So, we've got Donald Trump, probably the single most controversial presidential candidate the U.S has had since controversy existed. He's constantly denounced by the media, other political members, and the general population. However, something perplexes me. He's still WINNING.

In real life, I know of maybe two or three Donald Trump supporters. Yet I could name you dozens of people who hate him. Indeed, anti-Trump sentiment seems to be the common consensus on most online communities as well. So I want to know, if Trump is so widely hated, how on Earth is he still doing so good in the election thus far?

To clarify, I'm not a Trump supporter. I fully plan on voting for someone else, but I'm genuinely curious in how someone hated by both sides of the political aisle has managed to gain such a following. Any thoughts?

1). Europeans: Europe is much more left than America, therefore, more likely to be anti-Trump

2). Youth: I'd guess the warlight forums average age around ~17 - I.E., more likely to be more liberal and less likely to support Trump.

I'd also say that it's not that unlikely that given that Americans are only about ~20-35 percent of those who are talking about politics, and only ~30% of Republicans support Trump, it's safe to say that the numbers make sense.

His support in the GOP is stuck between 30-40%. I still contend that the majority of Republicans hate him. The only problem is that the other 60-70% is stuck between Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, and John Kasich. Other than that simple hypothesis, the only other explanation is anger...pure anger. Trump represents the middle finger to the establishment, the media, the federal government, and politicians...that's the message many voters want to communicate to Washington DC and the people who control the government.

Well, Tyrion is actually entirely correct. WarLight is full of Europeans, and Europeans hate america(n nationalism), right-wing policies and anti-welfare politicians. Also happens with latin american nations and Brazil (it is not latin american, fuck off if you disagree - we are a shining gem in the shitpile slowly losing it's shine for having Syndrome from The Incredibles as our president (for real - Google "Dilma Rousseff" and tell me just how similar she is to Syndrome.))

In addition, millenials are heavily inclined towards the left because, when you're still too young to understand how the world really works, you have to be really goddamn cruel and heartless not to be a leftist, so people who are 18 and younger are most likely against Trump and stuff.

Another thing: Hillbillies. Big source of votes for Trump and other republicans, and they don't use the internet and stay away from big cities. If you go to a small town, you'll probably find the Trump supporters far more easily.

Oh yeah, and hate.

If you show up saying #Trump2k15 in WL forums you'll probably have a lot of people calling you a bigot, an asshole, stupid, ect.

Disclaimer: Not a Trump supporter. As a proper south american, I support Bernie, but for another reason: Let him isolate you from the world (and hopefully slowly reap your economy away) while down here we make every single latin american nation our bitch and proceed to rule the world with the rest of the BRICS nations. Trump would be a feet up in our ass with so much external intervention. Makes it harder to abuse weaker nations.

I would take Zephyrums final comment as a joke, but that's actually pretty much what BRICS is doing....

As a Trump supporter, let me give my 2 cents:

First of all, I don't think he's nearly as hated as you believe. Here's a couple graphs for you:

http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/donald-trump-favorable-rating

http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/hillary-clinton-favorable-rating

As you see, Trump's favourability ratings are roughly the same as Hillary's, and hers are going down. So among the average Joe, Trump is not that disliked at all. This is what happens when you are the front-runner in an election. You get a lot of "incoming". Here's another poll:

http://www.allenbwest.com/2015/12/shock-poll-look-who-supports-trumps-muslim-ban-now/

Regardless what you may think about its merits, the majority of Americans support Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country. Interestingly enough, support for the ban went up when hinted that the idea was not Trump's. While among Republicans support was steady at 70%+ regardless if Trump was named as the originator, Democrats showed great fluctuation depending on whether they got told that it was Trump's idea or not. It tells me that especially Democratic voters have been bombarded with anti-Trump messaging, and their dislike of him is superficial and has more to do with their ignorance of him than their depth of knowledge. They connect his name with negative thoughts but they actually agree with his policies.

That said, the people who know him better are also very loyal to him. Trump joked that he could shoot somebody in daylight in Manhattan and his supporters would still stand by him. Trump has taken all the heat for challenging PC culture. People want someone who can assert themselves against strong opposition. There is no doubt in my mind that Trump is the only Republican candidate who can do that. That's why he is irreplacable.

