What’d I Miss?
Why the Unwavering Loyalty?
What drove Trump’s rowdy, rally-going, core supporters to be so fiercely and enduringly loyal throughout the election process? Clearly their enthusiasm was not policy-driven since those same voters had previously backed very conservative candidates who were primarily concerned with “family values” and small government, and yet Trump’s candidacy was not about those issues. What then was the reason that millions of voters wholeheartedly embraced a candidate who time and time again showed himself to be a fraud, a racist, a demagogue and a pathological liar? My initial assumption was that any voter who could muster such passion for so flawed a human being had to be more than just uninformed; he must also lack the self-awareness and insight necessary to distinguish between fact and fiction. In essence, he had to be easily fooled by a transparently deceptive con artist. But as the size of Trump’s base grew, it became difficult to imagine that all his core supporters were clueless about the nature and seriousness of his flaws. After all, his ignorance and dishonesty, his overt racism and vindictiveness, and his lack of discipline and focus were on display for everyone to see on a daily basis. Even the right wing media could not protect Trump from himself. I had to conclude that there was something else going on.
I asked myself what was at the crux of my own choice of a candidate to support. I realized my level of enthusiasm correlated directly with how much the candidate validated me and my worldview. That certainly explained my loyalty and commitment to Obama and all he stood for. I concluded that voters are drawn to the candidate that makes them feel better about themselves by validating who they are as a person — their faults as well as their strengths — devoid of judgment and condescension.
It turns out that Trump does just that for a sector of the electorate, particularly those boisterous supporters who experience a euphoric sense of freedom by merely attending a Trump campaign rally. He soothes the inner pain they feel from being viewed as “less than” or low class or morally corrupt, and as a result, elevates their self-esteem. Judgment of that sort — the kind that hits at the very core of one’s being and brings to the surface a person’s most gut-wrenching insecurities and feelings of worthlessness — can fuel ferocious anger. By validating that anger, Trump is able to profoundly impact his supporters’ sense of themselves and, as a result, consolidate an extraordinarily loyal following, one that might indeed still support him if he stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shot someone. In life, there are very few gifts one human can give to another that are as coveted as easing a person’s deeply felt inner pain.
The Condescension of the Elite
So what is responsible for triggering that seething anger in Trump’s most loyal white working class voters? There is perhaps nothing more inflammatory than the judgment and disdain they receive from the intellectual elite. The elite’s air of superiority, along with their full embrace of political correctness and identity politics, make them a unifying enemy for those working class voters who find such liberal attitudes threatening to their sense of self.
But the elite’s progressive agenda not only affects Trump supporters’ perception of themselves; it also has an impact on their standing in their communities and among their peers. For some, it is their straight, white, male, Christian privilege that provides them with their social status, so they hold dear the advantages they have over people of color, women, members of the LGBTQ community and those who practice non-Christian faiths. It is no surprise, then, that they are deeply resentful and angry towards anyone who is deliberately chipping away at their coveted privilege by working to elevate those whose social rank is less than their own.
Trump was able to defuse that anger by doing the exact opposite. His campaign rhetoric not only validated the resentment his base felt towards minorities and immigrants, it also solidified the belief that their indignation will not be dismissed by a Trump administration. Trump would be the first president in their lifetime who advocated specifically for them; he would be their president.
From a philosophical perspective, the basic quality of any one life is an existential matter, one involving pure chance. A person’s fate and character are based on the quality of the hand they were dealt, as well as on their ability to play that hand. So I harbor no delusions that having been given a life with a sustained level of financial security and more than my share of opportunities to reach my full potential reflects anything more than my good fortune.
As a member of this fortunate, privileged class, I can verify that the condescension of the elite towards Trump voters is real. I do indeed find it difficult to refrain from judging people who disregard facts and reject science outright, who are informed by their emotions rather than by logical, rational thinking, and who tend to lack the kind of insight and self-awareness that I personally value and respect. Although my core belief in our lack of “free will” leads me to conclude that I have no right to judge a person for a deficit that they most certainly did not choose, I cannot easily hide my frustration — and at times my disdain — for blatant close-mindedness, bigotry and ignorance, particularly when the ignorance is accompanied by a certainty that something is true if you simply believe it to be true, even when no facts exist to support it.
