I have never met a sane Trump or Carson supporter. Have you?

[M.G.]

I talked with a Trump supporter the other day. He told me that the New World Order led by the Rothschilds (yes, this is what he told me) feared honest, strong leaders like Trump. He liked Carson too, but felt his support for mandatory immunization disqualified him from being Presidential material.

This got me thinking about Republicans I know. Not a one who regularly talks to me claims to support Trump or Carlson. I have had some limited contact with supporters of both candidates. Invariably, their politics moves from utter hatred of Hillary Clinton and Obama to a kind of freeform paranoid craziness not unlike what I've described above. The one exception I've encountered was a religious fundamentalist - itself a form of craziness - who liked Carson mostly for being a nice guy.

Is this merely indicative of my own limited perspective, or has someone out there encountered a fully rational adult human being, one comfortable with science and modernity, who genuinely likes and supports either of the two Republican frontrunners? And if so, could you share your experience?

[zipplewrath]

1. They've wandered off from truth

Last edited Thu Nov 12, 2015, 12:17 PM - Edit history (1)

It's like a functional alcoholic that constantly makes excuses. They left reality years ago and discovered it is much easier to work in the area of "it should work" than to actually deal with the reality of whether their ideas actually do work. They've been pushing ideas for 30 years that have demonstrably not worked, and it doesn't bother them one bit. It's why they hate academia and scientific knowledge in general, because it involves ideas being "disprovable" and that is a real problem for them.

For the drunk, it's never the alcohol, it's always something else. For the GOP its never their ideas, its always the facts that are a problem.

[M.G.]

6. Sounds about right.

I suspect once you adopt paranoia as a substitute for politics, returning to rationality becomes a long, slow process.

[valerief]

10. Great analogy. nt

[NobodyHere]

2. I have a confession to make

Part of me wants Trump to be president because of the comedic value alone.

It's comedy gold for the likes of Colbert and other late night talk show hosts.

[M.G.]

5. Me too.

I've thought that.
Not sure I'd want him as President, but there would be comic value in it.
Even if he were to just win the primary I'd probably get some laughs out of it.

[merrily]

7. Then, vote for Sanders. Comics have been having a field day with him, but his policies are great.

Win win

[NobodyHere]

8. It would certainly give Larry David more work

[merrily]

9. Oh, they'd all stay busy with Sanders, much as did Stewart before he retired.

[Betty Karlson]

3. A sane Carson supporter - two days ago.

I noticed he was sane, because when I countered Carson's line about arming Jews with weapons to prevent a Holocaust (my counterargument: the presence of weapons led to a powerless Weimar republic, which led to the rise of the NSDAP) the supporter said: thanks for that historical perspective, maybe I should disagree with Carson on that idea.

[M.G.]

4. Good to know...

Good to know one exists!

What did this person like about Carson?

[Betty Karlson]

17. Carson is an outsider - and not a racist.

If one is a Republican, and looking for a non-racist outsider, there isn't a lot of choice among the two dozen candidates of the GOP field.

[Kalidurga]

11. Nope

I have never met anyone who supports either of them. The Republicans I know refuse to acknowledge that a primary is going on and this is all they have to chose from.

[M.G.]

12. Denial is a great coping mechanism.

The GOP primary is such a degenerate freakshow this year that if I were a remotely educated Republican, I'd probably be in denial too.

[Kalidurga]

13. No kidding

I am busy these days pretending I wasn't an Independent at one time and a tad more conservative. Every time a Republican says something stupid I run further left and try to find a nice socialist to hide behind.

[dembotoz]

14. if the nra is willing to support gun control for the mentally ill.....will the gop turn in their

weapons.

they should

delusional
paranoid

[randys1]

27. Post of the day

[Nye Bevan]

16. "Ignorant, ill-informed and incurious" is not necessarily the same as "insane" (nt)

[dembotoz]

21. Delusional? Paranoid with delusions?? Sometimes wacky is really nuts

[Laura PourMeADrink]

18. Sane, yes. I see them more as uneducated and intellectually lazy nt

[Throd]

19. Yes. My mother-in-law likes Trump and my neighbor likes Carson.

They are both decent and intelligent people. I just disagree with their politics

[M.G.]

22. Thanks.

Good to hear they exist.

[kwassa]

20. I have not met any supporters of either.

I am sure they are around, I just haven't met them. I live in a very blue area, but occasionally I see really vile anti-Obama stickers.

As a subset of this: I don't know any black Carson supporters, and I know a lot of black people.

[restorefreedom]

23. several for trump and one for carson

all sane, nice people.

they are tired of the establishment and their crap. interestingly enough, they also like bernie. he is too "liberal" for them to vote for, but they like him. they also hate hillary and basically dont know who om is.

[M.G.]

24. That is interesting.

Thank you. That is actually quite interesting.

[restorefreedom]

25. i think it might speak to how formidable trump could be

as much as we might like to think so, he is not just attracting racist wack jobs.

he could actually win this thing.

[Agnosticsherbet]

26. I know sane Carson and/or Trump supporters.

Strong religious beliefs and right wing ideology do not make people insane.

[M.G.]

30. They don't...

They don't, necessarily, but if someone holds fundamentalist religious views I would not consider them fully rational, or at least fully capable of dealing with modernity.

[6chars]

28. I saw a breakdown of Trump's support a while ago.

It was something like 5-10% for Republicans with college degree or above, 40%+ for Republicans w/HS education or less. I'm not remembering exactly. Of the highly educated Republicans, their supporters are probably into the various theories. The lower educated population is where his campaign is targeted, making points that are not so intellectually sophisticated.

[Paper Roses]

29. Carlson is nuts, Trump is a comic relief. Opinion of those to whom I have spoken. (me too!)

Whenever the subject of politics comes up, everyone to whom I have spoken says the same thing. The republican party should be ashamed! The whole group should go and find a real job. This is the opinion of supporters of both parties.

Never thought I'd see such a weird group running for the highest office in the land. It is not just the front runners, it is the whole bunch.