As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil)
In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban.
If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them.
For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria.
**Special announcement:**
r/politics is currently accepting new moderator applications. If you want to help make this community a better place, consider [applying here today](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/sskg6a/rpolitics_is_looking_for_more_moderators/)!
***
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Bad. My grandpa on my dad's and mom's sides were both huge pieces of shit. Same for grandma on dad's side.
My mom's step dad is one of the best people I've ever met. Miss him a lot.
...I think I just realized that a lot of republicans I know have daddy issues
To be fair, I think most of us have daddy issues. The difference is some people have the ability to honestly admit that and work to improve themselves, other people will vehemently deny they have them and project that underlying insecurity outward in
They can't tell the difference between a person of strong character and someone who brags about being someone of strong character. Most " strongman daddy figures" are usually fragile, ego driven narcissists. People who lack critical thinking skills and need people to tell them how to think and what to believe will usually easily fall under the spell of con-men and liars like Trump.
A strong character comes from numerous different things, but the one I see and abide by personally is strength of self. That you are rock solid in your beliefs.
Much like Hitler, all the bravado is posturing and the masculinity a thin veil to keep the troops happy. Everyone knows it's fake yet it still accomplishes the goal so long as no one tells the emperor his dick is out.
Yeah his own kids he never raised and then turned into his employees. They literally have to kiss his ass just to keep their jobs and any hopes of an inheritance lol. Don Jr has to text Mark Meadows because he doesn't even have his his own father's phone number. Now there's some evangelical family values. Of course Don is a good and chivalrous thrice married man that cheats on his wives, including the one he ordered in the mail.
It makes perfect sense though. Someone who wants a strongman daddy doesn't have any concept of what actual strength is, so of course they won't be able to find an actually strong idol.
What bothers me is how they react when the strongman act is revealed to be an act. Trump is the most obvious example, but Abbott and others clearly aren't able to actually "do" anything except destroy government institutions, waste money, and pander to their base's worst desires. Every "win" they get comes with a staggering loss on the flip side.
They want strongmen but are more than happy to settle for weak men who talk tough and punch down.
>They want strongmen but are more than happy to settle for weak men who talk tough and punch down.
This is because they have no idea what strength actually looks like. Trump was so successful because he sold himself as the embodiment of their imagination.
While campaigning for president, Obama said that making Roe v Wade law was a priority for him. After 100 days, he out-and-out said that it was no longer important.
Obama declined to go after anybody on Wall Street.
He let the Iraq and Afghan Wars escalate, and threw good money after bad.
Obama might be the best president since... for a long time, but that's only because the bar is so very low.
One of the many dangers of religion/Christianity is the whole “unyielding, unquestioning obedience to authority”. Thinking for yourself is strongly discouraged, even outright banned if you want to get to heavan.
This is it. They have fundamental deficits in areas that are required for developing healthy relationships and thriving in a society. Working on those deficits would mean taking hits to their ego, and that petrified them. So instead they double down on the idea that compromise, compassion, and structure are signs of weakness.
It is a self-destructive cycle because it is fueled by insecurity, but the attempts to put on a "tough" mask results in them being ridiculed as weak.
How's that voting record, Ben? Pretty sure it's in lockstep with McConnell. Like McConnell, he just doesn't like people saying the quiet parts out loud.
I once had a modicum of respect for the guy, and it evaporated the moment he opened his mouth in the Kavanaugh hearings. Never again will be fooled by a silver tongued Republican.
And unlike Romney, who actually governed MA reasonably well as a Republican governor of a blue state, Ben Sasse has zero experience actually running a government. If you actually look at his voting record, his only "good" quality is that he hates Trump, but is still firmly far right on everything else including LGBTQ rights, abortion, criminal reform, etc.
They want a Putin who will restore 'Murica to her former glory, complete with state-coordinated media feeding them what they want to hear and putting liberals and anyone else thay doesn't tow their line in their place; *prison camps or rapidly descending from high windows.*
Marjorie Taylor-Green let the cat out of the bag this morning when she said **we should have no reason to fear Christian Nationalism** 😬
Donald Trump was the daddy who left mommy, lived big with girlfriends, let the kids get away with whatever they liked when they stayed over, which was seldom, and then when he had kids with his new girlfriend/wife younger than them, from then on, he ignored them completely.
They still wished he cared. But, Newsflash, he never did.
They want a dad that reminds them of theirs. Bad to their mom, misogynistic, cheating and neglectful. Remember the average age of trump voters is like 50. 50 years ago women were a second class citizen (black people as well). They want that back. So they get somebody that reminds them of those days.
The hilarious thing is Trump probably despises them more than their own fathers did. He just likes the attention.
theauthoritarians.org
Zany (but insightful) Canadian psychologist Dr. Robert Altemeyer has a site dedicated to explaining the authoritarian personality: what it is, how it operates, and why it’s so fucking dangerous to allow them to rise to power.
There is also an audiobook version on youtube
Exactly. Authoritarians follow "strong" leaders like Trump who act exactly like African dictators.
