The Conspiracy Theory President

If you’re a thinking person, it means that in order for Trump to have secured your vote, you had to look past the spectacle. You had to look past the chants of “lock her up” and “build the wall” from a gleeful mob. You had to look past the “grab em by the p#$$@” remark, and the hush money to a porn star, and the curious Trump support from thousands of Russian sock puppet accounts. You had to brush aside the rhetoric and the antics and the flouting of law because you thought things were so bad that we needed him anyway.

But before we get into why someone would think this, we must acknowledge that, without a doubt, many thousands voted for Trump precisely because of the rhetoric and antics. For them, it either symbolized an “end to politics as usual” — here comes a wrecking ball outsider! — or, somewhere in the winking at white nationalism, the refusal to denounce fringe groups like QAnon, the alliances with provocateurs such as Alex Jones and Roger Stone, all of the debt and failed-casino-developing and lawsuits and reality TV and bizarre gold-plated-plastic lifestyle, there was something to like. Something to vote for.

BUT, for everyone else, to see past all of that and hold their nose and vote for Trump meant that such a voter thought things were so bad, the election of a blowhard conman gameshow host president was warranted.

I put this voter, and his or her reasoning, into four categories, none of which are mutually exclusive.

One: The diehard, single-issue voter. Such a voter would elect Oscar the Grouch president of the US if it meant old Oscar pretended to take a pro-life / anti-choice stance. Or sought to upend equal marriage. Or said he’d made sure the Second Amendment would never be changed, or undermined, so help him God.

Two: The lower-taxes, less-regulation, I-hate-big-government (but don’t realize big corporations ARE EVEN BIGGER government) fiscal conservative. This voter likely thinks that short term gains are always the answer, and/or a booming stock market is always the answer, and/or any sort of change is scary and bad, e.g. attempting to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, etc.

Three: The worker. This voter may have lost, or be in danger of losing, his or her factory job, or his coal mining job. As part of his or her identity…