this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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Explain Like I'm Five
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The MAGA movement of 2016 billed itself as an anti establishment movement. Contrasting itself from traditional Republicans and the Democratic party. It promised to "Drain the Swamp".
Their success is indictive of a discontent with the state of the government at the time. They targeted the blue collar demographic promising stances on issues that'd help them.
Here's a video on a county that voted Democrat from 1869-2016: https://youtu.be/yfxvHqTCy2w
Keep in mind you came to a left leaning platform with essentially no Trump supporters and asked why do people like Trump. Listen to what they cite not just us.
People really forget/undersell that this was the original groundswell of support for Trump - particularly running against the Nth generation political hack that was Hillary Rodham Clinton in the general, and the Nth generation political hack that was John Ellis ‘Jeb’ Bush in the primary.
Trump also touched the racism/xenophobia lightning rod in ways no mainstream Republican had since the civil right era, either with dog whistles, or c/overt wink-and-nod about “those people”.
Keep in mind he built a solid base by posting tons of anti-Obama and pushing the birther stuff long after it'd already been disproven. This resonated hard with with deep seated racism in this country and spread way too fast.