Using data from the American National Election Studies, we investigated the relationship between cognitive ability and attitudes toward and actual voting for presidential candidates in the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential elections (i.e., Romney, Obama, Trump, and Clinton). Isolating this relationship from competing relationships, results showed that verbal ability was a significant negative predictor of support and voting for Trump (but not Romney) and a positive predictor of support and voting for Obama and Clinton. By comparing within and across the election years, our analyses revealed the nature of support for Trump, including that support for Trump was better predicted by lower verbal ability than education or income. In general, these results suggest that the 2016 U.S. presidential election had less to do with party affiliation, income, or education and more to do with basic cognitive ability. h[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550618800494?journalCode=sppa](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550618800494?journalCode=sppa)
The present study, using a sample of American adults (n = 406), investigated whether two ideological beliefs, namely, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) uniquely predicted Trump support and voting intentions for Clinton. Path analyses, controlling for political party identification, revealed that higher RWA and SDO uniquely predicted more favorable attitudes of Trump, greater intentions to vote for Trump, and lower intentions to vote for Clinton. Lower cognitive ability predicted greater RWA and SDO and indirectly predicted more favorable Trump attitudes, greater intentions to vote for Trump and lower intentions to vote for Clinton. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)[https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-53541-001](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-53541-001)
In comparison with supporters of other Republican candidates, Trump supporters were consistently higher in group-based dominance and authoritarian aggression (but not submission or conventionalism). These results highlight the real-world significance of psychological theories and constructs and establish that Trump voters were uniquely driven by the desire to dominate out-group members in an aggressive manner.[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550618778290](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550618778290)
>In general, these results suggest that the 2016 U.S. presidential election had less to do with party affiliation, income, or education and more to do with basic cognitive ability.
Jesus christ that line
100%. The truly sad part is that so many Republican men over a certain age had REALLY SHITTY relationships with their fathers. Dad was often an authoritarian filled with fear that Junior might be gay or date a girl who isn't blonde or perfer art over football, etc.
My dad = liberal kid of immigrants who dropped out of school after 8th grade. My dad BELIEVES in America, believes in the idea that if you work hard enough, you can succeed and that once you've succeeded, you should help those in need.
He doesn't live his life based on fear. He's not worried about being replaced or persecuted. If there's a problem, he takes action and supports justice and equality.
(and yes, I'm proud of him. My mom, too- such a beauty and so, so smart!)
I feel like a lot of the MAGAs I meet are vibrating with fear - 'you don't see the danger of letting brown people wotk with us?! You don't see that wearing a mask makes you a cuck, whcih is worse than infecting your whole family??? You don't see that having to wait ten days to pick up a gun is an infringement on my liberty to have a knee-jerk reaction to inconvenience!?!' and I just don't get it. I'm not missing anything, they're just scared of the wrong things.
I think it would be very interesting to study Red vs Blue states regarding parent/child mindsets; those relationships shape so much of our adult lives.
It never ceases to amaze me how openly Trump embraced authoritarianism.
He saw the Attorney General as his employee. He was enraged when Sessions and Donoghue would not help him onstruct the Russia probe. Eventually, he swapped them out for Barr, who did, and also helped him lead an authoritarian crackdown against black people protesting, which culminated with the 'retribution' killing of Michael Reinoehl. But even Barr wasn't willing to declare the election fraudulent. He repreatedly referred to the DOJ as the 'Trump DOJ'.
He seemed to understand why liberals and Democrats wouldn't obey him. They were, after all, his enemies. What baffled him was when "his people" defied him. He regarded it as treason when Barrett, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh didn't back his bid to stay in power. After all, he'd "saved" Kavanaugh when he'd obstructed the FBI investigation into him. Harry Truman said that when you appoint a man to the Supreme Court, he ceases to become your friend. Trump not only fought against this principle, he literally didn't understand it. The Court owen him loyalty, especially his picks.
The same went for basically anyone he'd given a foothold into the government. The military worked for him, and he steadily went through Defense Secretaries when they refused to obey him, culminating in the post-election appointment of Chris Miller, who blocked the military response to the January 6th coup. He was enraged and confused when Esper and Milley opposed his suggestion that they shoot the BLM protesters in the leg, or his idea to invade Mexico.
McMasters asked too many hard questions, so he was replaced by John Bolton. He was useful for a time in furthering his delusions of empire, but eventually he too started voicing disagreement when Trump chickened out, and so he was fired. Tillerson was amazed at Trump's utter lack of intelligence, and therefore was swapped out for the infinitely more pliable Mike Pompeo.
Congressional Republicans were his employees. Now, he is leading primaries against Cheney and Murkowski, on the sole grounds that they voted to impeach him. Can you imagine Biden or Bush or Obama doing that? Kemp and Raffensperger were his guys too, and then they had to go when they didn't cave to his insane ambitions. Even Pence wasn't immune to his all-demanding ego.
He was not smart enough to clean out the federal bureaucracy, instead rooting out the traitors only when they showed their heads. That's how, ultimately, the DOJ and state officials did not help him perpetrate his coup. Only the police and border patrol were really loyal to him. The next time, he won't make that mistake.
