The How-To Guide On Flipping Trump “Supporters”: The Subtle Approach

(PART II OF A III PART SERIES)

Last week, in Part I of this series, I laid out the first step. Basically, I discussed the importance of finding Trump voters who are actually open to changing their mind — basically, the political equivalent of a dumpster dive. (Or should I say Trumpster dive? … Nah)

Anyway, the point was that out of the people that continue to support Donald Trump and his administration, roughly 65–75% are locked into their position — completely unwilling to view Trump as a poor choice regardless of any level of evidence to the contrary. If Trump tells them to drink the Kool-Aid, they’re getting in line at the pavilion. If Trump tells them that a spaceship is arriving behind a comet to take them to the next dimension, they’re castrating themselves and putting on a fresh pair of black Nikes.

Eh… still better than those MAGA hats

These people are not going to change their minds. Okay? Don’t waste your time. But the other folks? Well, they’re not quite as sure about ol’ Donnie. And those are the people you need to talk to.

Recognizing that, once you’ve actually come across someone who isn’t a Proud Deplorable™ what is the best way to interact with them?

Well, I could tell you to take a really cynical, FOX-News™ like approach: weave together a false but somewhat reasonable sounding story on the Trump administration that is terrifying to them in a personalized way. Like, if they’ve got a teenage son, tell them that Trump is about to reinstate the Draft in a ramp up to a war with Iran. And I suppose it could be pretty effective. After all, a recent UCLA study did find that “… people who hold more socially conservative views were significantly more likely than people with liberal beliefs to find false information about threats credible.” But I’m not gonna do that. Because — even if it had a 100% success rate — it is just a really, really crappy thing to do.

I mean, you have to be a morally bankrupt, soulless ghoul to just sit there and tell flat-out lies over and over and over just to promote your own personal agenda, right? RIGHT!?!

“Hey, what can I say? I just really don’t give a shit about anything or anybody but myself, okay?”

But since I’m not a complete scumbag, I’m not going to recommend that. Instead, I’m going to actually show some compassion for my fellow humans, even if I find their views questionable. I’m going to take a moment to understand where their support comes from; what their motivations are. (And only then will I ridicule!)

This 2017 survey of 8,000 self-described Trump supporters helps us understand their motivations. In it, the researchers found that Trump supporters could be reliably divided into 5 sub-types. You’ll likely find that the Trump supporters you interact with on a daily basis can comfortably fit into one of these categories. There are:

Staunch Conservatives (31%) — These are the GOP voters who really struggled on whether to vote for Trump or Ted Cruz. (Like a choice between an unexpected rectal bleed or a cluster headache at a GWAR concert.) According to the survey they “embrace moral traditionalism and have a moderately nativist conception of American identity and approach to immigration”. In much simpler terms, they don’t really care for gay people or immigrants — i.e. you’re not changing their minds.

(31%) — These are the GOP voters who really struggled on whether to vote for Trump or Ted Cruz. (Like a choice between an unexpected rectal bleed or a cluster headache at a GWAR concert.) According to the survey they “embrace moral traditionalism and have a moderately nativist conception of American identity and approach to immigration”. In much simpler terms, they don’t really care for gay people or immigrants — i.e. you’re not changing their minds. Free Marketeers (25%) — Like Ron Swanson with none of the charm. These folks love Ayn Rand as much as they hate the EPA (or any regulations at all, for that matter). Along with the “Staunch Conservatives” they’re the most politically engaged. Sure, you might be able to engage a handful of these folks on their disdain for Trump’s idiotic trade agenda, but don’t think you’ll ever get them to vote for someone that isn’t a Republican/Libertarian.

(25%) — Like Ron Swanson with none of the charm. These folks love Ayn Rand as much as they hate the EPA (or any regulations at all, for that matter). Along with the “Staunch Conservatives” they’re the most politically engaged. Sure, you might be able to engage a handful of these folks on their disdain for Trump’s idiotic trade agenda, but don’t think you’ll ever get them to vote for someone that isn’t a Republican/Libertarian. American Preservationists (20%) — When I think of typical Trump voters, it’s these folks. These are your MAGA hat-wearing, rally-attending, Hannity-listening, psycho-nationalists. They are innately skeptical of “the establishment” — although pinning them down on who is in the establishment isn’t always easy (Hint: it’s whoever they don’t like at the moment). They are fiercely nativist. They are hypocritically religious — that is, “despite being the most likely group to say that religion is ‘very important’ to them, they are the least likely to attend church regularly”. They are also — wait for it — “…the most likely group to be on Medicaid, to report a permanent disability that prevents them from working…” and “…despite watching the most TV, they are the least politically informed of the Trump groups.”

Being on disability gives folks more time to work on arts and crafts.

Of the five groups, these first three are the True-Believers™. These aren’t the people you need to spend time trying to persuade. But the next two groups definitely are. And they’re:

The Anti-Elites (19%) — “This group of Trump supporters leans economically progressive, believes the economic and political systems are rigged, and takes relatively more moderate positions on immigration, race, and American identity than American Preservationists. They are also the most likely group to favor political compromise.”

