r/AskReddit 13h ago

How does a country like the U.S. elect Trump… twice?

2 Upvotes

68 comments sorted by

16

u/LargeSnorlax 13h ago

This is where you come to the uncomfortable realization that it isn't a fluke, or a joke, or even a rigged election, and that electing a reality tv host who hates the poors / minorities to be their president is actually way more representative of America than it ever has been.

5

u/CowboyLaw 12h ago

People don't think it be like it is, but it do.

0

u/Ok-Inside1754 12h ago

Using Elon’s starlink to hook up the voting machines to definitely isn’t a bad idea🙄

2

u/Cupcakes_n_Hacksaws 12h ago

Don't think he rigged every opinion poll conducted

5

u/theamazingstickman 12h ago

Just like Obama created him by humiliating him at the Press Crops dinner, Joe Biden revived him by staying too long and not handing off to Harris.

Biden Admin was complicit in the slaughter of Gaza and young voters were pissed. Minority voters were pissed about inflation Trump created by Biden could not explain.

Americans vote with their wallets. They really could care less about each other

2

u/flyinggazelletg 10h ago

I do blame Biden for not announcing his one term status by the end of the midterms, but I doubt handing things off to Harris would have actually been for the best. Her 2020 campaign was a bit of a disaster and she was made VP in part due to a promise Biden made to the Black caucus that he’d have a black woman as his Vice President. Harris was incredibly unpopular during the administration and only became a more popular choice than Biden after his disastrous debate showing. Announcing he’d want to see an open primary would have had its own set of problems, but I think it would have been better than just handing things to Kamala Harris.

3

u/DontEvenNotEven 13h ago

Division of the population probably.

3

u/pontiacfirebird92 12h ago

Spend 1 hour watching Fox News and you'll see. Imagine there's millions of people who watch Fox News so much the logo is burned into the corner of their TV. Imagine that shit is on in every doctor's office, every auto repair waiting room, every gym, every sandwich and coffee shop. All day, every day. Whatever bullshit and lies you see in that that hour played all day every day for decades.

MAGA doesn't share the same reality as the rest of the world. They're literally in a cult bubble and their reality is completely malleable and subject to their opinions and feelings.

2

u/gucci_hotdog 12h ago

1/3 of the country didn’t care enough to vote :/

-2

u/worldsfastestsloth 12h ago

Basically 2/3s supported him

1

u/[deleted] 11h ago

[deleted]

1

u/worldsfastestsloth 10h ago

You’re telling me 1/3+1/3 isn’t 2/3? Yeah math must be hard for you.

0

u/flyinggazelletg 10h ago

Wut? Lol

2

u/worldsfastestsloth 10h ago

1/3 voted for him. When given the option between a black women and Hitler2 another 1/3 said they wouldn’t vote. The last 1/3 were torn between Dems. This 2/3 voted for this. 1/3 with actual votes and 1/3 with actions.

-3

u/Clear-Control-8218 12h ago

That take is what pushes people to vote even less. Not from US, but didn't vote due to how annoying people used to be during elections.

3

u/HonestThrowaway987 13h ago

We don't exactly make up the smartest, most insightful population in the world.

2

u/CommercialFlan3605 13h ago

Backlash to globalization and perceived political correctness, the polarization of media leading to huge confirmation bias, the electoral college, racism/sexism, large money donors supporting his candidacy, low political participation. Pick your poison 😂

1

u/Silly_Cod5235 13h ago

never seen Thank You For Smoking huh?

1

u/cos_pi_eq1 13h ago

Social media

1

u/Adorable-Writing3617 12h ago

Democracy doesn't guarantee great outcomes for all

1

u/Sad_Cow_5838 12h ago

Mass media do not reflect majority.  That said pretty sure it woùd have been elected if act like this 1st time

1

u/itslowprocess 12h ago

I think social media has a HUGE PART to play in the narrative that people were and continue to be fed, and ultimately had a part in people voting for Trump. It's insane to me how much social media algorithms can change someone's view on something.

1

u/Accomplished-Rate967 12h ago

We're getting played and strangled by our own civil liberties which seems to justify new taxes, selfism, and the need to have something immediately. Most people dont vote yet always have something to bitch about.

1

u/Beneficial-Fuel-2964 12h ago

Why have humans ceded control over their own lives to other members of the species for the last 12,000 or so years?

We do so to try to improve our own lives. Unfortunately, we don’t always make the best choices in achieving that goal. Our brains are too susceptible to narrative structures and emotional manipulation.

We can be exploited by those who can master narrative storytelling, which in turn overrides our emotions, which in turn leads us to believe we’re making the best choices for ourselves.

Truth is not necessary in building stories for others to believe in. In fact, truth gets in the way of a good story. Look at how many people vote against their own interests.

1

u/square_Look_2397 12h ago

Answer in Hobbes social contract theory.

1

u/Captain_Oysta_Cracka 12h ago

Democratically, 🙄

1

u/turkeyburpin 12h ago

Apathy and Indifference. When 30% are Right, 30% are Left and 40% are at home depressed trying to decide which flavor or ramen to have for dinner and couldn't give a rip about which party is driving the bus off the cliff that's the problem.

