Posted on 01/17/2016 6:36:32 AM PST by TBBT
A social scientist with the University of Massachusetts conducted a study last week designed to identify trends among the supporters of the leading political candidates for the 2016 race. With respect to Trump’s supporters in particular, the study found that the main statistical variable that could be used to predict whether someone was a Trump supporter was not race, age, religion, income, or education. It is, rather, an impulse towards authoritarianism.
My finding is the result of a national poll I conducted in the last five days of December under the auspices of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, sampling 1,800 registered voters across the country and the political spectrum. Running a standard statistical analysis, I found that education, income, gender, age, ideology and religiosity had no significant bearing on a Republican voter’s preferred candidate. Only two of the variables I looked at were statistically significant: authoritarianism, followed by fear of terrorism, though the former was far more significant than the latter.
Authoritarianism is not a new, untested concept in the American electorate. Since the rise of Nazi Germany, it has been one of the most widely studied ideas in social science. While its causes are still debated, the political behavior of authoritarians is not. Authoritarians obey. They rally to and follow strong leaders. And they respond aggressively to outsiders, especially when they feel threatened. From pledging to “make America great again†by building a wall on the border to promising to close mosques and ban Muslims from visiting the United States, Trump is playing directly to authoritarian inclinations.
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
Red State under this guy Leon Wolfe is much more desperate in it’s hatred of TRUMP then under Eric Erickson. I eliminated it from my daily reading.
You guys are really desperate! Trump’s love of the US is obvious to everyone but blinded Cruz bots.
And there’s no better negotiator. He will convince Congress - unlike Cruz who couldn’t get but a handful to go along with him.
What Trump does supply is love of the USA, which of course liberals can't stand because they hate this country.
Ohhhhhhhhhh. A SOCIOLOGIST from the UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS! !!!!!!!
OHHHHHHHH! Must be an accurate report!!!!
Obama with his pen and his phone. Is that authoritarian?
Wolf won’t be around for long, as Redstate is running on fumes
there are a lot of assumptions on motivations on the article
Yet his career is built on catering to the elites and exclusivity, separating his customer from real Americans. He caters to those who sneer at the middle class.
He is a superb con man.
Funny how that works.
Well, insulting him and his supporters isn’t going to help win anyone over. Cruz has lost himself a huge amount of good will over the past few days. We’ll see soon enough whether he’ll be able to make it up elsewhere.
I just cannot stand by any politician, doesn’t matter what state they come from, this country is only getting worse because of stupid politicians.
Then a successful businessman comes along, not bought, no nasal twang, no teleprompters or shady manufactured past.
Fundamental to the TRUMP REVOLUTION is Donald Trump's honesty. No one will find Truth who cannot or will not be honest with himself.
It's honesty and a towering intelligence that propel Donald Trump and attract his followers.
Scorn of Truth is the evil most fundamental to the Decadence of Western Civilization.
Some nations have even made it a crime to speak Truth.
Trump supporters--though some may not be aware of it--are drawn to his candor and honesty like a magnet. Only Truth can save a world as dangerous as ours. Only Truth can lead to solutions necessary to save our children and us.
It is Truth--and the Freedom necessary to discover it--Freedom of Speech, Free Exchange of Ideas, Freedom to Explore any subject whatsoever--Truth for Its Own Sake--that made the U.S.A. the greatest, most powerful, most just, and richest nation in history--and Truth alone that can provide the solutions necessary to save this world.
It is also Truth that threatens the delusions of the deluded, and this is why they fear and hate Donald Trump with such vitriol
Trump isn’t nearly as smart as everyone thinks he is. Trump is a whore who would sell out the country for his own glory.
He has given money and praise to the same collection of morons who have ruined this country. And yet a lot of people here seem to fall at his feet the same way the left did with Obama.
Full disclosure: I am not a Trump fan. Unless he gets in bed with the GOPe any further (he has one foot in bed with them on the Cruz birth issue, IMO), I will hold my nose and vote for him, though. With that said:Trump talks like someone trying to close the deal; heck, he wrote a book about it. I ask everyone who is an
unadulterated Trump fan to look at his past and tell me with honesty that he has been the best embodiment of the coonservative movement in America. I know he has never billed himself as a conservative; he is a Trump-centric libertarian/populist. That’s ok. He’s saying all the right words, most days, and he definitely gets high marks on sticking it to people who need sticking. That should not be enough for someone who calls themselves a conservative to hang their hat on in supporting him, though. We’ve seen it time and again, from Congressmen who ran on a Tea Party platorm to Governors who railed against “girlie men” politicians. Words don’t mean squat, without proof of a change. IMO, Trump is long on words and a bit short on proof at this time.
My, and many other’s reservation a rooted in the saying, “Past performance dictates future expectations”.
Calling Trump and Trump supporters nasty names doesn’t make you seem very smart.
If that’s all you got - we win. you’re acting no different than liberals.
thanks nv.
I’ve never been repeated before! ;)
and trump calling Cruz”a very nasty person” is the high water mark of brains.
And yes, trump followers are zealots.
It seems that some put the faith in Donald Trump that should only go to Jesus Christ.
Obama ran the budgets by starting riots all over the country.
Congress was afraid he would refuse to sign, and then shut down everything.
He used the IRS to go after Americans who disagreed with him.
Obama was a socialist despot, cast from the same mold as Fidel castro.
If it was good enough for Obama, it’s good enough for an American president.
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