Rather than judging Trump voters for having views devoid of facts, I could take the high road and accept their perspective as worthy of consideration. I could agree to disagree for the sake of harmony and the prospect of fostering good will between those on opposite sides of the ideological divide. However, there are factual errors that have such profoundly damaging effects on the rights and liberty of others, even on the future of humanity as a whole, that they should not be ignored.
One such falsehood worthy of active opposition is the political right’s belief that man-made climate change is a hoax perpetuated by liberals hoping to make money on alternate energy sources. Humankind cannot afford another 4 to 8 years in which climate change is not addressed to the fullest extent possible; the consequences of such a delay are simply too dire. Our brightest minds have warned us that unless we immediately and aggressively change the way we treat the earth and its resources, we will leave our children and grandchildren with an unstable, deteriorating planet. Yet, Trump and his supporters, along with the majority of the Republican Party, ridicule those of us who believe that the earth’s rapidly changing climate is an ominous sign of catastrophic weather events to come, events that will make our present economic struggles and global threats seem minor in comparison.
Just as my personal experience has led me to believe that the condescension by the elite class towards Trump’s base is real, not imagined, I find there is truth behind the perception that liberal elites, while strongly advocating for minorities, do quite often neglect the problems facing Trump’s working class base. Many Trump voters are, indeed, struggling to make ends meet, living in or near communities that have been ravaged by lost industries and stagnating wages. Yet progressives’ actions and resources are directed more towards the needs of those even less fortunate than Trump’s base. They push for policies that help minorities and immigrants — the very people the base perceives as inferior .
As the 2016 election process moved forward, I became more and more aware of my own difficulty to muster empathy for enthusiastic Trump voters, even those I knew were genuinely fearful that they may someday find themselves among the poor and helpless they condemn, relying on government handouts to survive. Although I realize, on an intellectual level, that their struggles are certainly worthy of attention and concern, it is very challenging for me, on a personal level, to access compassionate feelings towards anyone who demonstrates overt intolerance of a racist, xenophobic, homophobic or sexist nature. I do find that I am more interested in using my energy and resources to help alleviate the suffering of the poor and the oppressed than I am in helping those Trump voters who are deliberately oppressing minority groups because they believe these groups pose a threat to their white Christian dominance. Unfortunately, the elite’s disinterest in the plight of overtly bigoted Trump supporters only adds to their sense of their own inadequacy, which in turn inflames their hatred of those who view them as inferior, which in turn leads to more anger towards those who they perceive as taking what is rightfully theirs. What ensues is a downhill spiral towards an ever deepening hate-filled divide.
It is worth noting that despite their lack of focus on the struggles of working class Trump supporters, liberal-minded elites are very sensitive to the frustrations and anger of working class Bernie supporters. The reason for this discrepancy is that liberals wholeheartedly agree with what Bernie supporters believe is most responsible for the staggering income inequality in this country. While Trump loyalists blame their economic struggles on immigrants and minorities, Bernie supporters point to Republican policies that are deliberately designed to help the rich get richer at the expense of the middle class. The fact that liberal-minded elites are happy to fight for progressive economic legislature (even when those policies work against their own economic interests) suggests that liberals’ disdain for Trump‘s base is not due to a sense of superiority over superficial issues such as a person’s social status, education or class — characteristics that Trump’s base shares with many Bernie supporters — but is due, instead, to the base’s overt bigotry and intolerance.
Regardless of the credibility of this or any other rationalization I may have for feeling less than sympathetic towards angry, ignorant Trump voters, the emotion I experience is disconcerting. My disdain and disregard are obviously signs of my own intolerance, and being intolerant of intolerance feels uncomfortable and outright hypocritical. Besides, judgment of any sort towards another person contradicts my fundamental belief that as humans we lack “free will.” I am thus trapped in my own paradox: despite understanding that one’s views stem from shortcomings that are not of their own choosing, my ethical belief system compels me to reject those who cause cruel and unnecessary pain to others. The only way I have found to come to terms with this cognitive dissonance is to argue that, as a member of a civilized culture, I must accept the contradiction inherent in the embrace of personal responsibility in the context of a world without “free will.” Even though we are not our “causa sui,” that is, the cause of ourselves, we live in a cooperative society where inflicting harm on another individual has consequences. Therein lies the crux of life’s unfairness.
The (As Yet) Unbreakable Bond
With such complex and toxic interpersonal dynamics at play between the elite and the working class, progressives should have been less shocked to see that a large portion of working class voters felt heard and validated by someone like Trump, someone they viewed as a smart, highly successful member of the elite, but who also appeared to understand their plight. As I indicated above, they found a soul mate and a savior in their presidential pick.
