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The Appeal of Donald Trump

In short, Donald Trump never says "You should ...." H never implies that his public should be behaving in any way other than they do. He never admonishes them for doing the wrong thing. There is no wrong behavior in his eyes, just do what you feel.

He never pretends to say what people should be doing.

MAGA Backlash

The MAGA supporter simply hates when the educated elite tell them what they should be doing, how they should be feeling, how they should be behaving, and to stop doing thing they shouldn't do.

  • We should treat all people the same: The MAGA crowd doesn't want to do that. They dislike people who look different from them, and readily blame their problems on them.
  • Gays should get equal treatment: The MAGA crowd does not feel comfortable with gay people, and certainly with the concept of gay marriage, and Trump never says or implies that they should accept gays.
  • MAGA people hate being told that they need to be considerate of trans people.
  • Society should help those who can't: MAGA hates the fact that many people can not afford their own health care, and they don't like being told that we have to support them.
  • Women should be protected: MAGA crowd hates being told women should not just have their pussies grabbed. Most wouldn't, but they don't want to be told such.
  • Officials shouldn't take bribes: They applaud Trump for working deals that make him money and don't want to be told that that behavior is dishonorable.
  • Indigenous people should be revered: The MAGA crowd does not want to do that. They feel that such people are simply gaming the system and stealing their own money.
  • Judicial due process: The MAGA crowd thinks that due process is just a way for criminals to talk their way out of getting the punishment they deserve. They don't want to be told that this is for their own safety and to prevent mistakes. They think that it is obvious who should be thrown in jail, and don't like being told that the police might have picked up the wrong person and so we should have a process to make sure that justice is being done.
  • Leaders should be qualified in their fields: They don't care that the Secretary of Defense has no experience running a defense department. They don't care that the Secretary of Health is a conspiracy theorist.
  • Bigotry: The MAGA crowd does not want to be told they are racist or bigots.
  • Taxes: nobody like paying taxes, but the MAGA crowd believes that cheating on taxes is perfectly fine behavior. They don't want to be told that they should pay taxes or that they shouldn't cheat.
  • Guns: I don't need to elaborate how the gun nuts don't want to be told anything about how they should be having and handling guns. Even simple safety laws can't be passed.

The amazing thing is that Trump never ever says anything like what they don't want to hear. He lets them

  • Don't like drugs coming into the country: let's just blow up the boats without putting any of our people in danger.
  • Don't like that person who looks different: No problem, put them in a concentration camp in a different country.
  • Don't like taxes: just cheat if you can

The conversation

I was talking to a young friend who was complaining that the American public is simply not educated and therefor makes poor choices.

I am not disagreeing, but I noticed that this is precisely what the MAGA crowd rejects: the idea that there is a proper way that they are supposed to be. They view anyone who has gone to college as suspicious. The education warped their minds, and they spew liberal garbage. The educated elite have plans for how the world will be better when everybody follows certain rules. That is, the educated feel they know better than the public, what the public should be doing.

That is what Trump give them: freedom from feeling they are being told they should be different. No soul searching. No introspection. No doubts. Just be whatever you are, and behave as you see fit.

Remember the time when a scuffle broke out in Trump's audience, and he said something like "Go ahead and attack him, I'll pay your legal bills." That is Trump in a nutshell: go do whatever you want without feeling constrained by social norms or rules or morals. Act on your feelings. Don't suppress your instinct to grope an employee. The MAGA crowd finds this very liberating. They don't like being told they should not do certain things, and Trump never tells them this.