They would still vote for him.
I'm curious who is going to try to fill the void, and can trump take it back

What we're seeing now is pretty typical of religious movements in history. They are defined by their successor, not by their founder. Paul radically transformed Christianity and made it pallatable to the public, Brigham Young did to Mormonism, David Miscavige practically redefined scientology to what we see today, etc. etc.

Trump has no successor and he's not stepping out of the spotlight or dieing. If they can't establish themselves a table new order outside of Trump they will eat themselves and die out.

I think DeSantis is trying most successfully to take on the role of a successor. However, I think conservative media will just not focus on Trump's statements and keep hammering on something like CRT or whatever their next contrived talking point is and hope that the base just forgets it and will dismiss it as fake news.

thread full of Trump-obsessed privileged lefties, par for the course here

And youre still mad about Obama. Wanna try for a birdie next hole?

"Spirits that I've cited // My commands ignore." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, transl. by Edwin Zeydel)


I guess this episode at least settles the question we've been asking ourselves throughout the Trump years: no, the trumpists don't blindly follow his lead and no, he did not create any sort of sentiment or movement out of thin air; he just tapped into energy which was already there.

He wasn't "blindly followed", as much as he would just speak in every direction and people would cherry pick their most favored message.

Kinda surprising considering how willing his supporters were to read in exclusively what they wanted. Trump talked out of both sides of his mouth constantly and his supporters only heard what they wanted. Wonder what changed. Possibly... just that he lost. Trump can claim election fraud all he wants, but if he's the president and can't stop it... he's still a loser.



This post was edited by NetflixAdaptationWidow on Dec 26 2021 03:37am

But Trump's message is essentially "the vaccines are great and it'd be cool if you get them, but it should be your choice and it's okay if you don't". If his hardcore followers were cherry picking, they'd focus on the second part, not the first.
If him being a loser was what prompted them to turn on him, they would have done so at some point between last November and this summer. Why wait until 13 months after the election to ditch the loser?

His followers selectively listening to his message is not something that's up for interpretation. Trump talked out of both sides constantly.

Things don't have to happen all at once. He's been hemorrhaging followers ever since he left office. We likely just hit a critical point where enough of his followers are disillusioned and then he said something they were no longer willing to look past, since their tolerance for that is lower than its ever been.

Trump is not a politician. Hes charles barkley. He keeps it real. Hes not gonna lie about how he feels to placate anyone, even his base. Thats why he will survive this. If pressured on this issue, he will stay consistent and say he does not believe in mandates but is pro vax.