Here’s another Washington Post story that’s worth reading in full. (gift link) Yes, it’s another one of those “what do the Trump voters really think” stories but this one is a real doozy. They went to Pennsylvania to speak to low income voters who voted for him.
Here’s an example of what they said:
“We helped get you in office; please take care of us,” Mosura said, shifting the conversation as though she were speaking to Trump. “Please don’t cut the things that help the most vulnerable.”
“Trump won’t cut necessary programs, and nowhere has he said he is cutting any of that,” Ryan said. “He is cutting bloated government. He is not cutting programs that work for the American people.”
“It’s not cutting government programs, it’s cutting the amount of people needed to run a program,” Tillia, who said he is unable to work after suffering from mini strokes, said. “They are cutting staff, which could actually increase the amount of the programs that we get.”Davis, a retired artist, subsists on a monthly $1,300 Social Security payment & $75 in food stamps. She rents her studio apartment for $385 per month. … “We are old & tired & just want to be taken care of, & Trump has too much common sense, so I don’t think he is going to do anything to hurt us.”
I will admit that there’s a huge part of me that thinks these people are getting what they deserve. They are adults and they have agency. They could have resisted the siren’s call of Trump’s Big Hatefest Show. But when you think about the the fact that they all live in communities and among families that are red-pilled Trump cultists and the media diet they are comfortable with is full of propaganda, it’s really not surprising. They simply don’t hear anything else.
(On the other hand I’m going to guess these people are among those who believe that they are entitled to their benefits, it’s just all those undeserving Black and brown people who are eating out of the government through and bankrupting he country. That’s usually how it goes anyway.)
The delusions run strong in the Trump cult.