Why do some Americans want Trump?

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Why did some Americans vote for a president notorious for being a liar, a racist and a bigot?

In Europe such candidates wouldn't stand a chance. We had one such party in the recent Danish election for parliament - Hard Line. It got 1.8 % of the votes, not enough to get seats in the parliament (the lower limit is 2 %).

You claim Biden to be a socialist, because he's advocating universal health care. You clearly don't know anything about socialism.

In Denmark even the far right party - The New Right - is a proponent of the Scandinavian welfare model to some extend. Even the most pro-capitalist party Liberal Alliance (in Denmark, "liberal" means libertarian, and they're more aligned with American Conservatives even on social issues like crime/punishment, immigration etc.) don't advocate for abolishing universal health care.

Not even the pro-capitalist unions like Danish Industry or Danish Employers would support people like Trump. They all support Biden. And they're all in favor of universal health care.

The New Right in Denmark has expressed some sympathies for Trump's policies on military/defense issues. But they are hesitating to actively support him. Most if not all Danish MP's would prefer Biden for U.S. president. From the Red-Green Alliance (far left) to the New Right (far right) - they all prefer Biden, at least to some extend.

So it really comes at a surprise for us Danes how so many American voters can vote in favor of such an idiot for a second term.

Because they have been screwed for decades by our one-party neoliberal system. When you're desperate, you'll cling to anyone who appears to be an alternative, even if it's not a particularly good one.

You left out elitist, homophobe, sexist, xenophobe, and narcissist; and no, I don't have an answer to your question.Even worse, about half of all Americans say the word "Socialist" like it was a profane insult.It is a surprise to a lot of us Americans, as well.

Last edited by Fnord on 07 Nov 2020, 2:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

^ This.

Last I heard, America had a multi-party system, but that only two parties receive most of the funding -- the party dominated by old, wealthy, white, conservative, Christian males, and the party dominated by working-class minorities, college-educated women, and idealistic young people who could not possibly care less about traditional elitist dominionism.

Democrats find ways to screw poor and middle class people.

Like, Obamacare, millions of poor people had to pay a tax penalty every year just because they could not afford health insurance.

OR, they could pay the same amount and be covered under a decent health care plan.  You should really pay closer attention to what is really going on.

My cousin is a short order cook, not high income, he paid the $695 / year penalty.

I think you're greatly misinformed if you think $695 / years buys you anything.

Personally, my health insurance costs me $1200 per month with employee + employee contributions.

Just because the insurance at your job is expensive doesn't mean that cheaper insurance isn't possible. Also, what's your copay, and deductible? Is it an HMO or a PPO? What does it cover? Is it just medical, or does it also cover dental and optical as well? These things make a difference. With pre-existing conditions (which would have excluded me if not for the ACA) insurance was about $1000 / yr for me. Only slightly more than the amount in your "my cousin" story.

Also, "not high income" is a relative term. What is "not high" to you? 20K / yr? 40K / yr? Without knowing how much they actually make, it's hard to determine how much of a relative expense $700 is. Assuming they make $8 / hr at 40 hrs / week, that's around $15K / yr after normal taxes. $700 is about 5% of that annual income. That's about $14 a week, or $60 a month, rounding up. Do you know how much your cousin makes per week or month? We can compare.

No usable US health insurance is $1000/year; it's not profitable.

Likely, your employer was throwing in an additional $2000-$3000 per year.

Don't believe me? Here is the ACA network
https://www.healthcare.gov/see-plans/#/

I just checked, the cheapest plan in my area is $325-600/month for a single person.

The best is Blue Cross / Blue Shield PPO GOLD for $900/month for a single person.

Democrats screwed millions of poor Americans.

Denmark has a universal health care system. It generally ranks a bit higher than the US in quality (and much higher in access to care, of course, as it is universal).

The cost per citizen amounts to approx. $ 4,200 a year in total (total expenditure divided by population).

And you pay $ 14,400 ($ 1,200 a month x 12) a year + employer contributions???

This is a surprisingly complex question with a lot to parse. I'm going to construct this as concisely as I can without loss of accuracy. You can read just the bolded statements for the logical construction.

