These Republicans know the presidency shouldn't be reality TV. But they'll vote for Trump anyway

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in Washington, D.C., this week.

By David LauterWashington Bureau Chief

March 23, 2016 2:50 PM PT

A thousand miles to the west, Donald Trump was winning another primary on his march toward the Republican nomination, but in a conference room outside St. Louis on Tuesday night, a dozen Republican voters voiced doubts.

“Trump terrifies me,” said Cassandra Westerhold, 33, who was the New York mogul’s strongest critic in the group.

Others, though less emphatic, voiced similar worries. “This should not be reality TV,” said Cherri Crenshaw, 48, who voted for Sen. Ted Cruz in Missouri’s primary this month. “The president has real responsibilities.”

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Concerns about Trump from the assembled voters — six men, six women, among them a retired engineer, a teacher, a sales manager, a homemaker — were widely shared. But even among his detractors, few voiced much enthusiasm for the “stop Trump” efforts being pushed by some Republican establishment figures.

And their worries about Trump did not track with those that currently preoccupy Washington.

Foreign policy?

“He’ll learn,” several said.

Unrealistic promises?

Most in the group said they didn’t expect Trump would really build a wall on the Mexican border. That’s not the point, they made clear.

Instead, most said they admired Trump as a tough guy in a dangerous world. And while even several of his backers worried about his potential to divide the country, they also valued the fact that with every impolitic remark, Trump shows that he’s not a member of a political elite whom they blame for allowing the country to change in ways they find disturbing.

“Politicians in Washington are now freaking out” about Trump winning the nomination, said Gail Capelovitch, a 57-year-old data specialist. “They have nobody but themselves to blame for putting Donald Trump in the fast lane.”

“Why not” support Trump, she added. “Given what we’ve had the last 20, 30 years, why not?”

The focus group was convened as part of a yearlong project on voter attitudes sponsored by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, which allowed reporters to watch the session. The 12 participants largely mirrored the GOP electorate: All were white, their average age was around 50, seven had graduated from college, and several spoke openly about how their religious faith shaped their political views.

Of the 12, about half voted for Trump in Missouri’s primary, in which he narrowly defeated Cruz.

Most, whether they voted for Trump or not, said they would definitely support him as the Republican nominee against Hillary Clinton, whom they unanimously despised.

“Evil,” “power hungry” “unethical” and “deplorable” were among the adjectives that rushed out when the group’s moderator, the veteran pollster Peter Hart, asked for one-word descriptions of Clinton, the former secretary of State.

Not all were persuaded, however. At least three, all women, harbored reservations about Trump’s character that left them undecided about what to do if he were on the ballot in November, even against Clinton. That, too, mirrored polling that has shown a significant percentage of GOP voters, particularly women, uncertain about whether they could back Trump as their party’s nominee.

The reasons that members of the group offered, both for supporting Trump and for doubting him, did not center primarily on policies, but on attitudes.

Like many Republican voters, they expressed a strong sense of nostalgia for a bygone era, regarded the country as having gone badly off course and blamed a political class — including their own party’s leaders — that they view as quarrelsome and ineffective.

“‘Leave it to Beaver’ isn’t realistic,” said Anthony Casalone, 33, referring to the late-1950s sitcom that has become an iconic representation of white middle-class life in the Eisenhower era. “But,” he added, “that time was a better time .… Things were in a better place.”

Members of the group struggled to think of anything the government does that they consider helpful to them or their families. Those programs that do benefit them didn’t always register as “government.”

That disconnect that became clear when 69-year-old Joe Glass, a retired engineer, lauded Medicare as the “best thing I’ve had in my entire life” only minutes after saying that the only worthwhile government program he could think of was a St. Louis County effort to remove dead trees from the streets near his home.

Indeed, much of what they like about Trump is his distance from all aspects of governing.

“He’s different, he’s not more of the same,” said Jeremy Seavey, a 37-year-old software engineer. “He doesn’t have a vested interest in his political career,” Seavey added, noting that win or lose, Trump would “still have his companies.”

Under President Obama, the country has gone so far wrong that most people would “like to wipe the slate clean, and just start fresh,” said Joyce Reinitz, a 61-year-old elementary school teacher. “I believe that’s what Donald Trump represents to a lot of people — a fresh start.”

Trump’s bluster and willingness — sometimes even eagerness — to offend liberal sensibilities served for these Republican voters as proof of his distinctiveness, even as it stoked their concerns about how he might behave in office.

He “comes across as someone who is very decisive,” said Gabrielle Ritter, a 39-year-old stay-at-home mom with three kids. His attitude, she said, is, “‘Throw it at me, I can take anything,’” and that appeals to voters who are “disillusioned” and “fed up.”

On the other hand, she said, as president, “you still have to play ball with other people.” Unlike a business executive, a president can’t “sit at a boardroom table and say ‘I’m the president; we’re doing it.’”

Politicians “tell you what you want to hear,” said Steve Berman, 59, who was among Trump’s biggest fans. “He’s not a politician,” and his willingness to say things at times that offend people provides the evidence, Berman said.

“Whatever he says, he means. And I believe him,” Berman said. But, he added later, “If anything’s going to get him in trouble, it’ll be his mouth.”

Moderating his words, as Trump has tried to do in some appearances recently, could help him quiet the doubts some of the voters expressed. It could also, however, reduce his appeal, they indicated.

“Filter it just a bit,” said Crenshaw, when asked what advice she would give Trump. “If he’s president, he’s representing the United States. He needs to show some dignity and have a presence about him that’s respectable,” she added. “I wouldn’t want it to be a joke.”

On the other hand, said Glass, “I don’t want him to change his personality because then he’s just going to be another politician.”

Twitter: @davidlauter

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