I have a new theory - Trump's flaws are so manifestly obvious that they become plausible to ignore. It's not just that he gets a pass for his shortcomings, but that nobody even debates his faults. They are so glaringly obvious that his supporters reflexively start every response with, "Yes, but..."
Did he tap into a latent sense of disillusionment? One of the better analysis of the Trump phenomenon (it was in the NYRB, several months ago) that I read suggested that it was, to put it simplistically, the reaction to too much PC behavior and high minded liberal preaching. The airwaves are filled with reports of terrorist acts committed in the name of Islam, but we are told that profiling Muslims is bad and more crucially, we are wrong to think that such profiling may be a good idea. When CA's prop 8 was struck down, a huge cheer went around the nation, but does everybody have to feel good about it? The message was clear - if you didn't, then you were bigoted. And on and on. I am an Obama supporter and have great respect for him, but his scholarly and aloof nature no doubt ticked off more than a few. A lot of it is clearly (to me) racially tinged, but that is mostly a secondary factor, not the primary one.
And as you are feeling beaten down, feeling unworthy for your thinking (that is mostly just the result of generations of accepted wisdom), along comes a con artist who speaks your thoughts aloud. He says things that most people in public life wouldn't dare to say and people find it refreshing. And in some ways, it is. Every one of us has biases, but taking part in pubic discourse required that you fervently espouse every egalitarian position and suppress any expression of bias whatsoever. Trump provided a release valve for the pressures that built up over this suppression.
Would this attraction have persisted had there been a candidate other than Hillary on the other side? I very much doubt it. She (& Bill Clinton) have attracted such vicious hatred that one is almost tempted to excuse every one their transgressions (and they are many) just on the basis of fairness. Why do so many people hate (yes, hate, not just dislike) Hillary? Lots of theories again, but ultimately, there may be no untangling where the bias ends and genuine character/policy concerns begin.
Enough with the analysis! What is also manifestly clear to me is that Hillary is such a superior option to Trump that there is no debate. Anybody who needs convincing is somebody who stopped listening a long time ago. With the statement from the FBI Director, a renewed vigor has gotten into Trump's campaign and the polls are getting uncomfortably tight (for a Hillary supporter.) After dismissing it for years, months, and weeks, there is now a fairly decent chance for Trump to win the presidency. This is a frightening thought for me - how could a kind, generous, liberal minded nation ever elect this bigot? What part of the appeal (the earlier analysis, notwithstanding) am I not getting?
I always believed that when push came to shove, Americans would shy away from the orange headed egomaniac. Are sufficient numbers of people actually going step into their voting booths and decide that Trump is the better choice? Months of having a comfortable lead in the polls had perhaps made Hillary and her supporters a bit too relaxed. Complacency is no longer an option - it's time for all Hillary supporters to step up and make their numbers known. Push has come to shove.
Did he tap into a latent sense of disillusionment? One of the better analysis of the Trump phenomenon (it was in the NYRB, several months ago) that I read suggested that it was, to put it simplistically, the reaction to too much PC behavior and high minded liberal preaching. The airwaves are filled with reports of terrorist acts committed in the name of Islam, but we are told that profiling Muslims is bad and more crucially, we are wrong to think that such profiling may be a good idea. When CA's prop 8 was struck down, a huge cheer went around the nation, but does everybody have to feel good about it? The message was clear - if you didn't, then you were bigoted. And on and on. I am an Obama supporter and have great respect for him, but his scholarly and aloof nature no doubt ticked off more than a few. A lot of it is clearly (to me) racially tinged, but that is mostly a secondary factor, not the primary one.
And as you are feeling beaten down, feeling unworthy for your thinking (that is mostly just the result of generations of accepted wisdom), along comes a con artist who speaks your thoughts aloud. He says things that most people in public life wouldn't dare to say and people find it refreshing. And in some ways, it is. Every one of us has biases, but taking part in pubic discourse required that you fervently espouse every egalitarian position and suppress any expression of bias whatsoever. Trump provided a release valve for the pressures that built up over this suppression.
Would this attraction have persisted had there been a candidate other than Hillary on the other side? I very much doubt it. She (& Bill Clinton) have attracted such vicious hatred that one is almost tempted to excuse every one their transgressions (and they are many) just on the basis of fairness. Why do so many people hate (yes, hate, not just dislike) Hillary? Lots of theories again, but ultimately, there may be no untangling where the bias ends and genuine character/policy concerns begin.
Enough with the analysis! What is also manifestly clear to me is that Hillary is such a superior option to Trump that there is no debate. Anybody who needs convincing is somebody who stopped listening a long time ago. With the statement from the FBI Director, a renewed vigor has gotten into Trump's campaign and the polls are getting uncomfortably tight (for a Hillary supporter.) After dismissing it for years, months, and weeks, there is now a fairly decent chance for Trump to win the presidency. This is a frightening thought for me - how could a kind, generous, liberal minded nation ever elect this bigot? What part of the appeal (the earlier analysis, notwithstanding) am I not getting?
I always believed that when push came to shove, Americans would shy away from the orange headed egomaniac. Are sufficient numbers of people actually going step into their voting booths and decide that Trump is the better choice? Months of having a comfortable lead in the polls had perhaps made Hillary and her supporters a bit too relaxed. Complacency is no longer an option - it's time for all Hillary supporters to step up and make their numbers known. Push has come to shove.
2 comments:
Thanks for speaking my mind exactly.
I think some of the Hillary hate is the accumulation of years of steady anti-Clinton sniping, much of it untrue. Yes there are flaws, but the reality is really not that bad at all.
A Fox-news effect. Mostly "trumped-up charges". Nothing compared to Trump's sociopathy.
She gets all this angry blame for Benghazi when it wasn't really on her radar at the time, was the responsibility of people below her in the org chart.
The recent resumption of the FBI fishing expedition seems suspicious. That might really be a conspiracy...
Rajesh:
Yes the pressures have built up for last 20-30 years; No one wants to be politically right anymore. .....I think Trump is a far stronger candidate than Mitt Romney was in 2012.........fewer blacks may turnout............Even the Trump ads on Desi channels showing HUma with a pro-Pakistani bent is going to steer some Desis away from Hillary.............Pro- Modi folks are leaning towards Trump....
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