Do Republicans love their party’s Presidents more than Democrats do?

[R.P. McM]

I'm not sure Republicans do love their party's presidents more than Democrats do. Trump's very appeal carries within it some implicit rejection of the party establishment, including the legacy of most of the party's recent presidents. George W Bush has a reasonable favorability rating right now, but most Republicans don't really want to see him back making decisions. If anything, GOP has a fairly strong distrust of its leadership -- which is why Trump got elected in the first place.

Also, much of Trump's support really is strong dislike of his enemies. He will likely be thrown under the bus pretty quickly once his sell by date has passed.

And just so we're clear: Trump's enemies are ~55% of the electorate. At no moment in his disgraceful tenure has Trump ever pretended to be anything other than the belligerent chieftain of his abominable tribe. I'm a center-left Democrat, and Republicans view me as an enemy and vote accordingly. Big surprise I want nothing to do with them or the parts of the country in which they predominate.

Just imagine if a Republican poster said this about the inner cities.  Especially at a time when President Obama's approval rating was under 50%.

What's your point? That the Birther Party isn't racist? That Mitch McConnell hasn't deliberately betrayed this nation and destroyed its institutions in a scorched-earth attempt to preserve white supremacy? Yeah, that ship sailed in 2016, permanently. You're imagining a scenario in which the Democratic Party chooses as its standard bearer an incompetent, traitorous, Nazi-praising racist sexual predator. Sure, anything's possible, but I wouldn't hang my hat on that prospect.

If someone spoke about the inner cities, which are mostly minority-majority, in the same vein you speak of areas outside of that which are predominantly non-Hispanic whites, they would be infracted, perhaps banned, and excoriated as racist. And rightfully so.  So why do you get to disparage white, non-Hispanic American citizens in that manner and not get infracted?

That's a rhetorical question.

Yeah, this is the equivalent of some white suburban dad wondering why black rappers can use the N-word, and he can't. Pfffft. POWER is a significant aspect of any racial hierarchy. Now, in terms of this specific forum, it would be ridiculous to ban me, a heterosexual white man, for aggressively advocating for the interests of non-whites, non-Christians, and non-heterosexuals, when the current POTUS, thanks to the GOP, is Donald Trump. Banning someone for using salty language in opposition to the vulgar presidency of Donald Trump is just a joke at this point. Sorry, you just need to take your licks. No one wants to hear any blue avatar's lectures on decorum, hombre.

[Badger]

Republicans are generally more prone to liking the ideas of totalitarianism and having an "alpha" lead their "pack". Srudies can be found on the internet showing this by polling many Republicans and many Democrats. Obviously it"s not every single Republican that feels that way.

This. There are a number of studies on the basic values of conservative thought and values vs. liberals, and adherence/fundamental loyalty to a leader is one of the former.

Put simply, no liberal ever said "My president, right or wrong".

Oh, horse hockey!

There's the idealization of Camelot.  There's the total turning aside of not just sexual harassment, but lying under oath when it comes to Bill Clinton.  There was the endless "It's because he's black!" defenses against Obama.

The only President Democrats DIDN'T rally to was Jimmy Carter.  That's because he wasn't a "liberal".  He was a true moderate centrist who disappointed traditional Southern Democrats and was disowned by Kennedy liberals.

The Perot candidacy of 1992 was mainly a revolt by voters who HAD been a part of the GOP Presidential base who had been screwed by creeping globalism.  Trump's triumph in 2016 was a result, in part, of THESE voters and their now grown children coming home to the GOP to vote for a like-minded Republican.  And, yes, THESE voters triumphed in 2016!

What a typically irrational and untethered from reality screed.

Kinda proves my point actually.

[R.P. McM]

I used to have a hard time understanding why Trump is so popular with the base (and specifically Evangelicals) until I heard someone make the point that Republican hardcore primary voters  like paternalistic authoritarians. It makes a lot more sense to me. I don’t think republicans inherently like or dislike their presidents more, I just think their core voters are just so different demographically speaking. Average Joe R as a group is just so monolithic (90% white, very rural, non college educated, etc) that it seems like it. Average Joe D can be so many more potential things than him.

(I hope what I’m saying makes sense.)

Lean No

Well, you need to elaborate! That's not good enough. I think Democrats would be perfectly justified in viewing the average Republican as an authoritarian follower. I mean, we can pretend that Republicans didn't recently throw a tantrum over the deficit, the rule of law, sexual morality, etc. But they did. Evidently, they didn't mean a word of it. So what are we supposed to conclude?! It sucks that a party that was tired of accusations of racism elected a Birther following the nation's first non-white president, but WTF am I supposed to make of it? Obviously, I'm going to jump to some incredibly nasty assumptions, quite deservedly. So you need to start attacking the folks who put you in this position, rather than the folks who are calling you out on it. (Unless you agree with the broader GOP, and are just too cowardly to say so ... )