Before Wanting To Die
Turns out Trump supporters still support Trump.
This was the year the political media couldn’t stop reminding us of the forgotten Americans. All year long, outlets parachuted reporters into “Trump Country” to observe his voters in their habitat — “Cletus safari” is the derisive term of art — and the reporters returned with tenderly crafted soft-focus portrait after tenderly crafted soft-focus portrait of people aching to say the n-word.
Trump supporters are mad, reporters told us. Maybe you’ve heard? They’re mad at the establishment, they’re mad at Democrats, and most of all, they’re mad that they’ve been left behind. (And of course a lot of them are mad at black people, and many even say as much, but we try not to talk about that part.)
These stories were a sort of pornography. They existed less as a way of explaining the country to their audience than as a way for media outlets to gratify themselves, or perhaps to atone for the perceived sin of overlooking Trump supporters the year before. Some profiles offered insight; many more did not. But together, in their sheer bulk, they illuminated a larger story: the longstanding media habit of indexing the American political narrative to the sanctified yearnings of a narrow slice of white voter. Reagan Democrats, independent voters, the “undecided,” soft Republicans — no matter how small their number, no matter how wide the electoral margin, these groups always become the axis on which the story of every election turns.
In 2017, the story was deemed to be the rural Trump diehard and his or her unflagging support for the president. Below are 36 such Trump supporter profiles published in the past year, 36 being the number I was able to read without melting my brain.
MUCH MORE: What I Learned From Reading All The Media Safaris Into 'Trump Country' I Could Handle Before Wanting To Die
I read all I could handle before acid reflux turned into flat out vomiting. Trump supporters are both stupid and pitiful. I really do feel sorry for them. They still believe that Trump will be their savior.
Turns out Trump supporters still support Trump.
This was the year the political media couldn’t stop reminding us of the forgotten Americans. All year long, outlets parachuted reporters into “Trump Country” to observe his voters in their habitat — “Cletus safari” is the derisive term of art — and the reporters returned with tenderly crafted soft-focus portrait after tenderly crafted soft-focus portrait of people aching to say the n-word.
Trump supporters are mad, reporters told us. Maybe you’ve heard? They’re mad at the establishment, they’re mad at Democrats, and most of all, they’re mad that they’ve been left behind. (And of course a lot of them are mad at black people, and many even say as much, but we try not to talk about that part.)
These stories were a sort of pornography. They existed less as a way of explaining the country to their audience than as a way for media outlets to gratify themselves, or perhaps to atone for the perceived sin of overlooking Trump supporters the year before. Some profiles offered insight; many more did not. But together, in their sheer bulk, they illuminated a larger story: the longstanding media habit of indexing the American political narrative to the sanctified yearnings of a narrow slice of white voter. Reagan Democrats, independent voters, the “undecided,” soft Republicans — no matter how small their number, no matter how wide the electoral margin, these groups always become the axis on which the story of every election turns.
In 2017, the story was deemed to be the rural Trump diehard and his or her unflagging support for the president. Below are 36 such Trump supporter profiles published in the past year, 36 being the number I was able to read without melting my brain.
MUCH MORE: What I Learned From Reading All The Media Safaris Into 'Trump Country' I Could Handle Before Wanting To Die
I read all I could handle before acid reflux turned into flat out vomiting. Trump supporters are both stupid and pitiful. I really do feel sorry for them. They still believe that Trump will be their savior.
