“Hurt dogs sure do holler.” That was the saying that came to mind in 2008 when then-candidate for president Barack Obama drew outrage from Republicans because he described their voters as “bitter” people who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them.” The phrase came to mind again in 2016, when Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton used the memorable phrase “basket of deplorables” to describe supporters of Donald Trump. Since a cardinal rule of politics is “insult your opponent, but never their voters,” the mainstream media picked up and amplified the umbrage-taking from Republicans.

What wasn’t discussed very much in all this media coverage: The truth value of either Clinton’s or Obama’s comments. And what a shame, because both of them were right.

New polling out this week from CBS News proves, as many feared, Trump’s fourth set of indictments — he now faces 91 felony charges across four jurisdictions — has only caused the GOP to rally around their seething orange leader. (And let’s not forget this comes after a jury recently found him responsible for sexual assault.) Trump has surged to 62% support in the Republican presidential primary poll, and 73% of those backing Trump say it’s because, not despite, of his massive criminal exposure.

And, in a poll finding that really is astonishing, Trump voters claimed they trust the notorious fraudster more than anyone. A whopping 71% of Trump voters claim “what he says is true.” Only 63% of them say that about family and friends, 56% about conservative media figures and 42% about religious leaders.

The word that comes to mind is “cult.”

  • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    It started under Bush. We didn’t have much drone technology prior to that, so it ramped up under him, continued to ramp up under Obama, and continued to ramp up under Trump.

    Whether it’s a net negative is debatable to me. It’s not like those bystander deaths didn’t happen prior to the drones - on the contrary, there were more of them because we used less discriminate bombs instead. You can make an argument that the drone strikes have saved lives, at least as compared to what was happening previously. Targeting someone in a civilian area seems pretty reprehensible regardless.