The Story of a Trump Supporter
mattbruenig.com
mattbruenig.com
I recently listened to an Intelligence^2 podcast where an ultra-libertarian was debating against a mainstream point of view regarding the minimum wage. Both were arguing from humanitarian angles (although the ultra-libertarian might well have been arguing cynically, it doesn't really matter).
Rather than write off Trump supporters as bigots or idiots or whatever, we should be asking ourselves what creates extremism. From what I've read, it seems that people become racist or extremist when they become disenfranchised and feel that society is ignoring their problems. This anecdote seems to support that theory.
"I find my own reactions to Trump's rhetoric very interesting.
"Intellectually, I find all of it very obnoxious, insensitive, morally wrong and fundamentally stupid. But emotionally... it's sort of comforting.
"This became very obvious last weekend when I was sitting around the campfire with my relatives after our biennial family reunion, which is always held in conjunction with the (archery) deer hunt, in the mountains of southern Utah. We sat there, dozens of white faces, mostly blue collar, surrounded by our pickup trucks, and although no one especially likes Trump (rural, lower-class Americans aren't particularly enamored of New York billionaires), the ideas resonated strongly.
"I wanted to argue, and I did, some. But the other sides of each of the arguments are complex and nuanced, and more importantly they almost invariably cast white Americans, especially men, in the role of the bad guy, the oppressor. To people who feel like their lives have been a never-ending struggle and who don't, personally, have any particular animus against other races, or women, the constant drumbeat suggesting that they're keeping others down is disheartening.
"Trump, however, is telling us (and I include myself, even though I disagree) that we're not bad, we're not wrong, that the issues aren't complex and nuanced, that there are simple answers, old answers, answers which have worked in the past. The answers are harsh, but life is harsh. The appeal of these arguments must not be underestimated.
"Intellectually, I understand that minorities and women face all of the same challenges as white men, plus more that we simply don't see. I understand that however hard it is for us to get ahead, it's harder for others. That micro-agressions matter, that there are systemic oppressions in place that go far beyond micro-aggression, that there are real and valid reasons for the anger we saw in Ferguson, etc. But all of that simply tells me, on a daily basis, that I need to be doing more, being better, and that even when I'm doing everything I know how to speak up, to be fair, to help out... I'm still a racist, misogynist oppressor.
"That makes Trump's message a soothing emotional balm, and makes me want to accept it. So when it came to arguing the points with a couple dozen of my extended family members who haven't made the effort I have to understand other perspectives, and who see me as a member of the privileged elite (which I don't think I am, but I can see how a Nevada road construction worker would think that of a Google engineer -- and maybe I am), it was just too hard. After some half-hearted attempts, I just shut up.
"Which means I should do more, I know -- which in turn makes Trump's arguments that much more attractive.
"The bottom line is that progressive politics tells the American white male that he's bad. Anyone who tells him he's not bad is going to have his attention, and those arguments are going to get the benefit of the doubt, because said white male knows he's not bad. Trump's rhetoric resonates because it's an affirmation of white decency, though it does that by being intentionally indecent."