Category: 2020 Election

Chaos, Fear, And Shared Irrationality: Why Supporters Still Cling To Trump

A looming question in today’s political climate is: Why do Donald Trump’s devotees continue to support him despite the carnage of his well-documented failures? Although we are in the middle of a deadly pandemic that is surging and not contained, Trump seems to maintain a base support of 35 percent to 40 percent. What are the psychological factors that influence or underpin his supporters’ attraction to him? And might this provide some perspective on how to change these supporters’ minds?

Multiple psychological factors seem to influence and explain his supporters. We have divided these factors into four major categories: Rebelliousness and Chaos; Shared Irrationality; Fear; and Safety and Order.

Rebelliousness and Chaos

Some Trump supporters have a strong desire for rebelliousness and chaos, and view Trump as the perfect vehicle for achieving their personal goals. These supporters tend to become “anti-establishment and anti-government,” even when it is against their best interest. Many are unhappy with their station in life and believe chaos in the political system will bring them important gains. They seek immediate and sweeping changes and believe a rebellious attitude and rebellious behavior are what is necessary. They would rather have chaos, even dangerously or regressively so, than the status quo. Continue reading.

The Deadly Consequences Of A Clueless President

In 2016, the libertarian magazine Reason polled a few dozen staff, contributors and allies on who would get their votes for president. Almost all planned to cast a ballot for Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson. I was alone in stating a firm intention to vote for Hillary Clinton, for three simple reasons: “She’s sane, informed and competent.”

There is nothing like a deadly pandemic to remind us that these qualities are not dispensable in a president. They are literally a matter of life and death.

In a normal presidential election, uttering such faint praise as I offered Clinton would be the equivalent of calling, “Nice swing!” to a Little Leaguer who has just struck out. But in 2016, the Democratic nominee had a monopoly on the critical virtues, and the Republican had none of them. Continue reading.

Lacking rallies, Trump takes White House work on the road

The Hill logoPresident Trump has long blurred the lines between campaigning and governing, but he is taking that fusion to new levels as the coronavirus pandemic precludes his signature large-scale rallies.

Trump has used official White House travel to visit swing states in recent weeks and give de facto campaign speeches in front of friendly audiences. He spoke from behind the presidential seal at airports in Florida and Ohio to supporters who gathered on the tarmac to greet him, and an event at a Whirlpool factory on Thursday ostensibly meant to highlight the nation’s economic recovery during the pandemic veered sharply into reelection territory.

Political scientists and advisers to the president argue he has little choice but to try and get on the road in some form to generate enthusiasm and boost his reelection changes. Continue reading.

The Voting Will End Nov. 3. The Legal Battle Probably Won’t.

New York Times logoAs the two parties clash over how to conduct an election in a pandemic, President Trump’s litigiousness and unfounded claims of fraud have increased the likelihood of epic postelection court fights.

The stormy once-in-a-lifetime Florida recount battle that polarized the nation in 2000 and left the Supreme Court to decide the presidency may soon look like a high school student council election compared with what could be coming after this November’s election.

Imagine not just another Florida, but a dozen Floridas. Not just one set of lawsuits but a vast array of them. And instead of two restrained candidates staying out of sight and leaving the fight to surrogates, a sitting president of the United States unleashing ALL CAPS Twitter blasts from the Oval Office while seeking ways to use the power of his office to intervene.

The possibility of an ugly November — and perhaps even December and January — has emerged more starkly in recent days as President Trump complains that the election will be rigged and Democrats accuse him of trying to make that a self-fulfilling prophesy. Continue reading.

Trump campaign thought their ‘huge news’ on pre-existing conditions had Democrats cornered — but it backfired spectacularly

AlterNet logoDuring a bizarre Friday evening press conference at his private golf club in New Jersey, President Donald Trump vowed to protect Americans with pre-existing conditions.

Of course, Trump does not need an executive order to accomplish such a goal, as it is already federal law in the Affordable Care Act, that was passed a decade ago by congressional Democrats and then-President Barack Obama.

Trump campaign advisors soon took to Twitter to praise Trump’s promise as “huge news.” Continue reading.