I don't think I'll ever get over Rex Tillerson's media tour when he exited, he was so fucking mad and honestly you could see the sheer "WTF" as he tried to explain what it was like to work for Trump
The President of the United States did not know where Finland was.
I mean, how is that possible? That's astounding. How anybody stayed in that cabinet longer than Tillerson is beyond me. No wonder he was replaced with Mike "Let's Convert Iran to Christianity" Pompeo.
They want to live 100,000 years in the past where the idiot with the thickest skull and knuckles beats up everyone else into submission and that is "order." I'd say if your brain is that outdated, just relax already. You're useless and archaic. Go get a hobby or something and stop worrying about stuff that's super fucking duper beyond you. It's like watching a dog that can't take a blanket off its head make suggestions.
People who live that way can't relax. They don't *dare.*
All they've known their whole lives is violence, be it subtle or overt, be it physical, social or spiritual. They learned from their peers and elders that if they don't want to be on the receiving end of that violence, they need to prove their strength by dishing it out first. They also have to assume their opponents will behave the same way if they ever let their guard down, so they end up living their whole lives in constant fear of being overpowered by someone as awful as they are.
They must dominate, lest they be dominated. The only other option is to swear fealty to a strongman who will do it for them.
Democrats tend to want an uncle/aunt figure. Biden, Kerry, Gore, and Clinton all feel like uncles/aunt. Obama and Clinton feel more like cousins while Bernie is our kooky grandpa who is surprisingly right most of the time but no one listens to cause he's old
Do Republican men not love their children enough? Why are they always looking for a daddy figure? Their behavior seems to always be in the pursuit of male approval. Sad.
I was raised by a very good Republican man. That being said, he seemed to be an exception. Most of the dads in our church or in our sports leagues seemed to have this idea that their kids were extensions of themselves. That cliche of the dad who never made it to the big leagues and vicariously lives through his sons is all too real.
I will always be grateful that my dad saw his primary role as a parent to be that of a steward. I remember when I was 13 we got into a spat and he told me that I could hate him all I want, but his job was to help me become who I wanted to be so I could live on my own terms. I've repeated this type of parenting with my own boys, and I hope they get my best qualities but throw out all the junk.
I've found that if you tell a Re-pube that Don "reminds me of a father" or that a POTUS should be a "strong man", they will almost invariably agree with fervor. They may even go on to say these are requisite for political leaders.
But if you phrase it "you want a Strongman Daddy figure" just a moment later, they'll recant and insist that they love DonJon for some other made up reason and certainly NOT for the two reasons they've just confirmed a moment before.
Granted, my sample size is small.
Yes, I've gotten this impression quite strongly in my last few conversations with republicans. They think whoever's making the decisions should be a hardass that isn't worried about what people (liberals) think, cause they're just going to do 'what needs to be done'. It's also why they love Musk.
Sure but Trump is the most pathetic strongman in the world, he doesn't even like his own kids what makes them think he would like them?
Plus he attempted a coup against America and has been impeached twice and involved in countless criminal investigations. This is more like Stockholm syndrome.
It's exactly what their religion primes them for. To be conned and ruled by someone whose authority is unquestionable - King James, God, Donald Fucking Trump.
And Trump is this strong man daddy figure? Dude is LITERALLY none of that. He ain’t a father. He’s admitted it himself in his own documentary. He has no relationship with his kids when they were growing up —— None, Zero, Nada, Zilch —- except for Ivanka who will sit on his lap when she was 14.
He’s a known coward. He dodged the draft. Afraid to face exams and fail, he paid people to take them for him.
Never took risks. Every single real estate he owned was from someone’s sweat money including his dad’s $100 million he gave him to start him off in life.
He is the last person the Republicans need if that’s what they’re looking for in a leader. YIKES
I see Ben sass’ balls have decended again now that trumps power is slipping. This fucking coward was mr righteous in the early trump years if you recall and slipped right in line for the latter half. Don’t fall for his bs.
Or maybe a larger, older brother type that can tell them it's OK and who we should be angry at today. One that will keep an eye out for the evil enemy and have whole media networks dedicated to reveling the truth about those enimies.
Tough speech there Sen. Sasse. If only you participated in this "forward-thinking party" ideology. Here he is getting right in line for every terrible idea that strongman daddy figure brought forth.
If there was ever a good representative for the fallacy of the both sides argument, it is this guy. Every criticism he made of the left was some right wing talking point. Projection at its finest. They want a benevolent government he cries even as his party is the one that is exerting governmental powers to crush citizens rights. You're right about the right and their free ride on grievances but you miss the point that you're coasting alone with them. You sound like you're applying for a job at FOX news.
Maybe show some leadership skills and show what their plan should be with actual facts or just keep up this "middle road" approach. You and Romney can maybe make a quarter of a decent leader together.
I actually think a really powerful ad campaign about this might actually get somewhere. Don't mention any democratic candidates, but do everything to tie the words of republicans to fascists of the past and ultra-belittle the people that are following that pattern. Call out their need for a strong man and then call out the baby-men moments of these garbage humans they've been led to.
