Do you think Trump Supporters all support Nazis?

[Frodo]

No, but I regard them as the enemy of all that is good, compassionate, and decent in America.  So not much of an improvement.  

You, Trump supporters, are our dark underbelly. 

[Santander]

No, but I regard them as the enemy of all that is good, compassionate, and decent in America.  So not much of an improvement. 

So Trump is not much of an improvement over Hitler?

[Frodo]

No, but I regard them as the enemy of all that is good, compassionate, and decent in America.  So not much of an improvement. 

So Trump is not much of an improvement over Hitler?

No genocide is being perpetrated, but Trump is doing (or at least attempting) everything else short of that, and his supporters are enabling him. 

If you are an authoritarian by nature, the fact you support Trump should surprise no one. 

[Person Man]

I would say that 5% of all voters in most national elections are Nazis with about another 10% that are more broadly alt-right. I would say another 10% of voters in any given national election are alt-light. People who might not be clear-cut racists but generally agree with 80-90% of policies that have an intended discriminatory effect and can more be considered "civic nationalists". I would say that 25% of the electorate plus another 10% of the electorate who are  against racism and probably think there should be civil rights and some sort of social safety net but  think that abortion should be illegal and homosexuality should at least be discouraged. They, in the Trump age, are the "moderate" figures of the "Conservative" movement.

[TJ in Oregon]

The old Scholastic thinkers always held that evil was the privation of a good, when something was lacking some good that it ought to have. Through this understanding  evil is not itself an entity at all but the absence of goodness, akin to darkness and light. Now, it's almost as though we have a sort of inversion of the old Scholastic view wherein evil is Donald Trump and everything about him and his following and the good is the absence of Trumpiness.

Or perhaps since we kinda already did that with Hitler, it's just an extension of that via Godwin's Law. Except now it only takes like 4 posts instead of 50 to get to Hitler.

I never quite remember this crazy of a reaction to Obama, though perhaps I'm biased since despised him. Still I think I always understood that people vote on the basis of all sorts of issues, from personal to ideological to just plain crazy and that the vast majority of people vote against me for some reason other than rote burning hatred.

Nonetheless, I suspect most Trump voters simply aren't feeling the compassion and decency their opponents allegedly advocate for.

[Santander]

The "alt-lite" are total cucks.

[Kamala's side hoe]

I would say that 5% of all voters in most national elections are Nazis with about another 10% that are more broadly alt-right. I would say another 10% of voters in any given national election are alt-light. People who might not be clear-cut racists but generally agree with 80-90% of policies that have an intended discriminatory effect and can more be considered "civic nationalists". I would say that 25% of the electorate plus another 10% of the electorate who are  against racism and probably think there should be civil rights and some sort of social safety net but  think that abortion should be illegal and homosexuality should at least be discouraged. They, in the Trump age, are the "moderate" figures of the "Conservative" movement.

Hmm maybe I should stop identifying as a “civic nationalist” then. 25% is a worryingly high proportion of alt-right types.

Still I think I always understood that people vote on the basis of all sorts of issues, from personal to ideological to just plain crazy and that the vast majority of people vote against me for some reason other than rote burning hatred.

Nonetheless, I suspect most Trump voters simply aren't feeling the compassion and decency their opponents allegedly advocate for.

[Tekken_Guy]

I personally don’t think so. I do believe many of these people hold some overlapping beliefs, like that whites are under attack in the country. Most Trump supporters condemned the Nazis in Charlottesville and sincerely believe the President did too. But a lot of them do believe that Antifa and Black Lives Matter are a problem too, and that they are even a bigger threat than the Nazis because the groups on the left have mainstream support where Nazis do not.

It’s all negative partisanship. “He condemned the Nazis, what more do you want?” “Antifa are the real problem, you cowards!” “BLM hate white people and the Dems defend them!” “Charlottesville was awful but it won’t happen again!”

[Yellowhammer]

No, about 0.1 % do.
Nazi Trump supporters are uncommon enough that I have never met a single one, even though I live in a county where Trump got 87% of the vote.

[Santander]

Also, how is this "political debate"?

[ChelseaT]

No of course not. And I doubt anybody really does.

[Cassandra]

Of course not. Out and out Neo-Nazi's with Swastika flags like the National Socialism Movement would rightly be viewed as lunatics by the vast majority of Trump voters. What is disturbing is that the rhetoric Trump supporters tend to spout is a not so distant cousin of those old fascist tropes (nationalist fervor, xenophobic fear, hatred of a free press, etc.). And the media many Trump supporters consume (Alex Jones, Breitbart, etc) is rather brilliantly drawing a connection between the two groups.

