The psychology of political correctness

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For example, conservative support has been offered at EvC for Trump's proposal that we should follow Pershing's (supposed) example of executing 49 of 50 prisoners as an example to discourage further resistance, and it drew cheers from the crowd, and probably the conservative press and airwaves have been very supportive of Trump about this, but it doesn't seem likely to me that your average conservative feels the same way.

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But what are liberals to think conservatives think if their main source of information about what conservatives think is Trump and Fox News?

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I think Donald Trump is simply a (closet) 9/11 Truther who really really hates the CIA. He came super close, in February 13 South Carolina debate, to mentioning the fact that the CIA's Inspector General said that 60 CIA agents (and the FBI) knew about Khalid Muhammad Abdallah al-Mihdhar and Nawaf Muhammed Salim al-Hazmi being in the USA for over a year (and their plans). The media choose to only make an issue of his fight with Jeb over Bush's failures, but Trump sis seem to express disgust at the "failure of the CIA to talk to the FBI" standard excuse.Trump knows that ISIS is CIA funded (he is good friends with Jesse Venture as he has been since WrestleMania 4 on March 27 1988) and he is surely aware of Scott Bennett tracing the ISIS funding to over 1000 CIA Swiss bank accounts.Trump might be sincere in his anti-free trade views, but he isn't sincerely anti-immigration. Obama has deported millions (more than every previous president combined) and Trump is just using rhetoric and language that will be meaningless if elected. He has already admitted that he will allow amnesty once the wall is built (truthfully the wall is almost there already and there is no practical difference).Trump is just using anti-pc tough guy rhetoric and it worked. He won the SEC primaries (that started on March 5). He won every southern state except Cruz' Texas. I can't believe he pulled it off!Trump is against this phony "China threat" b.s. (where the USA is supposed to need to "defend" Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, and the Philippines against "big, bad China" ; thankfully India won't play this "we fear China", "we need an alliance" game), against this crappy alliance with an ever aggressive (Libya invading) NATO, against the (ever so exploitative)CIA and (corrupt, bigoted, tyranical Sunni)Gulf states going after the Druze and Alawite minorities in Syria, and against going after Iran (he supports the Iran deal!).Trump will tear up the warmonger Hillary Clinton if he can manage to fight off the GOP. He can't take her on now because he could offend (too many)GOP primary voters he needs to get to 1237.Trump made a big mistake for going after the anti-union (and other) policies of Scott Walker (who is loved by a legion of powerful right-wing talk radio hosts in Wisconsin), and he got eaten alive. He needs to be careful.Trump is simply a Pro-Life liberal (with libertarian anti-war views) IMO.I'll admit that I disagree with him on a lot of issues, but he is really awesome in my estimation.

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[Lamark New Age]
"Trump might be sincere in his anti-free trade views, but he isn't sincerely anti-immigration."
[Percy]
If he's not anti-immigration then he's a liar. Which we already knew, just not about that.

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A New York Times reporter said that Trump, on March 1 (?), made him take an answer to an interview question about deportation "off the record" where Trump then said that the deportation "wasn't going to happen".Considering that (an already fully developed and relatively newly extreme) Trump had 3-4 years earlier criticized Romney's anti-immigration views as too harsh, this NYT revelation had been the iron-clad evidence conservatives were looking for to "expose" him.Right wing radio (as well as Trump's already suspicious opponents) went wild, but Rush Limbaugh cautiously said that he suspected Trump simply had the same response as he already had given to (hostile conservative interviewer)John Fund - "not until I build the wall".In open camera interviews (and debates) Trump simply said, "Not until I build the wall" when asked about the amnesty issue.Here is a Politico report.

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In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday night, Trump responded to a question about a recent claim, first introduced by BuzzFeed earlier in the day, that he told The New York Times editorial board in an off-the-record tape-recorded meeting that he may not follow through with his proposed immigration measures if he is elected president.

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The New York Times is claiming today that they had an off-the-record conversation with you in January, Hannity started.

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We had a board meeting, it was off-the-record, suddenly they leak it, it’s all over the place, Trump said.

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They said it’s negotiable on the wall, Hannity said in reference to Trump’s stance on Mexican immigration and his oft-stated promise to build a border wall.

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By the way it is negotiable. Things are negotiable, Trump said. I’ll make the wall 2 feet shorter or something.

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Trump was quick to add that the negotiation does not include nixing the idea altogether.

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Building it? Not negotiable.

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Would it be negotiable about the 11 million? Hannity pressed. Maybe let some people stay if they register in a period of time?
I would say this, Trump answered. We will work out some system that’s fair, but we either have a country or we don’t. We need a border. We need a wall.