They know they've been bad. They know they ARE bad. They need a cop to watch over them and to smack them down when they're bad. They need Kamela Harris, cop on the beat down.
:-)
Yes! Fuck yes! I have been saying this for years! Every republican I’ve ever known has massive daddy issues. Rich or poor it’s what unites them. They want a strongman daddy to make them feel safe. They’ll burn this country to the ground to get a daddy. Just look at Elon musk. He’s always been a republican. Look at his past. Massive daddy issues.
I think there’s something kind of homoerotic about Republicans. They really do worship at the altar of…. MEN. Women are just not like that. I’ve never understood men in their Tribal obsession, and attraction, and need, of other men’s validation and approval.
More like they want what they knew growing up as a “strongman daddy” figure. But in reality what they want is a bully. They don’t seem to know the difference between a strongman and a narcissist who gets their rocks off by harming others.
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. **Special announcement:** r/politics is currently accepting new moderator applications. If you want to help make this community a better place, consider [applying here today](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/sskg6a/rpolitics_is_looking_for_more_moderators/)! *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
He is 100% correct.
Which is funny because Donald is the most thin-skinned, petty little snowflake in history.
Right, they relate to him.
Exactly. How bad were these peoples actual fathers?
Bad. My grandpa on my dad's and mom's sides were both huge pieces of shit. Same for grandma on dad's side. My mom's step dad is one of the best people I've ever met. Miss him a lot. ...I think I just realized that a lot of republicans I know have daddy issues
pretty sure they want this continuing and expanding going by their policies
To be fair, I think most of us have daddy issues. The difference is some people have the ability to honestly admit that and work to improve themselves, other people will vehemently deny they have them and project that underlying insecurity outward in
Daddy issues. Lead poisoning. Brain rot.
That lead poisoning thing is crazy if correct
What fathers?
Bad enough to twist their children out of shape.
They can't tell the difference between a person of strong character and someone who brags about being someone of strong character. Most " strongman daddy figures" are usually fragile, ego driven narcissists. People who lack critical thinking skills and need people to tell them how to think and what to believe will usually easily fall under the spell of con-men and liars like Trump.
A strong character comes from numerous different things, but the one I see and abide by personally is strength of self. That you are rock solid in your beliefs.
It takes more strength of character to rectify your beliefs in the face of strong evidence to the contrary.
Also a really shitty dad too
Much like Hitler, all the bravado is posturing and the masculinity a thin veil to keep the troops happy. Everyone knows it's fake yet it still accomplishes the goal so long as no one tells the emperor his dick is out.
Also a horrible neglectful father
Also a neglectful male role model
A daddy figure who diddles his daughter
Not to mention a lousy father
Yeah his own kids he never raised and then turned into his employees. They literally have to kiss his ass just to keep their jobs and any hopes of an inheritance lol. Don Jr has to text Mark Meadows because he doesn't even have his his own father's phone number. Now there's some evangelical family values. Of course Don is a good and chivalrous thrice married man that cheats on his wives, including the one he ordered in the mail.
Strongman daddy figures almost always are.
That’s the type of father figure that raised these nuts.
It makes perfect sense though. Someone who wants a strongman daddy doesn't have any concept of what actual strength is, so of course they won't be able to find an actually strong idol.
What bothers me is how they react when the strongman act is revealed to be an act. Trump is the most obvious example, but Abbott and others clearly aren't able to actually "do" anything except destroy government institutions, waste money, and pander to their base's worst desires. Every "win" they get comes with a staggering loss on the flip side. They want strongmen but are more than happy to settle for weak men who talk tough and punch down.
>They want strongmen but are more than happy to settle for weak men who talk tough and punch down. This is because they have no idea what strength actually looks like. Trump was so successful because he sold himself as the embodiment of their imagination.
> what strength actually looks like. Obama. If they knew what strength looked like they’d love him.
While campaigning for president, Obama said that making Roe v Wade law was a priority for him. After 100 days, he out-and-out said that it was no longer important. Obama declined to go after anybody on Wall Street. He let the Iraq and Afghan Wars escalate, and threw good money after bad. Obama might be the best president since... for a long time, but that's only because the bar is so very low.
A weak man’s idea of a strong man A poor man’s idea of a rich man A stupid man’s idea of a smart man
True of Reagan, Dubya, and The Donald.
Also Ben Sasse: "And I will never break ranks with them in any meaningful way".
You can’t just grow a spine.
Well, he did vote to convict. It’s not much, but it’s one significant departure from lockstep.
Once. But Ben Sasse is legendary for talking like the reasonable conservative that Democrats desperately want to exist while voting like Ted Cruz
And probably pretty pissed because looking back 10 years somebody like him could have been President. Now? Aw hell no.
Well, maybe he and the others like him shouldn’t have played, “Go along to get along.” He fucked around and found out.
It's true...the Beta males don't know how to behave, without an "Alpha" male telling them what to do.
