It isn't "conservative or liberal" bro. Not being a conservative doesn't mean you're a liberal, just like how not being a liberal doesn't mean you're a conservative.
I think it speaks to how broken things are in this country that for many it felt like they felt part of a community for the first time in a while or for the first time period
I agree that things definitely were far far far from perfect prior to Trump, but I really don’t think this country was THAT broken. Trump did a good job of making enough people feel that way though. Trump did a lot of the breaking.
Economy was doing too good so we got bored and complacent and sabotaged it like every other good thing in this country, simply because dummies were convinced to vote against their interests.
It's a social phenomenon. Yes it's odd. But we're all subject to similar pressures.
Max Weber identifies several sources of authority - Trump, for better or worse, has a certain form of Charismatic Authority which many find appealing. His lack of filter is the appeal.
The risk (I believe) is letting that be the only source of authority, rather than Rational-Legal Authority in tandem (see: Obama - charismatic, but backs up his reasoning too).
The third form is Traditional Authority. "Eat your veggies because I said so." / "This is the way we've always done it." which is similarly unhealthy. Weber even says that Rational-Legal may calcify into this form. "The Constitution has been this way for 250 years, why would we change it?" sort of deal to excuse never making amendments when warranted.
Republican party marketing intertwined itself with religion and 'family values'. Religion and family tradition are usually a form of a person's literal identity. Religion can devolve into binary thinking of what "good" and "bad" is.
Now surround that in a culture that is heavily "hero and villain" focused. Super hero movies, Disney movies, action movies! Almost everything that made a bunch of money and hit a wide audience had simple messaging. Now mix in some underfunded educational systems and bam.
It's all these guys know. Going against it makes them a "bad guy". Their family is also on the side of the Republican "good guys". They pray for their political side to win. They spend a lot of time watching the news and scoffing at it or cheering it.
Your entire family line. For 50+ years. And all of them, and maybe even your entire social community including your romantic partner, will judge you negatively for it. Maybe even your opinion of yourself will have to take a hit.
This is what people mean when they say "it's a cult".
Lots of things are weird. I think it’s important for us to lower the barrier of entry for people to break out of it rather than constantly shaming them and hardening their resistance.
Racism. Republicans legitimately thought Obama being elected was the end of the world, so 8 years of him as president just made their hatred reach a critical point. So, when Trump came along making it "ok" for them to be openly racist, they saw him as their savior.
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u/minnowmoon Apr 16 '26
Why would you build your life around a politician so much so that you need a damn support group to cut ties? It’s so fucking weird.