For Clinton they called it “fatigue”. For Trump “bonding”
by digby
This exact phenomenon was presented and defined very differently when it came to Clinton:
Gina Anders knows the feeling well by now. President Trump says or does something that triggers a spasm of outrage. She doesn’t necessarily agree with how he handled the situation. She gets why people are upset.
But Ms. Anders, 46, a Republican from suburban Loudoun County, Va., with a law degree, a business career, and not a stitch of “Make America Great Again” gear in her wardrobe, is moved to defend him anyway.
“All nuance and all complexity — and these are complex issues — are completely lost,” she said, describing “overblown” reactions from the president’s critics, some of whom equated the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children and parents to history’s greatest atrocities.
“It makes me angry at them, which causes me to want to defend him to them more,” Ms. Anders said.
In interviews across the country over the last few days, dozens of Trump voters, as well as pollsters and strategists, described something like a bonding experience with the president that happens each time Republicans have to answer a now-familiar question: “How can you possibly still support this man?” Their resilience suggests a level of unity among Republicans that could help mitigate Mr. Trump’s low overall approval ratings and aid his party’s chances of keeping control of the House of Representatives in November.
“He’s not a perfect guy; he does some stupid stuff,” said Tony Schrantz, 50, of Lino Lakes, Minn., the owner of a water systems leak detection business. “But when they’re hounding him all the time it just gets old. Give the guy a little.”
Yeah, I remember that feeling back in the 1990s. I don’t remember even one member of the press saying it was good for Clinton.
Update:
“Not a stitch of Make America Great Again” wardrobe my ass.
He blocked me but maybe @jwpetersnyt would like to know that Gina Anders, the Republican businesswoman he interviewed who still likes Trump, is not your ordinary suburban GOP voter! Come along to a couple of links I found in 5 seconds on Google! 1/x https://t.co/d7CTdStx7n— Gary Legum (@GaryLegum) June 23, 2018
It turns out that this woman Gina Anders isn’t just some nice Republican lady they found randomly:
[Republican candidate] Tabb said she has become alarmed by the rightward drift of the Republican Party in Jefferson County. She said its alignment with the tea party’s anti-government, anti-tax agenda and the party’s affiliation with far-right activist groups that have sprung up over the last decade – such as We the People of West Virginia-Jefferson County, started by now-state Sen. Patricia Rucker, and the Liberty Political Action Committee begun by Stephen C. Anders and Gina Anders, formerly of Maryland, then of Shepherdstown and now living in Loudoun County, Va., have made the party almost unrecognizable to her.
This happens over and over again — stories about supposedly Average Joe Real American turn out to be right wing extremist activists. It wouldn’t have taken much to find that out.
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