Re: The folks who continue to support Ford despite everything. This can obviously be attributed to sheer tribalism (as I've said myself here and at other forums), but breaking it down into smaller components, what's the deal? What makes these people tick?
I think it can ultimately all be boiled down to a toxic stew of small mindedness and cultural resentments. There are other factors at work as well (envy's one), but those are the two biggies, IMO. A writer named John Dolan contributed a 2011 essay to the Exiled Online called "Reagan's Cheshire Snarl," which was a sort of memoir of what it was like to grow up amongst the blue collar "salt-of-the-earth" types who loved then-Governor Ronald Reagan, and who propelled Richard Nixon into the White House twice. Basic far right, John Bircher/Tea Party types. Not very bright. Mean as hell, and angry at anyone who wasn't essentially just like them. They harbored a great deal of anger at the student demonstrations and social upheavals of the time (the late 60's/early 70's, natch), and Dolan thought this sentiment animated them far more than even their racism did. Which, considering the enormity of their racism, is saying something.
I like to refer to this attitude as a sort of willful peasant mentality. These people knew their place, and simply resented others who didn't know theirs'. In point of fact, "their place" was actually pretty comfortable at the time because this was the hayday of union power in the States, and they had well-paying jobs, so they were hardly suffering any. They were ripe for the plucking for skillfull demagogues like Reagan and Nixon, who could stroke their egos, pander to their prejudices, tell them exactly what they wanted to hear...and rob them blind in the process, of course. These stupid, selfish bastards were perfectly willing to go along with political forces that would dramatically, radically lower their own quality of life. And what could they do afterwards except ruthlessly double down on their fantasizing and screech that the hated "others" were to blame, whoever that happened to be? They sure as hell weren't going to admit to their own roles in the downfall of America's middle class, now, were they?
We're seeing the same type of creatures at work with Rofo's dead end base of rubes. It's the same mindset that's pushed legitimate political debate (and the entire political spectrum, really) ever disasterously further and further to the right over the past 30 to 40 years. It's the same mentality that's turned the Republican Party into something more along the lines of one of Europe's openly fascist political parties like the National Front. Slob and Thug's remaining mouth-frothers are not the brightest bulbs in the box, but they are prideful, and they simply are not going to admit they were wrong about Ford, even if he's caught on camera sodomizing dead geese in one his oh-so famous drunken stupors.
