Just once, I’d like to hear a fact-based argument as to why we should trust politicians. We don’t trust the average stranger on the street, unless we’re naive. Why are public employees any different?
I can't give you a "fact-based" argument as to why anyone
should trust politicians. They shouldn't, and what I mean by that is not taking a completely paranoid view that
every single thing that a politician says should be
automatically disbelieved or doubted. But rather that sort of
blind trust that many people fall into when they find their "man" or "savior."
Firstly, this blind trust thing is not very widespread across the population as a whole. It is pretty limited to the segment of politically active people that you encounter often on these forums, or in the new social media platforms. How big of a percentage are they of the general population? I don't really know, but I suspect that they are less than 20% of the general population. The vast majority of people really don't get to the level of "trusting" a politician or not, they are pretty much ambivalent.
But to answer your question in a reason-based way that
explains the phenomenon (but doesn't attempt to justify it), it is because these people realize to a certain degree (some of it conscious, and some of it subconscious) that the collective "we" of the Boomer and the subsequent generation or two have really screwed things up!
Speaking as a Boomer, "we" let our guard down, lost sight of what unfolded in the past several decades. We were busy with life, careers, family, and leisure pursuits. We experienced a level of affluence and economic freedom that was unique and virtually limitless in many ways. In short, many of us became "fat and happy!"
And now, as life moves forward (and many have more time to really focus on the state of the economy, governance, and politics) and many of the Boomer generation have growing concerns for the futures of our children and grandchildren, we are looking for a "magic bullet!" Something, or more often, Someone, that is going to rise up and "fix it all!"
So we seize on the politician that knows how to
SAY the right things! Those things that represent the "magic bullet" that will fix it all, or at least most of it, within our lifetimes! This way we can go to rest knowing that things will be alright for the children and grandchildren (and for some, the great grandchildren).
This isn't really unique to Trump, although there are aspects of his personality and approach that make the
blind trust seem more pronounced. Some people did it for GWB, others did it for 0bama. And if you consider that a lot of full throated (ATs in the vernacular) Trump supporters are now a decade or so further down the path of life, it explains why that
blind trust is so pronounced.
I see this phenomenon as a good explainer as to why "Q" has so many older Boomer fans.... "Q" represents an "even more Magic" bullet!
I realize that this doesn't explain the behavior of the millennials or younger, where you do see some of the same
blind trust for people like Bernie, 0bama, and to a lesser extent, Trump. But I do believe that it explains it for many of the people that you will see on the political forums.