I worry the Trump movement is sliding into an ideological position very similar to the Neo-Nazis. Of course, fringe groups like the NSM and imagery associated with Hitler's Germany such as the swastika will never have a place in a popular American fascism. They will find their own iconography, their own leaders, and they will tell their story in their own words. But it is not too difficult to imagine the fear and hatred that runs through the contemporary right metastasizing into violence.

[Jsull431]

All Nazis are trump supporters, but not all Trump supporters are Nazis. You guys are overstating the influence of Nazis on Trump supporters.

[Goldwater]

All Nazis are trump supporters, but not all Trump supporters are Nazis. You guys are overstating the influence of Nazis on Trump supporters.

Are they, though? I'm sure that many would think he's not hardline enough...

[Greedo punched first]

All Nazis are trump supporters, but not all Trump supporters are Nazis. You guys are overstating the influence of Nazis on Trump supporters.

Are they, though? I'm sure that many would think he's not hardline enough...

Arthur Jones and Tom Metzger are Nazis who hate Trump. They hate him for his position on Israel.

[Gustaf]

Supporters or hard-core supporters? And what does support Nazis mean exactly? Nazis have a bit of a bad brand in the US because of WW2 but we know Trump himself supports White supremacists and his base certainly does as well.

[PSOL]

It reminds me of when Erdogan labeled himself a European style conservative. Once he won, and with the weak checks and balances in Turkey, coupled with an opposition that can’t or won’t condemn his stances as they aren’t that far off from it stylistically, he is now purging his opponents and rolling back social progress on Kurdish rights. If Trump wasn’t as incompetent, or at least the check system here was weaker, he would already have moved up from putting Latinos in cages to widespread 1990’s era detainment against Africans, then onto rollback of gay right, then to women, etc.

[Izzyeviel]

Normal Republicans no. Trump supporters, dunno, they actually think the Nazi's were socialist. And they  think socialism is evil (Unless it involves Trump giving them money then it becomes ok)

[TheSaint250]

I need a mental cleanse after reading the stupidity in this thread.

[catographer]

Seriously speaking, many many Trump supporters and those who are most excited about him have negative opinions about immigrants in some form or another. Whether it's that they don't like non-English speakers being here, think there are too many brown folk, think foreigners are taking jobs from Americans, or think something of a similar nature. It's not "Nazis" or "fascists," it's just commonly held beliefs of much of America.

They are difficult opinions to justify rationally; the only argument I think has any merit is that foreign workers are filling up job openings that can be filled by American workers. I would counter that 1) foreigners have every right to a good paying job as Americans do, 2) foreigners who get jobs here contribute to the economy by spending, starting businesses, and therefore indirectly creating more jobs, 3) the companies are just trying to make a profit. they're gonna hire the cheapest labor regardless of whether its American or not, and odds are they aren't hiring you.

[Tartarus Sauce]

I never quite remember this crazy of a reaction to Obama, though perhaps I'm biased since despised him. Still I think I always understood that people vote on the basis of all sorts of issues, from personal to ideological to just plain crazy and that the vast majority of people vote against me for some reason other than rote burning hatred.

Nonetheless, I suspect most Trump voters simply aren't feeling the compassion and decency their opponents allegedly advocate for.

There was absolutely a crazy reaction to Obama, considreing how popular the whole "Kenyan Socialist Muslim not born in this country" line of thinking became among right-wing voters. There is no way to not consider that anything other than a crazy reaction.

But I consider TJ's thoughts here particularly salient. The absence of this understanding that people have some form of underlying formula that guides their voting behavior is what is infuriating liberals right now. Trump has made it starker than ever how different the underlying moral foundations are between liberals and conservatives. Trump doesn't even pretend to represent the entire country, despite our expectation of this role from our president. He is underming the office's nationally unifying function, which one could argue was always a pretense but it was a pretense necessary for our trust in the system. He shamelessly belittles and dengirates large swaths of the country who lay outside his base of supporters and essentially promises to destroy those his supporters hate and fear. The message from him and his faithful is that anybody that isn't a part of the tribe doesn't belong in our national institutions and civic discourse in any capacity. You'd be pissed of too if you were on the receiving end of that message.

