I like this title, but it probably gives off the wrong
impression and of course many apologies to the Star Trek writers and fandom.
I read The Dispatch and in it Jonah Goldberg writes
something he calls the G- Files. This is not about any of his G files, but
rather one comment made about his latest G File.
The comment was “gratitude is the opposite of victimhood”. I
upvoted the comment, yet I do not completely agree with it, yet it has quite a
bit of legs. Yet, it got me to thinking about Trump, he never really expresses
gratitude for anything and as we all know he plays the victim to a fake news academy
award winning performance.
And then I thought this must be what is going on with his
supporters. And then I realized, no that is not the problem. Sure there are
some people that are obnoxious, or despicable, but that is not the vast
majority of Trump supporters. Which makes it even harder to understand why they
are Trump supporters if generally they are decent people. And many are very
decent.
I have been to a Trump rally. It was quite an experience. Or
maybe I should say I walked through a Trump rally and stayed for a bit. The rally
crowd was so large they were broadcasting his speech on screens outside the building
he was speaking. I walked through the crowd that was outside and watched some
of his speech on the screen. Now this was one of his earlier rallies not a 2024
event.
And quite frankly they were not hate filled lunatics yelling
and screaming all sorts of madness except being boisterous and supportive of his
comments and his gloating about only he can make America great. Yes they did
give enthusiastic approval of all that, but generally they were a normal crowd
enjoying the moment.
I spoke to many of them as I walked by and they were
cordial, excited about being there, very supportive of Trump, yet most did not
try to force me into anything or say I must support Trump or go away. They were
neat. Trash was not strewn all over the place even though it was very crowded
and they had been there for hours. Many had been to local restaurants and had
brought their food there to eat. Trashcans were full and overflowing, but it
was at the trashcans, not up and down the streets.
When Trump spoke there was much noise, yet just yelling in
support of some sordid comment, laughing at his attempt’s at humor (which by
the way is one problem with Trump, he has no sense of humor, not an ounce) and
his statements on how he was going to make things great.
So what gives? How can so many decent people like such a
person as Trump? He represents everything that goes against what makes this
country great. Sure a few of the things he says sound like he is out to save
America, but in reality, they are either empty promises or nothing more than
personal bluster. There is also the so called Trump being Trump comments that
his supporters try to gloss over, but overall they buy into the idea of what they
see as him. It is like they have created an AI version of him that fits into
what they want him to be even though when the curtains are pulled back, it gets
extremely ugly.
And by no means do I think this is an original opinion. I
have read and probably you have too many versions of this same thought about him.
Yet it is his supporters that are misunderstood.
There was an article recently that I think was titled Why
the elites don’t get the Trump supporters or something close to that. The title
seriously intrigued me, but the article ran through so many LeMans S curves it
went off the track and never made the long straight away for an actual point.
You will have to excuse me, I still have a desire or hankering to see the LeMans
24 hour car race and for some reason it bounced into my head recently so I
needed to get that reference out before it drove me crazy.
Anyway anyway anway, back to the point, the elites on the
left and right don’t get the Trump supporters and they miss by a long
shot. H. Clinton infamously called them
deplorables. Probably one of the most idiotic lines ever said in a Presidential
campaign. Yet she is a compete leftist elitist that is clueless as they come.
This statement is just the crowning jewel of her cluelessness.
So what to believe about Trump supporters and I almost made
the mistake they are like the people who go to the non-denominational mega churches to feel good. They go to watch
some person on the stage who preach a variety of feel good messages, that try
to relate to being a Christian, but they are all there to get their weekly dose
of religion and then go about their lives. Yet there is no equivalency here for
what Trump supporters are looking. Sure some or many may go to these churches,
but it is not the same message. Well the prosperity gospels and Trump’s message
may have some of the same ring to it, but it is not completely the same.
So what it is it we don’t get. And that is they are just
like us, they go to work, they have families they care about, they have fears
(unfortunately amplified and creatively exasperated by Trump), and they want a
good future.
In Mr. Goldberg’s G file he talks about the difference
between the utopians and the eutopians, now the Trump supporters are neither,
they do fit closer to the eutopians as that they are working from the ground
up. I hate to say this, but many of the regular supporters are not generally
creative or large problem solving people. They are hard workers, but the rely
on complaints to deal with problems not creative solutions, yet there are many
on the left and non Trump supporting right that are the same way. And there is way more to Mr. Goldberg’s point in
his article than this reference gives a compliment to, but you have to understand
there is a similar comparison between the elitists and their view of the world
as one side versus the Trump supporters and their view of the world. The elitists
want us to believe they know what to do and we should listen to them at all
costs, while the Trump supporters are looking to find a better way for their
lives. They are just incapable like most of us of finding the solutions so they
rely on someone like Trump to become their hero to solve their problems, from
their perspective or trying to build something better from the bottom up which
is what they are looking.
After decades of the elites telling them they do not matter,
they see their top down approach as hateful, disrespectful, and unconcerned
with them so when Trump said hey guys I understand you, I am here to save you,
it sounds good. It was a breath of fresh air in their world.
Unfortunately, Trump tapped into this need for someone to
respect and understand them while all the while lying through his teeth to them
that they cannot see beyond the proverbial curtain at all.
The Trump supporters are not the enemy or deplorable, they
are tired angry and sick of being neglected by elites. So why are the elites so
shocked he has so many supporters. The elites just need to look into a mirror
and realize their visions were never Trump’s supporters visions or even needs and
listen to who they are and act accordingly.
I fear it may be too late or at best may take a long time to
bring his supporters back into the fold, but if they do come back, we will need
to do a much better job of being eutopians and create some bottom up populist
public policy to reinvigorate them into America’s greatness.
No comments:
Post a Comment