WHY TRUMP IS STILL WILDLY POPULAR

[Michie]

Despite a mountain of indictments and relentless media assaults, Donald Trump remains wildly popular with a large portion of the American people. Despite his history of sexual promiscuity, dishonesty, and exaggeration, despite his evident fickleness, recklessness, narcissism, and vulgarity, millions of Christians will vote for him if he’s on the ballot in November. Self-identified evangelicals who aren’t active churchgoers are his strongest supporters, but there’s plenty of enthusiasm among committed Christians and Jews, too.

Some have explained this phenomenon by charging that evangelicals have adopted a religion of power, exchanging Messiah Jesus for Messiah Donald, the “savior” of America. No doubt there’s slippage and rationalization among Christian Trumpists, but that can’t be the whole story. Nor is it a matter of dispassionate political calculation, as if Trump were marginally better than the other bad options. Christian support for Trump isn’t grudging but fervent, often gleeful. It won’t do to dismiss these millions as deluded hypocrites or hordes seething with anger. Most are old-fashioned Americans, good, churchgoing neighbors with jobs, children, and hopes for the future. Only a sociologist could suspect them of harboring authoritarian tendencies.

I don’t share the enthusiasm for Trump, but friends and millions of fellow citizens do, and I want to understand what they see there. I’ve found René Girard’s theory of sacrificial crisis and scapegoating helpful in grasping the political rationality at work in the pro-Trump ardor. As a friend likes to say, it’s all in Girard.

According to Girard, human desires are “mimetic.” We desire things because others desire them. We want to Keep Up With the Joneses and Be Like Mike. Problem is, many things can’t be shared. If two men desire the same woman, they cannot both have her (at least, not in epochs of sexual sanity). They become rivals, forming a classic love triangle. With all scarce resources, when desire doubles itself, it inclines toward violence.

Continued below.

Why Trump Is Still Wildly Popular | Peter J. Leithart

Christians support Trump the anti-scapegoat, for better or for worse, because he embodies a refusal to acquiesce.

www.firstthings.com

 

[guyver]

Despite a mountain of indictments and relentless media assaults, Donald Trump remains wildly popular with a large portion of the American people

He is also very popular around the world and not just in the USA.
Doesn't matter how much mud they throw at him very little sticks.
People love the underdog and detest bullies.

A media report on Trump from my neck of the woods and its all positive.

 

[lismore]

Trump is widely considered to be an opponent of abortion, something abhorrent to many if not most Christians. God Bless

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

"Girard also reveals the rationality that leads many Christians to support Trump: As long as he plays the anti-scapegoat, as long as America remains contentious, Trump’s enemies don’t win. Many Christians and conservatives believe his enemies are also their enemies, which means that Trump’s intransigence keeps their enemies from winning too."

But Trump and his Christian supporters do not win either if they betray their values.

 

[Merrill]

I remember when Michael Moore was interviewed just before the 2016 election, and said that Trump was going to win. Why?

Because Trump held rallies in Michigan and other rust-belt states, and invited factory workers, union members, etc. to attend. He told them he would have an America-first policy, erect tariffs against foreign goods that threatened their jobs, etc.

Hillary Clinton didn't even bother talking to these people.

Trump is popular because he is a populist, unpredictable, and says things some people always wanted to say. He is decisive, stubborn, and will not back down.

And here is the dirty secret: Trump has always had good relations with POC, has hired and promoted them, and has worked with them when he was in NY and elsewhere. He is not viewed as an elitist white guy who is out-of-touch. My male, black friends love Trump

and even when he does seemingly crazy things, like say to a crowd of supporters that our NATO allies need to invest in their militaries, build up their armies, and contribute to the alliance, or he won't support them if they get invaded, and tell Russia it can "do whatever it wants", there is a method to the madness.

In this instance, Trump knows

1. That if these small European countries refuse to invest in their military, build defenses, etc., they will make an enticing target for Vladimir Putin
2. Simply telling them that they *should* invest more isn't enough. They need a dose of reality, and to be shaken out of their slumber. Because if they don't panic and start building up their defenses, Russia might invade, and the US will get sucked into it.

Sometimes saying really politically-incorrect, and seemingly crazy things, is necessary to get people to act.

and then we have North Korea --Trump was the only president to seriously attempt a peace deal, a de-escalation, and an agreement. It wasn't particularly effective, but he tried. Biden and other presidents simply ignore North Korea, and if you do that long enough ...