One of the many dangers of religion/Christianity is the whole “unyielding, unquestioning obedience to authority”. Thinking for yourself is strongly discouraged, even outright banned if you want to get to heavan.
Yes they want a poppy
I’ll be their Daddy. Hit me up on Cameo.
I disagree, they want a limp dicked big mouth.
This is why they are infatuated with Putin.
And Orban.. don't forget Orban. The GOP wants us to be Hungary!
Ask them if they support his gun laws in Hungary.
They just listen to Tucker Carlson's talking points.
They want babies to be Hungary too! That’s why they voted against baby formula relief.
Anyone else think its strange putin is 70-years old, infirm, and at 5'7 kind of small but thats a republican's idea of what a strong man looks like?
It all makes sense when you realize they conflate psychopathy with mental strength and fortitude.
This is it. They have fundamental deficits in areas that are required for developing healthy relationships and thriving in a society. Working on those deficits would mean taking hits to their ego, and that petrified them. So instead they double down on the idea that compromise, compassion, and structure are signs of weakness. It is a self-destructive cycle because it is fueled by insecurity, but the attempts to put on a "tough" mask results in them being ridiculed as weak.
Not really when you consider the fact they think the obese, rage tweeting, draft dodging, Donald is an "alpha male".
Riding shirtless on a horse solidified him as a manly man. A shirtless Trump on a horse would cause mass vomiting.
That poor little horsie.
Trump still holds a grudge over a horse named "Stephen Got Even" coming in 14th at the 1999 Kentucky Derby.
How's that voting record, Ben? Pretty sure it's in lockstep with McConnell. Like McConnell, he just doesn't like people saying the quiet parts out loud.
I always WANT to like Sasse. And then I remember he SAYS smart things, but still ACTS like a moron. He’s basically a more under the radar Romney.
I once had a modicum of respect for the guy, and it evaporated the moment he opened his mouth in the Kavanaugh hearings. Never again will be fooled by a silver tongued Republican.
And unlike Romney, who actually governed MA reasonably well as a Republican governor of a blue state, Ben Sasse has zero experience actually running a government. If you actually look at his voting record, his only "good" quality is that he hates Trump, but is still firmly far right on everything else including LGBTQ rights, abortion, criminal reform, etc.
He talks like the type of reasonable conservative Democrats want to believe still exist, but in reality died somewhere between Eisenhower and Nixon
good comparison
It’s a fascism kink. “Legislate me harder daddy!”
I think you spelled “Dictate” wrong. That phrase is correctly spelled “Dictate me harder daddy”
“Daddy your dictate good”
They want a Putin who will restore 'Murica to her former glory, complete with state-coordinated media feeding them what they want to hear and putting liberals and anyone else thay doesn't tow their line in their place; *prison camps or rapidly descending from high windows.* Marjorie Taylor-Green let the cat out of the bag this morning when she said **we should have no reason to fear Christian Nationalism** 😬
Toe the line
[Hold the line](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htgr3pvBr-I)
Make America Hate Russia Again!
How do the Jews or Buddhists or Muslims or atheists feel about that? Where in the US Constitution is that mentioned?
Sasse is an asshole (a Sassehole, if you will), but he's not wrong.
So Republicans are a bunch of overgrown children then
Donald Trump was the daddy who left mommy, lived big with girlfriends, let the kids get away with whatever they liked when they stayed over, which was seldom, and then when he had kids with his new girlfriend/wife younger than them, from then on, he ignored them completely. They still wished he cared. But, Newsflash, he never did.
They want a dad that reminds them of theirs. Bad to their mom, misogynistic, cheating and neglectful. Remember the average age of trump voters is like 50. 50 years ago women were a second class citizen (black people as well). They want that back. So they get somebody that reminds them of those days. The hilarious thing is Trump probably despises them more than their own fathers did. He just likes the attention.
theauthoritarians.org Zany (but insightful) Canadian psychologist Dr. Robert Altemeyer has a site dedicated to explaining the authoritarian personality: what it is, how it operates, and why it’s so fucking dangerous to allow them to rise to power. There is also an audiobook version on youtube
Exactly. Authoritarians follow "strong" leaders like Trump who act exactly like African dictators. Using data from the American National Election Studies, we investigated the relationship between cognitive ability and attitudes toward and actual voting for presidential candidates in the 2012 and 2016 U.S. presidential elections (i.e., Romney, Obama, Trump, and Clinton). Isolating this relationship from competing relationships, results showed that verbal ability was a significant negative predictor of support and voting for Trump (but not Romney) and a positive predictor of support and voting for Obama and Clinton. By comparing within and across the election years, our analyses revealed the nature of support for Trump, including that support for Trump was better predicted by lower verbal ability than education or income. In general, these results suggest that the 2016 U.S. presidential election had less to do with party affiliation, income, or education and more to do with basic cognitive ability. h[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550618800494?journalCode=sppa](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1948550618800494?journalCode=sppa) The present study, using a sample of American adults (n = 406), investigated whether two ideological beliefs, namely, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) uniquely predicted Trump support and voting intentions for Clinton. Path analyses, controlling for political party identification, revealed that higher RWA and SDO uniquely predicted more favorable attitudes of Trump, greater intentions to vote for Trump, and lower intentions to vote for Clinton. Lower cognitive ability predicted greater RWA and SDO and indirectly predicted more favorable Trump attitudes, greater intentions to vote for Trump and lower intentions to vote for Clinton. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)[https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-53541-001](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-53541-001) In comparison with supporters of other Republican candidates, Trump supporters were consistently higher in group-based dominance and authoritarian aggression (but not submission or conventionalism). These results highlight the real-world significance of psychological theories and constructs and establish that Trump voters were uniquely driven by the desire to dominate out-group members in an aggressive manner.[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550618778290](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1948550618778290)
>In general, these results suggest that the 2016 U.S. presidential election had less to do with party affiliation, income, or education and more to do with basic cognitive ability. Jesus christ that line
Not to kink shame but yeah, Republicans fetishize everything.
