Please take a moment to read this, as I too have been mystified by Trump’s supporters, have spent years painstakingly speaking to them, and finally figured out who they are, what is happening and how the world views them. I don’t mock them. I respect the chance to let them speak for themselves revealing exactly what they are doing and why.
Let’s start from the beginning:
- “Trump’s” base is not just his ‘base’; he is them, he is their avatar, many practically worship him. That may or may not sound ridiculous depending on your point of view, but for millions of Trump supporters...
- They see in Trump everything they always wanted. They do not care about his past. I cannot tell you how many times I have been told that it is what he is doing now that counts, his past means nothing. 95% of his base will never leave him, NEVER.
- I, and countless others, have been threatened on almost a daily basis for even questioning why one would not support Trump 100% all the time, every day. And I mean I have been threatened with violence in all forms.
- They are angry and frustrated and cannot understand why no one gets it. They completely believe everything that Fox news and other right wing sources tell them. They have no respect whatsoever for the other side.
Now we can take a look at how the world views Trump’s base.
Before you read the following I am an Australian-American, my bio is well known. 45 of my 70 years outside the USA were spent in China, Australia, India, Nepal, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam (lived in each of those at least 3 years some up to 15). So I speak to people outside the USA in all of the countries above plus Europe, the Middle East and South America on a regular basis. This is what they tell me:
- They see MAGAs as, in no particular order: Bigoted, racist, gun fanatics, beyond unreasonable, having no interest in community or others besides themselves. They see a group that terrifies them, makes them wonder if they should ever visit America. They cannot understand their ‘brand’ of Christianity, as it appears to be caught in racist ideologies that cuts out anyone that is not exactly like them. In fact, many see Trump’s Christianity as a kind of ‘cult’ that is not really Christianity at all.
- They see all the bad TV series coming to life about para military scrawny or fat white guys with AR15s threatening to bring down the government. They see gross women shouting and writing on their own bodies that Trump can do anything they want to them - it's OK.
- They watch in fascinated horror as reporters ask basic questions of Trump supporters at his rallies that show their ignorance and total disregard for logic or facts.
- They wonder, if Trump gets reelected, can they ever trust the USA again. They WONDER what happened to the so called ‘greatest country’ in the world.
- They hear about QANON and hope that this despicable cult does not infect their country.
- They wonder how they ever respected this type of America: is there something wrong with them, why didn’t they get it. What is going on?
- They are going through all the various stages of denial, then anger, then sadness, then pity and finally what they believe is a grudging acceptance that whatever America was, it is no longer.
In short, 9 out of 10 people outside of America view Trump supporters as deluded, out of control white nationalists with no regard for anyone but themselves. People who are so off that they would rather lose their rights than let anyone else have any rights, to the point where their following of Trump has meant thousands of them have unnecessarily died by not wearing masks, for instance, thus passing CV19 to other thousands and hundreds of thousands and now millions.
In conclusion, Trump’s base has almost no admirers outside the USA other than some small fringe ‘rights’ groups that you can find in any society.
Trump has done something that no one thought was possible. He has taken a carefully developed 250 year philosophy, perhaps real, perhaps exaggerated, and completely shattered it with the gleeful support and adoration of a millions of people that the rest of the world finds frightening.
They feel it is up to America with it’s election to either show them there is another more powerful presence, a completely different approach to life and group and a return to the philosophy of American leadership and exceptionalism, or that Trump’s base will be the America that they will have to learn to live with for a long time to come.
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