I don’t know that I have any big point to make here, but I thought I’d put down some thoughts and see if they come together into something worth sharing…
I’m currently in Tokyo on a business trip, and tonight i went on a touristy group-tour, a “Walking Food Tasting Tour”. Along for the tour were a group of millennials from New York, a middle-aged couple from Australia, and an older couple from Jacksonville, FL. As we made small talk in an off-the-beaten-path monjayaki eatery, the conversation drifted to Trump. We went around the table and started to share what we thought about Trump, or the state of politics, until the elderly couple piped up that we should change the subject because they are conservatives and Trump supporters. One of the millennials then tried to iron over the situation by saying “Well I think we can all say that something has changed in the GOP…” and the older gentlemen, raising his voice, said “Yeah, FINALLY, and for the BETTER!” Then he got even louder “I think WE ALL should at least be able to say that under Trump there has been a MAJOR turn around, but ALL OF YOU don’t know it because the MSM won’t tell you!” Our beers had just arrived, so I lightened the tension by offering a toast to sex, religion and politics- joking that we can talk about religion or sex next. That was enough to change the subject.
Something struck me, however, about his choice of words. They’ve been rattling around in my head since then. These people really believe there has been a turnaround. I had a similar conversation with my Trump-loving brother. They simply don’t allow the fact that the turn-around started in 2009. I’ll even acknowledge that Trump’s tax cuts did accelerate growth some, but of course that requires also acknowledging that debt-funded tax cuts are stimulus, and one has to question the prudence of this kind off stimulus when the economy is already strong and unemployment already low. And this doesn’t even take into account the impact of escalating trade wars, Brexit or the long term changes that may come as America abdicates it’s central leadership role in the global world order. Of course, the conversation never ventured near this. He just believes there was a turn-around, due to Trump, in 2016, and was ready to ruin everyone’s evening to make his point.
My curiosity was piqued, though, and later in the night while strolling along I carefully quizzed him on a couple topics. First I asked about QAnon. He pretended that he had only barely heard about QAnon, but then went on to describe the Q conspiracies in detail. This is EXACTLY what my brother did. So they know this stuff makes them look crazy, but they really believe it. Then I asked, “If you were on that jury, would you convict Manafort?” He was quick to respond, “No way in HELL!” When I asked about the strength of the evidence, he did a typical conservative two-step. He claimed that it was a witch hunt, that the evidence was faked by the deep state, that the crimes were ancient, and they’re crimes people do all the time anyway, like speeding tickets, and of course, Hillary. These are incompatible arguments. You can make one or two of them together, but you can’t make them all together. But this affirmed something I have felt pretty strongly. That one woman on the Manafort jury, who was a Trump supporter but voted to convict based on the evidence, is not the norm. She’s the exception.
At some point the discussion turned to what we all did for a living. He works for a large multi-level marketing company selling Noni juice, and he’s here to spread their network into Japan. I stood back and looked at this post-retirement age couple, making a living in a MLM, and the blank, bitter stare that both he and his wife seemed to have. The rest of us were upbeat and positive.
I’m not sure the lesson here. There’s something about globalism, and people who don’t have modern skills left to scavenge for diminishing opportunity. There’s something about the normalization of grift in the right-wing mind. There’s a lot to say about alternate reality, and the fundamental breakdown of truth. Or, the kind of person that makes a Trump supporter.
I can’t quite put my finger on what bothers me so much about tonight. But this couple were such different people from the rest of us. If half the country is like this, it doesn’t bode well.
Sunday, Aug 26, 2018 · 11:05:02 PM +00:00
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UberGoober
Wow that’s amazing this has gotten so much attention, on the rec list!
After a night pondering this, I think I know what bothered me so much. It’s like a bad marriage, where you can pretend for a long time that things will get better if you work hard enough at it. But at some point, you realize it’s over and there’s nothing you can do about it. It feels like this with half our country, including my brother and this couple I met. As so many have noted, they are unreachable. They are in a cult following, and their minds are full of false information— and this is precisely how they want it. As others have noted, all we can do is vote them out. But this is the GOP now. It has metastasized, and it is not going to return to something more decent and principled. Anyway, thanks for all the recs and comments. I will try to get in and respond more later!