1) America is deeply divided on a city/rural split
Pick just about any state in the country and look at its county map by presidential vote. You can identify where the cities are by them being the blue spots. Take Ohio as an example, all the counties are Red except for 7. 2 including Cleveland and Akron. 1 including Columbus. 1 including Dayton. 1 including Toledo. 1 including Cincinatti. That's all the major cities in Ohio. The rest of the state goes ruby red. This trend is present basically throughout America. Cities will have a majority democrat population

2) The media is far more democratic/liberal than the country
Major media outlets are all in cities. There may also be a profession bias of liberals to take up journalism. The result is that the media has many more democrats/liberals than the country. For the Media the breakdown is: 7% republican, 28% democrat, 50% independent. For the country the breakdown is: 29% republican, 33% democrat, 34% independent. So in the country there are 1.13 democrats per republican, while in the media there are 4 democrats per republican.

Source for media: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the ... ecade-ago/
source for country: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2 ... -religion/

3) Republicans/conservatives feel constantly attacked by the media
I wouldn't call myself a republican these days though I would've pre-Trump. I know people with more conservative leanings. If you live in a city you're constantly outnumbered and tend to keep your political views to yourself for fear of ostracism. Regardless of where you live you will be bombarded by a liberal narrative from the media. Now I truly believe most journalists try to be impartial. However, bias leaks in even when they're trying to be impartial. And while conservative news outlets exist, they're outnumbered and tend to be dismissed by the general city populace as illegitimate.

4) Trump was a way to fire back at the media establishment
Policy wise most die hard conservatives would prefer Ted Cruz to Donald Trump. More moderate Republicans would prefer the sanity of someone like John Kasich. But Ted Cruz is a polished lawyer who speaks cleanly and precisely, and John Kasich actively courts the media's approval. Trump rose to prominence in the republican party because he took the media's narrative and smeared feces all over it. He was outrageous, he was bombastic and every time the media attacked him for outrageous remarks it only strengthened this appeal. Not everyone supports Trump for the same reasons but this is the core of his appeal to republican/conservatives.

5) As Republican standard bearer, Trump is guaranteed a lot of support
People who voted for Trump did so for a lot of different reasons. 70 million people don't all think alike. But the biggest reason Trump gets a lot of support is the U.S. presidential election is essentially a binary choice. Democrat or Republican. Most Republicans/conservatives will be hard pressed to vote for the Democratic candidate no matter how outrageous the Republican candidate is.

Even $325 a month is still too expensive for some people.

In Denmark, does the cost come out of your taxes or is it a monthly payment that each person makes?

Are the individual fees equal for everyone or dependent on how much they can afford?

What other medical fees are not included in this amount? Such as co-pays from each doctor or hospital visitor, medications, dental and eye care costs?

I think regardless of how you calculate it Denmark's system is going to come out cheaper than the U.S.'s system.

The issue is that Denmark and the U.S. are not even remotely comparable as countries and they don't exist independent of each other. Drugs are cheaper in Denmark because they're more expensive in the U.S.

Keep in mind that Donald Trump is facing multiple legal battles which his presidential immunity soon no longer can protect him against. Pardons can never protect Trump against criminal charges at the state level. Nor can pardons - unless Biden decides to pardon him - protect Trump against criminal investigations at the Federal level which haven't even started yet.

By losing the election, Trump will also lose additional (and perhaps illegal) sources of income, as his hotel and resort businesses - of which several were unprofitable before the election - have benefited from his presidency. His finances are reputedly not in very good shape:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewitho ... 3bbac73571

.. and who knows what kind of embarrassing and potentially criminal details will be coming out of the White House about Trump's presidency after he is gone? He probably exhausted whatever miniscule good-will he had left with White House staff when he got a lot of them infected with COVID-19, so I doubt there is a lot of loyalty left...

All in all, the 70 million support for Trump may diminish drastically once the legal and financial fallout of his loss becomes apparent. Trump may want to run again in 2024, but reality may catch up with him sooner.