But how did someone as privileged as Trump resonate with so many working class Americans? As it turns out, Trump has more in common with his base than his economic peers. Trump understands why his base despises the cultured class; he has never been fully accepted by high society, despite all his money and fame. Like his supporters, Trump rejects intellectualism, science and logic — and he does so with far more authenticity than all those right wing, small government conservatives that came before him. That authenticity is what allows him to communicate so effectively to his base. He genuinely understands, on a gut level, the humiliation his core supporters feel when elitists paint them as ignorant, inferior and boorish, because he too feels belittled by the intellectual elite. This dynamic between Trump and the elite class was never more visible than during the 2011 Correspondents Dinner when Trump was mercilessly ridiculed by both President Obama and comedian Seth Meyers. The shame and humiliation he felt as the audience howled with laughter could very well have been the moment he decided to officially run for president; how else could he redeem himself after such a demeaning experience?
But their mutual sense of humiliation is not the only reason Trump is able to connect so strongly with his enthusiastic followers; Trump and his base also share a worldview, one in which bigotry is not only acceptable but justifiable, and it is that shared worldview that is the ingredient responsible for cementing their bond. When Trump told the crowds at his rallies that if he were elected president, he would keep a tight rein on the black, immigrant and Muslim communities, he was uttering the exact words his supporters had been longing to hear. After all, Trump wanted to target the very minorities that they were accusing of stealing their chance for the “American Dream” and ruining their country. Instead of using dog whistles like the Republican politicians that preceded him, Trump had no problem openly whistling his tune of hate and intolerance for everyone to hear; that’s because he genuinely believes that his hateful rhetoric is warranted and fair-minded. What made Trump’s overt display of racism and sexism all the more disturbing and destructive was his clear lack of remorse for having awakened the previously fringe white supremacist movement, for providing credibility to the alt-right and for normalizing sexual harassment. But that reaction was no surprise after witnessing his utter lack of remorse for launching his campaign with the horrifically racist lie that Obama was not born in this country.
In order to survive the grueling criticism that, in these politically correct times, inevitably follows an unrepentant display of bigotry and sexism, Trump found it necessary to retreat to a world of his own creation, one in which social norms are disregarded and even disparaged. In this alternate world, Trump is comfortable rejecting personal responsibility for any bad behavior on his part; he feels free to shamelessly lie to his heart’s content and has no qualms blaming others for his own faults and his inner pain. Since Trump supporters have been longing for this type of safe haven — a place where they can express their intolerance without condemnation — they gleefully joined Trump inside his protected sphere. As residents in Trump’s world, they willingly accept his conspiracy theories, his fabricated narratives, and his insistence that all main stream media is “fake news.” After all, if they questioned the veracity of his alternate reality, they could no longer freely embrace what comes along with it — the validation from Trump that their rage is justified and their value in society is indeed under-appreciated. It is difficult for anyone to voluntarily relinquish newfound acceptance and self-confidence, let alone individuals who feel as belittled as Trump’s base. So, as long as Trump continues to validate his supporters’ self-worth and express concern for their wellbeing, it will take more than shooting someone on Fifth Avenue to pry them away.
Of course, the perpetuation by Trump of this fact-free, norms-free, responsibility-free universe is not without serious consequences. For one, to remain in Trump’s world, his supporters must relinquish any and all ability to distinguish between reliable, trustworthy information, and fact-free propaganda. As a result, facts stop mattering, objective truth vanishes and substantive discussions among those with differing ideologies are no longer possible. It’s no wonder that this country now possesses two non-overlapping Americas.
Another disturbing consequence of Trump’s fabricated world is that it provides his rowdiest, most fervent supporters with a safe haven to freely express humanity’s most primal instincts, instincts that lead them to spew the kind of hate-filled views and racial animosity that has not been acceptable in public life since the civil rights and second wave feminist movements took hold. Primal emotions of this sort are part of the fight-flight response that emerges when human beings sense an imminent threat to their survival. What seems clear now is that, after experiencing eight long years with a progressive black man in the White House, these angry voters are deeply fearful that their country is being stolen right out from under them. What I find most disturbing about this unleashing of fear-fueled anger is how it has created a wholly separate sense of threat in the millions of people residing outside Trump’s universe — a threat rooted in a deep fear and dread that both the safety of our most vulnerable citizens and the health of our democracy are in serious jeopardy.
