It’s strange seeing longtime Republicans reject President Donald Trump, claiming he isn’t a Ronald Reagan type of Republican and that he’s too populist. The rest of us MAGA don’t see it; if anything he’s more conservative than even Reagan, and claims of his so-called “populism” are overly exaggerated.
What’s going on is these conservatives are being gaslit by the MSM into noticing numerous small perceived flaws by Trump instead of all the wonderful things he’s doing. With information overload, but the vast majority of it coming from the MSM, not conservative outlets, it’s easy for folks to get overwhelmed by all the fake outrage against Trump. If Reagan had been president during this era, these types of people would have turned on him as well. Reagan wasn’t scrutinized as much as Trump; there weren’t tons of news outlets covering his every move and making up fake scenarios about them. There were far fewer journalists in the 1980s and they weren’t as biased. Nor was there the internet and social media which allow for even more scrutiny.
This type of behavior is actually a common phenomenon in life. If you only hear negative news about someone or something, even if it is completely false, many will start to believe it. The “illusory truth effect” is when you hear something enough times, even if it is a lie, you start to believe it due to familiarity.
Another aspect of this is “confirmation bias,” which is a tendency to search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that confirms or supports your prior beliefs or values. It is strongest for emotionally charged issues like politics.
A variation of this is “negative bias,” where people focus on negative things more than positive due to age-old survival instincts that keep us alert and looking for danger. Another variation is the “horn effect” (opposite of the “halo effect”), where one single seemingly negative thing about a person colors one’s view of them, making it harder to notice their positive qualities. For example, many of these TDS Republicans became this way after J6. They blamed Trump for sparking an “insurrection,” despite the fact that not a single person was charged for insurrection, and the fact the MSM lied about almost everything; the protest was far more peaceful than the “peaceful protests” of BLM and Antifa who put buildings on fire.
This phenomenon is found in religion, such as where some Christians become so judgmental that they can’t focus on anything but who is committing what sin. Some of this overlaps into these Christians judging Trump, which is unfair because no one is perfect; to say otherwise is blasphemous because only God is sinless. Meanwhile, these judgy types probably have done far worse things than Trump ever has — it would be interesting to conduct background checks on them and see how many have criminal convictions. Likewise, it would be interesting to track down their voting records, I bet most of them are RINOs.
They get away with it due to information overload. Who has time to chase down every fake news article about Trump and get to the bottom of it? If someone hasn’t curated their news sources to patriotic sites and people, it would be overwhelming to sift through the mostly fake news.
It’s easy to be armchair warriors, sounding judgy and self-righteous behind a keyboard criticizing people. While Trump is getting more accomplished for conservatives than any president ever, these arrogant and elitist RINOs are hindering his ability to get even more done. They associate with other Never Trumpers who amplify their negativity and pat each on the back.
Their superiority complex is nauseating. It’s not clever. Anyone can sit around at home on their couch picking apart one of the greatest men on earth, it doesn’t take any particular expertise to repeat DNC talking points. They love to attack him over his style, which includes the occasional use of hyperbole — something normal people find amusing and catchy. Since they don’t have any real criticism of Trump, they have to focus on sketchy criticism. It just makes them look silly, like the emperor has no clothes.
They’ve figured out that by pretending to still be Republicans and criticizing Trump, they can get more attention and get invited on all the MSM talk shows. Since the MSM still massively dominates news (only 3% of journalists are Republicans), it’s a windfall for Republicans with mediocre careers. No one reading your dull articles at National Review since it turned RINO? Well, you can get the left to fawn all over you instead, and be held up as a hero for turning on one of the greatest presidents ever.
They don’t realize that they have become indistinguishable from Democrats. The rest of us are looking at them as idiots, not the ivory tower elitists they think they are. They don’t appear to be very wise since they merely repeat the DNC’s talking points, something a 4th grader could easily do. They claim they hate Trump out of principle, but they have no principles since they sway in the wind on political issues.
Their irrational hatred of Trump has shifted their political views towards the left, defending Democratic positions simply because they go against Trump. Granted, much of TDS comes from traditional RINOs, who moved to the left due to “follow the money.” This is why we see so many Republican members of Congress opposing Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts to cut government — many of them stand to lose huge campaign donations from companies that have been in on the grifting.
Unfortunately the MSM highlights the Never Trumpers so much they appear to be more prevalent than they really are. This allows them to be more influential. The MSM’s pretend objective practice of getting quotes for their articles from both Democrats and Republicans always features one of the worst Never Trumper Republicans, not actually a Republican who represents real Republican values. But as the MSM continues to die, the Never Trumpers’ influence will wane.
Reprinted from Townhall