AunBear89 said:
oski003 said:
It's odd that nobody has turned on Trump despite the ongoing investigations, and the fact so many think he is so obviously guilty.
The inescapable conclusion is that he is the Republi-cons' useful idiot
I think there is a more likely conclusion: many top Republicans are in legal jeopardy too. And so, they need to stonewall this investigation to protect more than Trump or their control of Congress, but to avoid convictions themselves. This did not seem like a plausible explanation back when this all started, but their behavior makes this seem like the most logical conclusion, in which case this investigation is really about trying to protect our system of government (what's left of it).
Conservatives rail at Big Government and many feel like they need to arm themselves for a possible war against tyranny. But then a tyrannical leader appears and they line up behind him, all the while having complete trust and faith in Big Corporations to bring about a just, desirable society by way of their pursuit of profit. It's complete brainwashing--and I don't mean that in the pejorative, hyperbolic sense. It is literal brainwashing through the use of religion and culture and lack of education to systematically feed them scary propaganda so that they look at issues in black and white terms (pun intended) and see "others" as a threat and the deceptive, self-interested narcissists as their friends.
To make a Star Wars analogy, most Trump supporters oddly see themselves as the Rebels though their articulated values and policy positions map more neatly to the Empire. Yoda nailed it: Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
That's how you get to more guns, more income inequality, the vilification of empathy, cult of materialism, authoritarianism, patriotism as bullying, mistrust of science/arts/intellectuals, and celebration of "winner's" and "losers" in purely power and wealth terms as opposed to seeing us all as a having unique parts to play in an interconnected society trying to help one another live in pursuit of happiness (that providing for all is weakness catering to "laziness"). It is profoundly anti-Jesus though they call themselves Christian. It is in fact the laziest and easiest set of human emotions (greed, jealousy, one-ups-man ship, etc).