The Pence Play

Trump supporters in general are not enthusiastic about Mike Pence yet. They don't trust him. Perhaps they will trust him, but they suspect he might be a globalist, when push comes to shove. It's obvious he's not yet an insider, but perhaps he tasted enough of the fruit of the path, to be unable to turn back (as most cannot). They are hashing it out as we speak.

For the same reason, Newt Gingrich was not trusted by many of them either (although this is not uniform---a great many wanted him as VP).

They are also not enthused that Pence brings the Cruz-like religious right element of the GOP back into the mix. They were hoping to be done with that. They were also hoping to start getting more Sanders voters by ditching traditional Republican stances on gay issues, which will still happen, albeit not quite as much, they now fear. Many of these folks will probably vote Jill Stein, which is just as good, all in all.

They are hoping Pence will be Trump's Biden, who didn't have to do anything for eight years.

The Trump Reddit thinks of itself as an integral part of his campaign. They style themselves a fraternal army of equals, democratic and quasi-anonymous, much as they imagine their grandfathers and great-grandfathers experienced in the armed forces of World War II---a great equalizing and ennobling experience that is largely masculine in character. The more philosophic among them see this as the return of the forgotten and repressed masculine, the good part that is the protector, as they see it. This is recognized by many liberals, and it strikes fear in the hearts of many liberal men, as if bringing it back will bring the "war gods" back alive (they already are).

They envision themselves as a benevolent Army of Liberation, as if the G.I.'s of that era could come back and smite America back into goodness, restoring what was discarded into the headlong rush to make the United States a "good global citizen." That's their vision of themselves, at least. You are free to see it otherwise, if it pleases you.

Trump's supporters see Trump as their leader in this fight, but they don't see it being about him ironically.  They yearn for the broader democratic revolution his victory will bring, and see him in all his faults as a necessary wild-card element at this hour of history.

For many of them it is refreshing to have an egomaniac like Trump to take all the ego focus into him, so that the rest of everyone can just do their thing. Ironically is a movement that embodies that antithesis of the fame hunger of Pop Culture.  The dank meme creation process, as open and democratic as it can be in their minds, has the air of being a derivative of Kilroy culture, obnoxious and disrespectful to the Powers-that-Be that would want to see them die off.

There's even a running cult of Trump as the possible re-incarnation of George S. Patton, based on their vital dates and appearance. If you can understand that, then you can probably understand why they forgive his crudeness and vulgarity with so much ease.  Not surprisingly, General Mike Flynn was one of their favorites for V.P.

Only Trump knows his true stance vis-à-vis the globalists. Same with Pence. Trump's base ultimately trusts Trump's play with Pence because they trust him. They consider him to be playing "5-D Korean Starcraft-level PokemonGo chess" against his opponents, who include not just the rest of the Republican Party, and the entire Democratic Party, but the entire media as well. They just don't want to be the ones played. They are trusting him to be authentic on this one point above all else.

In any case, the Democrats have now jettisoned the last bit of the populist democratic anti-Establishment revolution of Andrew Jackson (proclaiming Jackson to be badhistory), and have handed that over to the Republicans. That's Trump in a nutshell to me. That's why he stole populism from the Democrats. Ultimately they didn't want it.

The Democrats, if they can pull of a historic blow-out (by that I mean finishing nearly in third place in the Electoral College), will have a chance to completely reboot the party afterwards. But there is a nasty civil war for them ahead. Berniecrat-Green (led by John Hickenlooper?) vs. BlackLivesMatter (led by Cory Booker?).   The former would love to compromise with the latter. The latter are unable to compromise with anyone (because a new faction will always arise that is less compromising), until it burns out, so I put my money on them. Hello Class of 2027! We await your social justice guidance. Tell us how to run America! Tell us how to run the world! In any case, the Party apparatus will continue to exist, and be inherited by someone at least. The Clintons should count themselves lucky to be escaping from that.

George S. Patton signed photo by U.S. Army (source)

1945 (Dec. 21) Major General George Patton, U.S. Army, is killed at age 60 in Heidelberg, Germany, officially in a car accident. He is buried in American Cemetery and Memorial, Luxembourg City.

1885 (Nov. 11) George Smith Patton, Jr. born in San Gabriel, California, U.S.A.