Why are Republicans?

Trump has demonstrated something very interesting. Most republicans are not conservatives. They are republicans, regardless – born that way, parents that way, friends that way, church that way, club that way, neighborhood that way etc. If you ask most, not all, republicans why he or she is a republican, my personal experience is that they really can’t give you a sensible answer. Many have told me they are conservative. But when I ask them what they mean by conservative, they haven’t got the slightest fucking idea. Some will spit the republican talking points at you but they have no idea what they mean and how it affects their lives. That is the only way you can explain why almost half the US population votes republican, most of them against their own self interest. Given the current chaos in the republican party, it would make sense for the sane republican politicians to leave the party and form a new more issue-oriented center-right party. They would pick up some centrist democrats and marginalize the lunatics. That’s what would happen in a parliamentary democracy which we thumb our noses at. But it wouldn’t work here because most of the current republican voters wouldn’t change parties. They would vote republican no matter what. Republican politicians know that the voters really couldn’t care less about issues. They don’t even know what the issues are. They just vote republican because that’s the thing to do. Trump has proven that. He’s a closet democrat. As time passes in this campaign, his democratic leanings come to the fore with no effect whatsoever on his poll numbers. Republican voters don’t care that he’s a democrat as long as he calls himself a republican.