“Hurt dogs sure do holler.” That was the saying that came to mind in 2008 when then-candidate for president Barack Obama drew outrage from Republicans because he described their voters as “bitter” people who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them.” The phrase came to mind again in 2016, when Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton used the memorable phrase “basket of deplorables” to describe supporters of Donald Trump. Since a cardinal rule of politics is “insult your opponent, but never their voters,” the mainstream media picked up and amplified the umbrage-taking from Republicans.

What wasn’t discussed very much in all this media coverage: The truth value of either Clinton’s or Obama’s comments. And what a shame, because both of them were right.

New polling out this week from CBS News proves, as many feared, Trump’s fourth set of indictments — he now faces 91 felony charges across four jurisdictions — has only caused the GOP to rally around their seething orange leader. (And let’s not forget this comes after a jury recently found him responsible for sexual assault.) Trump has surged to 62% support in the Republican presidential primary poll, and 73% of those backing Trump say it’s because, not despite, of his massive criminal exposure.

And, in a poll finding that really is astonishing, Trump voters claimed they trust the notorious fraudster more than anyone. A whopping 71% of Trump voters claim “what he says is true.” Only 63% of them say that about family and friends, 56% about conservative media figures and 42% about religious leaders.

The word that comes to mind is “cult.”

    • auth
      link
      fedilink
      -710 months ago

      At least you are honest, but I think Obama is the one that started it (don’t quote me on that)

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        610 months ago

        Well I think both Trump and Obama are war criminals that deserve to go to The Hague so you’re not gonna hear me sticking up for Obama starting it. But I’m gonna call a spade a spade here and say it’s a really stupid whataboutism to bring up if you’re pretending you actually care about civilian deaths when talking about drone strikes man.

        • auth
          link
          fedilink
          -510 months ago

          I think its worth pointing out the other is also deplorable when he is calling someone else deplorable

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            510 months ago

            So do you agree that it’s fucked up that Trump also did a ridiculous amount of drone strikes and that he’s also a huge piece of shit?

            • auth
              link
              fedilink
              -310 months ago

              The only thing I like about Trump is that he is not a politician… Also, I am not aware of any hospitals or weddings that were droned by Trump

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                510 months ago

                The majority of drone strike civilian casualties occurred under trump. It took me like three seconds to google dude.

                What you’re doing is called a double standard. Congratulations, you stand for absolutely nothing.

      • AFK BRB Chocolate
        link
        fedilink
        410 months ago

        It started under Bush. We didn’t have much drone technology prior to that, so it ramped up under him, continued to ramp up under Obama, and continued to ramp up under Trump.

        Whether it’s a net negative is debatable to me. It’s not like those bystander deaths didn’t happen prior to the drones - on the contrary, there were more of them because we used less discriminate bombs instead. You can make an argument that the drone strikes have saved lives, at least as compared to what was happening previously. Targeting someone in a civilian area seems pretty reprehensible regardless.