Let's go a step further. Maybe, just once, it would be a good idea to expend a little energy and time actually contemplating what Trump voters are seeing that you and corporate media are missing because you dwell in groupthink world. I have spent the last 10 years second guessing myself and fighting against coming to at least respect Trump's persistence, doggedness, energy, etc even if I still dislike him. But the last year or so when many liberal journalists and commentators began being alarmed at the same things I was seeing in the Democratic party, people who have been surveying the landscape in much more detail over the past decades than I have, started writing about the same things I've been seeing, it made me realize that I'm not the only one thinking the emperor has no clothes. The Dems have become The Establishment. Dick Cheney, one of the most reviled people in politics and one of the architects of the Iraq war, on their side says it all. If we are in a dangerous place, it's because the Democrats and their bitter hatred of Trump have put us here. Imagine if in 2016, there had been true introspection about what happened and a 'this too shall pass' attitude. But the opposite happened. If there is one take away here, it's that the American people can be trusted to swing the pendulum back the other way when things get too out of balance. Maybe they know more than you give them credit for.
To the eternal question in so many liberal minds (why would anybody, sane or otherwise, vote for Trump?) yours is the best explanation I have yet read. Excellent job and thanks for writing it. I entirely agree with your explanation, and I have been trying for eight years with zero success to pitch this fairly obvious line of reasoning to anybody who will listen. My observation has been that even the most educated and high-functioning among us are more emotionally driven and less well-informed than they can admit. Most are willing to concede that the legacy media and the universities are in chaos, and that the internet has a profoundly deranging effect, but few are introspective enough to consider that they themselves may be effected by this terrible combination. Now it's morning in The Emotional States of America and we have a choice--we can continue to double down on our currently failing approach of heaping derision on top of divisiveness, or we can follow your sound advice and switch gears towards a more rational approach, complete with simple empathy for ALL who are economically and socially downtrodden. And perhaps we can admit that we all played a part in this outcome when we threw labor to the wolves. It might also be a good idea to do an honest accounting of just how rotten and corrupt the DNC has become, and recognize that many of their accusations on Trump include actions and policies that they have long been guilty of.
“Since my peers are all highly educated, I know almost no Trump supporters. However, of those that know or have spoken to, the one commonality is how misinformed they are. While this article makes some very good points about the roots of the unrest, if Trump supporters were truly informed, he would not have been elected”
I too am highly educated as I have a M.D. degree and consider myself well informed. As long as you and “your peers” so condescendingly view your fellow citizens as not viewing the legislation you cite to actually be of benefit to their wellbeing speaks volumes to the alternate reality you live in. We the Trump supporters have realistic hopes that the now Republican Congress will quickly reverse the worst aspects of the wasteful, miss-named legislation that you mentioned.
My goodness. Am I supposed to view as rational the Trump supporters who have been driving over my Harris sign, blaring their car horns at me, giving me the finger, and throwing screws in my driveway because I supported Harris? Or accept the lewd and offensive flags --"F&+k Harris" and "Joe & the Ho Must Go" -- they fly as a sign of their frustration with elites? Ignore the Confederate flags in my town? I'll accept that many Trump voters simply want their voices to be heard (BTW, the media failed to report that Biden's policies were helping them). But some are inspired by the anger, lies and prejudices of a sociopath. Imagine being a legal Haitian immigrant in Springfield, Ohio, right now. Should they view Trump as rational?
"reckless step of weakening democracy" - oh my! what a lack of self-awareness. Let me count the ways:
- Biden (and Harris) usurping legislative appropriation authority to write off $billions in a naked effort to buy the votes of college students
- Democratic affiliated "elites" nominating Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate WHO NO DEMOCRATIC CITIZEN got to vote for in a primary
- Biden (and Harris) refusal to enforce existing immigration law, despite having taken oaths to uphold the laws and constitution
Our only guaranteed salvation lies in how fast and how thoroughly Trump proves his supporters wrong in choosing him. Movements like this are only cured from within.
"...political elites often use checks and balances to prevent elected leaders from enacting policies the elites reject, even if large majorities of voters want them. " America is becoming a society where class, if not caste, is real. The untouchables, deplorable, garbage class, the non-college educated class, the class who cared for our sick and dying elderly during the lock-downs when the rich class worried primarily about drinking too much wine, delivered to them, of course, by the working class, they are now in revolt. This is an uprising of the lower classes, but we in the smarmy upper classes like to imagine we are "the people." We are not. We are the exploiters they are the exploited. We are the bourgeoisie and they the proletarians. And they are still armed, and the more we try to take their weapons and tell them their masculinity is toxic, the tighter they cling to their guns and their bibles. Remember, the elite even ban church during the lock downs. Paybacks are hell.
I do not rebel against your insights at all. I absolutely understand them, and this comes from a non-Trump voter who finds him absolutely repugnant. But to portray Trump voters as making anything other than a rational choice to protect their interests is to deny what is going on amongst the American electorate and the general global shift to the right. There is a reason.
