President Donald Trump’s political supporters have long been described as cult-like, from their willingness to change their ideology based on Trump’s whims to their reflexive distrust of established experts. In light of the Republican leader’s politically devastating losses in the 2026 midterm elections, these same true believers are now angry at every voter who did not stand by their man, at least according to a recent in-depth study.
“Last week we assembled a focus group of Republicans who voted for President Trump in both 2020 and 2024, and who, except for some local elections, voted straight-ticket Republican in this year’s midterms,” wrote polling expert Sarah Longwell in The Bulwark on Sunday.
“In my conversation with these voters, one thing became abundantly clear in their cacophony of cope: They were not blaming Trump,” Longwell added. “Instead, they were blaming the GOP candidates on the ticket for being terrible. They were blaming social media for pushing Trump Derangement Syndrome. And they were blaming their fellow Americans, who they insisted were just too brainwashed and emotional to just hold their noses and vote for the terrible candidates that Republicans offered them.”
Contempt and a lack of empathy are definitionally what it means to be conservative.
Also, fear, and money, and power. It’s all tied together.
So, successful business owners, almost always--they’re the ones who cry about taxes. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-wealth-reduces-compassion/
Naturally fearful people are good targets for the propaganda and Fox News. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201612/fear-and-anxiety-drive-conservatives-political-attitudes
The uneducated are easily convinced that other people are responsible for their woes.
Bigotry, wherever it comes from.
They’re also a defining characteristic of nazi’s.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/05/politics/elon-musk-rogan-interview-empathy-doge
I truly believe that unless kept in check the right wing in any country will slowly move towards fascism and Nazism. I feel like we must assume that any and all moves made by conservatives must be assumed to be working towards those ends and treated as such.
That’s what they said