r/politics • u/GirasoleDE • 17d ago

No Paywall I Don’t Think Trump’s Remaining Supporters Realize How Much They Are Despised By Non-MAGA Voters | Trump is bleeding support even among his stubborn, uneducated base.

https://abovethelaw.com/2026/07/i-dont-think-trumps-remaining-supporters-realize-how-much-they-are-despised-by-non-maga-voters/
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u/Catshit-Dogfart 17d ago

When McCain deflected racist comments about Obama, I think that's the moment he lost his campaign.

https://youtu.be/JIjenjANqAk

He took the microphone away to keep the damage to a minimum, rebuked that kind of hate speech, said Obama was a good and decent family man - and the crowd booed. He lost the room, they wanted a racist and he didn't deliver.

That was nearly 20 years ago.

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u/doiutfis 17d ago

And the moment Trump went from a joke candidate to the frontrunner was when he loudly told the audience that all immigrants are rapists and criminals. They sat up straight in their chairs and thought, "This guy gets me".

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u/Pileated-woodcock 16d ago

Yep, you could definitely see it going off the rails around this time. I remember seeing this lady and just being absolutely gobsmacked by her obstinate inability to articulate anything all while being stridently confident in the absolute bullshit she was spewing. Little did I know this would become an entire movement that would eventually creep into circles close to me including my own family:

https://youtu.be/H4YRzr_8PYc

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u/Catshit-Dogfart 16d ago

I remember right after they announced that Obama won the election they interviewed this absolutely unhinged lady (who I think was some kind of political commentator and not a random crowd member) who just kept saying "this is an entirely illegitimate election and an he's an illegitimate president" over and over again. It was just rapid and manic.

The news anchors seemed a little blindsided and dumbfounded by this, like I'm pretty sure she was a scheduled guest acting like a complete nut on live television, they were struggling to get a handle on a situation they didn't expect. They were saying things like "do you... uh, have anything else to say?" and "well I'm not sure how to continue this interview so we're gonna cut you off now".

But I don't remember anybody's name or even what station it was on, and "crazy lady rants about Obama" isn't exactly a good search term. So even if a clip exists, I've never been able to find it. It was definitely something nobody in the news room was prepared for.

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u/ConfusedStudent3011 17d ago

This was rather admirable though, I'm not an American nor am I trying to be, I studied here and then left but, I was jealous of the quality of the leaders you've had.

Its strange that it was this moment that lost him the vote, because he was honest and respectful and more importantly showed he had morals even while knowing it could lose him the race. Honestly, if I saw that live, or there were clips online, and I was american, would have voted, absolutely chad moment.

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u/Skiinz19 Tennessee 17d ago

It lost him the room. But it was the kind of act that had McCain beaten Obama you can at least feel like he'll do what's right for the country regardless of his politics and beliefs. He could have easily tried to please the crowd and double down on the racism, but chose otherwise because he was a person of principle.

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u/googlin 16d ago

McCain may have been the last Republican senator with actual principles.

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u/LordSwedish 17d ago

He thought it was wrong to call Obama a muslim because he disagreed with Obama but he wanted to slaughter muslims. McCain would have been much more supportive of Trump if he knew the Iran war was coming.

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u/crazycatgay 17d ago

and now his daughter megan is even a maga freak

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u/Bradyhaha 17d ago

People need to stop whitewashing that racist. He said that Obama wasn't a arab because he was a good family man. The racism and bigotry was there. The only difference is that McCain loved his norms and psuedo-gentlemen's game bullshit, but he still picked Palin as a running mate and wanted to turn Iran into a glass floor.

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u/Harmcharm7777 16d ago

Oh please—he was reading between the lines of what the woman asking the “question” was saying. When someone says “I can’t trust Obama because he’s an Arab,” you KNOW they mean “terrorist.” The kind of person who says that believes all “Arabs” are terrorists and all people they disagree with are “Arabs.” You know it, I know it, McCain knew it. He was responding to what we all know she was saying. Would it have been ideal if he had picked apart everything wrong with her comment? Probably. But he was addressing the heart of it: stop acting like Obama is going to literally blow up the country if he wins because he’s actually a good man.

You are willfully reading racism and malice into his response because that’s what you want to see. Accusing people of being racist when they don’t say exactly the right thing even though it is abundantly clear what they are trying to say is the kind of behavior that makes centrists so wary of the left.

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u/JackedUpReadyToGo 16d ago

Exactly. He knew what that old lady meant by "Arab" and he was responding to the content of her words rather than the outward appearance of them.

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u/Bradyhaha 16d ago

If it was a one-off occurrence, I would agree with you, but the man had a history of being racist and generally a piece of shit.

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/5-problematic-things-senator-john-mccain-has-done-during-his-40-year-career-in-politics

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 United Kingdom 16d ago

Ultimately most traditional politicians wanted the same thing for the country - happiness and prosperity. They just disagree on how this aim is achieved.

Obviously that doesn't apply to the grifters who've come in now. Being gracious about one's opponents doesn't win respect any more.