Thread by @emeriticus

The problem Trump's most devoted followers have now is that a lot of other people who either will or may vote for Trump don't see him the way they do. Whereas the former see 4D chess and a "master" everywhere, the latter see a politician 1/

So when a politician says, "if you want direct aid vote for me or you get nothing," that's all the former hears: a politician making his victory a condition for the aid some families need because Republicans and Democrats both have embraced the COVID narrative to some extent 2/

The 4D chess stuff -- whether it is millions of sealed indictments to art of the stimulus deal now -- has the most currency with Trump's devoted followers. If the kneejerk reaction to the other group, who is less fervent than they, is to chew them out for not trusting the plan 3/

Then you end up with part of Trump's base attacking the other part, the one thinking it is defending Trump, when it is actually defending the worst elements of the administration which feeds Trump bad ideas and exploits his bad instincts 4/

tl;dr: stop defending Trump when he does things that are demonstrably bad, because you're not even defending him, more than you are defending people who hate you, think nationalism and populism are stupid, and don't care if Trump loses or what happens to the mandate 5/

Constructive criticism will always be better than blind devotion and plan trusting 6/

The goal of Trump's base should be to force a reversal on a policy mistake and demand an alternative, i.e., anger causes Trump to realize that not reopening the country and not doing stimulus until after he wins is suicidal, so he pushes an alternative 7/