He created a nationwide fandom that is unprecedented in American history. He became their fighter and savior, and these mega-fans pilgrimaged to his concert-like rallies.
Trump grew a cult following by casting himself as an outsider (like you!) and saying that those in power were trying to take him down (like you!). Takes sexual advantage of members of his sect or cult. Trump’s reaction to Ryan’s abandonment of Trump’s candidacy. (Paul Ryan is a weak and ineffective leader. What Trump did was amazing, and it should serve as a warning for us to address these societal problems before a more competent demagogue comes along and fully leverages this opportunity. Hates to be embarrassed or fail publicly - when he does he acts out with rage. When you are down-and-out and lonely, you cling to the people who care enough to give you hope." There's a reason Charles Manson preyed upon teenage runaways, and there's a reason why so many poor Black women died in Jonestown. "There's a reason vulnerable people are drawn to street gangs. But if you are lonely and marginalized (or think you are, like so many of today's MAGA fans), it will resonate," he wrote.
"If you are surrounded by friends and family or are otherwise well-adjusted, this probably won't resonate. To illustrate his point he notes the Manson family and those who followed cult leader Jim Jones to their deaths. Two had married - and later divorced - by Trump's second year in office.'"Īs Lewis explained, humans who live in isolation tend to want to belong to something and the pull of the communal feel of Trump's rallies was - and remains - a seductive lure. Instead of being young adventurers running away from their parents, these 'front-row Joes' (as he calls them) tended to be people who were 'retired or close to it' and 'estranged from their families or otherwise without children' they also had 'plenty of time on their hands.' What they found was that 'Trump had, in a surprising way, made their lives richer.' His rallies gave them a 'reason to travel the country, staying at one another's homes, sharing hotel rooms and carpooling. Writing that Trump's fans "followed his rallies like they were on tour with The Grateful Dead," he added, "Instead of tie-dyed shirts, they donned red 'MAGA' hats. In his column for the Daily Beast, conservative commentator Matt Lewis made a case that Donald Trump's rise was the inevitable result of a country that has become filled with lonely people who have lost any connection to their community and just want to feel like they belong.Īs the conservative columnist notes that, at the heart of "Trumpism," is an appeal to those suffering from social isolation which, in turn, makes them susceptible to appeals such as "Make America Great Again" as promised by the former president.Įxplaining, "lack of communal ties may be killing us at the micro level, on the macro level this phenomenon has contributed to numerous societal ills, including the rise of Trumpism," Lewis added that the new book by the Wall Street Journal's Michael Bender ("Frankly, We Did Win This Election" ) makes clear Trump's early appeal. But this faction has been around longer than our current partisan divide.” In fact, “they are not loyal to a party - they are loyal to white Christian domination.This article originally appeared on Raw Story Lilliana Mason, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins, makes the case via Twitter that Trump has “served as a lightning rod for lots of regular people who hold white Christian supremacist beliefs.” The solidification of their control over the Republican Party “makes it seem like a partisan issue. The segregationist segment of the electorate has been a permanent fixture of American politics, shifting between the two major parties.įor more than two decades, scholars and analysts have written about the growing partisan antipathy and polarization that have turned America into two warring camps, politically speaking. Further, given the decisive role that Independents can play in elections, these results suggest that reservoirs of animosity are not necessarily specific to a particular party, and may therefore be tapped by any political elite. For as long as Trump remains the standard-bearer of the Republican Party. The three authors go on: Animosity toward Democratic-linked groups predicts Trump support, rather remarkably, across the political spectrum. With all his histrionics and theatrics, Trump brought the dark side of American politics to the fore: the alienated, the distrustful, voters willing to sacrifice democracy for a return to white hegemony. rumps Cult of Animosity Shows No Sign of Letting Up. This Piece Originally Appeared in In 2016, Donald Trump recruited voters with the highest levels of animosity toward African Americans, assembling a “schadenfreude” electorate - voters who take pleasure in making the opposition suffer - that continues to dominate the Republican Party, even in the aftermath of the Trump presidency.
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