John, I agree with most of your analysis in this post, and share the frustration that what seems like reason, if not base rationality, seems unable to reach so many of our fellow citizens. I have thought about this conundrum quite a bit (as have so many of us) and offer a few additional possible factors.
1) Stubbornly persistent racism, both overt and subtle, hard and soft. A variety of tribalism based on immutable (and irrelevant) characteristics, stoked in part (but only in part) by the recent immigration surges and all of our governments' (feds, states, local) less than comprehensive and caring responses to date. The cruelty and irresponsibility of the memes alone demonstrates this factor's influence.
2) Misogyny/patriarchy. Not only many of us men, but a frustrating number of women remain in, and even joined recently, the "trad wife" and "purity culture" perversions that would downgrade women's places and roles in society to that of "helpmate" (such a deceptively innocuous seeming term) - you know, the quiet, supportive, deferential, submissive, unassuming, domestic workhorses and baby factories who allow the "men" in their lives to dictate to them the purpose and scope of their lives, both in the microcosm of the home and in the macrocosm of society.
3) Empathy deficit, either ab initio or developed over the years. One of the many downsides of media saturation in our lives is the ubiquitous presence and non-stop communication of charity "emergencies" in our towns, states, country, and world. (The needs are great, indeed, but the constant, in your face barrage is emotionally wearing - somewhat like the barrage of political party fundraising emails asking for donations to far away races and confirmations for the umpteenth time of the recipient of my impending vote.) Indeed, there are those who, from an early age, have had a "me first and only" approach to life (I have a few in my extended family). There are also those who, having very little financial security themselves, see the many charity commercials or hear social justice speeches and react with emotions ranging from frustration at being "overlooked" (e.g., who is "fighting" for me), to jealousy (e.g., what makes starving Africans so important when we have so many kids starving here in our country), to anger (e.g., if they cannot support their own kids, why did they have them - or "not my kids"). We have heard these reactions in our families, in our churches, and in the media. They correlate closely with MAGA support.
4) Narcissism and antisocial disorders - "the cruelty is the point." Trump has been described as a boiling stew of personality disorders - an example of a Dark Triad personality. Narcissism and antisocial personalities are more prevalent in our society than we have previously understood. I have run into folks exhibiting various degrees of these traits in my extended family, throughout my career, and in my social activities. Sadly, when I was engaged in parish activities during my time (decades) as a Catholic, I ran into these types of people in all roles - from priests to nuns to "church-a-holic" parishioners who felt "called" (by their egos, evidently) to run parish ministries, and to judgers and equivocators on the sidelines who could only criticize and tear down - never build up. They made it easy to leave once the dogmatic edifice collapsed.
DJT resonates with all of these people, probably to the degree with which their basis of agreement (see above) is in evidence in their lives. I have rarely seen a truly "happy" and certainly not a serene DJT supporter - where their happiness is not the obverse side of the coin of the DJT realm - hatred and exclusion of the "other."
Such connections usually do not fail, when they fail at all, openly or at once. This might help to explain the noticable decrease in DJT signs and rally attendance we are seeing. Someone whose support of DJT is based on one or more of the reasons suggested above probably will not "abandon" DJT vociferously, subscribe to The Bulwark, or follow Andra Watkins' Project 2025 takedown on Substack, but rather simply lower the temperature, wither a bit while still on the vine, and perhaps stay home on election day. Realizing that despite all the heat and volume of his rhetoric, DJT did nothing for them or their personal welfare during his term other than stoke their misogyny by nominating reactionary people who lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the single characteristic that determined their selection to fill a position on the SCOTUS, they may be slowly realizing that the "joke" has been on them all along. The very people who they have been electing to represent them have been using them instead for their own personal gain, while pushing their buttons to maintain the high levels of distraction.
And don't forget the power of right wing media to pervert the substance and effects of Democratic governance and policies to preserve the distraction and cloak the dystopia reasonably anticipated from a return of the broken and deeply flawed Republican nominees (yes - many of them). If you swim in crap every day, you aren't going to smell like roses.
That's my take anyway. May we reap the good luck that so often seems to follow hard work!! Vote Harris/Walz and blue down the line. They cannot do it alone.
I am a housemate with someone you describe. There are two other people in the multi person house who have abandoned the Republican Party knowing about Project 2025. However the third person is still drinking the kool-aide. Voting for Trump is against his best interests.
He may start to see the truth IF they are presented Reality Shocks, such as the true nature of the Republican candidate for Governor of North Carolina - and the fact that the Trump campaign actually knew about his history before they endorsed him.
Unfortunately, every time there is an event or a statement that demonstrates the malevolence of Trump - social media and Fox, etc. concoct an “alternative” story to feed to this person. Most Americans aren’t used to seeing nonstop lies on Television. There used to be “truth in advertising”. Companies could be sued if they lied in their ads. Some of these people believe this garbage they hear.
