Alex,

"Trump ended the crisis he created by chickening out."

You think so?

I think he's a lot smarter than you think.

For example, when he spoke at Liberty University and was referring to 2nd Corinthians he said "Two Corinthians" rather than "Second Corinthians".

The media got all over that making fun saying he's trying to act like he's one of them and saying it was a terrible blunder.

It was brilliant is what it was.

That was his way of making it clear he will not position himself as their enemy, like liberals are doing, yet it was abundantly clear he is not pretending to know Christianity.

Even now he manages to stay several steps ahead and is controlling the narrative.

I believe liberals underestimate him, which is to his advantage.

Eff,

"Republicans are Simple."

You sound pretty simple yourself with all those assumptions.

Sy,

One of the best lines I've read in books is describing the family unit and marketing.

"Families used to produce together. Now they consume together".

There's so much to that sentence. Don't remember where I read it but I bet I could find it in about 5 seconds on the Internet.

Sy,

"If you had gone to college, you'd know that's LITERALLY the entire point of marketing."

To create demand for products and services.

Some people like to say advertisements are fulfilling existing demands, but we all know better.

Sy,

"You turn someone into a consumer/follower. The church is fairly good at it. And mainstream media has caught up to help out the Republican Party."

You were doing so good until you continued after consumer.

Snoofy,

"You can understand how people get ------ in the head and end up falling in with Trump."

What I've observed is people get screwed up by effective marketing and develop an entitlement mentality and unrealistic expectations.

Your idea that marketing automatically turns people into Republicans isn't very smart for someone who got learned and all that stuff in college.

Snoofy,

What field did you or do you work in?

Eb,

"My parents. My grandparents, and my siblings.
All paycheck to paycheck their whole lives"

The advantage of the extended nuclear family is that they can pool their resources.

If you don't have that option, I agree with others here. I just don't know how people survive.

I was lucky that the GI Bill got me through college, but it was my perseverance that turned it into a career.

I did a lot of job interviews and talked my way into positions.

Now I am retired and not living rich, but so far I'm not worrying.

I am so happy my son was smart and got on a track to success, and my grandchild just got accepted into an excellent university.

They say success breeds success. Maybe that's the difference. Without role models, a lot of people just flounder.