SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY WANT TO

 

If I didn’t understand it before, this  really helped.  The clip of Samantha Bee, AKA “The one that got away from Comedy Central after John Stewart left” talking with Trump supporters finally helped me to understand what this is all about. 

No, Trump supporters aren’t supporters because of ideology or philosophy.

No, Trump supporters aren’t supporters because they believe he will make America great again.

No, Trump supporters aren’t supporters because they think he will do a great job as president.

Trump supporters ARE supporters because they want to be.

It’s finally become crystal clear to me. People are supporting Trump because he represents the best opportunity they have to say “F you” to a system that has totally left them behind.

Think about it.  If you fit the Trump supporter profile: white, relatively uneducated, lower middle to working class poor with no real hope of ever moving up, socially conservative and fearful of gays and liberated women - the two current political parties don’t work for you.

Liberals and democrats? They are too educated, socially tolerant, diverse and metropolitan to cater to Trump supporter’s fear of blacks, foreigners and independent thinking  women. And in a nation that is getting more diverse, younger and more tolerate, whites who long for the 1950’s can’t find safe harbor with this group.

Mainstream conservatives? They are too tied to that exclusive club of rich and well educated elites that only want Trump supporters at election time and would never want them as full time members. And in a nation with massive income inequality, this group will continue to move further and further away from everyone else.

But Trump? He’s so crass and so simple sounding that he panders to them better than anyone has before. He even makes arguments the same way they do – by repeating the same simple words over and over again in an increasingly loud and blustery way.

And he’s become relevant and famous in a manner that is the only path toward relevancy and fame that they could ever really see for themselves: dumb luck. He inherited a bunch of money from his dad – enough in fact to weather his many unfortunate business decisions – and became a reality TV star. For Trump supporters, that kind of stumbling into fame and fortune fits their world view because they know they are never going to become rich and famous through intelligence, talent and hard work.

Their lives are dreary and boring. They are angry at the certitude of that condition. They want to strike out at the left’s tolerance and education and the right’s wealth and privilege.

And here comes The Donald. Supporting Trump is like the teenage girl who takes up with the tattooed biker dude to piss off her parents. She knows the guy’s a loser and a waste of her time, but at least he’s a leather-clad and spiked-haired middle finger to her overbearing and oppressive mom and dad.

They cling to Trump because they want to. They go to his rallies because by doing so affords them one last chance to have a voice in a nation that would just assume vote them off the island as the weak link.

“Why are you supporting Donald Trump?” we may ask.

“Because I want to and I can,” says a truly honest supporter, “and that’s all I might have left.”