There is a documentary “The Brainwashing of my Dad”. 2015 which demonstrates the effect this constant stream of lies has on people. It’s evil and very effective.
Yep, I do believe that likely is the source of it for many Trump supporters. I wish my neighbors/ community members could see that making and correcting mistakes is acceptable.
Amen / praying that voters will choose basic values like kindness and respect over the hateful dumpster (trumpster) fire - perfect opportunity for all of us to hit ‘reset’
I agree and had that same thought as I read this, John. Maybe when they are in that voting booth they will change their minds and vote for Harris/Walz and make solid down ballot decisions that will help the Dems get progressive legislation moving forward.
Nobody in their communities will ever know who they decided to vote for.
John, this is my hope as well. I want these people to remember, their vote is private. No one is going to know who they voted for, unless they, themselves, tell someone. This is one of the great things about voting 🗳️
John, I love your work, have read you for years, and am a new subscriber to The Beautiful Mess. Please, enough with the Trump voters. You wrote about being exhausted a few posts ago, and one of the reasons I am exhausted is because of the endless barrage of articles trying to get me to understand Trump voters. I am not interested in that at all. They have destroyed our Christian witness by committing, in the words of Jim Wallis, identity theft of Jesus. They would like nothing better than to destroy our country. I don't want to understand them: I want to defeat them, even my own mom who went down the sanctimonious, self righteous rabbit hole long ago. Thanks for your news letter. Please, no more posts on Trump voters.
I for one support Trump as a Christian because I believe the sacred-victim, entitled parasite culture of modern liberalism encourages wicked behavior. It encourages anger, envy, lust, sloth and, above all else, pride. It instills in people the idea that they merely have to be born to a particular race or sex in order to expect, nay, demand special treatment. That they are superior beings – and yet have no agency because their special treatment in this world is contingent upon race and sex, what they cannot change.
In fact, the only people who have agency – according to modern liberalism – are Trump supporters since they, and they alone, are willfully evil. Modern liberalism is creating a two-tier system where only one group is fully held accountable for their actions or even thoughts in this world, and therefore belong to a higher order of being, regardless of whether other humans consider them evil (e.g., racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, haters, bigots, etc.). They, obviously, have more freedom to choose how to act and therefore are held to a higher standard.
John, I agree with most of your analysis in this post, and share the frustration that what seems like reason, if not base rationality, seems unable to reach so many of our fellow citizens. I have thought about this conundrum quite a bit (as have so many of us) and offer a few additional possible factors.
1) Stubbornly persistent racism, both overt and subtle, hard and soft. A variety of tribalism based on immutable (and irrelevant) characteristics, stoked in part (but only in part) by the recent immigration surges and all of our governments' (feds, states, local) less than comprehensive and caring responses to date. The cruelty and irresponsibility of the memes alone demonstrates this factor's influence.
2) Misogyny/patriarchy. Not only many of us men, but a frustrating number of women remain in, and even joined recently, the "trad wife" and "purity culture" perversions that would downgrade women's places and roles in society to that of "helpmate" (such a deceptively innocuous seeming term) - you know, the quiet, supportive, deferential, submissive, unassuming, domestic workhorses and baby factories who allow the "men" in their lives to dictate to them the purpose and scope of their lives, both in the microcosm of the home and in the macrocosm of society.
3) Empathy deficit, either ab initio or developed over the years. One of the many downsides of media saturation in our lives is the ubiquitous presence and non-stop communication of charity "emergencies" in our towns, states, country, and world. (The needs are great, indeed, but the constant, in your face barrage is emotionally wearing - somewhat like the barrage of political party fundraising emails asking for donations to far away races and confirmations for the umpteenth time of the recipient of my impending vote.) Indeed, there are those who, from an early age, have had a "me first and only" approach to life (I have a few in my extended family). There are also those who, having very little financial security themselves, see the many charity commercials or hear social justice speeches and react with emotions ranging from frustration at being "overlooked" (e.g., who is "fighting" for me), to jealousy (e.g., what makes starving Africans so important when we have so many kids starving here in our country), to anger (e.g., if they cannot support their own kids, why did they have them - or "not my kids"). We have heard these reactions in our families, in our churches, and in the media. They correlate closely with MAGA support.
4) Narcissism and antisocial disorders - "the cruelty is the point." Trump has been described as a boiling stew of personality disorders - an example of a Dark Triad personality. Narcissism and antisocial personalities are more prevalent in our society than we have previously understood. I have run into folks exhibiting various degrees of these traits in my extended family, throughout my career, and in my social activities. Sadly, when I was engaged in parish activities during my time (decades) as a Catholic, I ran into these types of people in all roles - from priests to nuns to "church-a-holic" parishioners who felt "called" (by their egos, evidently) to run parish ministries, and to judgers and equivocators on the sidelines who could only criticize and tear down - never build up. They made it easy to leave once the dogmatic edifice collapsed.
