The whole point is the bluster and saber-rattling. Outside of a couple neocon freaks like John Bolton, most voters just want to hear tough talk and maybe see a couple explosions to be reminded that the military still exists and to be reassured that the president isn’t a bleeding heart pushover. But they don’t actually care at all about the state of the world. Take any stat about Iran and change it 10x in either direction and they wouldn’t know the difference. It’s only when something happens, especially when it’s relevant to something they actually care about, like the team sports of domestic politics, that they care. Full scale ground invasions are kinda cringe because you’re actually committing, it’s coming on too strong, it’s like saying, “I love you” on a first date.

This mentality is ignorant, chauvinistic, and psychotic, but if you want to understand the average voter and what US politicians are trying to appeal to, you have to set aside any kind of serious analysis and adopt a framework of someone who doesn’t really understand foreigners as human and is averse to learning new things or engaging in complex questions. Keep it simple, keep it 👊🇺🇸🔥

Here is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. All the .world libs are fully on board with denouncing the leader of Syria and calling for maintaining sanctions even though it’s our guy who we put there, the guy who of you didn’t support, you were a redfash tankie who needed to be banned and deplatformed! But then they see a post on Twitter framing him as bad and bashing Trump and they’re totally down with that. These people are deeply unserious and don’t actually care about Syria at all. And a significant chunk of Americans are as bad if not worse than them.