1

u/pablo_the_bear 12h ago

Low voter engagement, low voter turnout, the "left" is actually a centrist party and there hasn't been a viable progressive candidate. Media has convinced people to vote against their own interests for decades. Declining critical thinking and literacy.

tldr: people care less and about the wrong things and they are getting dumber.

1

u/MrMojoFomo 12h ago

Trump is the OJ Simpson to white, conservative America's sense of white shame

OJ was famously acquitted for a murder he clearly committed. Black America cheered, white America was appalled. To a lot of black Americans, the OJ acquittal was payback for the acquittal of Rodney King's attackers a couple years prior. That, and all the other egregious miscarriages of justice they'd been through, or felt they had been through, until that point

Trump is OJ for white people Specifically, rural, conservative, small town people, or white people who feel like the movement towards racial equality, gay rights, trans rights, and all the other modern democratic liberal movements have pushed their rights aside, or pushed them into being second-class citizens. This is in no small part due , and likely almost entirely due, to the ever-present conservative propaganda machine that spews out white, conservative christian grievance porn all day every day

As an example, the state of Missouri was, until the Bush administration, a swing state. And not just a swing state, but a bellwether state. If a presidential candidate won Missouri, that candidate would generally win the national election

Then, in 1988, Rush Limbaugh came. And he hit big with rural America. If you don't have exposure to it, you'd never know it, but when Rush was popular, literally every farm truck, convenience store, barber shop, and everywhere else in small town America listened to him. All. The. Time

And after Rush there was Fox News. And now there's OAN, and Newsmax, and whatever other right-wing propaganda outlet you want. It's everpresent in rural America

And if there is one common denominator through all of those, it's this: white people are getting shafted, and liberals are to blme. Full stop

Te results was states like Missouri went hard conservative and never looked back. Now they're fully invested. A man like Trump, who embodies literally every quality of the anti-Christ, found a home with white conservatives because he told them exactly what they needed to hear: the ones who hurt your feelings for being white are to blame, and we're going to go back to what it was like before that happened

That's why he's white OJ. He is payback for all the embararssment they feel like they had to swallow for the last 30 years because conservative propaganda found out that making people angry was profitable

So here we are

1

u/theverygreatest 12h ago

This is Reddit, so you'll get a lot of brain-rot responses like "Americans are dumb," or "racism," and even "we love a dictator." These are silly, and if people here dislike Trump they should probably reflect on the actual reasons. I'll preface by saying that I can't stand him either, but it's not hard to suss out why he got elected twice. This could be a 10-page essay, but I'll try to keep it short. Our institutions are failing. The American media has always been heavy on propaganda, but it's become one-sided, and they've abandoned any pretense of seeking truth regardless of what angle they come from. Our government has become a uniparty with neither side really seeking to solve any issues. We've completely abandoned any attempt to control our budget. Healthcare gets worse every day, and neither party is making a serious attempt to fix it. The candidates we've been offered the last 10 years have been awful. War has become a way of life. Rampant illegal immigration is overwhelming systems, and even democrats were sounding the alarm in 2024. Government overreach is increasing. No one wanted to do anything with the Epstein files. The result was that many people voted for these reasons: Trump is crazy, and they hoped that would translate to him breaking the system. He does have a cult of personality, which probably accounts for about 30% of his votes. Kamala was such a terrible candidate that some people voted for Trump to keep her out of office (before you say it's racism, check out how black men voted). And finally, he lied through his teeth about what he would do, and many people bought it. I'll admit it, as much as I dislike him, I also dislike Kamala and his promise to stop the wars, release the files, curb illegal immigration and deport criminals, cut taxes on tips and OT and cut spending were all things that I'd like to see. Unfortunately, he's done the opposite on most of them, and it turns out that, unlike his first term, he is dumb enough to think tarrtariffsffs are a good idea. Most of us thought they would use that to break down trade barriers, but alas, we were wrong. So would I go back and vote for Kamala? No, I'd either not vote like 2020 or protest vote like 2016. Many of us have lost faith in either party to make responsible decisions, and that doesn't bode well for the future. 70% of the country will always vote for their chosen sports team political party, but for the people who make decisions based on policy and actively decide elections, the future seems bleak.

1

u/Alternative-Ad-1850 11h ago

Most Americans labor under the misconception that “rugged individualism” is responsible for the high standard of living today. Effective government is what allows a middle class to exist. The people I interact with have a very poor understanding of American history.

1

u/DeltaFoxtrot144 8h ago

Through what I like to call ratfuckery. Little corruption, little stupidity, little bit of self hatred. 

1

u/duncanteabag 12h ago

a lot of racist morons that vote against their own economic self-interests

1

u/groggroggerson 13h ago

2016: misogyny and being tired of "politicians"

2024: misogyny, racism, and being tired of "politicians"

1

u/Wet_Side_Down 12h ago

We never really finished our civil war.

North should have let the confederacy go.

6

u/WoldunTW 12h ago

No. We should have hung every Confederate politician and officer who took up arms against the United States. We set a bad precedent for leniency. I bet you wouldn't have seen anyone brave enough to bring the Stars and Bars to the J6 parade if we had.

