The Republican National Convention quickly became a mecca for delusional Trump fans. Despite uncertainty over whether anti-Trump Republicans would pull off a coup and deny him the nomination, Trump clinched the vote and his fans shouted down, booed, and occasionally physically attacked, anyone who hesitated to bow down to his coronation. In that environment, it’s no wonder that these people very quickly lost any touch with reality they may have had going into Cleveland.
Welcome to the land of delusional Trump mania.
As if to highlight how bad things have gotten, Microsoft set up a kiosk where Republicans could go to “predict” the 2016 electoral map. Reporter Jamelle Bouie painstakingly documented some of their guesses with growing levels of disbelief.
Another tweet from my fav series of the RNC, "Republicans predict November." pic.twitter.com/b4BcXnqB6L
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) July 19, 2016
As one might expect, the consensus in the building was that Donald Trump was going to win - and win big. Often, Republicans would earnestly imagine a world where Trump won impossibly blue states like California and New York, giving him preposterous landslides.
Here's another one! Folks really think Trump will win New York. pic.twitter.com/jsMTEyw4Kj
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) July 19, 2016
You can't tell from the photo, but in this one NH and VT are R. pic.twitter.com/0TknVcUfXU
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) July 19, 2016
I am dead. Dead. Someone call my family, the lights have gone from my eyes. pic.twitter.com/TuyKEc0DUS
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) July 20, 2016
For reference, the non-Trump fanatics over at Nate Silver’s website (which predicted the 2012 election with stunning precision) give Hillary Clinton a 60% chance of winning, with many of the battleground states going firmly blue.
As with previous elections, Republicans are once again finding themselves slipping away from reality in desperation. In 2012, for example, many Republican leaders ignored all signs that Mitt Romney was headed for an epic beating and screamed about “skewed” polls and bad data right up to - and in Karl Rove’s case, past - the point that Obama won in a landslide. How delusional was the GOP leading up to the election? Romney’s advisers were so confident he was about to win that they urged him not to write a concession speech even as an option. Losing hit him like a truck - as reality often does.
Once again, faced with the nomination of a candidate who is despised at historic levels and seems unelectable in many of the states he needs to win, Republicans are retreating to fantasy. “Trump will surely win California!” they say. “He definitely has New York!” they cry. It’s all nonsense. And they might even know it, even if they don’t want to accept it.
Featured image via Twitter
