37% of Trump's followers might be unreachable, except by appeals to racism and greed.
A terrible indictment, but 37% is not a majority.
Many of us recognize that since 1968, the GOP platform has rested on the pillars of racism and greed.
Why greed? The rich support the GOP mainly because of greed. The GOP platform is based on deregulation of business and industry. The result is dirtier skies, polluted water, and ignoring climate change, but the upside for the rich is that their share grows larger.
Why racism? Because, as the outrage over the removal of Confederate statues shows, the US still has a large number of generally open racists. Appeals to "southern heritage" are generally coded language that partly disguises the racist foundation of a heritage that was based on slavery.
We may not be able to persuade the racists, or the greedy, but as 2018 showed, there are more of us than there are of them.
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It's really worse than you say even. Never less than 20%, in anxious times more than 40%, even possibly into the 50s temporarily, as after 9/11. Psychologists say they trust their chosen leader to lead in matters of conscience as well as all else. Their job is to follow. We see this at all levels; even some Republican senators are become unquestioning followers.
They're typically bigoted against a wide range of others, every race but their own of course, and their easily triggered aggressively hostile natures are ready made for charismatic leaders to harness. These are kind who supported Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and so on in everything they did, in fact did followed orders to do most of it. And Trump, whose incompetence failed those who long to destroy us.
They follow until they're forced to admit they put their faith in a dud. And we're probably seeing that again.
Many here will remember watching as W lost them. Only at the very, very end, though. They followed him for over 4-1/2 years of a very disastrous -- and criminal -- authoritarian presidency, though that seems mild now. They only began falling away in the last months of the last year of his two terms. First, support dropped into the 30%s, then in the last couple months into the 20%s as most finally understood their loser leader wasn't going to finally, magically turn into a winner. In the last few days, the lowest poll I saw was 12% support, no doubt still hoping desperately that he'd smite the Democrats and take over.
As for wealth and greed, of course. But I'm grateful that some nongreedy and responsible wealthy exist, to support faith that there is always goodness in some members of humanity.
