DECONSTRUCTING TRUMP'S POLITICAL SUCCESS
“Poll shows Americans voted for Trump out of "fear of diversity"
Racial resentment drove supporters of President Donald Trump to vote for him in November more than any other factor, new research shows.
Their findings, which mirror similar reports showing racial bias among Trump supporters, illustrate an inherent fear or anger about perceived threats of increasing diversity, compelling many to vote for Trump.
Rings true, as do studies showing Trump supporters responding positively to Trump’s “authoritarianism.”.
My take: This fear of and anger toward “others” is a hardwired, primordial reaction -- characteristic of groups hearkening back to tribal days – spawned by crisis situations where livelihoods were threatened by natural conditions beyond the group’s control. In the days of the hunter-gatherers, as in the days of primitive agriculture, the threat might have been the result of drought, flood, wildfire, pestilence, plague – any number of natural adversities threatening the availability of adequate sustenance, imperiling the survival of the tribe. Under such conditions, the logical, practical solution to ensure the tribe’s survival was to band together and attack neighboring tribes, plunder their food, kill their men and enslave their women and children. We see repeated instances in the Old Testament wherein god gives his blessings to such action. (As is common in religious texts, sensible, natural behavior in response to threats and challenges is reaffirmed and reinforced by divine ordinance.)
Such attacks require collective mental preparation, namely 1) the rallying of the tribe behind strong tribal leadership committed to doing whatever is required to ensure the survival of the tribe realize the promise of a brighter future and 2) the demonization of the neighbors by tribal leaders, engendering fear and anger toward “others,” declared as “enemies” who are said to threaten the survival of the tribe and 3) the heightening of the threat posed by the enemy, reducing the situation to “it’s them or us,” thereby imbuing the tribe’s warriors with the warlike spirit necessary to accomplish the task. Demonization is facilitated if the “others” happen to differ in appearance, culture and/or religion. The fear originates with the menacing conditions of scarcity, but is promptly redirected by tribal leaders, with the added component of anger, toward the “others” -- scapegoats who are then painted as the source of the crisis, the resolution of which requires their elimination. Shakespeare summed it up succinctly: “Cry ‘havoc’ and let slip the dogs of war.”
Trump plays to these primordial emotions, rallying support by deliberately over-hyping the seriousness of “the crisis,” (recall his dystopian inaugural address, and constant muttering about “the mess” he inherited from Obama) thereby heightening fear within the electorate. He then skillfully redirects that fear with the added component of anger, toward “others,” adversaries whom he then demonizes (Mexican immigrant “rapists,” “murderers” and “drug dealers”; Muslim “terrorists”; “wily international trading partners”; “the ‘crooked,’ ‘wire-tapping’ Democrats.”)
He then offers the prospect of relief from the fears he has hyped with 1) the promise of “strong, decisive” (read “autocratic”) leadership committed to protecting the interests of his supporters: “From this moment on it’s going to be America first.” 2) the containment or elimination of the threats to economic and physical security: the Wall against illegal immigrants, the travel ban against Muslim terrorists and elimination of ISIS by force, the renegotiation of trade agreements against international trading partners, and the total political defeat of the Democrats and the obliteration of their legacy (a practice dating back at least to the ancient Egyptians who destroyed monuments and chiseled out hieroglyphs glorifying discredited predecessors – think queen Hatshepsut.) and 3) the promise of a brighter future – “we’re going to start winning again” plus the promise of rapid economic growth and the creation of many jobs.
Trump’s adroit manipulation of the political process is probably not the result of concerted study of history, psychology, political science. More likely it is the product of decades of successful experience as a salesman and entertainer. One of the first principles of salesmanship is, as Henry Kaiser said: “Find a need and fill it.” This implies an understanding of the client’s dissatisfactions, fears, hopes and aspirations, which Trump, the media-savvy entertainer regularly monitors with market research and media analysis. Another sales principle is to “disturb the client” making him feel uncomfortable with his present situation thereby increasing receptivity to the solution offered by the salesperson. Trump accomplishes this by hyping the threat posed by present conditions (crime, unemployment, etc.) and nefariousness of the various ‘enemies’ he rails against as responsible for those disturbing conditions. Along the way, the salesman endeavors to establish trust and rapport with the client, as Trump does at his rallies and tweets. Once the client is sufficiently disturbed, the salesman offers solutions to relieve the client’s discomforts -- usually by presenting features, advantages and benefits of the proposed solutions. Trump, the plain-spoken, disarmingly candid, engaging entertainer articulating the unspoken fears, anger and aspirations of his followers, has learned to elicit their trust, enabling him to jump straight to the benefits of his solutions with unrestrained hyperbole, (“sell the sizzle, not the steak”) skipping over the troublesome details of their features (policy nitty gritty) and advantages (comparison of his policies with those of the opposition, whom he discredits with ad hominem attacks). Once you do all that, the close follows as a matter of course. Voilà! President Trump.