Trump's support is eroding, but he still shows an approval rating of 41% of likely or registered voters per fivethirtyeight.com. This despite his deep and pervasive corruption, cruelty, stupidity, and delusions. Why?
Mugambi Jouet of the New Republic says it is because he has support of those too dedicated to their ideologies to turn against him.
There are four ideological underpinning of the Republican Party - anti-intellectualism, Christian Fundamentalism, market fundamentalism, and racial "resentment".
Anti-intellectualism. We see this in a terrible way today as Trump and the right wing media bubble attacks the expertise of the country's top immunologist, Dr. Fauci. The tragic result is conservatives refusing to protect themselves and the rest of us, and America is the only democratic country that has not dramatically reduced the number of infections and deaths from COVID-19. It goes way beyond the virus, of course, since Trump and the Republicans have driven scientists and experts from every branch of government.
Christian Fundamentalism. Fundamentalists have essentially sold their souls to Trump to get their Christian judges. Well, mission accomplished - the U.S. now has a bunch of Christian judges and fundamentalists have lost connection with their consciences and their souls.
Market Fundamentalism. I used to be a conservative and thought that the market was so much smarter than any central planning. There is some truth to that, but when you take that idea too far, the results are catastrophic. The market will never address Climate Change, or environmental destruction, or massive income inequality, or public services that only government can provide like roads, fire and police protection, libraries, nuclear waste protection, a judicial system, food and drug safety, etc. - there are thousands of services that only the government can provide. This disregard of government services goes hand in hand with anti-intellectualism.
Racial resentment. "Resentment" spans the range from white people who feel left out of the efforts of government assistance (despite programs of health, unemployment, disability, education, etc that mostly benefit whites), to those who are simply racist and believe in white supremacy. The Republican Party became the party playing upon white resentment ever since Nixon's Southern Strategy switched the Confederate States from Democrat to Republican.
But, many conservatives and Republicans have broken away from the extraordinarily dangerous child in the White House, and have led the attack on him and his sycophants - from George Will to the Lincoln Project. Good for them.
It is just a question of waking up and smelling the disease.
