I have had this convo with Trump supporters a hundred times over the past 4 years, and it always ends with confused cognitive dissonance, or just anger.
Makes them even more confused when I say I& #39;m a conservative, but I just them to be *consistent* in what they say they want. /1 https://twitter.com/QasimRashid/status/1321286743274987525">https://twitter.com/QasimRash...

They& #39;ll say: "You used to agree with me," or "But you want what I want!" And I say: Sometimes. But I& #39;ve changed my mind on the ACA: people depend on it and it& #39;s here to stay - just like Medicaid. It helps people like *you* and your family, right?
/2

Eventually, they& #39;ll concede that they are mostly getting what they want, and they mostly just want other people not to have what they have, and then they say: "Yeah, you make some good points, but... things have to change. You just don& #39;t get it."
And I say: Okay, explain it. /3

It& #39;s the same challenge I regularly issue to liberals: Tell me what exactly you want *done*, and what you& #39;re willing to sacrifice to get it. And the answers are remarkably the same: I want the things I want, and I don& #39;t want to think about costs or tradeoffs. /4

My point - insofar as I have one - is that rationality doesn& #39;t work, because at some level, the public isn& #39;t nearly as stupid as they pretend they are. WAY less informed than they should be, but more savvy than they let on. They know the *wrong* answers and how to avoid them. /5

The people who say "things should change" mean "I want entitlements for me but not for people who aren& #39;t me." They know why that& #39;s wrong. So they evade the conclusion and say "Well, agree to disagree" because the facts are already in the can and they know it. /6

It& #39;s important to keep making the argument against Trump, as I will soon in a piece. But I think it has to be a moral argument, not a policy argument. Talking about taxes or Medicaid gets you nowhere, because *they already know*.

We return to our regular programming now.

/7x