Lastly, American culture is still very PC. It's easy to label someone like Trump a racist and attack him based on that. He has a number of loud opponents that aren't as numerous as their noise might imply. At the same time, a lot of people are afraid of identifying as Trump supporters with their names and faces in fear of being labeled racists etc. Still, they will go to the voting booth and support him. Talk about the silent majority.

Trump is just a populist and say things people want to hear. He surfs in the alienated republican voters, a processus created by foxnews and defensors of the 2nd, christian radicals, anti-climate change biggots,...

These same people are now surprised trump used what they created against them.


@The Lord: I don't believe trump is racist. He's very smart and an opportunist. He'll tell anything he needs to get elected.
_Anti-abortion? Sure.
_Pro-gun? Why not?
_Put every pb of america in immigrants and muslims? Let's do it!


@[WOLF] Zephyrum: you're really stupid if you think bernie will destroy america. Hell, trump won't be able to do it. It's not like the president of the country has that much power... America will fall apart because of it's actual system, who's not sustainable. #congress #lobbies #stupidvoters

Plus, if you think Brazil would rise with america's fall, you're even more idiot. Brazil has lost it's chance to become a superpower already. The actual crisis we're in, won't be easy to get off, while we're stopped, others are rising. China is already more influent then us in the southern american continent, don't expect them to leave lol.

We suck China's dick on a daily basis. If China takes over, we're probably the ones that will get the most out of it. Like, seriously. The amount of food exports to China we have is insane.

you're really stupid if you think bernie will destroy america. Hell, trump won't be able to do it. It's not like the president of the country has that much power...

Presidents are underestimated. The diplomatic power they hold is just sick. It's not the congress nor the population that decides wheter the country is friendly or not to another country, it is mostly the president's (hence why we keep getting involved in horrible deals with Venezuela and Cuba) choice as well as the rest of the executives.

Trump is aggressive. Bernie is more passive. Electing Trump is expecting him to do about the same as Bush did in terms of external intervention. Electing Bernie is basically expecting european-tier of involvement with other countries. Having Bernie as the president might not break the country, but definetely will shrink it's sphere of influence.

Hell, having a leftist president is exactly why OUR influence area does not grow and sticks to other portuguese colonies + the Mercosur (not even all of South America despite being several times richer than any of them).

Plus, if you think Brazil would rise with america's fall, you're even more idiot.

We probably could if we had a president that wanted to actually do something for the country. Dilma basically just cares about her party. I know most of our politicians are like that, gave up trying to look for an exception, but if there is one that can have a small bit of PATRIOTISM while also leeching money for his party then we'd probably get a lot of progress done.

Brazil has lost it's chance to become a superpower already. The actual crisis we're in, won't be easy to get off, while we're stopped, others are rising.

All these "others" rising are our direct political allies: China, India, Japan, booming african nations and, now, after their change of heart, Argentina too.

Furthermore, our economy is just bound to recover soon. Despite still having some problems in the country, the energy and water issues are mostly solved, China is back on the track to buy our shit, Russia needs partners who won't leave them behind just because Ukraine is ungrateful and sometime the EU will fix their problems and the dollar prices will lower (it has stabilized after a long, long march upwards, so that's a good sign).

Expect 2016 to suck and 2017 to be back on the track unless our big wave of bad karma continues.

