It will be interesting to see how today’s Trump supporters will come to be regarded by history, provided, of course, that Trumpism is eventually revealed to be anti-democratic authoritarianism and is ultimately rejected as a valid form of government in America.
Regardless of what happens, however, the worst that happens to today’s Trumpers is that they are remembered as having supported “a bad man with good ideas.” There will very little shame in this, and “stink” is a terrible word to use here.
The concepts of tight borders, environmental deregulation, denying healthcare to those who can’t afford it, bans on abortion, Christianity in schools and government, two genders, the opposition to wokeism, and the superiority of the white race is bound to have enduring appeal to a significant number of people–regardless of what happens to the former president in his criminal prosecution and political career.
To the author of the meme here, I say: It’s safe to say that most folks in Trump’s MAGA base are stupid, though one needs more than a low IQ to fit into this segment.
In particular, we mustn’t omit mean-spiritedness. People who are kind, compassionate, decent and tolerant of others are grossly unqualified to be rank-and-file Trumpers.
Trump appeals to two groups of constituents: a) a small group of billionaires who lavish him with campaign contributions in exchange for huge financial favors, and b) a large number of poorly educated white people who call themselves Christians–the so-called MAGA base.
Trump has little if any appeal to everybody else: honest, fairly well-educated people of a variety of ethnicities and religious affiliations.
For Trump, staying in power means making sure that there is a minimum of leakage away from the MAGA base. That requires barraging these people with messaging to the effect that the president is the only thing standing in the way of communism/socialism, open borders, the invasion of Muslims, godlessness, teaching our little children about LGBTQs, critical race theory, choking environmental regulation, and whatever else may be on the radical left’s agenda.
Maintain this chasm means not letting up on the propaganda for a single minute. No nuance, no critical thinking, no considering what we’ve learned from history–just constant bombardment.
The mural here reminds us of what Tom Joad famously tells his mother at the end of in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, in response to her asking Tom where he’s going:
Wherever people are fighting for their rights, where kids are hungry and crying, and where folks are struggling to be free. Everywhere in the dark, wherever there is a fight so hungry people can eat or a cop beating up a guy.
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