It’s been over two months since he won election and nearly a
full week since he’s become the president. We’ve had a lot of time actually, to
assess why millions of people voted for him. There is no lack of interviews
with Trump supporters who’ve weighed in on why they voted for this, shall we
say, unconventional candidate.
Here’s the funny thing I believe we've discovered about
these voters: they are actually frightened by him as well. If you look below the surface of their loud
pronouncements and their “in your face” joy at his election, you can clearly
see the fear in their words and hearts. Despite their overt boldness, you can
really hear the apprehension in their voice – it is as if they can see the long
dark descending tunnel of the Trump presidency and the hell to which it leads.
And so, they are metaphorically hanging on to precarious
ledges of rationalization and justification that keeps them, temporarily, from
the abyss.
This
article does as good a job as any at allowing us to peer inside the mind of
overtly supportive, yet secretly terrified Trump supporters. Now don’t get me
wrong: all supporters of incoming presidents begin with a sense of hope. You
hope that the person you voted for is going to do the things they said they
were going to do when they were merely a candidate. But if you read this article, and many,
many
more you come away with the inescapable conclusion that the vast majority of
Trump supporters are clinging to hope the very same as they would in a Las
Vegas casino.
Just like the rest of us, they literally have no idea how
the Trump presidency will work out and right now, they are surreptitiously
clenching their jaws and holding their breath as if life is standing perfectly
still and they are watching a tiny ball skitter around a roulette table.
Further, like typical dead-end gamblers hunched around the game, they’ve
wagered more than they should and now all they can do is put on a brave face
and helplessly watch as fate takes over. Like degenerate gamblers with their
self-talk, so many of these people have shakily bet on a color and a number and
told themselves, “This time, my number has
to come up!”
But it probably won’t. And deep, deep down, they know it too.
They know that if the shoe were on the other foot, that if somehow a Trump of
the left had been elected, they would all right now be buying shotguns shells
and bottled water and putting down payments on isolated cabins in the woods or bunkers
dug into the sides of hills. That in the
Bizzaro political world where democrats behaved exactly like republicans, but still
hoed toward their policy and candidate ideals, the nation and the world would
be bracing for President Snoop Dog’s second week as thousands of terrified
citizens held battered signs reading, “THE END IS NIGH!”
And so, they are metaphorically hanging on to precarious
ledges of rationalization and justification that keeps them, temporarily, from
the abyss.
What are these ledges?
The first ledge is the pronouncement that he
will clean up his act once he settles into office. Especially from women
supporters, we continually hear their belief that President Trump won’t be as vulgar
and hateful as Candidate Trump. They clench their fingers to this slim
outcropping and try desperately not to think about the prospect of a
70-year-old man of extreme privilege fundamentally changing his life-long
personality.
·
The second ledge holds the minuscule promise
that a complete outsider like Trump will be the tonic that cures the ills of
our nation. While the well-worn sod of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington holds some
true appeal, they know deep down Trump was not the outsider they were looking
for. A mediocre at best business man, who failed as much as he succeeded, with
only one true skill – self-promotion – who’s spent more than half of his adult
life as laughing stock is decidedly ill fit to be the outsider who restores the
country to past greatness.
·
Third, we move onto the even narrower ledge
which I will term the faith-based sill. That somehow because of his party
affiliation, The Donald will help restore America to a moral and god-fearing
place. Here we find our petrified supporters hanging on by their fingernails
and wrapping their minds around the man’s record in all its pussy-grabbing,
thrice married, Howard Stern fawning, abortion flip-flopping, daughter-ogling
glory.
·
Slimmer and further down the dark tunnel is a
millimeter thick crevice of rationalization which claims Trump “tells it like
it is” and that his brutal honesty will set us back on track. Here, they
swallow hard, hug the abyssal wall and refuse to look down knowing full well
that the pit they fear has been literally carved by the thousands upon
thousands of his lies.
·
And finally we get to the last ledge, a mere
indentation almost too tiny to see with the naked eye: the dry mouth and palm
sweat-inducing idea that Trump and Trump alone can put an end to political
corruption. Unfortunately for the faithful, time didn’t stop and we are already
neck deep in the Goldman Sacks – never to be released tax returns –conflicts of
interest –Russian hacking – election fraud canard – lock her up faint – sleaze.
This mere illusion of a ledge is already giving way and it won’t be long now
until gravity takes them.
In a way, it’s tempting to feel sorry for this lot. Back in
November, the abyss was a small crater almost completely out of sight. Their
reasons and rationalizations weren’t ledges back them – they were safe and
comfortable stepping stones to the voting booth. Perhaps, owing to Trump’s
image as a TV personality, it didn’t quite seem fully real a couple of months
ago.
Today however, the abyss looms large and menacing beneath
their feet. Their trembling fear – like our own – speaks of a fall we and they can’t
rebound from. To us, the people who saw this grave mistake materialize in the
summer, that fall will show us how right we were. To them, the fall will show
them how wrong they were. And there will be no winners. Perhaps the only saving
grace is that as we all fall into the abyss - now devoid of ledges - we might be able to hold onto each
other.