DJT resonates with all of these people, probably to the degree with which their basis of agreement (see above) is in evidence in their lives. I have rarely seen a truly "happy" and certainly not a serene DJT supporter - where their happiness is not the obverse side of the coin of the DJT realm - hatred and exclusion of the "other."
Such connections usually do not fail, when they fail at all, openly or at once. This might help to explain the noticable decrease in DJT signs and rally attendance we are seeing. Someone whose support of DJT is based on one or more of the reasons suggested above probably will not "abandon" DJT vociferously, subscribe to The Bulwark, or follow Andra Watkins' Project 2025 takedown on Substack, but rather simply lower the temperature, wither a bit while still on the vine, and perhaps stay home on election day. Realizing that despite all the heat and volume of his rhetoric, DJT did nothing for them or their personal welfare during his term other than stoke their misogyny by nominating reactionary people who lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the single characteristic that determined their selection to fill a position on the SCOTUS, they may be slowly realizing that the "joke" has been on them all along. The very people who they have been electing to represent them have been using them instead for their own personal gain, while pushing their buttons to maintain the high levels of distraction.
And don't forget the power of right wing media to pervert the substance and effects of Democratic governance and policies to preserve the distraction and cloak the dystopia reasonably anticipated from a return of the broken and deeply flawed Republican nominees (yes - many of them). If you swim in crap every day, you aren't going to smell like roses.
That's my take anyway. May we reap the good luck that so often seems to follow hard work!! Vote Harris/Walz and blue down the line. They cannot do it alone.
I am a housemate with someone you describe. There are two other people in the multi person house who have abandoned the Republican Party knowing about Project 2025. However the third person is still drinking the kool-aide. Voting for Trump is against his best interests.
He may start to see the truth IF they are presented Reality Shocks, such as the true nature of the Republican candidate for Governor of North Carolina - and the fact that the Trump campaign actually knew about his history before they endorsed him.
Unfortunately, every time there is an event or a statement that demonstrates the malevolence of Trump - social media and Fox, etc. concoct an “alternative” story to feed to this person. Most Americans aren’t used to seeing nonstop lies on Television. There used to be “truth in advertising”. Companies could be sued if they lied in their ads. Some of these people believe this garbage they hear.
There is a documentary “The Brainwashing of my Dad”. 2015 which demonstrates the effect this constant stream of lies has on people. It’s evil and very effective.
Yep, I do believe that likely is the source of it for many Trump supporters. I wish my neighbors/ community members could see that making and correcting mistakes is acceptable.
I pray you are right about the voting booth, but I would even accept them staying home on Election Day.
Amen / praying that voters will choose basic values like kindness and respect over the hateful dumpster (trumpster) fire - perfect opportunity for all of us to hit ‘reset’
I agree and had that same thought as I read this, John. Maybe when they are in that voting booth they will change their minds and vote for Harris/Walz and make solid down ballot decisions that will help the Dems get progressive legislation moving forward.
Nobody in their communities will ever know who they decided to vote for.
Wouldn’t that be wonderful!
John, this is my hope as well. I want these people to remember, their vote is private. No one is going to know who they voted for, unless they, themselves, tell someone. This is one of the great things about voting 🗳️
Yes! You make sense. And this just adds to my fervent intention to have this be an overwhelming landslide. Their votes can make it a reality.
John, I love your work, have read you for years, and am a new subscriber to The Beautiful Mess. Please, enough with the Trump voters. You wrote about being exhausted a few posts ago, and one of the reasons I am exhausted is because of the endless barrage of articles trying to get me to understand Trump voters. I am not interested in that at all. They have destroyed our Christian witness by committing, in the words of Jim Wallis, identity theft of Jesus. They would like nothing better than to destroy our country. I don't want to understand them: I want to defeat them, even my own mom who went down the sanctimonious, self righteous rabbit hole long ago. Thanks for your news letter. Please, no more posts on Trump voters.
wow, well said, John. I mentioned to my wife today how I'm beginning to view Trump supporters as having a serious character flaw.
It’s truly sad to think this is what keeps them supporting the former guy.
I for one support Trump as a Christian because I believe the sacred-victim, entitled parasite culture of modern liberalism encourages wicked behavior. It encourages anger, envy, lust, sloth and, above all else, pride. It instills in people the idea that they merely have to be born to a particular race or sex in order to expect, nay, demand special treatment. That they are superior beings – and yet have no agency because their special treatment in this world is contingent upon race and sex, what they cannot change.
In fact, the only people who have agency – according to modern liberalism – are Trump supporters since they, and they alone, are willfully evil. Modern liberalism is creating a two-tier system where only one group is fully held accountable for their actions or even thoughts in this world, and therefore belong to a higher order of being, regardless of whether other humans consider them evil (e.g., racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, haters, bigots, etc.). They, obviously, have more freedom to choose how to act and therefore are held to a higher standard.
QED.
🤦🏼♀️