Nothing I have ever read, ever, is more on point or more important in understanding Trump voters:

https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about

This is from 2016 and is no less relevant in 2025.

Like the author, I’ve lived both sides of the urban/rural divide. I get it. Y’all can scream all you want about how illogical MAGA feelings are, but that’s exactly where Democrats so goddamned always fail. “But we’re objectively right!”, liberals shout. Being right doesn’t win elections, appeals to emotion win elections.

They’re not only fueled by racism and hate. They’re also fueled by Fear. Examine most of what they profess, their policy decisions and trends, and you can see they are deeply afraid of the world and of anyone even remotely not like them.

Look at their obsession with guns and gun culture. They are convinced that everyone “Other” will absolutely harm them if given the chance. Be it neighbors or strangers, they’re sure the only thing keeping someone from hurting them is the lack of opportunity to do so.

They’re afraid that they’ll lose their jobs. It doesn’t even bother them to call immigrants lazy, and then in the same breath exclaim that some lazy undocumented mexican is going to steal their job.

They’re afraid of increasing numbers of immigrants because they’re afraid that they’ll become the minority, and they know damn well how minorities are treated, and it scares the shit out of them.

They’re afraid of LGBTQ+ people too. They laugh and mock the idea that it’s "homophobia or transphobia saying they’re not afraid, but then they’re afraid someone they’re not attracted to will flirt with them, or their kids will be inducted into the “LGBTQ Mafia.” It’s not just hate, they genuinely think they are the victims and that the only thing preserving their way of life is striking first.

They are absolutely hate filled racists, for sure, but deep inside they’re fucking scared and that makes them lash out.

Well, yes and no. But mostly yes. But kinda no. It’s complicated.

Everybody, including both the “pOlItiCaL lEfT” in the U.S. and the MAGA Republicans can see… shit’s kinda fucked, right? The whole world is kinda floundering right now, and the U.S. more so than many of the other parts that think of themselves as “developed” and “world powers.”

And the way in which the U.S. is borked is one that hits pretty close to home for people. People’s jobs are on shaky ground. And even most people with job security get ridiculously low pay. Meanwhile, the price of things like housing and medical care continues to climb.

And what passes as the “left wing” in the U.S. recognizes that the root of most of those problems is capitalism. All while capitalism is continuing to churn out propaganda in its own defense, convincing people that their jobs aren’t tenuous because billionaires are assholes but rather because Mexicans are going to steal your jobs. And that worker pay isn’t low because billionaires are assholes, but because the EPA is putting an undue burden on your employer, making it impossible for poor him with his seven yachts to pay you a living wage.

So, you do have to realize there is a massive propaganda campaign going on in the U.S. (not exclusively in the U.S., but it’s gotten a lot of traction in the U.S.) constantly feeding people in the U.S. racist, hate-filled, fascist conspiracy theories.

But it’s also the case that some people fall for it (and perpetuate it) and others don’t. And in that regard, it’s not as if you can put all the blame on the corporations and leave none for individual hate-filled, racist, fascist assholes.

But, it is the case that Trump and the right wing have managed to convert the discontent into support specifically for Trump via racism and hate. Where as the left(er) has the same discontent, but no love for Trump, and arguably much much less hate and racism.

So, I guess, again, the answer is “yes and no; it’s complicated.”

And of course all the above is a massive oversimplification as well.

This will possibly be a contentious thread, so please be extra nice and assume the best of the other person when commenting!

Well, you’re talking about, at minimum, tens of millions of people, so no.

I think the vast majority of them are just easily manipulated. Every one of them I know just have misconceptions about a wide variety of things. Most of them are fueled by “conspiracy theories” and what we have known for a while is rampant propaganda, both foreign and domestic, being spread online.

I remember reading about a study that said the biggest correlation in conservative minds is they have an overactive fear center of the brain.

They are afraid of immigrants, LGBT+, etc.

If you watched Fox News all day, you’d probably be more scared than if you didn’t. If you stopped, you might wonder why nobody’s talking about the dangers Fox told you about.

There isn’t one thing that motives one person, let alone large groups of people. IMO though, a large part of the support for Trump is that people are sick of “the way things are” and want change. There’s overwhelming apolitical support for change, see the popularity of Luigi Mangione. I think a lot of people are willing to accept Trump because he offers change, even if it’s stupid change and they know it.

there’s some that love their guns or their (preacher’s interpretation of the) bible more than life itself, the delusional that truly believe his fucked-up ideas would be good for them, and the richest few who obviously go for tax breaks at any cost (to others, mind you); but yea, it’s mostly just several different flavors of hate.

I’d like to point out the ridiculous amount of faces being eaten by Leopards as a partial indicator. Trump and his cohort were willing to lie entirely (not uncommom among politicians, but they did a LOT) to attract voters and then right after the election started talking about their actual policies.

To be clear, a TON of people voted because yeah, they’re racist. Thats just how America is at the moment. Being openly racist is at worst a mildly negative trait for the majority of stuff.

Sin is never a sufficient explanation for human behavior - people don’t just support trump because they are bad people and have bad qualities.

All behavior is an attempt to meet needs. There’s a complex set of identities, explanations of the world, feelings of safety and material benefits that they’re attempting to access by aligning with a powerful figure during uncertain times.

Most just don’t pay attention to politics or the news, when they do it’s faux news.

It’s less that they’re stupid and more that they’re ignorant, to completely different things.

And what WB said they wanted to do with CNN to copy faux. The goal has always been ignorant voters who show up to the ballot and vote straight party.

Republicans have just been working towards it for way longer and it works better with their voters

All of trump supporters were single-voters who believed that Trump would solve all of their individual problems.

Some vote for him because they want the gays out.

Some vote for him because they want men empowered.

Some vote for him because they want immigrants deported.

Some vote for him because they just want job security.

And other things. They don’t realize or care to realize that, he and the party he represents, have no ambition to change things for the better.

People tend to like easily digestible, one-dimensional solutions as they are easy to understand. These don’t exist in reality, but are offered by conservatives so it is quite compelling.

Most conservatives I know, aren’t there because of racism (a couple yes are like that) but more because they don’t like that life and people fall on spectrums. They prefer it be black and white, yes or no, all or nothing. That’s why they cling to the ideas of gender norms, absolute rights and wrongs, in groups and out groups, etc. And those that stand to win by dividing the populace are peddling to this desire for simple solutions to complex problems.

So when faced with real life and its consequences, it is more comfortable to keep believing it and just explain away the minor discrepancies (surely they will keep the good immigrants I know, my abortion would be a moral abortion, etc.)

Yes

I’d add fear and despair to the list - Probably mostly the latter, at least the ones I’ve met and talked with.

Both parties in the US and “rich people first”, but by differing degrees. That the democrats didn’t really make working people’s lives better in meaningful ways seems to be why most voted Trump.

The difference seems to be that Republicans are even more pro-rich than the Democrats but hide it better with their gaslighting and identity politics. This seems to work as republican voters hear “we feel you” from the leadership which is actively working on self-enrichment and little else.

To be honest, it’s hard to see Democrats coming back from this unless they move back to the left and do a lot more grass roots work.