'Danger ahead': Conservative warns that Trump policy discussions won't sway his voters
03 December 2023
Donald Trump's supporters won't be convinced using policy differentials with Joe Biden, and to attempt it is a fool's errand, according to a conservative columnist.
The Atlantic's Tom Nichols, who turned on the party of Lincoln after it nominated Donald Trump for president, said on Saturday that people should avoid the traditional "political horse race" when it comes to Biden and Trump.
"I know it's obvious that Trump changes positions on a dime and how it's mystifying that his cult doesn't care, but picking all this apart is a fool's errand. They stick with him because he channels their diffuse anger about their lives at other Americans," Nichols said, adding that it's "worse now."
According to Nichols, that's because, after 2016, "Trump voters thought they'd really made their point, pushed back change in America, and gained respect by electing a POTUS."
"All that blew up in their faces: They found out they're not a majority, and worse, the disdain of their fellow citizens only intensified," he wrote. "2020 and J6 compounded their sense of humiliation and grievance. The know Trump is making fools of them, but they will never admit it. And Biden winning was like a national slap in the face. So now they're with him no matter what. They don't care about policy or positions."
Nichols went on to say Trump's supporters this time around will accept him despite more horrific behavior.
"He could call for open borders and free abortions and most of them wouldn't care," the columnist wrote. "All they care about is that he's promising to go after people they hate even more now than in 2016."
He concluded that the media's traditional way of covering these races will not work.
"Talking about how he and Biden 'differ on Issues X/Y/Z' is pointless and a distraction," he said. "It's all part of the 'normal political horse race' narrative that is blinding people to the danger ahead."