Bleacher Bums Forum

Trump is a jackass, and much worse.  But his appeal is not only to xenophobics and fascists, which is a small part of his following.  Most of his followers are those who are sick and tired of being manipulated into being represented by people that are not willing or able to carry through on their campaign promises, and foolishly believe that just because Trump is a bully, he will be THEIR bully, totally forgetting that most of what he promises, he can NOT produce, and and what he WILL produce will be just the opposite of what they want.

I did not write "facists."  I wrote "authoritarians."  While facists are pretty much by definition authoritarians, not all authoritarians are facists.  I chose the word "authoritarians" for a reason.  I chose not to use the word "facist" for a reason.  (While Trump himself certainly appears to be facist, I am not suggesting that most of his supporters are... or would even understand the term.)  The reason I chose "authoritarian" instead of "facist," is that "authoritarian" fits, while facist does not, and there is sound evidence for the conclusion they are authoritarian, a conclusion which certainly did not originate with me.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/donald-trump-2016-authoritarian-213533
My finding is the result of a national poll I conducted in the last five days of December under the auspices of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, sampling 1,800 registered voters across the country and the political spectrum. Running a standard statistical analysis, I found that education, income, gender, age, ideology and religiosity had no significant bearing on a Republican voter’s preferred candidate. Only two of the variables I looked at were statistically significant: authoritarianism, followed by fear of terrorism, though the former was far more significant than the latter.

Authoritarianism is not a new, untested concept in the American electorate. Since the rise of Nazi Germany, it has been one of the most widely studied ideas in social science. While its causes are still debated, the political behavior of authoritarians is not. Authoritarians obey. They rally to and follow strong leaders. And they respond aggressively to outsiders, especially when they feel threatened. From pledging to “make America great again” by building a wall on the border to promising to close mosques and ban Muslims from visiting the United States, Trump is playing directly to authoritarian inclinations.

Not all authoritarians are Republicans by any means; in national surveys since 1992, many authoritarians have also self-identified as independents and Democrats. And in the 2008 Democratic primary, the political scientist Marc Hetherington found that authoritarianism mattered more than income, ideology, gender, age and education in predicting whether voters preferred Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama. But Hetherington has also found, based on 14 years of polling, that authoritarians have steadily moved from the Democratic to the Republican Party over time. He hypothesizes that the trend began decades ago, as Democrats embraced civil rights, gay rights, employment protections and other political positions valuing freedom and equality. In my poll results, authoritarianism was not a statistically significant factor in the Democratic primary race, at least not so far, but it does appear to be playing an important role on the Republican side. Indeed, 49 percent of likely Republican primary voters I surveyed score in the top quarter of the authoritarian scale—more than twice as many as Democratic voters.

Political pollsters have missed this key component of Trump’s support because they simply don’t include questions about authoritarianism in their polls. In addition to the typical battery of demographic, horse race, thermometer-scale and policy questions, my poll asked a set of four simple survey questions that political scientists have employed since 1992 to measure inclination toward authoritarianism. These questions pertain to child-rearing: whether it is more important for the voter to have a child who is respectful or independent; obedient or self-reliant; well-behaved or considerate; and well-mannered or curious. Respondents who pick the first option in each of these questions are strongly authoritarian.

Based on these questions, Trump was the only candidate—Republican or Democrat—whose support among authoritarians was statistically significant.

I realize that you used the term authoritarian.  I did not use it because the term is meaningless psychobabble.

As much as I gave to Trump and Hillary.

I give the same amount to all campaigns of all parties.

Sounds like Donald Trump....

Actually, it is a great example of psychobabble.

C1 = TH
T = H/C1
H = T/C1

Odds are H/C1 or T/C1 are undefined.

Of COURSE he won't condemn the Klan -- condemning the Klan would be directly attacking his core supporters.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/02/28/468455028/trump-wont-condemn-kkk-says-he-knows-nothing-about-white-supremacists

Trump is a populist.  His one ability is to convince large numbers of disparate and even opposing groups that he is really on THEIR side.

In this case, he is.