En god post på quora om hva som "driver" Trumps velgerbase:
"He makes them feel safe.
These folks don’t fear illegal immigrants coming in for economic reasons; most are retired or close to it. Nor are they particularly racist - though they deeply dread becoming a racial minority. They also fear becoming a voting minority as younger, more liberal kids age into the franchise and their peers die off. Old school conservatives know they lost the culture wars decades ago. They see a youthful voting bloc they don’t understand & share few commonalities with. Rightly or wrongly, older generations naturally view their successors as lazier, more spoiled, increasingly entitled, and less informed. (Every generation is guilty of this.)
The world is increasingly confusing, dangerous, loud, & fast-moving to these folks. They see young kids as incredibly sophisticated & connected, while physically more distant from one another than ever. Where does that leave them? Politically the GOP/conservativism has been in a demographic death spiral for years, as has Christianity. It’s inescapable: America is getting more racially & ethnically diverse, more socially liberal, & more godless. Thanks to the media, they’re equally convinced America is more corrupt & dangerous to the average person as well, even though we live safer lives than ever before. Throw in 24/7 cable channels like Fox News, OANN, ID Discovery, etc. to inflame these perceptions, and you get an entire population of Americans who believe the world they once knew is slipping away. It scares the living shit out of them.
Here comes Trump - a man of their generation who dresses & behaves in ways they instantly recognize from “back in the day”. He’s promising to make all the stuff that scares them go away: brown people, queers, rampant crime, liberal malarkey, abortions a.k.a. sexual agency,…anything they perceive as non-conformist for THEIR time. He speaks to the things many Boomers & up miss, a rosy 1950’s version of America that never really was but for them, lives in their hearts and minds. He also speaks simply & uses equally potent symbols. Trump points to the stuff that freaks them out and says “YES..THIS is what’s wrong with the country. You’re RIGHT to be afraid. You’re RIGHT to be disgusted, offended. Let’s roll this movie backwards, back to a time you understand & were understood in. A time when we were great. I alone can deliver this for you…AGAIN.”
When I talk to older folks I’m always surprised how little they care about specific policies, polls, or data. They just want to feel safe, comfortable. They want America to be ordered in a way they understand. None of the insanity Trump says, does, or encourages to drive folks crazy matters to them. They long to FEEL safe again in an America they recognize. Yes, it’s largely privileged, sexist, homophobic, racist, and every other -ism & -phobic adjacent, though they don’t seek to overtly harm anyone. They’re just afraid. In an increasingly chaotic, hyper-connected world, Trump gives them something familiar & comforting to cling to. Is that something shitty for a lot of people? Yep. Their fear matters more. And Trump knows it."