"The entire modern Democrat party grew up in an era where there was consensus. They grew up in a high social trust era. A lot of them are trying to reimpose that social trust from the top, not recognizing that social trust came organically from the way American society worked. If you have people trying to reimpose it from the top, it degrades the very thing you're trying to create.”
Poor liberals. Crises after crises. Climate deniers, anti-vaxers, bigots, haters, sexists, homophobes, on and on. You are constantly being assailed by demons in human form. No wonder you are confused, lonely and freaked out.
Since my peers are all highly educated, I know almost no Trump supporters. However, of those that know or have spoken to, the one commonality is how misinformed they are. While this article makes some very good points about the roots of the unrest, if Trump supporters were truly informed, he would not have been elected. As an example, I would bet that the vast majority are not aware of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Reduction Act, or the CHIPS act. I would bet not many were aware of the fact that Trump killed the bipartisan boarder bill. In the end, the Trump win was in part skilled messaging by the right wing media, and in part, the democrats putting up a weak candidate. And, to this last point, who knows what would have happened if Biden had not stayed in the race for so long.
I didn't take the thought too seriously at the time, but the summer Olympic's ceremonies were an a example of the cultural disconnect between elites and the commoners which I thought was a gift to Trump's campaign. I personally found the ceremonies interesting and engaging (and for a global athletic event, weirdly sexualized at points) but didn't bring up these nagging thoughts in my social circle.
Why did Trump win? Because the dominant elites were wedded to a woke ideology that Americans can't (and won't) accept. Let me use one example:
Just before the election Glenn Kessler gave Donald Trump 4 Pinocchio’s for claiming that Imane Khelif was/is a man. So much for fact checking. How about runaway media/elite bias? In real life, D. Trump was right and G. Kessler was wrong. The French endocrinologists who examined Imane Khelif found that he was/is male. The Bicetre hospital report leaked.
Quico, I am not sure if you have been thinking about it so this can sound mindblowing. If you take for example Brexit, most of the Brexit supporters were not entirely against liberal values but wanted to limit such values to the nation. I think that in a similar way many Trump supporters want "freedoms anr rights but for us and not for them" as migrants from the South America. I think the conflict you are describing here is that "liberal elites" often want certain values for in principle all humans while the populist elites want them for certain groups.
Let's go a step further. Maybe, just once, it would be a good idea to expend a little energy and time actually contemplating what Trump voters are seeing that you and corporate media are missing because you dwell in groupthink world. I have spent the last 10 years second guessing myself and fighting against coming to at least respect Trump's persistence, doggedness, energy, etc even if I still dislike him. But the last year or so when many liberal journalists and commentators began being alarmed at the same things I was seeing in the Democratic party, people who have been surveying the landscape in much more detail over the past decades than I have, started writing about the same things I've been seeing, it made me realize that I'm not the only one thinking the emperor has no clothes. The Dems have become The Establishment. Dick Cheney, one of the most reviled people in politics and one of the architects of the Iraq war, on their side says it all. If we are in a dangerous place, it's because the Democrats and their bitter hatred of Trump have put us here. Imagine if in 2016, there had been true introspection about what happened and a 'this too shall pass' attitude. But the opposite happened. If there is one take away here, it's that the American people can be trusted to swing the pendulum back the other way when things get too out of balance. Maybe they know more than you give them credit for.
Or, possibly, your description of what's in the heads of Trump voters is actually only in 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 head.
To the eternal question in so many liberal minds (why would anybody, sane or otherwise, vote for Trump?) yours is the best explanation I have yet read. Excellent job and thanks for writing it. I entirely agree with your explanation, and I have been trying for eight years with zero success to pitch this fairly obvious line of reasoning to anybody who will listen. My observation has been that even the most educated and high-functioning among us are more emotionally driven and less well-informed than they can admit. Most are willing to concede that the legacy media and the universities are in chaos, and that the internet has a profoundly deranging effect, but few are introspective enough to consider that they themselves may be effected by this terrible combination. Now it's morning in The Emotional States of America and we have a choice--we can continue to double down on our currently failing approach of heaping derision on top of divisiveness, or we can follow your sound advice and switch gears towards a more rational approach, complete with simple empathy for ALL who are economically and socially downtrodden. And perhaps we can admit that we all played a part in this outcome when we threw labor to the wolves. It might also be a good idea to do an honest accounting of just how rotten and corrupt the DNC has become, and recognize that many of their accusations on Trump include actions and policies that they have long been guilty of.
