Why do people support Donald Trump?

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2020

Does Eddie Glaude want to know?: We were struck by something Eddie Glaude said on cable TV last night. This is the way it went down:

For the second straight night, Lawrence O'Donnell had started his show by misexplaining "margin of error." 

In fairness, could any journalist explain margin of error? We would be extremely surprised if even one journalist could.

At any rate, Lawrence started with margin of error for the second consecutive night. A bit later, he discussed the way people are literally risking their lives when they attend a Trump rally.  He vastly overplayed the heat stroke element, but he mentioned the Covid risk too.

That said, why do people take the risk of attending those jam-packed, mask-free rallies? We think that's a very good question. But where would you go to find out?

When Lawrence threw to Glaude,  Glaude mentioned "the obvious callous disregard that Donald Trump has for the people who support him." Then, he offered a peroration about Trump's supporters which struck us as revealing:
GLAUDE (10/29/20): I'm also interested from the other side, that's the people who attend these rallies. The folk who see, in some ways, the callous disregard. The folk who make a choice to risk their lives to attend these super-spreader events.

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the source of the attraction. It's not just simply charismatic authority.  It's not just simply charismatic power, because I don't read Donald Trump as a charismatic figure.

There is something that he represents. He's an avatar for something that in some ways inspires—that's the wrong verb—that leads these folk to risk their lives, and I think we need to ask ourselves the question, "What is that?" Because it's the question that takes us to the subsequent question:

Why do we still see a certain number, a large number, of Americans still supporting this guy after the record of four years? That's the question that's really deep for us to answer, particularly come November 4. 

LAWRENCE: Professor Eddie Glaude—

GLAUDE: November 3! Not November 4.
We'll bite! Why do so many people still support Donald J. Trump?  

We agree with Glaude on one major point—we think that's an important question for our team to try to answer.  But we think the way Glaude approaches this question unmasks our own self-impressed tribe.

Glaude starts by making an unsupported assumption about Trump supporters. He seems to say that they are able to see Trump's "callous disregard" for their lives, but agree to risk their lives by attending his rallies anyway.

We know of no reason to think that's true. Glaude is already off track.

Glaude thinks Trump is displaying a callous disregard for his supporters' lives. We agree with him on that point.

But do Trump's supporters think they're risking their lives by attending those rallies? We will guess that they generally don't, but you'd pretty much have to ask them, and very few journalists have.

(Some of them may believe that the pandemic is a hoax. Explanations may continue from there. Like you, we don't know what they'd say.)

Glaude then moved to a larger question—Why do these people still support Trump? This time, as he continued, he drew back the mask from himself!

Why do so many people still support Trump? It's an important question, but how odd:

Glaude described it as a question we have to ask ourselves!

"No, Eddie!" the analysts screamed at that point.  You'd actually have to ask them! But professors like Glaude may not be inclined to lower themselves in such ways. 

We'd say that Glaude's condescension was visible all though his oration. Consider:

Because he doesn't think that Trump's charismatic,  that means Trump's supporters can't! Moments later, the professor seemed to correct himself for suggesting that Trump could possibly "inspire" his supporters, though that may not be what he meant.

Sad! Meanwhile, don't worry—Trump supporters have been hearing that sort of thing since the dawn of time. For some of them, Trump is an inspiring figure precisely because he refuses to defer to elite figures like Lawrence and Glaude!

Such figures have always been with us. Here's sacred Thoreau, in 1854, making one of the most famous declarations in our cultural history, while perhaps looking down his nose a tiny tad:
THOREAU: Talk of a divinity in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by day or night; does any divinity stir within him? His highest duty to fodder and water his horses! What is his destiny to him compared with the shipping interests?...

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. 
In such time-honored passages, "the mass of men" might possibly hear a strain of  condescension. Many years later, along comes Glaude—and it doesn't seem to occur to him that he might have to ask "the mass of men" how they understand the world. 

Glaude says we progressives "need to ask ourselves" why these folk love Trump. When we suggest that he should ask the Trump supporters themselves, are we merely playing games with a meaningless turn of phrase?

On balance, we'll guess that we aren't.  Once again, a bit of a guess:

Trump supporters are inspired by Trump precisely because it seems to them that he stands up to this tired old guff!


33 comments:

  1. All those ignorant Trump supporters, climbing into cars and risking their lives to attend a rally. What are they thinking?!

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  2. "Why do people support Donald Trump?"

    Two reasons, dear Bob: peace and prosperity.

    Plus, we, humyns, are really sick and tired of your lying, hate-mongering, liberal-hitlerian cult.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tell that to the millions of people out of work and to our allies.

      Delete
    2. "peace..."

      Let's hope 2021 is the year Glenn Greenwald ends his 4-year moratorium on reporting about the USA's drone assassination program.

      Delete
    3. Trump supporters, and I know plenty of them, are not a singular tribe. Some, the smart ones, see him as a dumbass whose policies benefit them. The fact that he is a racist douchebag is inconsequential to them or icing on the cake. Others see him as giving voice to thoughts they have always had but needed to be legitimized by a leader. The closet racists. The third group are pure tribalists who cannot be peeled off from the Fox/Republican brand irrespective of what it stands for. They often have strong emotions about their sports team. If half their college football team were convicted felons this would have zero impact on their priorities come Saturday. They are vindicated by the propaganda they subscribe to as well. Of course these groups are not exclusionary. A real asshole can belong to all three.

