TRUMP VOTERS WERE REALLY LOGICAL
By: Hank Rishel
Tags: Democrats, Donald Trump, 2020 Presidential Race

Donald Trump is on the verge of leaving office. Despite his increasingly desperate effort to over turn the November election, the fact that the electors voted in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris means that he is, kicking and screaming, on the way out.

And yet, his voters have remained remarkably loyal. His voter turnout actually increased from his surprising performance in 2016. Even his transparent effort to personally gain from his campaign to overturn his defeat at the polls has failed to disturb the loyalty of many of his devoted followers.

Let us think about those stubbornly loyal Trump voters. They do mystify and anger others who can’t believe that there are that many educated Americans who are that illogical. We should begin by putting the “illogical” charge to rest. People are always logical. Let us say that we have a hopeless schizophrenic who believes that there is a steel band around his head that is getting tighter and tighter. It is perfectly logical for him to tear at his head and try to get it off, even if no one else can see it. If we know what is driving them, people are always logical.

So, if people continue to support Donald Trump despite his clear failures as President there are logical reasons why they do that. After all, we are not discussing a few outliers. Millions of people voted for him. One thing that distinguishes the Trump voters is their perceived lack of formal education.

Think about what that means. It means that many Trump supporters ended their education with high school. Think back to your own high school experience. If it was typical you will remember that in each year’s class there were a group of highly socialized young people, often with professional well-off parents, who seemed to take over everything.

They could do that partly because the teachers liked them and, probably unconsciously encouraged them to excel more than the others. High school is an arena where young people quickly learn their place. For many, that means that their place is to disappear in plain sight and wait for it to be over. Their goal becomes to graduate, to find a job, and go from there. College is distant, frightening, and something that other people do.

So they do find that job. If the work is physical their fellow workers hardly constitute a Harvard seminar. There is no elevated discussion of abstract concepts or values. They quickly find that if their fellow workers are supportive of Donald Trump they had better support him too. Not to do that will make life on the job truly miserable.

And, why would those workers be supportive? Critics of Donald Trump may be aware of how little Trump seemed to know or to care about the actual government he was elected to administer. Trump, in their eyes, never did the work he was elected to do. Halls in departmental buildings were filled with furniture unneeded because Trump didn’t bother to appoint people to work in the departments, his departments.

Those workers on the job know nothing about those furniture-filled halls. Their memories of what, if anything, they learned in their high school government class are usually dim indeed. What they learn from Fox News is purposefully superficial. They will not be enlightened by the hyper-televised political campaigns because people running for office know that they can win people over by talking about the horrors of socialism and imaginary radical leftists.

What Trump supporters did know was that Trump is a big strong guy who was making all the “good people” mad. That he was not following their rules, that he was driving those people crazy (and he swore a lot). They knew that he did care about them because he said he did. They liked that. He was really good at harnessing their anger.

Looking back at that high school class we probably fail to realize how different, how separate, the lives of those high schoolers have become. Those who were the popular, verbal, smart sons and daughters of smart, verbal, well-off parents now live entirely separate lives from their less fortunate classmates.

It certainly seems logical to believe that some of the resentment of the “working class” goes back to the social stratification enhanced by their time in school. Some of the most capable “outcasts” may have moved into jobs that pay really well. But, nothing since their school days probably makes those people think that their place in the system has really changed. They still feel an underlying resentment.

Donald Trump is moving on. He is unlikely to be back. That underlying resentment that made his presidency possible is still there. Donald Trump hasn’t really stolen the Republican Party. He has activated a large group of the less successful and temporarily grafted them into a party of traditional Republicans. With him gone his new found supporters may fade from politics leaving the more traditional Republicans in place.

For the Democrats, the angry Trump supporters represent a real opportunity. Many of them were originally Democrats who Democrats in the past failed to serve. Their loyalty to Trump does make clear that they want to belong, and to not be ignored. They are a more natural addition to the Democrats than to the Republicans. The party that really offers them respect and really strives to move rural America forward may find that all that anger begins to melt away. Donald Trump and an uncontrolled pandemic may have set the stage for some who feel ignored to finally really belong!

H.J. Rishel

12/17/2020