December 27, 2019--Trump Sycophants

A friend sent a note about a posting on the Daily Kos, feeling it summarized well why Trump's followers are so fervent--

I just read an article which brought me up short.  I like the bloggers on Daily Kos and today Tabanjo has written a thought-provoking article: "This is Why Republicans Have Become Trump Sycophants." We somewhat normal people are baffled by the allegiance to POTUS by anyone who can walk, talk, and piss, and I know that you and I were wondering about this very thing a few months ago.  Tiabanjo hits the mark.

Among other things Tiabanjo wrote--

They simply realized that Trump can make their dreams come true. Their dreams, and those of their fearful, entitled, racist-but-often-in-denial, Islamophobe, anti-Semitic base.

I wrote--

My conclusion thus far as to why Trump has such fervent followers is that he makes them feel good about themselves. It's as simple and complex as that. 

His people feel that at all social levels they have been disparaged by the likes of us. They feel with contempt we look down our noses at them. The best thing I've read about this is Hochschild's, "Strangers In Their Own Land." It's perplexing but ultimately makes sense about the way his people feel. And now the shoe is on their foot and they are acting accordingly. 

Though I hate their support for Trump I think they are in many ways right to feel this way as the "coastal elites" do disparage them. Remember Hillary's "deplorables?"  They for sure do. But I also think it's totally OK for us to be angry and finally fighting back. Thus impeachment.

January 17, 2019--Dotty

Between June 2015 and now in hundreds of postings, I have struggled to understand the Trump phenomenon. 

As unlikely as his candidacy was, and how except on FOX and late night radio it was thought of as more a joke or an egotistical act of self-branding than a political force, the grinding process did reveal it had enough power to propel Trump to the White House where he sits as the nation's 45th president.

Though many of my friends and regular readers criticized me, often severely, accusing me of "normalizing" Trump rather than dismissing and deriding him outright, claiming that by taking him seriously I was contributing to legitimatizing him and his presidency. And, by doing so, I was overlooking his totalitarian, fascistic inclinations.

If we would wake up one morning with tanks in the streets and everyone in the White House wearing black shirts and jackboots, it would be because people like me were aiding and abetting his worst instincts, too casually certain he would be brought down by our mockery and constitutional system of checks and balances. We survived Charles Lindbergh and Joe McCarthy. So not to worry, they claimed I was saying. At least not too much.

I responded as over the months all the other Republican presidential candidates fell by the wayside--16, 17 of them--and Trump inexorably crept into the lead, got nominated, and, though a series of relentless one-man hate-filled rallies (Nuremberg?), defeated the inevitable candidate, Hillary Clinton. Observing this I said it was dangerous not to take Trump seriously and thereby ignore the opportunity to understand what was going on in that part of the country about which I and my friends and readers did not know enough about to take seriously.

I added, at our peril. If we don't figure out Trump's political power we will remain susceptible to him and other Trumps.

But, spending half the year in rural Maine, a part of fly-over America, I encountered many wonderful people who were enthusiastic Trump supporters and over many long breakfasts came to learn a great deal about Trump's appeal. 

Yes, much of it was fueled by fear and some of it, sadly, racism; but his appeal was also the result of his grim optimism. Many people believed that he and he alone could a restore an America where too many felt left out by professional elites who knew better than the people themselves what was good for them. For these people, and there were many, Trump alone would bring about a return to their lost America. With him as president they would no longer be looked down upon as deplorables. They would be in charge

No matter that his vision was mostly ahistorical fiction but it did tap into a stream of hope and belief. Both essential to successful presidential aspirants of all ideological persuasions. 

The differences are about what constitutes the hope--a white America or a socialist America. Then there is the belief, a powerful human propensity, belief itself, that affects us all. About this particularly we need to learn more. It above everything it drives our thinking and behavior.

That is what I was attempting to do. To learn from his followers. And to do so I needed to be genuinely inquisitive and respectful. I needed to do a lot of listening. Above all, I needed to be open to changing my views when that seemed appropriate.

This did not prove difficult as I liked my coffee companions so much. They were not defined by just their political views. And, hopefully, neither was I.

But many of my non-Maine friends found me to be a Trump enabler. I struggled with that.

