The Mental Gymnastics Of Voting For Trump

 Paul Campos relays this story from a friend:

My nephew is in his early 30s and lives in Hamtramck [Detroit suburb with large Arab-American population]. A white male with a college education. He is a one-issue voter. Gaza. He accuses Kamala of genocide in Gaza. I asked him how trump’s presidency would benefit the Palestinians more than Kamala’s. He said Gaza would fare no worse under trump. He supports Talib Rashid. He blames Kamala for America’s support of Israel. He accepts the mayor of Hamtramck’s support of trump. He claims the support is reasonable because trump’s first term proves trump is not a warmonger.

My nephew insists that January 6th wasn’t a big deal it was just theatre. He is cavalier in his assessment of the event lumping both parties together. In short, he is willfully ignorant of the dangers trump presents to our democracy.

I was able to pin him on the ACA. My niece has a preexisting condition, and he expressed concern the ACA might be eliminated. He thinks Trump talks one thing but will do another, so he isn’t worried about ACA repeal.

He lives in an ideological fantasy world where those in power are the same and equally bad. I’m concerned. I think he is somewhat representative of his demographic. They are young, white, educated males, wannabe rebels without a clue. They are willing to risk burning down the system on the chance that it will be remade better.

He is firmly against Kamala. He claims he won’t vote for trump. I have my doubts.

Sorry for the rambling diatribe. I couldn’t sleep.

This, to me, is the crux of our problem. "Because Trump was not successful in his attempt to overthrow American democracy, we don't have to worry about him trying again. He won't actually do the horrible things he says he wants to do, even if with something like Dobbs, he did precisely what he said he would. All politicians are the same and corrupt, so I'll support the guy who is openly corrupt, because we need a 'revolution'."

I don't know how many of these White Dudes exist, but they are the demographic I worry about most, because their closed information eco-system is just a broken as their grandparents' Fox News dependency. The 2016 "Harambe Voter" who can't conceive of how awful things can get, because they've been sheltered their whole lives from the actual deprivations in the world, but think they are oppressed because they saw a TikTok that told them so.

You can even see it in what passes for Normie Republicans. Watch Glenn Youngkin flail when confronted with Trump's words.