When it comes to matters of policy, these angry Republican voters may believe that by handing Trump the win, they have repudiated and rejected their party’s establishment — who, like the liberals, have ignored their needs. But that is very far from the truth. Despite his populist campaign rhetoric, Trump has shown no signs that, as president, he is planning to reject the Republican establishment’s most draconian economic policies, most notably the policies that are based on the discredited notion that lowering taxes for the rich will bring prosperity to the middle class. Nor is Trump interested in regulating a freewheeling market system that has allowed rich people like himself to get even richer. In fact, considering Trump’s routinely selfish behavior and dishonest business practices, it’s hard to imagine that he would ever be willing to pass legislation against his own financial interests — and there is essentially no way to help the struggling working class without doing so.
Consequently, these same working class voters who were constantly lied to by insincere fiscal conservatives in their party, are being deceived all over again by Trump. The only difference is that instead of making his overriding campaign message about those old “trickle-down” economic policies that have been the staple of the Republican establishment’s campaign rhetoric for years, Trump offered his supporters an additional set of promises, ones that are just as hollow and delusional as those of the Republican establishment.
The new set of lies that Trump chose were the ones that fit well with his newfound populist persona — an image he fabricated as soon as he realized just how well a populist, nationalistic presidential candidate could do at this moment in history. He presented himself as a person dedicated to improving the lives of the working class by revitalizing the coal industry, bringing back lost jobs and providing wonderful healthcare without spending one extra cent of the taxpayers’ money. For him to actually carrying out these campaign promises, he will have to find a way to turn the clock back to a time before the digital revolution and globalization — when immigrants, women and minorities had little or no power, when Americans did not expect the government to help them get affordable healthcare, and when members of the LGBTQ community were only safe if they remained closeted. Trump has, in essence, promised his supporters that he will “make America WHITE again” by bringing our country back to a period when white Christian men held all the power.
But this is not a promise he can keep. So, what remains to be seen is whether Trump’s inevitable inability to turn back the clock will be what finally breaks the bond between him and his staunchest supporters, or whether he will be able to convince them that he is the one responsible for fixing all that was never broken, but bares no responsibility for failing to fix what he promised on the campaign trail.
What Drives Trump?
It’s worth taking a closer look at the candidate, himself, in order to fully understand why he was uniquely suited to galvanize this angry, rowdy bunch of voters, and why he is so unsuited to be President. Anyone interested in observing and analyzing Trump’s personality defects had an abundance of data to work with during the 18 months of wall-to-wall Trump coverage by the media. Considering my longstanding interest in identifying universal drivers of human behavior, I was both deeply disturbed and fascinated by this opportunity to carefully observe the public demeanor of someone with such obvious narcissistic and sociopathic traits.
I will start with some background on two psychiatric disorders, one known as narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) and the other as anti-social personality disorder (ASPD) — the latter being the psychiatric term for psychopathy (despite the fact that one can be a psychopath without suffering from ASPD). Individuals with these disorders share behaviors such as delusions of grandeur, impulsivity and an inability to feel empathy towards others; thus, with only a superficial examination, one disorder can be misdiagnosed for the other. At first glance, it also seems plausible that NPD is simply a milder form of ASPD. But, with a more thorough inspection, it becomes clear that the pathological narcissist and the anti-social individual are the extremes of unique and separate continuums. Despite their behavioral similarities, there is one major features that distinguishes them so fundamentally that they must be considered separate disorders with distinct etiologies — and this distinguishing feature relates to the nature of their inability to empathize with others.
To be specific, a narcissist is generally a tortured, fragile individual with low self-esteem, who is perfectly capable of feeling empathy and sorrow for himself, but not the least bit able to feel for others — making the nature of his empathy deficit one-directional. This is due to the fact that his obsession with his own personal pain is so consuming, he needs to direct his entire repertoire of empathetic feelings towards himself if he wants to even minimally function in the complex world around him. So, as a matter of survival, the narcissist cannot “waste” any of his precious energy mustering empathy towards others.
