Because he was the first in a while to really give red meat to the base. Smarter Republicans view him as a necessary evil in order to rile up support. Then he presided over a relatively okay economy and gave financial support during the pandemic. Most reps view him as a reminder of the pre-pandemic economy who actually tried to appeal to the base. This was done through racism and social issues of course but that's enough.

There's also something to be said about his anti-charisma. It's like the McDonalds dinner for the football guys that twitter liberals went crazy over. Even though it was pretty weird, the average person still likes their McTreats and liberals shitting on it makes them seem out of touch. Donald Trump's weirdness and anti-charisma reflects the average American. Every attack on his weirdness backfires and mainstream liberals are too brain-broken to try to convince people on policy.

He broke their brains in 2016-2020 and now he literally can't do any wrong because people hate to admit they were wrong.

[–] 2Password2Remember@hexbear.net 26 points 1 month ago (1 children)

mainstream liberals are too brain-broken to try to convince people on policy.

i agree with everything in your post except this. mainstream liberals are too similar to Trump in terms of policy to try to convince people on policy. their whole value prop comes down to "we'll do all the genocide and racism you want but without any of the nasty impoliteness the republicans insist on"

Death to America

[–] FALGSConaut@hexbear.net 10 points 1 month ago

I think you really hit the nail on the head there. The democrats and republicans have no dramatic difference in policy, abortion is one difference that comes to mind but Dems have proved they won't protect it so they can't really lean on that.

So they have to focus on culture war and aesthetics because they're the same party when it comes to arming Israel, sealing the border, denying healthcare, and generally being the party(ies) of the rich ruling class