How My Abusive Father Helped Me Understand Trump Supporters
By Paula M. Fitzgibbons
I know what it is like to seek the love of an abusive father-like figure.
I am struggling to even speak to Trump supporters right now. I am not, however, struggling to feel compassion for them.
I was raised by a man like Trump, albeit without the money and political power. I understand what it is like to seek the love of an abusive father-like figure. And make no mistake — Trump is an abusive father-like figure.
My father swept into our lives when I was four years old. Near my mother’s recent death, she revealed that he appeared when she was at her weakest and convinced her that he could fix her life, that he was the only person who could help her and her five children. Given that he’d had two failed marriages already and that he had no experience parenting, nothing about his ability to convince her of this made sense — except it did to her because her first marriage had stripped her of all dignity and she was desperate. My new father honed in on her desperation and used it to choke her into submission.