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Trump’s leading Republican rivals, Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, have both urged the Manhattan mogul to release the audio tapes of his conversation with the Times from Jan 5. Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney tweeted his call that the billionaire front-runner share the contents of the recording.
Trump: My immigration plans aren't set in stone - POLITICO

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Trump knows that the angry elements of the populist/center-right consider immigration a problem. He wisely choose this as an issue to win votes from a somewhat energetic segment of the population (or at least a large part of the GOP voting population). But he knows that he can rant and rave about "the wall" (as if it isn't already there BECAUSE RIGHT WING RADIO SAYS IT ISN'T) while not doing anything practical to make life harder for immigrants. In a general election match-up, Trump will simply say to Hillary "I want immigration but I don't want them to have to risk their lives coming over. Let's have a nice big door (on a nice big wall) so they don't have to risk their lives as a price of entry and it can be done LEGALLY."As for the war issue, Trump can just sound some anti-PC sound bites like "what's wrong with torture" then argue against overseas agitation for a foreign policy. His anti-war views will be much more intense in a general election (not to mention undiluted with the sound bite stuff that he knows is so pleasing to conservative GOP primary voting ears).Trump is a master politician. He knows how to target a GOP primary like a marketing genius.(he does seem to be getting tired of the GOP primary though. He wants to take on Hillary real bad. He is only trailing her by 7 to 10% in polls. Not bad considering all the GOP voters that are telling pollsters they will be voting for Hillary NOW but will switch later on. He will also get 20% black support when all is said and done. Most younger black males I know support him over Hillary.)Here are the 2 latest national polls.

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General Election: Trump vs. Clinton FOX News Clinton 48, Trump 41 Clinton +7
General Election: Cruz vs. Clinton FOX News Clinton 45, Cruz 44 Clinton +1
General Election: Kasich vs. Clinton FOX News Kasich 49, Clinton 40 Kasich +9
General Election: Trump vs. Sanders FOX News Sanders 53, Trump 39 Sanders +14
General Election: Cruz vs. Sanders FOX News Sanders 51, Cruz 39 Sanders +12
General Election: Kasich vs. Sanders FOX News Sanders 47, Kasich 43 Sanders +4

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General Election: Trump vs. Clinton CBS News Clinton 50, Trump 40 Clinton +10
General Election: Cruz vs. Clinton CBS News Clinton 45, Cruz 42 Clinton +3
General Election: Kasich vs. Clinton CBS News Kasich 47, Clinton 41 Kasich +6
General Election: Trump vs. Sanders CBS News Sanders 53, Trump 36 Sanders +17
General Election: Cruz vs. Sanders CBS News Sanders 50, Cruz 38 Sanders +12
General Election: Kasich vs. Sanders CBS News Sanders 46, Kasich 41 Sanders +5
realclearpolitics.com

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Rrhain.Thanks for those revealing charts.Though, somebody correctly pointed out that in-migration is quite low.Real "Unemployment" (not reflected in the headline number) is very very high for poor and lower-income groups.More like 40% than 5%.Trumps stated immigration (not to mention trade) policies won't help to even dent the employment troubles (in the long term will actually make them much worse) but that is another story.

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Trump comes across as mentally unstable and the kind of guy who would absolutely use the military as his personal mercenaries to settle scores with anyone that crosses him. He's a megalomaniac and an attention whore who will take part in anything that gets his name put up in lights.

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He hates ISIS but remember that he will be groundbreaking as a successful primary (?) candidate with the (otherwise) anti-war views he has. He attempts to come across as something more hawkish, but that is background noise to muddy the GOP primary waters.

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All that tells me is that, on top of being a monumental piece of shit, he's also a lying piece of shit who panders for votes.... but he wants us to believe that he's not a "politician?"

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I'm angry at him "buying" votes with his support of the $100 billion home-mortgage deduction but most voters are homeowners.Politicians are those who win elections. You have to appeal to the least common denominator.

I was looking at the labor fore participation rate of around 62% for those over age 16.I was looking at the even worse numbers for large cities like Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, etc."Poor people" have a hard time getting a job. I'm not sure how to classify people exactly.My 40% number can't be too far off.IMMIGRATIONImmigration numbers might be different than what I have heard though. China has a purchasing power of 25% of the USA per capita income, and Mexico 33%, which is a good ways higher than decades past. I assumed immigration was stalling, but perhaps it isn't. The "undocumented" / "Illegal" population is down to around 11 million, and there have been headlines of "record deportations" , so perhaps I have gotten confused along the way.I'm not so sure now, but I still think the lower income folk from Mexico and China have a better chance getting a job in their native countries than here. Wages might be smaller perhaps (though the poorest segment there might not have all that lower purchasing power than here). There are many factors that cause immigration though. It's only a small number of a given country's population that leaves for the USA.