He surfs in the alienated republican voters, a processus created by foxnews

I might be wrong, but if I recall, not even Fox News likes Trump.

~~~

I would take Zephyrums final comment as a joke, but that's actually pretty much what BRICS is doing....

It was half serious. You should worry about the serious 50%.

Edited 2/23/2016 00:52:10

Fox is in the tank for Rubio. They constantly attack Trump. Look at the debates, esp megyn kelly

A couple reasons why he is liked, or looked to instead of other candidates.

1) He's not a politician by trade. People love this kind of thing.

2) He makes extravagant promises, but then again, who doesn't?

3) He says "screw off" to political correctness.

4) Anyone who does research will know that he is not as big an idiot as the media portrays him and he earns some sympathy votes this way.

5) Any small minded bigots who like the ideas of what the media tells you Trump represents will vote for him. This is quite ironic, when you think about it.

6) He's Donald Trump. A successful businessman. A big personality through and through. A household name, for better or for worse. This is the same reason as to why Kanye West will have some votes in 2020.

@TeamGuns didn't say Trump is a racist. Agree that he's a populist.

@[WOLF] Zephyrum : Yea, I never said fox news supported trump. But they created the actual state of alienation that let trump rise.

Just one thing, about the recovery of Brazil, I'm not really sure we're gonna be able to do it. The only way the country will recover is if the confiance of the investors rises again, and that's not gonna happen any soon. The only way it could be better, would be if our current president got impeached or resigned, but there's no way that's happening, so...

About the left being the cause of the loss of influence a country has, I wouldn't be so sure. Bad management, overspending, corruption and government ineficiency aren't a common caracteristic of leftwing politicians, but rather a caracteristic of ALL politicians.

Some examples:
=> Republicans and their economy politics are responsible for the market meltdown the world suffered in 2008, but not only. The hole too big to fail policy, practiced by both democrats and republicans contributed to systemic flaws in the US economy that will, unfortunately, lead to more catastrophic crisis.
=> Roosevelt's new deal (leftist policy), put the US economy back on track in the 30s.
=> President lula's government in Brazil was very good for the economy and helped to fix many social problems the country had. His successor managed to do the opposit.

Edited 2/23/2016 01:33:22

Bernie supported bombing Milosevic, invading Afghanistan, keeping sanctions against Iraq in the nineties, a bill that gave more power over to Bush to further his goals and a plethora of interventionist things. If anything, he'll expand American influence with his plan to be all buddy buddy with Russia.

Passive my arse.

I think that developing economies like Brazil need capitalism. It creates the most wealth, and at that point, wealth is what matters. It is like America in the Industrial Revolution.

About the left being the cause of the loss of influence a country has, I wouldn't be so sure. Bad management, overspending, corruption and government ineficiency aren't a common caracteristic of leftwing politicians, but rather a caracteristic of ALL politicians.

Corruption does affect the influence area of a country, but having a leftist president is even more damaging than having a corrupt one in that aspect.

Well, not "leftist", but the general leftist stereotype - not a big fan of nationalism, has no plan on growing (just making use of the current resources) and that kind of stuff.

=> President lula's government in Brazil was very good for the economy and helped to fix many social problems the country had. His successor managed to do the opposit.

The reason our influence grew under him is because he took charge right after our economic problems were faltering down and our potential was just about to be fully unleashed. He didn't do badly, but then again, he wasn't nearly as good as people claim him to be.

Bernie supported bombing Milosevic, invading Afghanistan, keeping sanctions against Iraq in the nineties, a bill that gave more power over to Bush to further his goals and a plethora of interventionist things. If anything, he'll expand American influence with his plan to be all buddy buddy with Russia.

+1

About 99% of US Politicians are war hawks. There are literally no Doves in either the Republican or Democratic Party. All of them are supportive of the Military-Industrial Complex in one way or another. Just look at their voting records. I have yet to find a country that Rubio does not want to invade or declare an American threat to national security - Cuba, Russia, Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Palestine, China, Somalia, Libya, etc. The one thing I will give Bernie Sanders is he's a strong defender of civil liberties and supports dismantling the NSA, and he previously voted against the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments of 2008.

Other US congressman who can be considered neo-isolationists or at least non-interventionist - Justin Amash, Rand Paul, Walter B. Jones Jr, G.K. Butterfield, Jared Polis, and Ron Wyden.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/2014-elections-senate-democrats-iraq-syria-111445?o=1

I am easily persuaded, but tell me how much good have Republicraps and Demofags have done the past 3 presidents. Awful, how have other political parties not arisen?

Edited 2/23/2016 04:10:08

Roughly 2/3 of The Us debt is to itself and its people from this like medicare etc. Public programs that really take a toll. China is like a tenth of total debt, we're in the most debt to them in regards to foreign countries.

So, whose to blame for debt? Capitalist outsourcing, or Socialist programs like welfare

^Both.

^edge warning