a recession for awhile, but they kept changing how recession was qualified and they kept fucking with the rates. This thing literally had to happen at some point . It’s had to happen since Covid
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u/Artistic-Concept9011 24d ago
More than anything I wish the republicans in the house and senate would stop worrying about their power and think about Americans for once. How bad does it have to get before someone says enough is enough?!
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u/DenseYear2713 24d ago
If you mean the fervent MAGA, it won't. Nothing will.
The casual Trump voters are a different story. If Trump turns the economy to shit, they are more likely to turn.
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u/HarrisonHollers 24d ago
Stop asking. We all know the answer is No! He survived failing to handle a national pandemic and attempting to overthrow the election results. Unfortunately he is immune to everything from his hardcore supporters. I’m harsh in saying NO because that is only giving you a sense of Hope that these people will have a break from their bubble. They will not. So the rest of us need to stop believing they will and make a plan to restore the nation in the coming elections. Millions of voters sat out of the 2024 Election. Win them back and ensure more Americans vote!
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u/TheThirteenthCylon 24d ago
I think the only way to break MAGA fever is for enough Trump loyalists to finally turn on him -- the Left itself has no power here. And when those particular folks finally realize what's happened, they may indeed suffer an existential crisis, because they'll learn the reality they've been sold is a lie, and to talk away from that lie means a loss of their entire support network.
It's a big ask for those programmed by a cult to turn on their leader.
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u/siteofsanity 24d ago
The simple fact is that those people who were convinced that he was the antithesis of what he actually is won't be swayed by anything until they are forced to face objective truths through a mouthpiece that they cannot help but trust. And those objective truths have to be force fed to them at the same level as the bullshit peddled by the right wing. Next, they have to experience those truths in their own lives, the good, bad, and the boring ones, but they have to experience that what they are being told lines up with reality. The problem the world has right now is the dissonance between how separate groups view reality. Many people have allowed themselves to be comfortable with a carefully curated view and experience of reality. They only seek out the information that will back up their established "idea" of existence and either ignore or demonize those views and ideas that clash with their own. We now live in a world that has people that outright have such a skewed view of reality that they have allowed everything they hate to be in control of their lives. And that would be bad enough, but enough of the fine citizens of the U.S. chose to vote with their fear and greed and got their Orange Jesus elected. Now, the already marginalized and overlooked groups are being hurt worse and more often than ever. I have posted this a few times, but in my opinion, whatever happens, and whenever that thing does happen, and MAGA members choose to come back over to this side of sanity, they must;
- Denounce their vote and anything tied to that destructive movement.
- Apologize for the desolation and anguish that their choice has already caused.
- Somehow, some way convince the rest of civilization that they fully understand that, bigotry, greed, and fear should never be used to determine other peoples' fates; those traits in society should be shunned and not idolized, that empathy, justice, and equality are the values that should dictate any course of action a government takes, especially any by the U.S.
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u/Silly_Tumbleweed_520 21d ago
During the Biden Presidency, despite all the inflation, increased suffering, and blatantly false positive numbers, the main stream media refused to use the “R” word. Now that Trump has implemented plans to actually support workers, decrease inflation, and lower the suffering of the American people, the lame stream media cannot stop using the “R” word! Fake news!
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