Even in 2016 it was clear he was a con artist. He literally said in one of the debates that he wouldn't accept the results of the election if he lost.

Cue 2020: shocked Pikachu face

He physically mocked a disabled news reporter during his campaign.

He openly said the way to get women is to grab them by the pussy during his campaign.

He openly admitted to being a racist dumbass with the whole "build the wall" during his campaign.

Yeah I'd say it was pretty cut and dry that he was a special kind of dog shit from the beginning.

Trump is openly saying that he's going to be a dictator. Trump is the Republican election pick. If you vote Republican, you vote for Trump, you're a shit bag faschie voting for fascism. Full stop.

I'd like to remind everyone that some of us are shit people but haven't and still don't support Trump.

Don't you dare excuse the 2020 voters. That man's platform was standing on top of the corpses of thousands of people dead because of his active undermining of efforts to handle the pandemic.

Stop trying to retroactively make this shit reasonable. It was outrageous and unforgivable long, long before now.

Almost all of my coworkers are Trumpers, can confirm, they are all shit people.

Centrists: It's not all Republicans that support extremist candidates, there's still lots of non-extremists in the party!

Iowa caucus: Trump 51.0% DeSantis 21.2% Haley 19.1% Ramaswamy 7.7%

Leaving 1.0% or less that don't support an extremist candidate

I'm kinda baffled that we're a decade deep into this and people are still hung up on the fact that despite knowing their figurehead is an asshat, genuinely good people can have the level of cognitive dissonance to simultaneously support what they believe he represents, while also ignoring his actions.

There are societal divisions to the very bedrock of the USA - Trump is a symptom, not the condition.

At the beginning of 2016 maybe you could say that. By late 2016 it was obvious what kind of person he was. Nobody after that gets a pass.

Most Trump supporters just believe every negative story about him is a government conspiracy created to try to keep him out of power.

The lawsuits, the criminal charges, the COVID deaths... They think they're all lies of the liberal media.

How do you fight that?

I as a Canadian just don't get the appeal. He's not handsome by any stretch so there's no ascetic attraction.

He's not nearly as wealthy as he claims he is so it can't be admiration for his success.

He's got zero charisma so it can't be his charm.

He's as dumb as a pile of rocks so it can't be they admire his intelligence.

He's got the athletic prowess of a half dead goldfish and the skin tone of one so it can't be his physical ability.

I honestly just can't fathom the appeal.

All of his supporters in 2016 were also bad people. They saw the "grab them by the pussy" tape, they saw him make fun of a disabled person, and thought he was still a worthy candidate for their vote.

I don't think one could make that argument in 2020, though. The man led an insurrection attempt. All questions were answered.

When I actually talk with Trump supporters, it's very clear to me that many don't actually support trump. Or, at least, not the trump we see. It's usually a case of leading a busy life and making the mistake of trusting a news org to tell you the truth of the matter when you have five minutes to catch up. And if you pick one that supports trump ...well you see where this goes. It is admittedly clear that people don't understand the gravity of the situation—but as a result, the 'crime' is usually ignorance, not maliciousness. As always, the fact that this is a 'political' topic muddies the water, and no one understands what the other side actually wants. We do agree on most things, it's just silly tribalism that makes us call a large portion of the population a "piece of shit".

There are always those outliers that are genuinely evil, but I do believe they're outliers.

all i can do is look at our country and let out a big sigh. what will it take for the US to better itself?

From what I see, Trump is indicative of a growing trend, generally by conservatives to bring religion and their beliefs into government.

Trump is more absolutist and authoritarian than many other political candidates that I have seen.

To my best understanding of the current climate of the people who support him, they want more authoritarian control over what other people do. Partly in an effort to make themselves more comfortable in their own social interactions with others. So their assumptions of things like, women have curves, and men wear pants and have beards, and men like women and women like men, etc, are always correct, despite the fact that reality disagrees with them.

They're always on the lookout for any way for them to improve their socio-economic standing as well, with the basic concept of more for me, less for everyone else.

I believe that to them, Trump is a means to an end. Less for everyone else, more for them. More of their rules, and values, imposed on others, whether others want it or not.

Take for example, gay marriage. IMO, it's just marriage, eg. Two people who love eachother pledging their intention to continue to love and support eachother. My view is starkly contrasted by their view of "marriage is between a man and a woman before God!" (Or similar). Something something, the sanctity of marriage.... Blah blah. Nobody seems to care about divorce rates though the writings they're imposing on others pretty clearly state that marriage before God is a joining of souls in permanent matrimony and cannot and will not be broken. Ever. But I digress. Since they're opposed to gay marriage, they don't want it to be allowed, though it's clearly discrimination. Arguing about "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" and whatnot. The authoritarian, bull headed, my way out the highway mindset of someone like Trump, can actually achieve such goals. He's absolutist. Whether he believes in the prohibition of gay marriage or not.

On a personal note, I hope all the LGBTQ+ people get all the same rights to be as happy or as miserable as the cis/straight people. You're all fabulous and I love you all as brothers/sisters/siblings (for the gender ambiguous). I personally will continue to support you and fight along side all of you for equality.

Circling back to the point, this viewpoint can be copied and pasted on a number of issues that the right may not feel that they are properly represented on. Another good example is abortion; but that has mostly played out with the whole roe v. Wade thing, so I won't go into more detail there, despite the fact that I have a lot of things to say about it.

I think that demonstrates the point. They don't value him for what/who he is, they value him more for what he can do for them... To accomplish their goals and impose their ideals on everyone else. His ethical deficiencies and disregard for anyone's opinion, well-being, and opinion, are desirable features for them.

They're pushing for oppression of anyone who is different from them, trying to move up their capitalist ladder of success. Trump is just the latest tool that they're trying to use to accomplish that goal.

He was a fascist from the day he descended that golden escalator. 'Mexico is sending rapists' was in his opening event. That was June, 2015. By the nomination he'd called to murder the families of our enemies and ban a religion at the border.

By the start of 2020 he'd been impeached for extorting a foreign country to interfere in our election. By that election he'd tried dismantling the Post Office to prevent mail-in votes. The mob sent to threaten every other elected official in the entire federal govermnet was only the culmination of an ongoing coup.

There was never any excuse.

The party is complicit and must be dismantled.

The worst part is that it’s not only Americans who are Trumpists. We’re Swedish and my mother looks up to that prick. How and why, I don’t know.

If you support trump now.... You are a Natzi ... Full stop.

Even in 2016 it was obvious what kind of person he was. His "good" supporters claimed that being President would change him for the better. We all knew then that they were wrong. We all know now that they were lying.

The media needs a horse race. A horse race keeps an eye on the page or the TV. That brings in more advertising dollars. That's what it's all about.

The news used to be a loss-leader. It hasn't been for a very long time.

All spineless and subservient, in my experience. Whether to "God, guns, or country" cuckolds, the whole lot of them.

They’ll proudly wear I’m a shit person badge if it means bringing Trump back to power

2020: And some of them, I’m sure, are good people.