Northern Light
Superstar
In fairness to our southern cousins, Ontarians voted for Doug Ford, and with virtually no platform to boot, after a very controversial nomination process for leadership of the party. Meanwhile UK'ers elected Boris.
Yes, Trump is his own kind of 'special'......but we see this phenomenon in many places.
In the U.S. there is almost a unique level of partisanship/polarization that exaggerates things, particularly since its really an oligopoly of two parties for practical purposes.
That said, I think one can see, beyond the die-hard Republican set, a fairly clear audience for him, and its not simply the less educated, though yes, that overlaps his demo.
Its a large swath of people, generally blue-collar, sometimes, but not always rural, often, but not always white, and typically from what the Americans refer to as fly-over country (ie, not the east or west coast)
These are voters who feel disaffected on a number of levels, sometimes with good cause, others not so much; but there are two things they have generally disliked about Democrats at the Federal level (and some past Republicans), which is that they feel either ignored, or talked down to/hectored.
While some of that is self-indulgence and paranoia, there is a hint of truth in it too. The opioid epidemic is quite acute in many rural, lower-income areas, meanwhile rural hospitals in the U.S. are closing at a precipitous rate. Those issues, among others, seem to get less attention in Washington vs the latest greenwashing effort, corporate handouts, or something for some niche interest group or another (which might be fine btw).....but....
I get where folks like that feel, in part, that Trump seems plain spoken, his vulgarness, comes across as relatable in a way that a more polished political speaker may not. Many are smart enough to know he's full of it..........
But what they like is simply that he's talking to them, rather than past them.
