Forenote: The following does not necessarily apply to all of our right-leaning posters. Some have expressed their past direct support for Trump and others don’t engage in the anti-anti-Trump behavior described below.
As often happens when polls appear to share good news for the Trump Campaign, a number of our more Trump-aligned commenters suddenly become more active. Over the last few days, reviewing comments from folks like TheRyGuy, Jack, joe (sorry Joe), MBunge (welcome back!) and Fortune, a question keeps rattling around in my head: why don’t they ever say if they support Trump?
Admittedly, they typically respond to a post that is critical of the former President’s language, behavior, or policies. The responses fall into a typical sort of anti-anti-Trump pattern; in other words, the writer is making a ridiculously hyperbolic argument by taking Donald Trump’s words or actions at face value. In other cases, any critique is dismissed with accusations of bothsiderism.
I classify these responses as anti-anti-Trump because they are often framed with statements like “I’m not an apologist for Trump, but…,” “Trump isn’t perfect, but…,” or “There are many fair criticisms of Trump, but…”. This is a linguistic move that at once seems to separate the writer from the Former President and his movement while at the same time attacking critics of Donald Trump and MAGA.
In the case of “There are many fair criticisms of Trump, but…,” our anti-anti-Trump commenters never seem to actually what they think those “fair criticisms” are. Likewise, while comments that contain “I’m not an apologist for Trump, but…” never actually excuse what Trump did or said, they try to negate the criticism in a way that eliminates the need to apologize.
There is one thing that stands out about these posts: I have never seen a case where our anti-anti-Trump commenters shared their personal thoughts on the former President’s campaign. They have said things like his previous term was a success. Or they say that if he becomes President, he won’t be as bad as his critics say. The double negative twist in that previous sentence–“won’t be as bad”–really sums up a pattern of getting very close to offering direct support but not directly expressing it (if it exists).
After browsing the comment archives, I cannot find a single example of regular commenters say “I support former President Trump.” Nor a “while I wish he weren’t the nominee, I plan to vote for President Trump.”
And my question is, “Why?”
First, let me be clear, “I am voting against Harris,” “I cannot vote for Harris,” or “I oppose Harris” don’t count. The reason for this is all of those could be fulfilled by not voting, or voting for a third party or write in. All of those are more examples of the same behavior I called out in the double negative point above.
So I return to the question: why don’t our anti-anti-Trump commenters actively come out in support of President Trump?
I have a variety of theories, many of which tie back to embarrassment over nonsensical and indefensible many of his key policies (i.e. that Tariffs bring down inflation) or deeply held beliefs (i.e. that not only was the 2020 election stolen, but he actually won California). Or perhaps it’s that they realize that compared to the Donald Trump of 2016 or even 2020, the person running for President today is significantly more erratic and showing signs of marked mental decline.
Another quite legitimate reason could be partisanship (“I only vote Republican”) or negative partisanship (“I can never vote for a Democrat, and in our two-party system, that means the only effective vote is Republican.”). That’s a position most people are uncomfortable saying out loud because it might harm our self-image as being above partisanship in either form. At the same time, it’s also legitimate due to things like judicial appointments.
But again, those are theories that I am sure will be scoffed at by our anti-anti-Trump contingent (if they engage with this post at all).
This may seem like I’m trolling those folks. While that is a partial impetus for this post (we all contain multitudes), there is also a greater point to be made:
What does it mean for the former President’s base of support if anonymous and motivated commenters on a lesser-trafficked political blog are, for whatever reason, unwilling to affirmatively express their direct support for President Trump?
I mean, this isn’t a particularly high-stakes situation. Heck, most of the anti-anti-Trump posters have made it clear that they don’t think much of OTB, it’s authors, and most of it’s commenters). So the notion of “keeping face” doesn’t make a lot of sense. And yet, no direct endorsement of support.
I expect that some people will chalk this up to a case of “hopium” on my part. Perhaps it is. But perhaps, just perhaps, this is pointing to the type of enthusiasm/confidence gap that can manifest itself in unexpected ways when votes are cast.
An ask to our regular posters: I’m not going to bother asking you not to speculate on other’s motivations. Trying to stop the tides would be easier. That said, if any of our anti-anti-Trump posters decide to engage with the prompt honestly, I will be watching the comments EVERYONE makes on this thread to try to keep an actual discussion going rather than just back-and-forth attacks.