Very few of Trump supporters are outright Nazis, but very few of them need to be in order to invoke the deepest fears of liberals. Trump has demonstrated that many on the right side of the political specturm are unnervingly comfortable with authoritarian mannerisms and disturbingly fond of dehumanizing rhetoric. The sense I get is that they are empowered over the idea of disenfranchising those outside their in-group from sharing our national identity and have already proven willing to resort to extreme measures to meet these goals(e.g. the child separation debacle). To put it bluntly, as was written about recently in an article for the Atlantic by Adam Serwer, "the cruelty is the point."

I don't get the impression people like me are considered to have relevant opinions driven by motivations that, while they may disagree with, are valid in their own right. I am simply an enemy to be dealt with. This type of rationalization is the lynchpin for authoritarianism and guides the logic of atrocities. I'm not saying we are necessarily there yet, but Trump has made it depressingly clear that you don't need to be Nazis to potentially reach there. I am strictly speaking about his hardline base, but I'm not particularly confident that the more squishy enablers who don't like him personally, but are willing to support him so long as he pushes their policies will draw hard line in the sand when it is needed. I fear some will continue to normalize support for him even if his behavior becomes even more extreme.

[Person Man]

I never quite remember this crazy of a reaction to Obama, though perhaps I'm biased since despised him. Still I think I always understood that people vote on the basis of all sorts of issues, from personal to ideological to just plain crazy and that the vast majority of people vote against me for some reason other than rote burning hatred.

Nonetheless, I suspect most Trump voters simply aren't feeling the compassion and decency their opponents allegedly advocate for.

There was absolutely a crazy reaction to Obama, considreing how popular the whole "Kenyan Socialist Muslim not born in this country" line of thinking became among right-wing voters. There is no way to not consider that anything other than a crazy reaction.

But I consider TJ's thoughts here particularly salient. The absence of this understanding that people have some form of underlying formula that guides their voting behavior is what is infuriating liberals right now. Trump has made it starker than ever how different the underlying moral foundations are between liberals and conservatives. Trump doesn't even pretend to represent the entire country, despite our expectation of this role from our president. He is underming the office's nationally unifying function, which one could argue was always a pretense but it was a pretense necessary for our trust in the system. He shamelessly belittles and dengirates large swaths of the country who lay outside his base of supporters and essentially promises to destroy those his supporters hate and fear. The message from him and his faithful is that anybody that isn't a part of the tribe doesn't belong in our national institutions and civic discourse in any capacity. You'd be pissed of too if you were on the receiving end of that message.

Very few of Trump supporters are outright Nazis, but very few of them need to be in order to invoke the deepest fears of liberals. Trump has demonstrated that many on the right side of the political specturm are unnervingly comfortable with authoritarian mannerisms and disturbingly fond of dehumanizing rhetoric. The sense I get is that they are empowered over the idea of disenfranchising those outside their in-group from sharing our national identity and have already proven willing to resort to extreme measures to meet these goals(e.g. the child separation debacle). To put it bluntly, as was written about recently in an article for the Atlantic by Adam Serwer, "the cruelty is the point."

I don't get the impression people like me are considered to have relevant opinions driven by motivations that, while they may disagree with, are valid in their own right. I am simply an enemy to be dealt with. This type of rationalization is the lynchpin for authoritarianism and guides the logic of atrocities. I'm not saying we are necessarily there yet, but Trump has made it depressingly clear that you don't need to be Nazis to potentially reach there. I am strictly speaking about his hardline base, but I'm not particularly confident that the more squishy enablers who don't like him personally, but are willing to support him so long as he pushes their policies will draw hard line in the sand when it is needed. I fear some will continue to normalize support for him even if his behavior becomes even more extreme.

People have a tendency to call people who have a system of morals they don't believe in or understand "a mob" or bigots. In the 2020s, I can see many millions of people seeing the powers that be as simply a bunch of other people to deal with than as a legitimate Government.

[All Along The Watchtower]

1) There are many Nazis who support Trump, and very openly and proudly.

2) Trump and other Republicans don't seem to be bothered by this.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

1) There are many Nazis

I would dispute this, unless "Nazi" has undergone the expansive definition that several other epithets/labels have in recent years.

[RaphaelDLG]

Actual literal Nazis of course not, and such exaggerated rhetoric is bad for the cause.

It is true that
1) a signifcant minority of trump supporters are alt-right or hold less than savory racial/gender views
2) neo Nazis were much more supportive of trump than they usually are of Republican candidates
3) a significant minority of trump supporters have dangerously authoritarian psychologies