“Since my peers are all highly educated, I know almost no Trump supporters. However, of those that know or have spoken to, the one commonality is how misinformed they are. While this article makes some very good points about the roots of the unrest, if Trump supporters were truly informed, he would not have been elected”
I too am highly educated as I have a M.D. degree and consider myself well informed. As long as you and “your peers” so condescendingly view your fellow citizens as not viewing the legislation you cite to actually be of benefit to their wellbeing speaks volumes to the alternate reality you live in. We the Trump supporters have realistic hopes that the now Republican Congress will quickly reverse the worst aspects of the wasteful, miss-named legislation that you mentioned.
our peers”
My goodness. Am I supposed to view as rational the Trump supporters who have been driving over my Harris sign, blaring their car horns at me, giving me the finger, and throwing screws in my driveway because I supported Harris? Or accept the lewd and offensive flags --"F&+k Harris" and "Joe & the Ho Must Go" -- they fly as a sign of their frustration with elites? Ignore the Confederate flags in my town? I'll accept that many Trump voters simply want their voices to be heard (BTW, the media failed to report that Biden's policies were helping them). But some are inspired by the anger, lies and prejudices of a sociopath. Imagine being a legal Haitian immigrant in Springfield, Ohio, right now. Should they view Trump as rational?
"reckless step of weakening democracy" - oh my! what a lack of self-awareness. Let me count the ways:
- Biden (and Harris) usurping legislative appropriation authority to write off $billions in a naked effort to buy the votes of college students
- Democratic affiliated "elites" nominating Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate WHO NO DEMOCRATIC CITIZEN got to vote for in a primary
- Biden (and Harris) refusal to enforce existing immigration law, despite having taken oaths to uphold the laws and constitution
Should one go on???
Our only guaranteed salvation lies in how fast and how thoroughly Trump proves his supporters wrong in choosing him. Movements like this are only cured from within.
"...political elites often use checks and balances to prevent elected leaders from enacting policies the elites reject, even if large majorities of voters want them. " America is becoming a society where class, if not caste, is real. The untouchables, deplorable, garbage class, the non-college educated class, the class who cared for our sick and dying elderly during the lock-downs when the rich class worried primarily about drinking too much wine, delivered to them, of course, by the working class, they are now in revolt. This is an uprising of the lower classes, but we in the smarmy upper classes like to imagine we are "the people." We are not. We are the exploiters they are the exploited. We are the bourgeoisie and they the proletarians. And they are still armed, and the more we try to take their weapons and tell them their masculinity is toxic, the tighter they cling to their guns and their bibles. Remember, the elite even ban church during the lock downs. Paybacks are hell.
I do not rebel against your insights at all. I absolutely understand them, and this comes from a non-Trump voter who finds him absolutely repugnant. But to portray Trump voters as making anything other than a rational choice to protect their interests is to deny what is going on amongst the American electorate and the general global shift to the right. There is a reason.
JD Vance said it:
"The entire modern Democrat party grew up in an era where there was consensus. They grew up in a high social trust era. A lot of them are trying to reimpose that social trust from the top, not recognizing that social trust came organically from the way American society worked. If you have people trying to reimpose it from the top, it degrades the very thing you're trying to create.”
Poor liberals. Crises after crises. Climate deniers, anti-vaxers, bigots, haters, sexists, homophobes, on and on. You are constantly being assailed by demons in human form. No wonder you are confused, lonely and freaked out.
Since my peers are all highly educated, I know almost no Trump supporters. However, of those that know or have spoken to, the one commonality is how misinformed they are. While this article makes some very good points about the roots of the unrest, if Trump supporters were truly informed, he would not have been elected. As an example, I would bet that the vast majority are not aware of the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Reduction Act, or the CHIPS act. I would bet not many were aware of the fact that Trump killed the bipartisan boarder bill. In the end, the Trump win was in part skilled messaging by the right wing media, and in part, the democrats putting up a weak candidate. And, to this last point, who knows what would have happened if Biden had not stayed in the race for so long.
Thanks for the compelling article.
I didn't take the thought too seriously at the time, but the summer Olympic's ceremonies were an a example of the cultural disconnect between elites and the commoners which I thought was a gift to Trump's campaign. I personally found the ceremonies interesting and engaging (and for a global athletic event, weirdly sexualized at points) but didn't bring up these nagging thoughts in my social circle.
Trump is a stupendously unfit person for the presidency, a criminal who could not qualify to run a high-school cafeteria.
Why did Trump win? Because the dominant elites were wedded to a woke ideology that Americans can't (and won't) accept. Let me use one example:
Just before the election Glenn Kessler gave Donald Trump 4 Pinocchio’s for claiming that Imane Khelif was/is a man. So much for fact checking. How about runaway media/elite bias? In real life, D. Trump was right and G. Kessler was wrong. The French endocrinologists who examined Imane Khelif found that he was/is male. The Bicetre hospital report leaked.
Quico, I am not sure if you have been thinking about it so this can sound mindblowing. If you take for example Brexit, most of the Brexit supporters were not entirely against liberal values but wanted to limit such values to the nation. I think that in a similar way many Trump supporters want "freedoms anr rights but for us and not for them" as migrants from the South America. I think the conflict you are describing here is that "liberal elites" often want certain values for in principle all humans while the populist elites want them for certain groups.