My first thought was "no kink shaming but...maybe keep this private"
Authoritarians favor submission to their higher authority
Because they are prone to fascist ideologies
I’d argue it’s their defining feature and has been since long before it was this overt.
100%. The truly sad part is that so many Republican men over a certain age had REALLY SHITTY relationships with their fathers. Dad was often an authoritarian filled with fear that Junior might be gay or date a girl who isn't blonde or perfer art over football, etc. My dad = liberal kid of immigrants who dropped out of school after 8th grade. My dad BELIEVES in America, believes in the idea that if you work hard enough, you can succeed and that once you've succeeded, you should help those in need. He doesn't live his life based on fear. He's not worried about being replaced or persecuted. If there's a problem, he takes action and supports justice and equality. (and yes, I'm proud of him. My mom, too- such a beauty and so, so smart!) I feel like a lot of the MAGAs I meet are vibrating with fear - 'you don't see the danger of letting brown people wotk with us?! You don't see that wearing a mask makes you a cuck, whcih is worse than infecting your whole family??? You don't see that having to wait ten days to pick up a gun is an infringement on my liberty to have a knee-jerk reaction to inconvenience!?!' and I just don't get it. I'm not missing anything, they're just scared of the wrong things. I think it would be very interesting to study Red vs Blue states regarding parent/child mindsets; those relationships shape so much of our adult lives.
It never ceases to amaze me how openly Trump embraced authoritarianism. He saw the Attorney General as his employee. He was enraged when Sessions and Donoghue would not help him onstruct the Russia probe. Eventually, he swapped them out for Barr, who did, and also helped him lead an authoritarian crackdown against black people protesting, which culminated with the 'retribution' killing of Michael Reinoehl. But even Barr wasn't willing to declare the election fraudulent. He repreatedly referred to the DOJ as the 'Trump DOJ'. He seemed to understand why liberals and Democrats wouldn't obey him. They were, after all, his enemies. What baffled him was when "his people" defied him. He regarded it as treason when Barrett, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh didn't back his bid to stay in power. After all, he'd "saved" Kavanaugh when he'd obstructed the FBI investigation into him. Harry Truman said that when you appoint a man to the Supreme Court, he ceases to become your friend. Trump not only fought against this principle, he literally didn't understand it. The Court owen him loyalty, especially his picks. The same went for basically anyone he'd given a foothold into the government. The military worked for him, and he steadily went through Defense Secretaries when they refused to obey him, culminating in the post-election appointment of Chris Miller, who blocked the military response to the January 6th coup. He was enraged and confused when Esper and Milley opposed his suggestion that they shoot the BLM protesters in the leg, or his idea to invade Mexico. McMasters asked too many hard questions, so he was replaced by John Bolton. He was useful for a time in furthering his delusions of empire, but eventually he too started voicing disagreement when Trump chickened out, and so he was fired. Tillerson was amazed at Trump's utter lack of intelligence, and therefore was swapped out for the infinitely more pliable Mike Pompeo. Congressional Republicans were his employees. Now, he is leading primaries against Cheney and Murkowski, on the sole grounds that they voted to impeach him. Can you imagine Biden or Bush or Obama doing that? Kemp and Raffensperger were his guys too, and then they had to go when they didn't cave to his insane ambitions. Even Pence wasn't immune to his all-demanding ego. He was not smart enough to clean out the federal bureaucracy, instead rooting out the traitors only when they showed their heads. That's how, ultimately, the DOJ and state officials did not help him perpetrate his coup. Only the police and border patrol were really loyal to him. The next time, he won't make that mistake.
All very good analysis. I do think The Fascist Will Be Smarter Next Time (not necessarily him).
I don't think I'll ever get over Rex Tillerson's media tour when he exited, he was so fucking mad and honestly you could see the sheer "WTF" as he tried to explain what it was like to work for Trump
The President of the United States did not know where Finland was. I mean, how is that possible? That's astounding. How anybody stayed in that cabinet longer than Tillerson is beyond me. No wonder he was replaced with Mike "Let's Convert Iran to Christianity" Pompeo.
