The Real Reason Why Americans Approve of Trump's Disastrous Transition

[Celerity]

How is it possible that Americans are good with this corrupt cavalcade of unqualified extremists Trump is nominating?

https://newrepublic.com/article/189409/trump-transition-media-misinformation-criticism

https://archive.ph/LGVrr



How can it be, you may be wondering, that 55 percent of Americans tell pollsters they approve of how Donald Trump is handling the transition? He has nominated—almost but not quite literally across the board—unqualified extremists. These are people who’ve never run large, complex organizations and who, if they shouldn’t be ruled out on those grounds, should certainly be ruled out on the basis of their way-outside-the-mainstream views and announced goals to all but destroy the agencies they’re going to run; they’re people whose only association with the word cabinet should be the ones they select when remodeling their kitchens.

Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Kash Patel are just the starting rotation, as it were (and Matt Gaetz the lone casualty so far). Many, many others are objectionable in some way. Trump’s would-be IRS guy is an auctioneer (seriously) who, in a brief congressional stint, sponsored something called the Tax Code Termination Act. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guy, another former congressman who runs a medical practice and whom Trump proposes to head a 13,000-employee, $9 billion operation, is arguably more anti-vax than RFK Jr. And so on, and so on. We could do this with about two-thirds of them.

And people support this. Why?

Here’s a conventional explanation. Because Americans are ready to turn the page. Because Joe Biden is so deeply unpopular that the country is restless to see him and his whole crew go. Because people still think Trump the businessman can make things better. There’s a little truth in all that. But here’s another explanation. People don’t really know about these Cabinet picks because average Americans just aren’t as read-in to the news as they once were. They watch the news on their phones in 30-second snippets. If they read, it’s headlines and social media posts, maybe. So they know, probably, that Trump nominated Dr. Oz to something or other. But do they know that he has a roughly $30 million financial stake in companies that will be doing business with the very Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that he is probably going to lead? I very much doubt it.

Let me make two points here. First, I don’t think there was some golden age when every citizen, or even most citizens, read all they could about such matters. That’s ridiculous. The concept of the informed citizenry on which democracy depends has always been a challenge. Second, this is not a blame-the-idiot-people column. People are busy. They have lives and kids and bills and passions and hobbies, and they don’t make a lot of time for politics. That’s life. All this is increasingly a by-product of life in a time of widening inequality too. If you’re working longer hours to make ends meet, and it’s that much harder to tend to the immediate obligations the real world throws at you, you’ve got much less time to read news and reflect. Just one more reason why a more broadly shared prosperity is so important.

snip

[lees1975]

1. Bullshit.

First of all, if you even remotely think 55% of the population approves of this, you are being misled by propaganda.

All this crap has been manufactured. It's the effect of propaganda.

The bottom line is that most people have absolutely no idea who Kash Patel or Tulsi Gabbard are, and they only recognize RFK Jr. because of his name. They have no idea what they do, how they think or who they are. They are names nominated by Trump. Good grief, a reporter at the GOP convention asked a couple of delegates who J.D. Vance was, and neither of them knew.

There's even more ignorance and apathy about government that we realize. The level of both of those characteristics is quite high. People are bored with it. Look at what they watch on television, collectively, there aren't 5 million people in the course of a day watching newscasts. Most Americans couldn't pass the citizenship tests foreign nationals must pass to be citizens.

We spend most of our time with earbuds jammed in both sides of our heads staring at a phone screen watching videos or listening to music.

You were on track when you were talking about blame the idiot people. That nailed it.

[NoRethugFriends]

5. Your last four paragraphs totally nailed it.

[DFW]

6. Most Americans couldn't pass the citizenship test?

I’ll bet most members of Congress couldn’t pass the citizenship test!!

I have long advocated that this test be administered every January 3rd to every new incoming member of the House and the Senate. Anyone who does not pass does not get seated, and must go through the primary process again in 2 years. The seat remains vacant until a new election can be held. The disqualified member cannot run until the next election cycle for that seat. We cannot afford any more Tubervilles in the Senate or Boeberts in the House.

