The paradox of Trump (an-NYC billionaire nepo-baby who couldn’t find Alabama on a map until he started running for President) getting unwavering devotion from a red state base he wouldn’t have spoken to until he needed them leads to the classic question of “Why do Trump supporters like to bash liberal Northeastern coastal elites but ignore that Trump falls in that description?”
The sad truth is that it’s always been like that because the Republican base is insanely gullible.
“I hate those snobby coastal elites…”
—Trump is a “lifestyles of the rich and famous” libertine snob who would’ve never stepped foot south of Atlantic City before running for President, routinely mocked his red state cabinet members (Mike Pence’s faith, Jeff Sessions’s Southernness), and literally shits on a gold toilet. Before running, he said his biggest concern was having to shake hands with the hoi polloi because he’s a lifelong germaphobe.
—Half of Fox News is from NY (Megyn Kelley, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Maria Bartiromo, Ann Coulter, Rudy Guiliani). Mark Levin is also from the tri-state area (Philly), as is Joe Rogan (Jersey), and Trish Regan is from a snobby New Hampshire background. Sean Spicer (his own show on Newsmax) was born in NY and raised in Rhode Island. Conservative commentators Bret Stephens, Matt Welsh, and Ben Shapiro are from either CA or NY. And there’s Tucker Carlson, who was born in San Francisco, and had an extremely privileged background (his dad married a Swanson heiress worth 100s of millions, he was kicked out of a Swiss boarding school).
—George W. Bush might’ve pretended to be a Texas redneck but he is—obviously—the son of a powerful New England political dynasty that includes an ex-President (HW Bush), and powerful Connecticut senator (Prescott Bush).
—Ronald Reagan might’ve led the “Reagan Revolution” that officially married the Evangelicals to the Republican Party but he was a California governor, ex-movie star, and Screen Actor’s Guild President. Not to mention, he was the first U.S. President to ever be divorced and/or remarried. [Trump is only the second to hold this curious distinction amongst an Evangelical base that worships him.]
—Nixon might’ve engineered the Southern Strategy to use racism and religion to pull the Southeast from Democratic to Republican, but he was a California native, senator, and Vice President for eight years before he ever used that strategy.
Excluding President Ford (who was never elected), the “party of middle America” has not actually been represented by a President from there since Eisenhower, who was a RINO. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has had Truman, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and Clinton over the same time period. [I might also argue that Biden is as much from Scranton Pennsylvania as Delaware, but Dems don’t even “need” him to make their middle American case.]
It’s been obvious for a long time that the people who are actually “self made” are Democrats (LBJ, Carter, Clinton, Obama, Biden). Meanwhile, the Republican Party is led/dominated by people that are actually wealthy heirs and coastal elites manipulating their neglected working class voters; which is the exact opposite of what their gullible base believes.
The vast majority of Trump’s base has absolutely nothing in common with him. But he’s happy to use them and abuse them the way he’s screwed over literally everyone who’s ever had the misfortune to get close to him like his wives, his ghostwriter, his university students when Trump U was disbanded for fraud, his charity donors when his charity was disbanded for fraud, more than 1,000 lawsuits where he screwed over people that did work for him, all the women he’s had sign NDAs, both his first term Attorney Generals, Guiliani (who he screwed on legal fees), Michael Cohen (his personal attorney), campaign managers, Mo Brooks, Mike Pence, and everyone else…