After all the broken promises, lies, distortions, sexual misconduct, gaslighting, racism, narcissism, lack of empathy etc., I marvel how his raucous followers disregard all that negative behavior while simultaneously and enthusiastically continuing their unconditional support for President Trump.
My analysis, for what it’s worth, comes down to a few possibilities.
First, without any attempt at fact-checking, they accept as gospel everything Trump proclaims, backed up by Fox News, other right wing radio and TV celebrities and spineless Republican legislators fearful of incurring Trump’s wrath in upcoming Republican primaries. Counter progressive viewpoints found on stations like MSNBC are automatically considered fake news and avoided like the plague.
Next, racism, both up front and closeted, garners surprisingly substantial voter support for Trump, who throws out just enough racial dog whistles, not surprisingly garnering the enthusiastic endorsement of the national white supremacist movement.
Finally, followers find themselves suffering from the unsettling condition labeled by psychologists as cognitive dissonance. This disturbing mental state is described as having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs or attitudes requiring discounting inconsistencies leaving a single mental-soothing opinion. In this case, that is the mentally unencumbered support of their presidential hero while ignoring all other conflicting input.
Raymond A. Hult, Bountiful
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