      Delete
    4. Did you know that doctors get more money for tagging patients with the diagnosis of COVID?
      Said the turd Mao worships to the morons, thus denigrating the first responders he put in harms way with his failed coronavirus policy?

      Delete
  3. I'm really no longer interested in finding out why people support Trump. I give no credibility, nor care what happens to people who are racist and ignorant, You cannot have an intelligent discussion with people who believe that the sun comes up in the west. We just have to outvote the.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I wonder if Somerby ever actually talks to any Trump supporters. There is a callous disregard for their own lives and the lives of others. They are the people who insist on going to stores and offices without wearing a mask. They repeatedly say things like "there are all kinds of risks in life. You can't live your life in a bubble." They go to bars and motorcycle rallies and wrestling matches and Trump rallies. They know that they could be spreading the coronavirus to others, but really don't dare. They are just making some kind of a point. If Somerby ever went to his local Hardees or tavern he would hear plenty of this. Instead, he wants to nitpick at what professors say on television.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Trump's a white supremacist.

    It's not just a statement of fact, but also the answer to Somerby's "riddle".

    ReplyDelete
  6. "Glaude described it as a question we have to ask ourselves!

    "No, Eddie!" the analysts screamed at that point. You'd actually have to ask them! But professors like Glaude may not be inclined to lower themselves in such ways. "

    Glaude is a professor, and that means he may know things that Somerby doesn't know.

    For one thing, when you ask people about their motives, you don't always get honest answers. People respond to surveys by giving the answers they think are normative or socially acceptable, not the truth, whatever that may be.

    For another thing, people don't always know why a candidate appeals to them or why they go to rallies despite risk. People frequently do not know why they do things, why they believe things, so asking them gets you nowhere. You need to use less direct methods to find out what and why people do what they do. Somerby might know that if he had ever taken a psychology course at Harvard.

    There are quite a few explanations of Trump supporter behavior floating around the internet. Several psychologists have compiled lists of the explanations (which will not be true in every case but will explain most of those attending his rallies). All Somerby needs to do is Google "why do people support Trump".

    Here are a few of the responses:

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201609/the-psychology-behind-donald-trumps-unwavering-support

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201712/analysis-trump-supporters-has-identified-5-key-traits?page=1

    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/10/white-men-coronavirus-trump-approval/616780/

    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/10/white-men-coronavirus-trump-approval/616780/

    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/why-people-who-hate-trump-stick-him/616758/

    And the list goes on and on...and Somerby could have done this himself and read some of the sources and then he wouldn't be an ignorant jerkoff.

    Asking people why they support Trump will get you a list of his "accomplishments" (tax cut, court picks, and the fake ones, such as lower drug prices or ending Middle East conflict). But none of Trump's voters will tell you it is because he validates their racist theories or tells off those uppity [fill in the blanks].

    My theory is that Somerby loves it when Trumpies get to present their case for Trump to the media. He wants that free exposure, the peer-pressure, the role models that prospective voters can identify with, to have as much visibility as possible. Because that will help Trump get reelected. It is as simple as that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I notice that Somerby never complains about the fact that average workaday liberals are never interviewed by anyone, including the msm.

      Delete
    2. Somerby pretends he is unaware of youtube where what he claims does not exist, exists in abundance.

      Delete
  7. “Trump supporters are inspired by Trump precisely because it seems to them that he stands up to this tired old guff!”

    Yeah!! “Guff” like, like, scientists who study diseases (eyeroll), and global warming (eyeroll), and “guff” like that arrogant virus that wants to kill them all.

    Somerby is almost there with his “guess”.

    The correct answer:
    Trump hates the same people his fans hate. He “owns the libs.” It’s grievance politics all the way. Many people figured this out years ago.

    Somerby is a day late and a dollar short, as always.

    ReplyDelete
  8. “In such time-honored passages, "the mass of men" might possibly hear a strain of  condescension.”

    Somerby thinks Thoreau is being condescending?

    Thoreau is offering a critique of capitalism, or even of “civilization” itself.

    How is his “mass of men” comment any different than Somerby’s division of the world into “elites” and the rest of us chumps, ie, the “mass of men?”

    ReplyDelete
  9. It is nearly impossible to make any human connection with someone like Trump, so it probably isn't correct to say that people are supporting him. They are supporting other things related to their own needs and interests, that are embodied by Trump. I doubt the man inspires any love, affection or admiration. Somerby needs to think about what the word "support" means for Republicans.

    ReplyDelete
  10. From Daily Kos:

    "The waxwork museum Madame Tussauds in Berlin loaded its effigy of TV star-turned Republican president Donald Trump into a dumpster on Friday, a move apparently intended to reflect its expectations of next Tuesday’s presidential election."

    ReplyDelete
  11. "“There will be no heating in the winter, no air conditioning in the summer, and no electricity.”

    — President Trump, at a Wisconsin rally, on what will happen if Joe Biden wins the election."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Some say Biden is going to defund the moon, I have heard this.

      Delete
  12. "For the second straight night, Lawrence O'Donnell had started his show by misexplaining "margin of error."

    In fairness, could any journalist explain margin of error? We would be extremely surprised if even one journalist could."

    I would like to hear Somerby succinctly explain margin of error himself.

    ReplyDelete
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