The Beast Is Us

it’s time to place the blame for the elevation of a tyrant as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee where it belongs — with the people. Yes,you. Donald Trump’s supporters know exactly what he stands for: hatred of immigrants, racial superiority, a sneering disregard of the basic civility that binds a society. Educated and poorly educated alike, men and women — they know what they’re getting from him.

.. And recent kudos from a pro-slavery radio host will certainly not dampen his legions. That support came from James Edwards. “For blacks in America,” he has said, “slavery is the best thing that ever happened to them.”

.. When high school kids waved a picture of Trump while shouting “Build a wall” at students from a heavily Hispanic school during a basketball game in Indiana last week, they were exhaling Trump’s sulfurous vapors. They know exactly what he stands for.

.. But ignorance is not the problem with Trump’s people. They’re sick and tired of tolerance. In Super Tuesday exit polls, Trump dominated among those who want someone to “tell it like it is.” And that translates to an explicit “play to our worst fears,” as Meg Whitman, the prominent Republican business leader, said.

.. So more than a third of Trump supporters in South Carolina wish the South had won the Civil War, and 70 percent think the Confederate flag should be flying over the state capital. And 32 percent believe internment of Japanese-American citizens was a good thing — something that the sainted Ronald Reagan apologized for.

.. Now that the nomination is nearly his, Trump will start to tone it down and take it back.

Clash of Republican Con Artists

Mr. Ryan also declares that the “party of Lincoln” must “reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry.” Has he ever heard of Nixon’s “Southern strategy”; of Ronald Reagan’s invocations of welfare queens and “strapping young bucks” using food stamps; of Willie Horton?

Five Big Questions After a Vulgar Republican Debate

So, yes, the size of Trump’s penis matters — or, rather, what matters is that it was an actual subject of discussion; that it reflected and set the tone of the encounter; and that this tone favors Trump, because it’s where he lives, it’s his kingdom, and if rivals join him there, they merely become his subjects.

Budget Policy and the White Racist Vote

But among white people, the big issue is that ethnocentricity drives attitudes about social welfare spending. And not in a totally unambiguous way.

When it comes to programs targeted at the poor, ethnocentrism correlates with stinginess (you may have to take my word for it that that’s what this math means

But when it comes to programs targeted at the elderly, ethnocentrism correlates with generosity:

.. Now to be clear—there’s no particularly good reason for people to react like this. Blacks and Latinos benefit from Social Security and Medicare and most of the people on food stamps and Medicaid are white. But the politics are what they are. And so the point is that if you were to try to rework the GOP coalition to be less white-centric