During the last debate when Hilary brought out “trumped-up trickle down” economics it was a miss. She is right, he is repackaging the failed 80’s crap, but that is not what his devotees are buying and we are seeing it even now with response to open mic repulsiveness.
Because the kernel of truth in this to them, the thing they are voting for is:
“When you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”
They have watched him get to do anything — spout hatred and lies. The things they feel that they should also be entitled to do and he was promising them they could do if they elect him. Women voting for him? Minorities? you ask why? Well they can buy they entitlement to hate whomever they feel is keeping them from attaining whatever it is they also feel entitled to.
And yes, some of them are the classic Republican base who think this is the closest they can get to their conservative principles because it has been normalized by the media and the RNC who can see he is a big man baby, but hope the GOP machine can harness the animus just as they did with the “Christian conservatives” for so long.
But lets be clear no one is supporting him for his professed platform (such as it is.)
So we find ourselves here. His core supporters feel entitled to keep him on the ticket (and in this instance they actually have a point! It is the only thing they are ACTUALLY entitled to — to have a chance to vote for the winner of the nomination process) and the rest finally see that he can’t be made more palatable and won’t play how they had deluded themselves he would when they decided they could live with their new version of “big tent” — embracing the alt-right even as they averted their heads when alt-right comes in for a kiss.
What does it mean for us? We need to help the Tump loyalists see that the RNC is not for them. They are entitled to people who represent them! I personally am suggesting to any Trump supporter that they vote for Trump but then refuse to vote for any other GOP candidate. They are entitled to abandon the GOP as the GOP abandoned their standard bearer.
Then maybe the Democrats can enact change that really will benefit them — things like immigration reform and healthcare and education and criminal justice reform and equal pay (and and and) that we are all entitled to, as human beings.