On the other hand, the anti-social individual is generally comfortable in his own skin, despite the fact that his ability to feel empathy for others is just as defective as the pathological narcissist’s. But unlike the narcissist, the anti-social doesn’t really know what it means to be empathetic; he can feel no more empathy for himself than he does towards others, making his empathy deficit two directional in nature. If a person suffering from ASPD needs to act empathetically in order to achieve a goal, he will do his best to mimic the empathetic emotions he observes in others, but he is simply acting the part. Unlike the narcissist whose empathy deficit is rooted in his all-consuming focus on his own pain, the anti-social’s deficit is believed to have an organic component detectable as an anatomical abnormality in high-resolution brain scans. This theory is the result of multiple brain studies in which researchers identified specific abnormalities in the scans of known ASPD brains that were not found in comparable images of non-ASPD counterparts — an observation that is considered significant within the neuroscientific and psychiatric communities, even without clear evidence of a direct relationship between structure and function.
Trump has been called a psychopath by some. But when all of Trump’s behavioral patterns are taken into account, it seems far more likely that he suffers from a severe case of narcissistic personality disorder rather than from anti-social personality disorder. It’s actually stunning how there isn’t a single criterion for NPD listed in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) that cannot be identified in Trump’s behavior. Trump can be very emotional, erratic and out of control, unlike someone with an anti-social personality disorder who often lacks superficial emotional responses or affect. The desperation he displays by his need for constant attention and admiration reveals his profoundly damaged sense of self. His primitive impulse to exact revenge on anyone who criticizes him exposes just how fragile he truly is.
It is also more likely that Trump’s narcissistic, pathological behavior stems from an interaction of a predisposed fragility with destructive environmental forces than from the kind of organic defect that is present at birth in the brains of psychopaths. Those who have spent extended time with Trump surmise that his deep sense of inadequacy was cultivated by a distant, judgmental father who he could never please. He was taught in his youth that it wasn’t enough to do something well, he had to always push to do his best — and even more importantly, he had to do it better than everyone else around him. He was told at a young, impressionable age that he was genetically superior to others, a natural winner. So, for Trump, there is nothing worse in life than being considered a loser. He will do anything necessary — lie, cheat, demean others — whatever it takes to avoid being viewed that way.
Yet, Trump is quite content to be adored by people he, himself, considers losers. After all, their inadequacies provide him with a sense of confidence that enhances his feeling of superiority. That was particularly evident when he professed to “love the poorly educated” at one of his rallies. He knew that his most avid supporters included many of the less educated voters in the country, and when surrounded by “the poorly educated,” he can hide his ignorance and delude himself into thinking that his elite education at an Ivy League school is proof enough that he is highly intelligent and knowledgeable.
Trump’s narcissistic personality grew out of another disorder that plagues him, one that can be easily detected by merely observing Trump’s behavior for less than an hour. That disorder is a severe attention deficit, a personality trait that most likely played an additional role in Trump’s inability to develop self-confidence early on. In fact, his disruptive, undisciplined behavior was so unruly in his youth that his father had no choice but to send him to military school.
Considering the extent of his unregulated impulsivity, it is safe to say that Trump has the hyperactivity piece of Attention Deficit Disorder, in addition to the inattentiveness (a condition known as ADHD or Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder). The hyperactivity component generally compounds the inattentiveness, and in Trump’s case may be responsible for his apparent inability to focus long enough to read almost any material that does not interest him, even if the information is absolutely necessary for him to do his job (or win a presidential debate). I find it shocking that someone with such a debilitating learning disability could be elected president of the United States. But even more shocking is the breathtaking level of hubris and utter lack of self-awareness that Trump must possess in order for him to believe he is sufficiently fit on a cognitive level to undertake a job as intellectually demanding as the president of the United States.
Throughout Trump’s entire life, he has never shown any interest in helping anyone other than himself — except, on occasion, his own children. His frequent refusal to pay his workers their earned wages and his scams to deplete the funds of those struggling to stay afloat, highlight just how insensitive and uninterested he actually is in the economic woes of others. His pathetic record of philanthropy, in combination with his pride over having avoided paying federal taxes for years, certainly drive that point home. Trump has made it quite clear that his presidential bid and unexpected victory are all about him and only him. So it will come as no surprise when his presidency ends up being consumed by the ways he can benefit himself and his business empire.
The question remains as to whether Trump’s fiercest supporters will ever acknowledge that he couldn’t care less about them. Would such a realization even be enough of a betrayal to convince them to withdraw their support? It’s certainly possible that Trump supporters will never have to face that reality — that’s because as long as there exists at least some overlap in what Trump perceives as self-serving and the actions that soothe the anger and pain of the white, working class citizens of this country, Trump loyalists will forever believe that this uncaring, conniving narcissist was their savior.
