It’s Not Trump. It’s America.

I'd go even further to point at Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and the rise of the Tea Party that fueled the beginnings of all this. They allowed the dorks to do two things: 1) provide them with an outlet in which to (mis)direct their anger, and 2) allow them the ability to blame something other than either themselves or the ACTUAL thing holding them from their wants and needs. Add on the sinister workings of the Claremont Institute in the background later on, and you've got a SLEW of people thinking in the exact manner you've manufactured.

Just saying a huge amount of this is Peter theil funded

100% agreed that Trump was the catalyst. I don't understand what about him is so powerful and attractive that so many people unquestioningly believe and trust him. Maybe they are picking up a resonant cognitive-dissonance frequency?

Don't you dare let 4chan off the hook so easily!

The way that elections happen in America means you don’t even need a majority to govern, just a plurality. MAGA is fundamentally antisocial and their political views are unpopular, and yet they rule our country.

More and more I am convinced that social media was created FOR this purpose and not just to 'bring people together.' It was created to unite conservatives together.

Hey, what do you have against sausage?!

Indeed. We're in a new era where misinformation can override reality.

Rural areas are also older on average as their kids move out of smaller farm towns and cities to more developed areas in order to find jobs and build their own life. It's not just farm and energy subsidies that keeps these areas afloat. It's social security (transfer from young city workers to older rural inhabitants), it's medicare and Medicaid, it's grants and subsidies to keep hospitals/clinics open in these areas, it's snap benefits as rural areas tend to be poorer as a whole, it's the USPS hosting post offices that are net money losers (yes I feel the post shouldn't be a profit based entity but it's a fact the government subsidizes those offices), it's the state governments providing extra funds from the cities to keep public schools open in those areas. It's the state and federal government providing funding for the roads that lead in and out of those small communities. Hell even the military is a jobs program for younger adults in poor areas who have no other way out of their home town. In California rural areas have very strong water rights that mean farmers who grow water intensive crops in the middle of the desert are the last to lose water rights compared to the cities down river. In the western US ranchers can graze their herds on BLM land for a very modest amount compared to what they would pay a private land owner for the same ability. When you really dive into the finances about what keeps rural areas afloat and it's socialism all the way down.

Please don't get rid of OSHA. I like having a job.

Well said. Too many people skip state, county, city, and other local elections like boards of education. 

I can't even figure out what they stand for anymore, and I think that's part of what is so crazy about this. I live in an area with a lot of older boomers and gen x'ers (i am at the tail of gen x, before you come at me), and they all have this idea that if something doesn't directly benefit them, it is bad. They don't want their taxes to pay for any infrastructure or institutions that they would indirectly use, and are making situations that will make their lives worse. They didn't want their taxes to go towards the library because they don't use it. They don't want their taxes towards improving roads because they don't drive on those particular ones. They don't want their taxes going towards low-cost childcare because they don't have children anymore. The list goes on and on. How do we combat this when we vote and they outnumber us? I question what they even want their taxes to go towards every time something else comes up.

More so that the owners and corporate sponsors agree with Trump on most things, or find him to be a vehicle toward their ends. The same media loved Obama during the occasions when he went Rightward (i.e., virtually always) but found their courage to chastise him over and over again the second he went Leftward. They weren't worried about losing their access during THOSE segments. The people that own and generate the media are Rightwing, they just also want stability and a veneer of polish, which is why they criticize Trump and his vulgarity. If Rubio were the president, with most of the same policies as Trump, the media would be treating Rubio as the greatest president of the last half-century.

Ding ding ding!

It was originally called Horse and Sparrow. The theory was, if you feed the horse enough oats some will pass through for the sparrow to eat. So I don't know that that's better, do you want what's trickling down the leg of the rich or what passes through them?

A rising tide lifts all ships. Basically the opposite of trickle down. Get money to the bottom, and everyone goes up.

it shows the mentality of half of americans. they believe that they have a place in the hierarchy, and they understand that their place is BENEATH the rich and powerful. conservative ideology demands them to be obedient and question nothing. so, of course, conservatives would hear something like "trickle down" and think "oh i'm so blessed to get the breadcrumbs the rich dropped on the floor!"

Ironically, the only trickle down economics that actually pays off is social programs.. many studies show the economic payoffs to social programs to be 2-5x the investment.

We are seeing the same in the UK, reform are praying on ignorance and fear, a dig deeper and they're standing on giving tax cuts to the wealthy and decimating workers rights, mainly funded by right wing contributers from abroad, it's the playook they are all now following.

Anytime I see someone say "we," I lose my shit. We includes me, and I definitely don't consent to being included.

This was engineered by the Heritage Foundation and clowns like Newt Gingrich. When facts don't support your position, make everything an opinion.

The United States currently, right now holds the top spot in overall scientific impact (hindex), R&D and top tier universities worldwide. The problem isnt that we dont have great science, universities or companies. Its that the current government has nothing to do with their quality or their success. We haven’t “gone” from anything yet because the people who are the problem aren’t scientists, universities or research firms. The risk is the devaluation of those things over time.

I don't think that your civil war ever truly ended.

We agree and understand. Wish it were not the case. America will always be one election away from fascism for the forseeable future.

More importantly, how the f*** is the spelling of “Bologna” end up being being pronounced like that??

Can't forget talk radio.