Funny how Warmington finds that some people's stupidity and ignorance is somehow redeeming the Fords.
The truth is, at this stage, you could only love Ford if you hate Toronto OR if you are profoundly, profoundly, profoundly ignorant of what's going on.
"We built a subway..." (you haven't) "... when was the last time Toronto built a subway?" David Miller.
Even if I hated Miller I could not stand and support someone who lies so blatantly, who treats people like they are complete imbeciles.
IMO, to understand this mindset, I only have to look at Nick Kouvalis' twitter profile:
Favourite quote: There is no substitute for victory - General Douglas MacArthur
And combine that with this quote from the article:
“I love Rob Ford,” said Paul Reid. “He is one of us.”
Ford's hardcore supporters only care about the fact that
their guy is Mayor. Unlike David Miller, this is a guy that Joe Sixpack can identify with, for better or worse. As a political commentator pointed out (don't have the link handy), people identify with Ford's
flaws, not his strengths. (For some reason, nobody ever wants their doctor, lawyer or accountant to be a severely flawed guy they can have a beer with.)
As for the lying, I'll quote a TTC bus driver (a Scarborough resident and a really nice person) who supports Ford's politics (yet despises him and his brother personally): "All politicians lie. Leave him alone and let him do his job." She doesn't believe me (or doesn't care) when I say that the Sheppard subway line is being run at a loss. "People need subways," she explained. "Ever see what happens to the Scarborough RT in the winter?" How can I possibly argue with that, when someone's mind is already made up and the facts have no effect?
As recently as 2 weeks ago, a colleague of mine claimed: "Doesn't matter what he does in his personal life, he's saving me money."
These are not stupid people; they are simply willing to believe anything that "their" guy tells them, because it's exactly what they want to hear. I have very intelligent family members (e.g. medical doctors) in the USA who forward me obviously fake chain e-mails with strongly anti-liberal political content. Anyone could check Snopes and debunk these e-mails in 5 seconds, but it never occurs to them that the e-mails are fake, because the content fits with their beliefs (e.g. Obama/Muslims/liberals are destroying the country.) I've been receiving these e-mails for years, despite constantly sending replies debunking the ridiculous content. (To be clear, the content isn't ridiculous because it's anti-liberal, but because it contains outright falsehoods, which in some cases were debunked years ago.)
So I do think there's at least two classes of Rob Ford supporters:
1) The people who love him because "he's one of us".
2) The people who don't care for him personally, but believe everything single word that comes out of his mouth concerning public policy, because it's exactly what they want to hear.
The 2nd group might abandon him if they can be convinced he isn't really saving them money (big "if", IMO), but the first group will always love him.