It's funny I should read this where I was, I was in a public restaurant on wifi and all of the sudden the couple next to me started discussing Trump, and why the guy was going to vote for him! I took notes, not to be a dirty little spy but he was in a public place saying stupid things that were relevant to this discussion. She was against Trump, so it was an interesting discussion. She also said that he wasn't doing anything "wrong", though. Anyway, the arguments he made, mixed with some of her comments and my own in italics (less of those since they are slightly off-topic): - Trump does not tiptoe around any issue and just says what's on his mind, and what's on everyone else's mind. Her rebuttal was that it's a form of inducement, that he doesn't in fact say what's on everyone's mind but tells you what should be on your mind so you think it's what is on your mind. - Trump doesn't talk like a politician, and for people who are sick of politicians, this is appealing. My rebuttal to this is that he's the most snakey politician that's using the most manipulative politician tactics around, just bringing it into the modern age. He's brought IT usability principles into politics, and lowers the barrier for entering the political debate by talking at a 5th grade level. - Trump doesn't use talking points, he doesn't use a teleprompter, etc, and the other politicians don't know how to handle this in debates, so it makes politicians look bad. He's making politician's look like assholes, which they are, so he must be doing something right and he'll likely bring that power to the executive branch by cutting through the political bullshit. - Trump isn't racist, he just says things that are edgy and it plays into people's racist fears. Which she shot back with was essentially the same thing as racism. - Trump's main points of growing the economy and military are the two things that will make America great again since we are in an economic and military crisis. There is a perceived fear and a perceived threat felt by some Americans even today from ISIS, as if they are in direct danger from ISIS or that an increased military could even impact this. Unfortunately, everyone thinks that Obama is pro-terrorism for some reason since he hasn't taken out ISIS, but the point of ISIS' terrorism is that it is an idea now instead of a real network like Al Qaeda was. They have their self-proclaimed caliphate, but the only threat we have locally is crazy people agreeing with them and acting on their own accord with no direct ties to the caliphate itself. This can happen for the extreme views of any political, religious, or opinionated topic. - People don't know what fascism means, fascism is a system of government and not an individual. Mostly true, but it's also a word to describe a person who subscribes to fascist ideals. Kind of like communists vs. communism. I'd also point out that saying "my choice of a candidate isn't a fascist!" isn't really a good campaign slogan. - People keep comparing Trump to 1940s Hitler, he's more like 1920s Hitler. He is addressing and embodying the desires of the people much like Hitler started out, but he will go a different path. He's just using the same tactics to gain power that Hitler did. I really don't know what to say to this one.... - If he decides to do something fascist, the system will prevent him anyway so it's okay if he wants to be like that. Time and time again this has been proven to be a stupid assumption. The government always has gained more and more power, and the executive branch is already exceedingly powerful. There is plenty he can do as president without passing laws.... - Cruz and Rubio are for loyal republicans sticking to their same ideas and are the status quo for politicians, therefore Trump is a good candidate. Lack of sound conclusion jumping there, just because all the other candidates suck, doesn't mean that the last one is good. - The Tea Party endorses him, and the Tea Party is trying to properly fix this country. Every ideal that the Tea Party started out with has been completely squashed and has nothing to do with what they actually care about now. Most of their small government rhetoric is immediately followed by a policy involving the increasing of the government. -- Another point is that most people in the US nowadays get their news and the articles they read almost exclusively from Facebook suggestions. After you click one link on one topic, you end up getting marked as someone that would click that type of topic, and the learning algorithms adjust and conform your Facebook feeds to fit you. Since everyone is talking about Trump, the media keeps publishing and covering his candidacy pretty much 24x7 at this point, even if they say he is a "bad" candidate people start to click more and more links about him and get drowned in Trump stories in their Facebook feed. Remember the saying "there's no such thing as bad publicity"? Well, in this case it's true. If there's really that many stories about him, that much information about him, and that much coverage, people start to take him more seriously as a candidate without even needing to research their policies. I remember myself when I was in junior high school, way before I was really politically aware of a lot of things, I supported a candidate exclusively based on groupthink. You see two polarized sides form and you pick a side. It's one of the biggest issues in this country and if you aren't aware of the effects of the extreme polarization of every issue in our country at the moment (just think of the media, you are either "for" or "against" an issue, never "it's more complicated than that" else you get kicked off the show forever). Everything is about debate for debate sake, without actually logically analyzing the situation and taking it as seriously. People jump to conclusions very rapidly since attention spans are short and peer pressure to be a part of a group is high. This is why I do not really talk to anyone anymore if I can't help it. I feel that being my own person is something that requires me to isolate myself, and I watch as people form illogical groups and stop attempting to learn new things. I watch coworkers and friends fail to even gain any ground in their level of knowledge or skills in the workplace or life because they are focused more on their social status and their Facebook feeds than attempting anything of any challenge. Some of this is due to the human desire to be recognized or be a part of something that matters or is just historic, regardless of what it is, and their feeling that they cannot do this alone. This is much much harder to do nowadays since the population is simply so vast.