The Irresistible Release That Trump Provides
For a lot of us, we struggle to grasp the level of appeal that Donald Trump has. Even as he looks set to lose the Presidential Election this time around, he got 63m votes in 2016 and will have more in 2020.
Sure, for ohhh ~15% of people his personality and policies align well with their preferences. The problem is how do you explain the rest? The evangelicals who support a thrice-married philanderer who can’t name a bible verse. The poverty-stricken who vote for a man with a golden toilet and gives tax breaks to the bosses that exploit them. What gives?
Over the last 5 years, there have been a lot of deep dives and explainers, but let me think out loud and put it in my own words here.
For most of his supporters, Trump offers an irresistible pressure release valve for their fears, hatreds, and insecurities.
Money may not buy happiness, but it does buy freedom. When you’re rich and powerful, you are not held by the same constraints as normal people. Normal people have to go throughout life trying to please others. This means saying and doing polite things, adjusting your beliefs and behavior to the norm, pleasing those who can impact your wellbeing for better or worse (ever been rude to a bouncer or cop?). When you have enough money, you don’t have to worry about those things.
This is a valuable trait amongst many good managers and CEOs. When you don’t have to tow the party line, appear optimistic despite your misgivings, etc because you have the job security or financial freedom, you can speak and act much more candidly. Employees usually appreciate this. “Oh, thank God he said what we were all thinking about our latest product launch. I didn’t want to have to keep pretending the ship wasn’t sinking”.
Enter Donald Joseph Trump.
Trump is rich, exactly how rich and if he is deserving is up to debate, but he is rich enough to not care about what he says. And say it he does. On Twitter, on the campaign trail, on Fox, at press briefings, and so on. Again, to most of us what he says is outrageous, false, or funny. However, to his supporters, he says what they’ve been thinking but have felt unable to say out loud.
This is the first release. It is impolite to say at a cookout, “Mexicans are rapists and criminals” even if you believe it. So you have to repress that belief for your own good. When Trump says it, it feels good that someone else has finally said boldly what you have only thought quietly. This extends across all kinds of socially damaging statements like, “Democrats are dumb socialists” — you might offend a friend or coworker, or “BLM protestors are terrorists invading suburbs” — you might get canceled or fired. This has been clear from the beginning when many of his early supporters lauded him for “telling it like it is”.
[I think these social guardrails are good for society to an extent, but I digress.]
The second release has to do with fear. Fear is an uncomfortable emotion to sit with, so we will engage in all kinds of behavior to either avoid it or rationalize it away. Maybe I’ve painted an unfair caricature of them, but I have found Trump supporters to be afraid of a good number of things. China, Mexico, AOC, Bernie, CNN, minorities, socialism, etc. Naming a fear, and creating an attack plan against it is a release. Forget national politics for a second, this applies to your personal life, too. Afraid you’re going to die of a heart attack? Naming the fear, and starting to exercise and eat well will ease your anxiety.
Trump does this all of the time. He names the fears of his supporters, and then insults them or tells them that he’s going to crush them. Fear creates pressure, Trump releases it, his supporters feel good. It’s that simple.
The third release is about insecurity. Just like fear, nobody likes to feel insecure. A huge voting block for Trump is that of the high-school educated blue-collar workers who got screwed by America’s decades-long shift from a manufacturing economy to a services economy. Regardless of whose fault that was, they felt insecure about their future and themselves.
Likewise, another voting block is that of those who are insecure about the cultural direction of the US. Trump provides a release by telling them that A) it wasn’t their fault, but NAFTA’s and immigrants and B) that he will “Make America Great Again” by returning coal mines and car factories to them. He attacks the cultural elites (academics, bankers, experts, etc) as knowing no better than the common man. Indeed, these “elites” are outright wrong! You’re smarter than them! Insecurities alleviated.
The final release is about mental effort. For a while, if you wanted to win a political argument with somebody you had to come prepared. You needed talking points backed with evidence presented in a compelling way that addressed important issues. If your argument had obvious holes, lacked legitimate evidence, or addressed trivial issues you wouldn’t make much headway.
Ugh, who wants to deal with that? Can’t we just skip to the part where we call our opponents dumb, create some policies that are simple and to-the-point (walls) and do away with the part where we research the effectiveness? That’s essentially what Trump has provided to his supporters.
Tired of having to defend morally tenuous positions (family separation), policies without evidence (trickle-down economics), and policies with lots of contradictory evidence (climate denial) they have decided to instead follow the lead of a man who creates a new reality where the evidence is his brain and the morals are his mood. Like the release you get from finishing a difficult math problem, Trump’s positions make a release for those who’d rather not bother with forming and/or defending complicated opinions.
So, is it any wonder now that as much as 30% of the electorate supports Trump? He repeats comfortable, easily-digestible lies about the future of the country and the enemies of his supporters. He spins lovely stories about how great his supporters are, and how well-off they’re going to be. To top it all off, he makes it easy to follow.
Trump is a readily-available, warm blanket in a cold, harsh world. Who would reject that?
The problem is that blanket is woven out of pernicious lies and an inaccurate view of the world. Coal and cars aren’t coming back. We won’t out-compete China. COVID-19 is real, serious, and nowhere close to being under control.
Why live in the real world when you can live in Trump’s world of wishful thinking and easy solutions to complex problems?
It is the intention of our political system that we outsource many of our political goals and beliefs to politicians. We can’t be involved in politics all of the time, that’s inefficient. What we see now is that idea taken to it’s extreme.
Trump supporters don’t want to have to study the issues and create a defensible belief when they can take cues from the leader, and use his talking points later. They unload their fears and hatreds of others onto him and let him do the rest.
Wonder why his rallies have the energy of a dance party? There are thousands of people there all full of relief. Just like dancing releases stress, supporting Trump releases all kinds of negative emotions.
He’s rich, never held accountable, and loves attention, so it’s a mutually beneficial relationship that creates a powerful feedback loop. He says crowd-pleasing things, the crowd cheers, he doubles-down.
Trump is like a therapist and religious leader to his supporters, he makes them feel good about their beliefs, their futures, and themselves while explaining problems away without evidence (who needs it?).
Maybe we should stop being so confused about their loyalty.