[Mike 03]

8. You hit it out of the park

Can't add much. I also think there may be a small percentage of people who anticipated something so much worse than what is happening--that the violence threatened by the Proud Boys, certain other militias and even top MAGA officials at the Heritage Foundation--or remember the horrible chaos of the last transition, that they see this on a superficial level and perceive it as going smoothly in comparison to what the remember or feared.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. They *claim* they know what's going on

Almost three-quarters of Americans say they’re following news about the Trump transition at least somewhat closely, with just 7% saying they are not following at all closely. And most approve of what they see. Approval of Trump’s handling of the transition is significantly higher than in 2016 (55% now vs. 46% in 2016), while disapproval has held steady at 45%.

Trump’s approval on the transition still lags behind marks for other presidents heading into their first terms. Barack Obama led the pack at 79% in CNN’s first read on his transition approval rating in December 2008, while Biden at 66%, Bush at 65% and Clinton at 62% all received higher approval numbers than Trump.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

2. People always say they want change, but when they get change, they are rarely happy

They are likely to be happy this time because most meaningful critical media died on the vine, and the rest is about to be silenced through the civil courts. Or the people will be unhappy and retreat back to "both parties are idiots."

In the meantime, that 55% wants chicken, egg, beef, and milk prices down (likely won't happen - avian flu) and to get the feds out of health policy because they are salty about the way COVID was handled (hopefully avian flu doesn't make a major crossover to humans).

[Hope22]

3. He was up be 1.5%......

So basically half of the people who voted said they wanted him. Not sure who they are polling but these lopsided reports are completely misleading.

[JT45242]

4. They are overwhelmingly white and male...period. end of statement

As long as they are either white or male, but preferably both the racist misogynist pieces of crap who elected him are happy.

Add to that the fact that most people don't pay attention to this stuff and you get those approvals.

These are the same idiots who want Obamacare eliminated because they don't want nothing from some uppity n-word but they like their ACA.

[Mike 03]

9. "...most people don't pay attention to this stuff..."

Yes. And we know that MAGA knows this about its own base because of how they released Project 2025 to the world--a flagrant provocation to people who DO pay attention--knowing they could be that explicit about their plans and that even their own voters either wouldn't read it, wouldn't believe it, or wouldn't give a crap.

[B.See]

16. Exactly. These

bstrds don't know or care about any of that and don't want to know. All they know is that Trump represents all the hate, venom, and bile THEY feel towards liberals in general and minorites in particular. And a surprising number of the latter supported that sht as well. That was all there was TO it.

Forget the bullshit rationalizations and explanations in an attempt to justify the abhorrently unforgivable.

They chose pure EVIL. Hate and malice. Accept who, what you are (meaning they) and what you did.

[Walleye]

7. Even if they read, they don't believe it, and they'll say the other side is just as bad.

And that’s all they need to do as far as they’re concerned

[JT45242]

10. Powered by billionaire media, ads, etc...

Literally every channel of communication in this country thru print, radio, internet ads, network and cable TV is 90 percent or more owned by republican oligarchs spewing lies about Democrats and libtards for nearly 50 years.

They don't care. They won't believe the truth about how horrific these people are. Then they'll spew Dems protect pedophile lies because they have heard those lies unchallenged for decades.

[Walleye]

11. I think we are misplacing the blame. Of course billionaires are going to do what they can to get richer. But it's

The chumps that believe every word that are the real problem. I am pissed as shit at the people who voted for Trump. There are the real villains, they refuse to use their brains.

[JI7]

14. They don't read other than memes and headlines. The NYTs had some shitty reporting

but those who read it still oppose Trump by a huge amount.

[JI7]

12. Just look at how people easily fall for bs. Like people on social media

selling classes on how they can become wealthy like they are . They made their money by selling these classes. But people think if they pay for this class on investing in real estate, crypto, or whatever they will become wealthy.

And The anti science and conspiracy theory shit. Just look at Robert Kennedy.

Social. media has a lot to do with this.

[OldBaldy1701E]

15. The fact that people put so much importance on social media is the issue.

If it were just another chat program, this would not be an issue. But, since so many people believe what they see on the internet because they think no one will lie on it... well... that and people who just love to fuck up everything because it is funny to them.

Both need to be... handled. Just as the overblown importance on social media needs to be handled. Anyone can say anything on the internet, and make a super-duper awesome looking website to back it up. Today's internet users seem to have forgotten this.