We were having a family chat in the car last night about Donald Trump and the source of his support. And it reminded me of this article that +Stan Pedzick posted:.<\/p>\n
http:\/\/digbysblog.blogspot.com\/2015\/12\/some-men-just-want-to-watch-world-burn.html<\/a><\/p>\n It's all anger. It's fury.<\/i> It's a rage born of fear and perceived powerlessness. It's conviction that they are being lied to and betrayed, that everything they've known is being changed, that the world no longer recognizes them as special and blessed, that the economic downturns are a conspiracy to knock them down and the economic upturns that don't net them any improvements are because it's all beings stolen — by those<\/i> people. You know. Sure, politicians in general, maybe some wealthy hot shots, but mostly those<\/i> people. The takers. The moochers. The uppity minorities. The foreigners. The pointy-headed "intellectuals" and the "experts" and the "scientists" and the so-called smart people. The bleeding heart liberals. The enemies who make fun of them.<\/p>\n These people are — have been goaded to be — angry as hell, and they aren't going to take it any more.<\/p>\n And along comes Donald Trump. And he's not a politician. And he has conspicuous wealth. And he doesn't mince words. He doesn't play nice. He isn't politically correct, or polite, or civil. He shouts. He yells. He mocks. He insults. He lumps together Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers, and Muslims as terrorists. He shouts to the world all the ugly things that fear and anger drive one to say, or at least feel. He's "mad as hell, and he isn't going to take it any more" … so vote for him!<\/p>\n And people love him for it. "He isn't lying. He speaks for me. He gets right into my head and he says what I'm thinking! He's speaking our<\/i> minds!" <\/p>\n Trump doesn't pussy-foot around. There's his opinion, and then there are idiots. He has confidence. He's willing to tell it like it is. And when people criticize him for it, it encourages him all the more. When someone pulls a "At long last, have you no shame?" he doesn't fold like Joe McCarthy. He laughs, and says the other person's stupid. <\/p>\n He plays into every instinct that says that forgiveness, mercy, concern, care, compassion are for chumps. Sure, maybe some weak sisters think that's what Jesus taught, but deep down, Trump supporters are people who want to believe that "Sometimes Jesus is just plain wrong" (http:\/\/www.dailykos.com\/story\/2012\/4\/25\/1086278\/–Sometimes-Jesus-Is-Just-Plain-Wrong<\/a>) — that there is strength and there is weakness, and there is virtue and there is sin, and there's protecting your own, and there's eye-for-an-eye cosmic justice, and Parables like the Prodigal Son or the Laborers in the Vineyard are just wrong<\/i> because they don't make any sense,<\/i> because they're unfair, and just what you'd expect some liberal<\/i> to say, and probably mean something else altogether.<\/p>\n And at that, the problem is not so much Donald Trump, but the folk that are rallying behind him, the fostering of angry populism, bitter resentment, and carefully inculcated terror of change from a half-century of Republican fearmongering (most notably kicked off with the infamous Southern Strategy, but festering well before that). That may not describe all Trump supporters, but it seems to be pretty consistent with the ones I've seen. Even if Trump magically left the race in disgrace tomorrow, these folk would still be around,<\/i> ready for the next candidate to pick them up. And, sooner or later, if they continue to be whipped up into a frenzy, and don't feel they are getting what they want (which is an impossibility, even if their candidate got in), I worry what their next step, as a movement, will be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n