Showing posts with label Trump supporters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trump supporters. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
FOCUS: Monty Python's John Cleese and Eric Idle on 50 Years of 'Flying Circus' and the Trump and Brexit 'Shitshow'
11 November 19
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11 November 19
Jeff Slate, The Daily Beast
Slate writes: "John Cleese and Eric Idle recall the comedy troupe's origins, and predict Trump - an 'extraordinary caricature of an asshole' - won't be the end of civilization as we know it."
“It’s been quite clear to me from the very beginning that he is not mentally balanced,” Cleese says of Trump. “He is an extraordinary caricature of an asshole; a person who has no interest in anyone else except himself. Every time he makes a decision, no matter how impulsive it is, it’s the one that makes him feel best about himself for the next 20 minutes. But I think now, for the first time, because he is really becoming a disaster in foreign affairs, some Republicans are beginning to notice it. But the people who support him are basically so ignorant, because they only ever get news from Fox News, I don’t know what you say to people like that. To me, it’s like people who go and watch professional wrestling and don’t realize that it’s fixed. If they can’t see it when it’s right under their nose, I have no idea how they’re going to realize how wrong they are.”
Idle agrees. “He’s stark raving mad. Absolutely mental. He’s a criminal and a con artist and a mob boss.” But he has faith in America.
“America was founded by people who drew up a Constitution that accounted for somebody like Trump,” he says. “They wrote down laws to guard against it. They don’t have that in England. And that’s why they’re in the mess they’re in over there.”
He also draws comfort in the lessons of the Watergate era.
“When we were first touring here, in Canada, actually, the impeachment hearings were on,” Idle says. “It was amazing and riveting. But it was a lesson in how resilient America is, too. William Barr is nothing more than this era’s John Mitchell, and you can see how well that turned out for him.”
For his part, Cleese has less faith in the Republicans in Congress.
“This is the best job they’re ever going to get,” Cleese says, emphatically. “The better-known ones will go on living well, of course. But the rest of them will have to go back to being assistant manager in a shoe shop!”
“They’re terrified of Trump, sure,” contends Idle. “But do you know what they’re really terrified of? If you think the Russians only hacked Hillary Clinton and the DNC, you’re a fool. They hacked everyone! The RNC, Mitch McConnell and, especially, Lindsey Graham. That’s why they’re all so docile. But don’t be fooled that they’re doing this out of allegiance to Trump, or even because they fear his base. They’re afraid of what Russia has on them!”
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Sam Donaldson: Trump Core Supporters "Ignorant," "Don't Care About The Facts Or Know About The Facts"
Veteran reporter Sam Donaldson said it is up to the American people to be interested in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump if they want him impeached and removed.
"Guys out there and gals, if you want the president removed he will be," Donaldson said. "If you don't, I don't care what the evidence shows. I don't care what anybody says. He won't be."
On CNN Monday night, Donaldson told host Don Lemon that there are 30% of Trump supporters in the country and "the rest of us" make up the remaining 70%. Donaldson said "hardcore" Trump backers are "ignorant" and don't care about the facts.
"If enough Americans -- remember, Trump has 30%, 31% of hardcore. They'll follow him to hell or wherever he is going," Donaldson said. "They don't care about the facts. They don't know about the facts. Okay. They're fine people, except they're ignorant about these things that we're talking about and they will not budge on that."
"They're 70% of the rest of us," he said. "If enough of those people decide there's something important here and they think the president ought to be removed he will be. But of course if they think it shouldn't happen and the poll you cited is not near enough support to sustain conviction in the Senate, it won't happen."
The former ABC News reporter also shared a story about why the late Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) decided to vote against removing President Bill Clinton from office. Byrd acknowledged Clinton did commit perjury, but he did not vote yes on that charge citing the president's popularity with the American people.
"Probably was the right vote," Donaldson said, commenting on Byrd's decision not to convict the president.
"If enough Americans -- remember, Trump has 30%, 31% of hardcore. They'll follow him to hell or wherever he is going," Donaldson said. "They don't care about the facts. They don't know about the facts. Okay. They're fine people, except they're ignorant about these things that we're talking about and they will not budge on that."
"They're 70% of the rest of us," he said. "If enough of those people decide there's something important here and they think the president ought to be removed he will be. But of course if they think it shouldn't happen and the poll you cited is not near enough support to sustain conviction in the Senate, it won't happen."
The former ABC News reporter also shared a story about why the late Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) decided to vote against removing President Bill Clinton from office. Byrd acknowledged Clinton did commit perjury, but he did not vote yes on that charge citing the president's popularity with the American people.
"Probably was the right vote," Donaldson said, commenting on Byrd's decision not to convict the president.
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This new Quinnipiac University poll puts support for impeachment and removal at 46 with 48 against it. How much public support is needed for Republicans to flip?SAM DONALDSON, FORMER CBS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Much more support than that. The FOX poll says 51% think it's an inquiry and it should be pursued and all of this. It's just starting but it's moving so fast. And we'll see whether there's enough time for Americans out there who are busy with their lives doing other things, not even watching your show to get interested in it. To think it's not just a bunch of politicians squabbling in Washington. I'm tired of that. But there's something going on here.If enough Americans -- remember, Trump has 30%, 31% of hardcore. They'll follow him to hell or wherever he is going. They don't care about the facts. They don't know about the facts. Okay. They're fine people, except they're ignorant about these things that we're talking about and they will not budge on that.
