The con is working. Bigly.

[Soph0571]

I don't know how these people come back to earth after this. They are willfully supporting the president of the United States who is credibly suspected of being a puppet of a foreign government and is clearly criminally corrupt. It's totally obvious that he's unfit for office. And yet:

Only 13 percent of Republicans say that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is a “legitimate investigation.” Fully three-quarters of Republicans agree with President Donald Trump that it’s a “witch hunt.”

Meanwhile, 76 percent of Democrats consider it a legitimate investigation. That’s according to a new Economist/YouGov survey of 1,500 adults between May 6 and 8 about the investigation.

What’s more, 61 percent of Republicans believe the FBI is framing Trump. Just 17 percent of Republicans say the nation’s federal law enforcement agency isn’t after the president, and about a fifth — 21 percent — weren’t sure.

Twenty-five percent of independents think Trump is being framed, with 39 percent saying he is not. Seventy-eight percent of Democrats say Trump isn’t being framed, 7 percent of Democrats think he is, and 15 percent aren’t sure.
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This guy isn't just another politician. He's uniquely destructive of the very concept of reality. Through constant repetition he has millions of believing that up is down and black is white.

And you have to give him credit. In one year he's managed to turn the previously most protective of the federal institutions of intelligence and law enforcement against them solely to protect himself. It's quite a feat.

[link:https://digbysblog.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/the-con-is-working-bigly.html|

Facts, we don't need on stinking facts.....

[Vinca]

1. Everything is so bizarre. The most shameful thing to date is the failure of rank and file GOP in

Congress to stand up for John McCain and criticize the hatemongers in the White House. It's not surprising they're 100% behind the "witch hunt" meme.

[sharedvalues]

2. James Fallows: 35% supported Herbert Hoover

Best take I’ve seen on the GOP base.

Link to tweet

?s=20

Basically, who cares about them. If Dems get turnout up, we win.

[bearsfootball516]

3. With the right candidate, winning in 2020 is very possible.

Remember that Trump won Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida by razor thin margins, and there were a lot of swing voters in those states that went Trump not because they liked him, but because they really disliked Hillary. After four years of extreme turbulence, I have no doubt the right candidate could get them to vote Democratic again.

[sharedvalues]

4. All true. But 2018 is our goal.

Remember GWB had 70% approval during the false “Mission accomplished” debacle.

If Dems take the House in 2018 we will have investigations with subpoena power and many criminals in the GOP will go down.

Don’t give in to despair propaganda. Work on 2018! We are going to take back the country from the propagandists.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Self-delete

[KY_EnviroGuy]

6. Article gives tRump way too much credit.

Donald Trump is an empty shell of a man who is a motor-mouth bullhorn that projects mental opium to a voter base. It's entire purpose is to get the Repug party into power to screw over all of us (including most of their voters). The drug dealer for that opium is a vast network of hard right-wind propagandists whom we all know well. In fact, I wish we could apply an import tariff on bullshit imported from Australia.

So no, I won't give tRump credit for anything except flim-flam and bluster. He's just going along for the ride.

........ ...........

[JHB]

7. Exactly! Trump didn't create this, Republicans did.

Conservatives in particular. They built their party cultivating what is now Trump's voter base. They fostered conspiracy theories and punished any Republican politician who compromised with "the enemy", and suddenly they became all aghast that the base considered them compromising backsliders.