Thread by @bansisharma

1. Fact-Checking Trump
Trump plays fast and loose with facts (size of crowds at inauguration, trade-deficit with Canada, ...). His opponents agonize over "fact-checking." He knows no one is going to make an important political decision based on these facts.

2. This thread is about understanding Trump, not justifying. People can draw their own conclusions as to the relevance of piles of statistics media fact-checkers keep churning out on things important and trivial alike.

3. Surface subterfuge hides deeper truths. Trump phenomenon is laying bare some of the deeper truths. Facts don't matter much in decision-making. People don't make decisions based on facts. Decisions are made based on emotion. Facts can be useful but only if they affect emotions.

4. Don't get me wrong. Facts can be enormously important to outcomes, just not as important to making decisions. The fact of a truck hitting you at high speed will kill you regardless of how you feel about the probability of such an event. But no one obsesses over that fact much.

5. Trump is not selling himself on trivial facts. He is selling himself on:
(a) Putting America first.
(b) Hustling to get a good deal for American workers.
(c) Being resolute in annihilating terrorists.
(d) Not giving a damn about what the press thinks of his initiatives.
(e) ..

6. What his opponents call "lies," his supporters see more as jibes designed to tweak his opponents' nose, drive his opponents crazy, a negotiating ploy, spunky humor, vain boasts, or even plain old venting to get things off his chest.

7. I am not saying all of Trump supporters operate on a higher plane. I am talking about the vast majority who sense the higher truths and objectives, and don't give a hoot about trivial facts which are just background noise.

8. Here's is the higher truth. Trump can BS all he wants on things that don't matter much to his supporters and he will lose no support.

9. But if Trump ever did anything which unambiguously conveys that he has lost his heart on defending American interests, or is weak on national security, or is afraid of negative press coverage, or is unjustifiably unfair to a truly little guy, his supporters will desert him.

10. In that sense Trump supporters are far less ideological than Trump opponents & haters. MSM and Democrats had an attitude of "our guy right or wrong" regarding Obama. Trump supporters only have that attitude on trivial things. On big things, they will cut Trump little slack.

11. What MSM and Democrats do not realize, or are in complete denial because they can't bear the thought, is that Trump so far has not disappointed his supporters on any big thing.

12. Trump did not run as a saint or as a "holier than thou" pompous ass, as most politicians from both parties do. He ran as a hustler who promised to work hard to deliver for Americans and to always put America first. That's why his personal foibles don't matter as much.

13. My intent here is not to romanticize Trump supporters, but only to say that the vast majority of them are good and smart people who, contrary to media caricature, are not easily fooled.

14. By the way, I believe that the vast majority of Democratic voters are also good and equally smart people who just happen to have different preferences and different ideas about what makes America great. The really despicable worms mostly work in the media right now.

The END

No sooner did I finish writing the above thread (and feeling a little pang that maybe I went too far in my last comment regarding media hounds), I see this and feel vindicated.
thehill.com/homenews/media…