(19%) — “This group of Trump supporters leans economically progressive, believes the economic and political systems are rigged, and takes relatively more moderate positions on immigration, race, and American identity than American Preservationists. They are also the most likely group to favor political compromise.” The Disengaged (5%) — “This group does not know much about politics, but what they do know is they feel detached from institutions and elites and are skeptical of immigration… are less loyal Republicans who largely came to vote for Trump in the general election. They skew younger, female, and they are religiously unaffiliated. They are not very politically informed and have limited knowledge of political facts.”

And this week I’m going to address the smaller of the two groups — the Disengaged.

The most important thing that you need to understand about these people is that you cannot convert them into policy wonks. You can’t make them care as much as you want them to. You can’t make them independently curious about the political landscape of the country. You just can’t. So don’t try.

It’s fundamentally no different than my efforts to convince my wife to hold an interest in boxing. Hell, even trying to get friends and family interested in things that are objectively useful — personal finance and investing — tends to draw yawns. And that’s okay. It’s just not their bag, man. I’ve accepted that in much the same way that I accept that “The Disengaged” aren’t going to start watching Face the Nation over Sunday morning coffee.

So considering that, I’d just like to point out why I think that a lot of “The Disengaged” might have voted for Donald Trump.

First — in order for my assumption to hold any water — you have to be able to comfortably categorize Donald J. Trump as someone who likely suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. And it really shouldn’t take a major leap to get there. For example, here are a couple of choice traits of people suffering from NPD:

Exaggerating achievements, talents, and importance

Fantasizing about their own intelligence, success, power, and appearance

An ability to take advantage of others to achieve a goal, without regret or conscience

Whatever they crave or yearn for must be “the best”

I could go on, but you get the point. Of course, calling Trump a narcissist isn’t anything new or surprising. I know that. However, researchers have found something surprising about narcissists and their social interactions.

Yep. It appears that, at first contact, people actually like narcissists. I know, it’s pretty depressing to think about. But it does make sense. People tend to like confidence and narcissists are, after all, “the best” at exuding confidence — even if it is unearned.

Seriously, think about it for a moment. Imagine that you just “met” Donald Trump. You don’t pay much attention to politics or current affairs. You know next-to-nothing about him so your guard isn’t up. He tells you that he’s a self-made billionaire who owns “the best” properties in Manhattan and around the globe. He tells you that he’s like, really smart — insinuating that the proof of his intelligence is that he’s really rich. He tells you that he wants to make make the country great again. And hey… that sounds vaguely appealing to you. Why not?

So it isn’t all that hard to see how “the Disengaged” might be coerced into voting for Trump — especially if they are surrounded by True Believers who consistently reinforce Trump’s narrative to them. Ya know, it’s just first-contact-with-narcissists stuff.

Sure we just met, but for some reason, when Raj tells me he’s a super-genius with a huge dong… I believe him.

But fret not, dear reader, because here’s the kicker from the study:

However, these positive first impressions deteriorated over time. After their first meeting, relatively narcissistic participants were rated by peers as agreeable, extroverted, open, conscientious, and well-adjusted. Seven weeks later, the positivity of peers’ ratings displayed a noticeable decline; the peers rated them low on agreeableness and adjustment and high on arrogance and hostility.

A-ha! So the narcissistic charm quickly wears thin. And that’s important to understand when talking to “the Disengaged”. They aren’t in love with Donald Trump. They’re just temporarily impressed. And that’s likely to change if they get to know ol’ Don a bit better.

Long Story Short: When engaging “the Disengaged” don’t spend time explaining to them that Donald Trump is most likely compromised by the Kremlin. Don’t get down into the minutiae of Trumpian policy. Don’t even explain why you dislike him. Instead just obliquely remind them what a narcissist Trump is, every chance you get.

For instance, imagine you’re in conversation with a “Disengaged” Trump supporter and — for some reason — they bring up the Pope. Casually point out a Trump tweet like this one:

Trump Self-Awareness Score: 0.0

Or maybe they bring up their difficulty in memorizing something. Off-handedly point out that Donald Trump doesn’t have that problem — after all, he’s got “one of the great memories of all time”.

They bring up vocabulary, and you remind them that Donald Trump “has the best words”. I mean, there are all sorts of examples that you can put in your ammo box, just waiting for an opportune time to nonchalantly trot them out.

But, don’t dwell on the example. Don’t force them to engage and defend the statement. Avoid triggering a reflexively defensive blow-back response. Just casually pepper it into the conversation and move on. The idea here is that you’re slowly (almost passively) introducing them to the real Trump — an absolute narcissist. And hopefully — like the people in those studies that were initially charmed by the narcissist — come election time, their initial misplaced admiration will have transitioned to mistrust and skepticism.

Alright, next week — in the third (and final) part of this series — I’ll address the most important segment of Trump “Supporter” — the Anti-Elites. Trust me, this group is the goldmine for conversion, even if it requires a bit more effort.

(In the meantime, click the 👏 below if you enjoyed the post and follow me here on Medium to get updates. Thanks for reading and have a great week!)