Monday, March 14, 2016

Killing Donald Trump Part Four - Really, Guys? Really?

[Previous: Killing Donald Trump Part Three - Rainbow Polka-Dot Ops]

I'll freely admit, we haven't discussed rallies or riots in this series before. We definitely haven't discussed shutting down a major city in response to a peaceful political rally. Then again, who would have thought that we needed to?

This shouldn't be necessary, but I'll lay it out anyway. Shutting down a major city in response to a peaceful, lawful political rally and physically intimidating/attacking fellow citizens is as stupid as shit. Don't do it. Also, do not physically attack presidential candidates. Just...come on, guys. We shouldn't have to review this material.

I mean, you've basically just given Trump the nomination, if not the presidency.

We're going to veer away from normal procedure so I can share a personal anecdote.

I'm from an extremely evangelical conservative pocket of an extremely evangelical conservative region of the US. You know the evangelicals who hate Trump because he's a multiple divorcee who runs casinos and strip clubs? Yeah, that's them. My Facebook feeds has been full up for months with Christians talking about what a sleezebag Trump is and how they want anyone but him.

I went home for a visit last weekend, when the Chicago riot hit. Guess what? Now they're okay with Trump. Now, they haven't jumped on the Trump Train yet and they still prefer Cruz, but they've gone from #NeverTrump to #IGuessIfTrumpIsTheNomineeThat'sOkay (which is, admittedly, an absurdly long hashtag).

You've got to, got to, got to think about the akido of public discourse. By publicly attacking Trump with the forces of chaos, you make him look like an agent of order. They feel sorry for him now. He's no longer the most Hitlery element in the picture. The most Hitlery element is the fuckers attacking people in the streets for their political beliefs. YOU JUST LOST THE HITLER HIGH GROUND.

Bonus warning: no one feels bad for you if you try to disrupt a political rally and someone makes you sit down and shut up. You're not the victim in that scenario, you're the dickhead.

Now granted, that's anecdotal evidence from one small corner of the nation. But these are also the Republicans who I thought were least likely to ever vote for a person who has some nice things to say about Planned Parenthood.

Here's the falsifiable bit: expect Trumps poll numbers among evangelicals to improve in the next few weeks, and up to the election assuming he doesn't say anything stupid about Jesus. Specifically, look for the number of evangelicals who strongly disapprove of Trump to start dropping.

My anecdotal evidence and gut feeling will be incorrect if the number of evangelicals who strongly disapprove of Trump to remain the same or increase (again, assuming that Trump doesn't say his daughter is the second coming of Christ or something equally offensive).

You can also call me an idiot if Trump says his daughter is the second coming of Christ and still improves his favorability among evangelicals.

No comments:

Post a Comment