They're 70% of the rest of us. If enough of those people decide there's something important here and they think the president ought to be removed he will be. But of course if they think it shouldn't happen and the poll you cited is not near enough support to sustain conviction in the Senate, it won't happen.Let me just give you a little story. And that is about Robert C. Byrd, senior [Senator] Democrat from West Virginia. Clinton is being impeached and being tried in the Senate and two weeks they'll vote. And, my dear professional companion Cokie Roberts asked him the question: Senator, how are you going to vote on Article One? It's on perjury. Perjury is a felony. They said he lied to the federal judge under oath. And Byrd said, and I quote him directly because it's emblazed in my mind, "Who is kidding whom? Of course he committed perjury. But the people seem to like him. They don't want him removed and I don't know how I'm going to vote." And of course in two weeks he voted no. Which probably was the right vote. It's up to the American people. Guys out there and gals, if you want the president removed he will be. If you don't, I don't care what the evidence shows. I don't care what anybody says. He won't be.
LINK
Friday, October 18, 2019
‘Low information voters’ are a crucial part of Trump’s support
Many commentators have noted what Thomas Edsall has called the “great democratic inversion,” where voters have become more polarized by education — with less-educated voters gravitating to Trump. But focusing only on education obscures another key factor: whether voters have lower levels of knowledge about politics and less interest in using ideas to understand politics. These attributes do not simply reflect voters’ level of formal education.
Our research finds that Trump has attracted a disproportionate (and unprecedented) number of “low-information voters” to his campaign. Furthermore, these voters are more likely to respond to emotional appeals — whether about the economy, immigration, Muslims, racial relations, sexism, and even hostility to the first African American U.S. president, Barack Obama. They are the ideal constituency for a candidate like Trump.
We define low-information voters as those who do not know certain basic facts about government and lack what psychologists call a “need for cognition.” Those with a high need for cognition have a positive attitude toward tasks that require reasoning and effortful thinking and are, therefore, more likely to invest the time and resources to do so when evaluating complex issues. Those with a low need for cognition, on the other hand, find little reward in the collection and evaluation of new information when it comes to problem solving and the consideration of competing issue positions. They are more likely to rely on cognitive shortcuts, such as “experts” or other opinion leaders, for cues.
Drawing on data from the 2016 American National Election Studies Pilot Studies, we measured the need for cognition based on whether respondents agreed or disagreed that “Thinking is not my idea of fun” and “I would rather do something that requires little thought than something that is sure to challenge my thinking abilities.” We measured knowledge of government based on a question asking how long senators’ terms were and a question on which of four policy areas the government spends the least (the answer was foreign aid; the other options were Medicare, national defense and Social Security). We focused our analysis on whites because nonwhites were not supporting Trump in sufficient numbers.
Both of these measures were correlated with how much whites liked Trump, relative to Hillary Clinton, This was true even after accounting for education, income, age, gender, partisanship and ideology.
For example, we found that people who did not know either of these questions about government evaluated Trump 20 points more favorably than Clinton, compared with those who knew both of those questions. This was not true in 2012: Knowledge of politics had little relationship with people’s views of Mitt Romney and Obama.
Similarly, people who expressed less “need for cognition” evaluated Trump 12 points more favorably than Clinton, while those who expressed more need for cognition evaluated the two candidates roughly equally.
We also found that the effect of political knowledge and need for cognition may affect support for Trump via association with concern about the economy and attitudes toward Muslims, African Americans and immigrants. This suggests that voters who know less about politics may be attracted to Trump for these reasons, which also helps explain why they continue to support him in the face of his many mistruths. If they are willing to believe that Obama is a Muslim and that Muslims are inherently violent, for example, why wouldn’t they believe that the election is “rigged”?
To be sure, we should use caution in interpreting these findings. These data are from January 2016, and Trump’s support may well have shifted. He has lost ground among women in particular. Yet, his core constituency has proven remarkably stable. It is also important to note that “low-information voters” are not the entirety of Trump’s base of support. They are, however, a sizable bloc.
People have many good reasons for being mad about how the established political leadership has failed them, whether it is on trade deals, jobs, inequality, health care or other issues. Trump appeals to many of the disaffected. Nonetheless, a core part of his base is made up of low-information voters who appear more susceptible to Trump’s appeals based on race and religion and less prepared to challenge his misstatements and untruths.
Sunday, October 6, 2019
Whatever....
Democrats in the House of Representatives have launched an investigation into “ghost reservations” at Trump’s hotels. These “ghost reservations” are when a client books and pays for a room or space, and then never actually shows up to use it. Democrats believe this is being done at his hotels by foreign nationals and domestic groups in order to curry favor with the President. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
FULL Meet the Press 10/6/19 | Meet the Press NBC News Today October 6 , 2019
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