[actsasbuffoon]

Considering how much harm he did to farmers in his first term, and they overwhelmingly voted for him again in 2020 and 2024, I’d say they apparently prefer this over the alternative. I don’t expect this to change anything.

[hackyhacky]

Americans don't vote for policies, they vote for personalities. It literally doesn't matter to them if Trump bankrupts them, as long as they get to support the "tough guy" billionaire.

[tgma]

> literally doesn't matter to them if X bankrupts them

If that were true, you'd not see economy as the top or one of the top issues. Perhaps some marginal short term economical concerns can be offset by personality/perceived cultural improvements, but not to the point of bankruptcy or even close.

"It's the economy, stupid" was Clinton's slogan after all.

[hackyhacky]

> If that were true, you'd not see economy as the top or one of the top issues.

Polls also show that Republicans rate economic conditions as positive when there's a Republican in office, and negative when there's a Democrat in office regardless of the actual state of the economy. (The effect is much weaker among Democrats.)

This means that people care about the economy, but are terrible at knowing whether the economy is actually doing well or not, and certainly not educated enough to understand the impact that particular policies have on the economy.

The conclusion is that when there's a Democrat in office, Republicans are told by the Republican news media that the economy is bad; and when there's a Republican in office, Republicans are told by the Republican news media that the economy is good.

Find a conservative-leaning group on Facebook or reddit and see the resistance you get when you try to explain that Trump's tariffs are an inflationary tax on Americans. Political opinions have no bearing on reality, especially in the context of economic policy.

[tgma]

Doesn’t matter what they think about the economy at large in abstract terms; sure they may be right or wrong about that, but I definitely question all those who say people don’t know how they are supposed to feel about their individual economic condition. This is straight from central planning and social engineering BS. I would not underestimate human instinct.

[judahmeek]

> Doesn’t matter what they think about the economy at large in abstract terms;

It totally does. If they say what they care most about is the economy, but they interpret the economy through the lens of whether their political party is in power, then their actions will be radically different than a theoretically objective voter.

If voters say that their top concern is X, but they act like they are willing to compromise on X for the sake of Y, then we should interpret that as Y actually being their top priority.

[tgma]

I think you are misinterpreting what the voters mean by "economy." It refers to the incomes and expenses and economic opportunities of themselves and their family and friends. It does not mean macroeconomic metrics. I do not believe an individual no matter how dumb can be that easily fooled on those micro metrics; not in the short to medium term.

[verdverm]

There's more to it than Trump's appeal (above half of Rs, bot certainly not all of them)

Faux News and other outlets have taught them it is a sin to vote for Ds or like anything they propose. They will chose any R over any D

[bdangubic]

how many D you reckon would choose any D over R? about the same?

[amalcon]

Before Trump, a lot fewer. There is a well known phenomenon of GOP governors in deep blue states (e.g. Christie in NJ, Schwarzenegger in CA, Baker in MA, Scott in VT). This is a lot rarer in deep red states. There are a lot more red states than blue ones, but it's still harder (not impossible) to find recent democratic governors of those states. Senators are a bit more proportional, mind you.

Trump has sort of killed this phenomenon - partly because his brand has rubbed off on other Republicans, and partly because they have been running more extreme candidates even in blue states. Before Trump, though, it was not even close.

[hackyhacky]

I don't know any Democrats who avoid voting Republican because they consider it a "sin." The Democrats I know avoid voting Republican because they think that Republican policies are bad for the country.

I also see Democrats perfectly happy to see Democrats justly convicted of crimes. The Republican approach is to defend members of your "team" at all costs, no matter how guilty they are. The cult of personality is much strong on the Republican side.

[verdverm]

The Planter thing is an interesting case study. We will see if the D party lets one in and undermines this

[tgma]

All Ds I know pre-Hamas invasion were pretty much the same and would never vote out of party lines, but they wouldn’t say it that way. Rs say it more explicitly. All Ds pretend to be “independent” but they will find a way to rationalize their D. Both bases are quite sticky. There are events like Hamas that suddenly make a change in specific subgroups.