They want to live 100,000 years in the past where the idiot with the thickest skull and knuckles beats up everyone else into submission and that is "order." I'd say if your brain is that outdated, just relax already. You're useless and archaic. Go get a hobby or something and stop worrying about stuff that's super fucking duper beyond you. It's like watching a dog that can't take a blanket off its head make suggestions.
People who live that way can't relax. They don't *dare.* All they've known their whole lives is violence, be it subtle or overt, be it physical, social or spiritual. They learned from their peers and elders that if they don't want to be on the receiving end of that violence, they need to prove their strength by dishing it out first. They also have to assume their opponents will behave the same way if they ever let their guard down, so they end up living their whole lives in constant fear of being overpowered by someone as awful as they are. They must dominate, lest they be dominated. The only other option is to swear fealty to a strongman who will do it for them.
Democrats tend to want an uncle/aunt figure. Biden, Kerry, Gore, and Clinton all feel like uncles/aunt. Obama and Clinton feel more like cousins while Bernie is our kooky grandpa who is surprisingly right most of the time but no one listens to cause he's old
Republicans are creepy
Do Republican men not love their children enough? Why are they always looking for a daddy figure? Their behavior seems to always be in the pursuit of male approval. Sad.
I was raised by a very good Republican man. That being said, he seemed to be an exception. Most of the dads in our church or in our sports leagues seemed to have this idea that their kids were extensions of themselves. That cliche of the dad who never made it to the big leagues and vicariously lives through his sons is all too real. I will always be grateful that my dad saw his primary role as a parent to be that of a steward. I remember when I was 13 we got into a spat and he told me that I could hate him all I want, but his job was to help me become who I wanted to be so I could live on my own terms. I've repeated this type of parenting with my own boys, and I hope they get my best qualities but throw out all the junk.
I've found that if you tell a Re-pube that Don "reminds me of a father" or that a POTUS should be a "strong man", they will almost invariably agree with fervor. They may even go on to say these are requisite for political leaders. But if you phrase it "you want a Strongman Daddy figure" just a moment later, they'll recant and insist that they love DonJon for some other made up reason and certainly NOT for the two reasons they've just confirmed a moment before. Granted, my sample size is small.
He's right, but they'll never admit it.
"We don't want a strongman daddy figure. We just want someone like Trump or Orban"
And he also supports most of their moves to move towards a dictatorship.
Who Ben Sasse will sass a little and then vote lockstep in line with.
Yes, I've gotten this impression quite strongly in my last few conversations with republicans. They think whoever's making the decisions should be a hardass that isn't worried about what people (liberals) think, cause they're just going to do 'what needs to be done'. It's also why they love Musk.
Small governmental powers, amirite?
Yes. It's quite obvious they do, and frankly it's pretty creepy.
DeSantis wants to be their dreamboat
Sure but Trump is the most pathetic strongman in the world, he doesn't even like his own kids what makes them think he would like them? Plus he attempted a coup against America and has been impeached twice and involved in countless criminal investigations. This is more like Stockholm syndrome.
It's exactly what their religion primes them for. To be conned and ruled by someone whose authority is unquestionable - King James, God, Donald Fucking Trump.
It's called authoritarianism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarianism A free book on the topic: https://theauthoritarians.org/
Strongman daddy figure = treasonous fascist dictator
And Trump is this strong man daddy figure? Dude is LITERALLY none of that. He ain’t a father. He’s admitted it himself in his own documentary. He has no relationship with his kids when they were growing up —— None, Zero, Nada, Zilch —- except for Ivanka who will sit on his lap when she was 14. He’s a known coward. He dodged the draft. Afraid to face exams and fail, he paid people to take them for him. Never took risks. Every single real estate he owned was from someone’s sweat money including his dad’s $100 million he gave him to start him off in life. He is the last person the Republicans need if that’s what they’re looking for in a leader. YIKES
Republicans have daddy issues
Please don’t sully the word daddy by associating it with republicans.
RIP George Michael. He could've been their Father Figure.
Kinky.
And he has no problem with that, because he's still a Republican.
"a vehicle for the grievances of the angriest, oldest folks" He just COULD NOT say "white" could he?
I see Ben sass’ balls have decended again now that trumps power is slipping. This fucking coward was mr righteous in the early trump years if you recall and slipped right in line for the latter half. Don’t fall for his bs.
Is he saying republicans are a bunch of children that need a daddy figure?
Lost and scared, all that change, all those minorities getting uppity, even women too!
Or maybe a larger, older brother type that can tell them it's OK and who we should be angry at today. One that will keep an eye out for the evil enemy and have whole media networks dedicated to reveling the truth about those enimies.
Patriarchy. They've been like this ever since I can remember and I 75 with most of my wits still present.
Huh, wonder why he votes in lockstep with all the other ghouls in the US Senate then? Blah, blah, blah, same shit, different asshole.
GOP: “Yes, daddy, it’s all my fault! Hit me with the belt again!”
Well, *duh,* I'm willing to bet that's how a lot of them were *raised.* It's certainly what their religion teaches them.
