Paul Begala: Don't look down on Trump voters

[JHB]

58. Paul, this is why the Lincoln Project is making effective ads, and you're...

Last edited Wed Aug 12, 2020, 08:35 PM - Edit history (1)

...ehhhh, doing whatever it is that you're doing. Spinning wheels?

Sure, they believed him because they wanted to. But it's less like Lautenberg believing Madoff and more like "good Germans" believing that shouty guy with the thumb's-width mustache and being OK with him and the things he did right up until foreign armies were occupying their towns.

People, especially those of us who are not insulated, complacent political consultants, have every right to be pissed at the ones who bellied up to the GOP/Trump all-you-can-swallow horseshit buffet and gleefully jeered at us for pointing out "that's not chocolate".


And if you think the Nazi analogy is over the top, Paul, then it's more proof that you have not been paying attention to what conservatives have actually been doing for the last 30 years. They've spent the entire time developing a base that wants to believe con men like themselves, and a showier, more ruthless one decided to drag race on the road they so thoughtfully built.

The GOP is not the Party of Trump. It's the Party of Ahab, and Ahab isn't Trump, it's their voter base. Trump's just the guy who promised Ahab White Whale steak dinners for life.

Don't lecture us, Mr. Political Consultant. We've had to deal with all this, and with them, a lot more directly than you have.

Why don't you take up the case with the people who need it. Start by convincing them that Hillary wasn't a socialist. Neither was Obama, Bill, Joe and Kamala, Nancy, nor anyone Democrat. Heck, that even includes Bernie and The Squad -- their programs have more in common with Dwight Eisenhower than with Fidel Castro.

Deprogram them. Wean them away from FOX and the rest of the echo chamber that spends all day making them "want to believe."