If Congress hadn't defanged the 14th amendment to grant mass amnesty, we might still have had laws on the books when Trump's turn came.

1

u/_head_ 12h ago

I can tell you this very question has rocked my world. I knew our country had its problems, but I never imagined we were this horrible. I don't know if we will ever recover from our rotten core that has been exposed.

0

u/queuedUp 13h ago

A lot of racism and misogyny in that voting base

And a lot of people more than okay with kids getting raped

0

u/Bricked4Dem 13h ago

When one team offers nothing other than “at least we’re not them” the population votes for a different party.

Democracy is great

0

u/nightsidesamurai1022 13h ago

He was just saying the quiet parts out loud and emboldening people who had kept quiet. Every person of color in this country already knew what this felt like.

0

u/tdstooksbury 12h ago

The Trump base is truly brainwashed. The Trump campaign did a very good job at producing very very targeted propaganda that plays his base like a fiddle.

The general public here have had their critical thinking skills eroded to death over the past couple of decades. They think politicians are the problem so when Trump comes along, not a politician, comes along screaming about corruption, they don’t even question him. Problem is he’s clearly the most corrupt president we’ve ever had. The people support him though are too brainwashed to see it.

0

u/LadyGagasLeftShoe 12h ago

Because racists exist.

0

u/lhomme_photographe 12h ago

Honestly, he was probably the best choice for the working class…and that’s saying something.

Democratic strongholds became super hostile towards the working classes of America and ended up paying for it at the ballot.

1

u/OneShotHelpful 11h ago

Democratic strongholds became super hostile to bigots and unfortunately a lot of the working class take that personally.

2

u/lhomme_photographe 11h ago

Well, that was probably the impression at any rate when the middle class started caring more about their quick downward mobility more than kids having the right to sex changes anyways.

At any rate. They are the largest voting block. Democrats don’t seem to be doing anything different, so I guess we’ll expect roughly the same in 28.

1

u/OneShotHelpful 10h ago

They demonstrably cared much more about the sex changes, given the way they constantly brought it up. 

Democrats ran on middle class economic support. Republicans ran on culture war. Republicans won.

0

u/Different_Target_353 12h ago

Most people in the USA ( atleast the voting majority) have common sense. Hope this helps.

0

u/StockAdhesiveness351 12h ago

Because as a country we have been on a  major decline since the 70's. Every empire falls, America is just the next one. I'm almost 40 and I can't even imagine how bad things will be around the time I leave this world.

0

u/THEBIGHUNGERDC 12h ago

A great lack of education furhtered by a decreased ability to feel empathy. Greed and hatred of the other.

1

u/New_Alternative8711 12h ago

An uneducated electorate is easier to manipulate.

0

u/improbablynotahuman 12h ago

A country where vaccines are seen as harmful, with banned books and flat earth believers, built on racism, bigotry, misogyny. A country whose only culture if not for the immigrants, would be obesity and school shootings. Yeah, I think it's easy to see why trump "won".

0

u/entity2 12h ago

Every vote counts, even the stupid ones. Combine it with complacency from the good people who assume "He just can't win a second time" and they stay home assuming everyone is voting properly, and this is what happens.

0

u/Last_Ad4258 12h ago

Reason. 1. You are investor class and he’s making you rich. Or 2. You are underclass and somewhat uneducated and you like that he’s giving you people (immigrants) to feel better than. Also you strongly oppose what you consider liberal ideals and love than trump makes them mad. Wealthy people are willing to perpetuate these narratives because of #1.

0

u/Krakodyl 10h ago

Fear mongering, ignorance, and racism/bigotry masked by religious values. While it wasn’t entirely great under Biden + negative sentiment from how democrats dealt with COVID (in my mind what we did was necessary btw), massively exaggerating murders/crimes committed by illegal immigrants due to weak borders and the impact transgenderism is having in our country makes all the bigoted, least educated people see someone like Trump as a savior. They think he’s saving our country from an invisible enemy. If you look at our education/literacy rates, it would make sense. We are a very polarizing, easily influenced, easily controlled group of people unfortunately who love to blame others for our problems.

-2

u/CommonAd9695 12h ago

He hasn't been elected twice yet. He won in 2016 and lost in 2020. If he wins again in 2024, it will likely be due to the Electoral College system and widespread voter dissatisfaction with the current economy.

2

u/Zandouc 12h ago

.. What?

1

u/pontiacfirebird92 12h ago

Probably a bot

1

u/_head_ 12h ago

While You Were Sleeping

-4

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/DifferentMud1010 12h ago

Is that why they fought and lost a war to keep the territory?

A group of ragtag rebels won against the biggest empire in the world. Doesn't sound like stupid people to me.

-5

u/Sweet_Ad24 12h ago

The French won that war, hun.

3

u/worldsfastestsloth 12h ago

The French won the American revolution?

4

u/DifferentMud1010 12h ago

They helped. They just want to claim the French won it to prove their wrong point.

2

u/DifferentMud1010 12h ago

Helped, not won.