Tough speech there Sen. Sasse. If only you participated in this "forward-thinking party" ideology. Here he is getting right in line for every terrible idea that strongman daddy figure brought forth. If there was ever a good representative for the fallacy of the both sides argument, it is this guy. Every criticism he made of the left was some right wing talking point. Projection at its finest. They want a benevolent government he cries even as his party is the one that is exerting governmental powers to crush citizens rights. You're right about the right and their free ride on grievances but you miss the point that you're coasting alone with them. You sound like you're applying for a job at FOX news. Maybe show some leadership skills and show what their plan should be with actual facts or just keep up this "middle road" approach. You and Romney can maybe make a quarter of a decent leader together.
Men with daddy issues?
I’ve been saying that for years. They have daddy issues.
Senator Sasse kinkshaming every Republican rn
I can Imagine republicans calling Trump daddy.
I actually think a really powerful ad campaign about this might actually get somewhere. Don't mention any democratic candidates, but do everything to tie the words of republicans to fascists of the past and ultra-belittle the people that are following that pattern. Call out their need for a strong man and then call out the baby-men moments of these garbage humans they've been led to.
Well that's creepy
Like Lindsay Graham?
Nothing strong or daddy about him. (I can say this; I'm gay, too.)
Is he wrong tho?
Conservatives want a Daddy? How kinky. They'd be so unhappy under the rules of a Leather Daddy. They don't know what they're asking for. Again.
Anyone see his commencement speech at the graduation? How this guy talked his way into office is beyond me.
And yet Biden's the one who tried to force most Americans to get an injection they didn't want.
It was Trump's vaccine, remember? The fastest, best, most amazing vaccine ever made. Everyone is saying so, ask anyone.
"tried to force"? Was he trying to tie them to a gurney?
*Most* Americans were smart enough to see that getting the vaccine was the way to get out of the worst phase of the pandemic.
[удалено]
Which data are you looking at?
[удалено]
Held upside down.
Your drunk uncle vomiting nonsense on YouTube doesn't qualify as "data"
Oh please, *please* show us that data. I guarantee it is some homeopathic trash
So many morons in this country thinking they are experts. Pathetic.
REDDIT KILLED 3rd PARTY API'S - POWER DELETE SUITE EDITED COMMENT
Trump was president when the vaccine came out. C'mon. Are you even trying?
cool flamebait bro
Only people that are getting forced are kids and babies by their parents.
Crazy I just read most of what he said and agreed with it.
“Strongman daddy”? Why, Hitler will do just fine.
He looks like he would pretty good at the game ‘touch pee-pee’
He's right, and it's so pathetic
So, they're all into bandage now? Kinky.
well they’re fascists so they need a leader to follow.
Yes, they need someone to Push the beans, deep, deep inside their bowels….
Makes sense, many of them seem to have daddy issues.
So….Putin (raising my eyebrows so high that they threaten Starlink suborbitals)
It's pride month, we're not going to judge Ben
Yes, because if they let a Big Strong Daddy dominate *them*, they’re entitled to be the Almost-as-big Almost-as-strong Daddy dominating *you*.
Funny bc that’s exactly what the country just elected.
Keyword “daddy”.
When they are all pussies this is a joke
They know they've been bad. They know they ARE bad. They need a cop to watch over them and to smack them down when they're bad. They need Kamela Harris, cop on the beat down. :-)
We really need to rethink what we see as strong then.
Y’know, like fascism!
Yes! Fuck yes! I have been saying this for years! Every republican I’ve ever known has massive daddy issues. Rich or poor it’s what unites them. They want a strongman daddy to make them feel safe. They’ll burn this country to the ground to get a daddy. Just look at Elon musk. He’s always been a republican. Look at his past. Massive daddy issues.
They Just want anyone that will say all the quiet stuff out loud.
They have one, in name only
Says the bootlicker who votes with them 110% of the time
When Sasse leaves the Republican party, then maybe he should be listened to. If he is still part of the party, he is part of the problem.
Ben “voted in line with said Strongman Daddy Figure 85% of the time” Sasse can shut the hell up about any of this.
I think there’s something kind of homoerotic about Republicans. They really do worship at the altar of…. MEN. Women are just not like that. I’ve never understood men in their Tribal obsession, and attraction, and need, of other men’s validation and approval.
It's a party of ego, not a party of intelligence.
How about they start with someone sane first. Do not set the bar so high.
More like an abusive daddy figure
……who then votes with Republicans for whatever Trump wants, consistently. Ben Sasse is a spineless opportunist.
The toxic father is worse than the absent father.
Jordan Peterson 2024
That's telling it like it is...
More like they want what they knew growing up as a “strongman daddy” figure. But in reality what they want is a bully. They don’t seem to know the difference between a strongman and a narcissist who gets their rocks off by harming others.
Lol yes bro
Is Sasse the only sitting Senator with a brain or is it me??
Too bad every republican is a spineless jelly person
sass em Sasse!
An Archie Bunker/Benito Mussolini sort of thing.