Trump supporters think they're players -- but they're still just pawns

[applegrove]

Trump supporters think they're players — but they're still just pawns

The best grift works by convincing the mark that they're part of the con

By AMANDA MARCOTTEPUBLISHED JULY 12, 2021 1:00PM (EDT)

https://www.salon.com/2021/07/12/trump-supporters-think-theyre-players--but-theyre-still-just-pawns/

"SNIP.....

In his speech at the second "annual" Conservative Political Action Conference of the year, Trump bragged about how he lies about polls and elections when he doesn't win them. "You know, they do that straw poll, right?" Trump asked, referring to the 2024 GOP nominee straw poll CPAC conducted of attendees. "If it's bad, I say it's fake. If it's good, I say, that's the most accurate poll perhaps ever."

The "humor" of this not-actually-a-joke is due to being a sly reference to the Big Lie — an admission on Trump's part that he didn't win in 2020 and is merely saying otherwise for political gain. And it's no surprise that Trump went there. He loves to brag about how much corruption and crime he gets away with.

What is perhaps more important is the audience's reaction to this not-a-joke. 

Trump got a huge laugh from the CPAC crowd, despite the death and destruction the Big Lie has already caused. As the clip went viral, there was no outraged reaction from GOP voters, no anger that he lies to them in order to enlist their support for an authoritarian coup. Trump supporters aren't mad about Trump admitting he lied for one simple reason: They don't think they're the ones being lied to. They think they're in on it. They know why the Big Lie has been propped up, first to justify Trump's failed coup and now for the ongoing efforts by the GOP to steal the next election. They see themselves as co-conspirators, and thus knowingly laugh at this in-joke about the conspiracy. 

But just because the typical GOP supporter thinks he's in on the con doesn't mean he's not a dupe. On the contrary, Trump and other right-wing leaders deeply understand the adage that you can't cheat an honest man. Letting GOP voters believe they're in on the authoritarian schemes is the way that Trump and other leaders trick these folks into being their pawns.

......SNIP"

[Wounded Bear]

1. Always easiest to con the con-men...

[Walleye]

2. Their main assumption is wrong. Not everybody cheats, but they think so

[RockRaven]

3. The big draw of MAGAt-hood is making irrelevant, powerless people feel important...

Of course MAGAts think they are players. That's why they are MAGAts, that is the itch that is being scratched -- that they have agency and that they matter.