So That’s What Anti-Establishment Means Now.


CREDIT: Diana Ofosu/ThinkProgress.

Oh, the poor Trumpholes, they are disappointed, why, why, there’s a bog standard republican in the white house! I never bought the whole “we voted for him because he’s anti-establishment!” You can’t really get more establishment than Trump. At the same time, that sentiment baffled the hell out of me, because I know what anti-establishment actually is – I’m a child of the counter-culture, a bonafide hippie, and no matter how you stretch and distort the definition, Trump does not fit. Turns out that distorting and stretching the definition wasn’t the problem. A brand new definition is in place for anti-establishment in the eyes of Trumpholes, it now means nationalism. As in “Rah, rah, white ‘merican nationalism, yeah!” Bit of an eye opener for me. Anyroad, they are most upset with their God Awful Emperor, who doesn’t seem to be doing all those God Awful Emperor things, and he’s gone … *gasp* soft, oh no! He is, at the moment, doing what he always does, truly stupid shit beyond the pale, like asking his faithful what bits of the government should be shut down, but I guess that’s not enough anymore. What most of the Trumpholes want, it seems, is President Bannon.

Donald Trump’s true believers are losing the faith.

As Trump struggles to keep his campaign promises and flirts with political moderation, his most steadfast supporters — from veteran advisers to anti-immigration activists to the volunteers who dropped their jobs to help elect him — are increasingly dismayed by the direction of his presidency.

Their complaints range from Trump’s embrace of an interventionist foreign policy to his less hawkish tone on China to, most recently, his marginalization of his nationalist chief strategist, Steve Bannon. But the crux of their disillusionment, interviews with nearly two dozen Trump loyalists reveal, is a belief that Trump the candidate bears little resemblance to Trump the president. He’s failing, in their view, to deliver on his promise of a transformative “America First” agenda driven by hard-edged populism.

“Donald Trump dropped an emotional anchor. He captured how Americans feel,” said Tania Vojvodic, a fervent Trump supporter who founded one of his first campaign volunteer networks. “We expect him to keep his word, and right now he’s not keeping his word.”

Earlier this week, Vojvodic launched a Facebook group called, “The concerned support base of President Trump,” which quickly drew several dozen sign-ups. She also changed the banner on her Facebook page to a picture of Bannon accompanied by the declaration: “Mr. President: I stand with Steve Bannon.”

[…]

Trump voters “felt like they were voting for an anti-establishment candidate — and they’re terrified, they’re losing faith,” Cardillo said. “They’re saying, ‘Why does he have these people around him?’”

The gripes go beyond Bannon’s apparent downgrade. Many of Trump’s most stalwart supporters, including radio show hosts Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham, called last week’s bombing of Syria a betrayal of Trump’s pledge to be an “America First” commander in chief who would avoid unnecessary conflicts overseas.

[…]

Other Trump boosters worry that he’s ditching his economic agenda. They wonder why he backed off his vow to label China a currency manipulator, and are chagrined by his reversal on his position to eliminate the Export-Import Bank.

Oh, that’s easy enough. The dipshit was flattered, and had a 10 minute history lesson on China and Korea, so now he knows everything, by golly! And as for the bank, he changed his mind because someone actually explained what it was to him, because he did not fucking know, what with being a fuckwitted ignoramus.

Michelle Dallacroce, an anti-immigration activist, is more pointed. Immigration is “why we voted for Donald Trump,” she said. “This could be the most elaborate reality show. I’m wondering, was this all an illusion for us, using our movement so he could get in there?”

Oh, they want their poison, and they want it now! Politico has the full story on the disappointment.

Comments

  1. lumipuna says

    Turns out, just because someone isn’t a politician, doesn’t mean they aren’t a crook.

    I guess next time they’ll vote for some dipshit who brags about not being a politician OR businessman.

  2. samihawkins says

    You know I’m willing to play along and pretend that the average Trump voter isn’t a bigot, that they voted for him despite his white supremacist campaign and not because of it.

    But if you’re rooting for president Bannon? If you’re upset about his alt-right ass getting sidelined? Fuck you. You’re a fucking nazi.

  3. lumipuna says

    I think Bannon fans are only the hard core of Trump supporters, although that doesn’t mean the rest aren’t racist.

  4. Dunc says

    I never bought the whole “we voted for him because he’s anti-establishment!”

    The thing you have to remember about these people is that they are fucking morons. They’re the people who can’t believe it’s not butter. You can spoon-feed them shit, tell them it’s caviar, and they’ll believe you.

  5. says

    Samihawkins:

    You know I’m willing to play along and pretend that the average Trump voter isn’t a bigot

    I’m not. Not at all. Every single one of them is a bigot, because they went along with it. Trump’s vicious rhetoric was not oblique, it wasn’t coded, it was blunt, ugly, and screamed at the top of his voice. People may have told themselves “I’m not a bigot, but I’m going to vote for him because…”, and it’s a lie. Bottom line, they didn’t have a problem with it.

  6. says

    You can spoon-feed them shit, tell them it’s caviar, and they’ll believe you.

    Worse. You can spoon-feed them shit, TELL them it’s shit, and as long as you promise them the libruls will have to eat twice as much, they’ll swallow.

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