Doctor tells Nicolle Wallace why ‘the worst is yet to come’ — and it ‘scared the bejesus’ out of the MSNBC anchor

AlterNet logoSpeaking to MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Friday, two foreign policy experts explained the shocking ways in which President Donald Trump has ignored the continued attacks on the American election at the hands of Russia. Trump has spoken to Vladimir Putin five or six times since it was discovered that Moscow was paying bounties for the deaths of Americans. He didn’t address any of it; he confessed because he believes the report was a hoax.

But when Wallace turned to the doctor on her panel to ask about the next steps of the coronavirus, things looked even worse.

“President Trump is in a dilapidated political state because of his inactions and failures to lead the country through a global pandemic,” Wallace began. “You said, we would stop being America if things got much worse — you said a few weeks ago. You first raised my attention to the disinformation being spread around the pandemic and vaccines. What strikes you about this intel report that Russia is now actively working to hurt Biden to help Trump with the specter of disinformation spread around the pandemic and vaccines. Facebook and Twitter both took down some of Trump’s disinformation as it pertained to infection risks for children. It’s probably like whack-a-mole if you had to pull it all down.” Continue reading.

The threat to U.S. elections is real, and frightening. The public has a right to know.

Washington Post logoThe warning lights are flashing red. America’s elections are under attack.

This week, I reviewed classified materials in the Senate’s Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility and received a similarly classified briefing on malign foreign threats to U.S. elections. I was shocked by what I learned — and appalled that, by swearing Congress to secrecy, the Trump administration is keeping the truth about a grave, looming threat to democracy hidden from the American people. On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement that only hints at the threats.

The facts are chilling. I believe the American public needs and deserves to know them. The information should be declassified immediately. Continue reading.

Postal Service overhauls leadership as Democrats press for investigation of mail delays

Washington Post logoLawmakers want the inspector general to examine Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s cost-cutting measures and investments

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy unveiled a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s mail service, displacing the two top executives overseeing day-to-day operations, according to a reorganization memo released Friday. The shake-up came as congressional Democrats called for an investigation of DeJoy and the cost-cutting measures that have slowed mail delivery and ensnared ballots in recent primary elections.

Twenty-three postal executives were reassigned or displaced, the new organizational chart shows. Analysts say the structure centralizes power around DeJoy, a former logistics executive and major ally of President Trump, and de-emphasizes decades of institutional postal knowledge. All told, 33 staffers included in the old postal hierarchy either kept their jobs or were reassigned in the restructuring, with five more staffers joining the leadership from other roles.

The reshuffling threatens to heighten tensions between postal officials and lawmakers, who are troubled by delivery delays — the Postal Service banned employees from working overtime and making extra trips to deliver mail — and wary of the Trump administration’s influence on the Postal Service as the coronavirus pandemic rages and November’s election draws near. Continue reading.

US intelligence says Russia seeking to ‘denigrate’ Biden

The Hill logoThe top U.S. counterintelligence official announced Friday a series of foreign threats facing the 2020 presidential election, warning in particular that Russia is using a range of measures to “primarily denigrate” former Vice President Joe Biden while China prefers that President Trump not win reelection.

William Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, pointed to China, Russia and Iran as the three primary foreign threats to the U.S. presidential race, cautioning that they are seeking to “sway voters’ preferences and perspectives,” sow discord and “undermine the American people’s confidence in our democratic process.”

“Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer. We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia, and Iran,” Evanina said in a statement. Continue reading.

Russia is trying to ‘denigrate’ Biden while China prefers ‘unpredictable’ Trump not be reelected, senior U.S. intelligence official says

Washington Post logoRussia is “using a range of measures” to interfere in the 2020 election and has enlisted a pro-Russian lawmaker from Ukraine — who has met with President Trump’s personal lawyer — “to undermine former vice president [Joe] Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party,” a top U.S. intelligence official said in a statement Friday.

The remarks by William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, were some of the most detailed to date about foreign interference in the presidential race and come after earlier criticism from Democratic lawmakers that Evanina had not shared with the public some of the alarming intelligence he gave them in classified briefings.

Evanina also said that the government of China does not want Trump to win reelection in November, seeing the incumbent as “unpredictable.” Evanina described China’s efforts to date as largely rhetorical and aimed at shaping policy and criticizing the Trump administration for actions Beijing sees as harmful to its long-term strategic interests. Continue reading.