Then recently, after daily revelations about Trump's felonious behavior--including the incredible speculation by the FBI, not cable news polemicists, that Trump may be an "asset" or agent of Russia's, everything changed. I no longer wanted to "learn" more about Trump and his appeal. I just wanted to see the end of him. And, as much as possible, his followers. I didn't want to discuss politics with anyone who could simply write that off as fake news.

When I saw something a Trumpian friend, Dotty, who tweeted that she didn't care that he might by a Russian operative--I was distraught. She wrote, "I don't care what he says or does He's the president we need now to assure our survival." When I saw that I thought there is no hope of reaching any understanding with someone like that--fortunately maybe only 25 percent of the population--there is nothing any longer worth learning from Dotty. But I know I have to search for a way to remain her friend.  

June 26, 2017--Jack: Love the Shove

I will return tomorrow to the reprieve of a few of my Midcoast stories because today I can't resist passing along a report about my latest conversation with Jack--

Love the Shove

"I know you're going crazy trying to figure out why Donald Trump is doing so well in the polls." Jack was in the Bristol Diner, sounding full of himself.

I confessed that was true, that I was going a little crazy, but said, "You call a 36 percent approval rating in the polls doing well? To me that sounds like trouble."

"The latest one has him at 40 percent. This after firing Comey and the naming of a special counsel."

"Which poll is that?"

"The Harvard-Harris."

"Like the Rasmussen," I said, "this one is a Republican-oriented poll. But, you're right--40 percent, 36 percent, however you slice and dice it, I would think he'd be in the low 30s. So I'm still trying to figure out why he's doing as well as he seems to be. In the polls, I mean."

"That's why I stopped by--to help you out."

"I'm listening."

"Do you like Jeanne Moose on CNN? She does those funky, offbeat stories."

"It's Jeanne Moos, and to tell you the truth she's not my cup of tea. She's a little too full of herself for my taste."

"Did you see the one she did last week with that pollster Frank Luntz?"

"I missed it."

"Maybe I can find it on my smart phone. YouTube probably has it." He began to fiddle with his phone, "Luntz  has this group of 20 Republicans he uses as a focus group to gather opinions about politics and other things. This time, among other issues, he asked his people what they thought about Trump shoving past the prime minister of Montenegro during the NATO summit in Brussels. You probably saw videos of that. How Trump literally pushed him aside. All the media people and the diplomatic types, of course, presented this as an example of Trump's boorish behavior and his bullying. I'm sure you viewed it that way too."

"Indeed, I did," I said, "It was outrageous."

"Well, take a look at the reactions of the Luntz people. It will tell you everything you need to know." He slid the phone across the table. "When you're ready, just click on this."

He showed me what to do, knowing I have no idea how to use a smart phone.

Luntz told Moos he was surprised by the group's reaction. He expected them to be divided in their responses. But they have a meter that they use to project on the screen the aggregate of the focus group's opinions, favorable or unfavorable, and when the group was shown the video of Trump pushing himself to the front of the line, their collective reaction literally went off the chart.

One woman said, "We love it! We're America! We weren't rude. We're dominant!"

Noting this was a NATO meeting and since we pay a disproportionate amount of the cost of NATO, one man said, "It's our party. We paid for this party. After eight years, he's made America great again."

Animated, another woman said, "He was just going to the front of the line where he belongs." The rest of them murmured their agreement.

Jack said, "So there you have it. Trump is making his people feel good about themselves."

"By his boorish behavior?"

"Now you're getting the point. People like you are repelled by his behavior, thinking it's inappropriate for a president."

"Indeed we do. Indeed I do. Worse than inappropriate."

"But it's this very kind of behavior that excites his people. It makes them feel, well, great again."

"Sad to say." I took a deep breath.

"You're repulsed, they're energized. They see him to be authentic. They see you to be tangled up in political correctness. He sums up for them how they feel about the elites. He says things to and about them that they have always felt but didn't have the audacity or self confidence to express. In other words, he represents them. Warts and all. Especially the warts part."

"What a country. How can it be that 40 percent of Americans think he's doing a good job."

I wasn't asking Jack, but muttering to myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt7_BSI3faY