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Basis for Trump Appeal: Authoritarianism

J

jimmy eat jazz

Well-Known Member
Here is a link to a very interesting article at Vox that takes an academic (more or less) approach to explaining the appeal of Donal Trump. Basically, Trump appeals to a strong authoritarian streak among certain of the US population, which as been abetted by years of Republican positioning in opposition to the social changes (and in my view pandering to authoritarian leaning types)sweeping the country.

It is a pretty detailed examination of how the Republican party has assiduously created/nurtured the environment in which someone like Trump can flourish.

Trump IS, as I've long argued, the monster of Republican creation and Republican pandering to the lesser angels of human nature.

Enjoy.

https://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism
 
I read about half of the article. I will finish it later. I think the authors are probably correct about where some of Trump's support is coming from, but I think they're missing quite a bit as well. They claim he's far right, yet in reality he's all over the board, and he's obviously getting a lot of crossover vote. His only far right issue is immigration, and even that is not far right in every respect.

Maybe this is from Dems and independents simply trying to mess with the GOP election (they might be trying to nominate Trump because they think it will benefit Hillary), but it seems more likely that it is from moderates who genuinely support a Trump presidency. The authors seem to want to imply that the GOP has done something special to attract these flawed voters, but Trump almost always loses in a closed GOP primary so they might want to take a closer look at their logic on that one.

In addition to this idea of authoritarian, I think the following are among his appeals:

* He is not embarrassed of America or Americans. This is a huge deal to many voters.
* He is not politically correct. Many people are sick and tired of the careful and coded language politicians use.
* He is anti-establishment. When the establishment attacks Trump it only makes him stronger among that very large segment of voters who have lost confidence in the establishment.
* He does not use a teleprompter. I think a lot of people find his delivery refreshing, and I don't think the impact of this can be overestimated. Trump's delivery, crudity and all, feels far more genuine to them than a Hillary or Mitt or Barack speech.

The bottom line is that Trump has gotten this far because his opponents have vastly underestimated him, and I believe the article you referenced is just another example of that.

When I have more time I'm going to go back into the article because I want to read the rest, and I especially want to understand that PPP poll it references. It is frightening to me that any Americans believe the things that poll claims, let alone such a large percentage of Trump voters.
 
One more thing. The fact that Trump has self-funded his campaign and appears not to be beholden to special interests cannot be underestimated. The only person I know who admits to being a Trump supporter is a very intelligent left of center highly-successful businessman who says he is going to vote for Trump because he's sick and tired of politicians who have to answer to special interests once they are elected. He genuinely believes that Trump will make decisions based on what's best for the country. We've had heated discussions about this because I do not believe Trump is so principled, but my friend believes that Trump's strategy so far has been brilliant in order to put himself into position to make the change he really believes in.
 
The article makes interesting and well thought out points but misses a very important "X" factor when it comes to Trump and politics in general. How much has our fame-worshiping culture played into all of this? Trump has been a household name for over 30 years now - that's uniquely long for a non-entertainment/political figure.

In other words if Donald Trump and John Kasich completely "flipped scripts" would Kasich be the front runner? Doubtful.

I may be too much of an optimist at heart but I think Trump is more an anomaly than a trend.
 
Joe Bagadonuts said:
One more thing. The fact that Trump has self-funded his campaign and appears not to be beholden to special interests cannot be underestimated.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how Trump continually gets away with his self-funded myth when the word "DONATE" clearly appears on the Home Page of his website:

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/

And it bears mentioning that while he is not beholden to special interests he himself IS a special interest - so at the end of the day I'm not quite sure how much that changes the game if he gets into the White House.
 
I enjoyed the thoughtful article. It also seemed like common sense. It's not hard to understand it comes down to basic differences in human psychology. And in times of great social and cultural change, there will always be reactionary mind sets that fear some, many, or all of the changes they witness in their society, or outside threats looming larger then ever. While some fear, others are apt by temperament to be tolerant. So much of what they spoke of just seems a given with respect to how people respond to the changes the authors focused on. Which is what we are going through in our lifetimes.
 
candrew said:
The article makes interesting and well thought out points but misses a very important "X" factor when it comes to Trump and politics in general. How much has our fame-worshiping culture played into all of this? Trump has been a household name for over 30 years now - that's uniquely long for a non-entertainment/political figure.

In other words if Donald Trump and John Kasich completely "flipped scripts" would Kasich be the front runner? Doubtful.

I may be too much of an optimist at heart but I think Trump is more an anomaly than a trend.
Click to expand...

What they did not mention has been picked up by others. Namely the realization that our presidential election process has become "bad acting reality TV". And Trump realized that, charged in, completely changed the tone to one more suitable to a "low brow" reality TV slugfest, and made an even greater mockery of the election process. Especially with debates up the yin yang compared to previous elections. The other candidates were caught flat footed, not aware that the system is so flawed, a huckster like Trump could just by force of personality bring the whole dysfunctional nominating process to it's absurd conclusion. A Reality TV contest for the Presidency.
 
I heard someone the other day comparing Trump to those "as seen on TV" products or self-help books - but for politics. You have a problem (overweight, depressed, laundry stains, whatever) and you just want someone to come along and solve it. Right now. What you're doing isn't working, so you need to try something else - anything else - to change things up. People are angry, unsatisfied, feel America can do better, and along comes Trump promising results, like a magic bullet. No "we need to return to these principles" type talk - that sounds too painful or seems like it'll take too long. No, Trump is just gonna build a big wall, make the other guy pay for it, and fix everything. BOOM. Everything you need to make America great again, all inside this box. People grab onto something like that. Trouble is, they often end up disappointed when it doesn't work as advertised. And sadly, many voters (not saying all Trump supporters are this way) are simply not taking the time to educate themselves and form a deep-rooted opinion. They either don't really know what they want, or have been apathetic for a while. So, when they finally decide to engage in the process, they go with whomever makes the most noise, and that's Trump by a mile.
 
Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have:
independence or respect for elders?
Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have:
obedience or self-reliance?
Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have:
to be considerate or to be well-behaved?
Please tell me which one you think is more important for a child to have:
curiosity or good manners?

obviously the anti authoritarian answers are supposed to be:independence, self reliance, considerate, and curiosity

but are these really measures of authoritarian tendencies? I don't think so. I think they used keywords to confirm the bias they already had(that the GOP had authoritarian tendencies more so than the DNC( that may be true)) They have juxtaposed sensible values that mean a lot to a great many people in order to place a negative connotation on the "correct" anti-authoritarian answer.

Here is an example

Suppose I ask a bunch of liberal graduate students: What's more important independence or the advice of experts?

The anti-authoritarian answer is independence but now that sounds ignorant and stupid. By contrasting independence with expertise it gives the impression that that independent person is also a young earth creationist. This isn't very far off from the contrast between respecting your elders and independence.

So why are people voting for the Donald?
I don't think that people are flocking to trump because they crave authoritarianism. I think it's because he is a brilliant dip ****. He is what they hope to someday be(the brilliant part they're already dip****s and they know it). They hope he will show them how to become the prick they always wanted to be. They know he won't deliver but it's a fun fantasy. They aren't racist xenophobic assholes because they are afraid of Mexicans or even afraid that they will take their jobs. They just want somebody to hate to avoid looking in the mirror.
 
Joe Bagadonuts said:
He is not embarrassed of America or Americans. This is a huge deal to many voters.
Click to expand...

Now, Joe, imagine if a German politician emerged saying things like this:

Jürgen Schneider said:
We must not be embarrassed of Germany, or being German! We are proud of who we are! I will not apologize for the mistakes that we have made! I will not apologize for being German!
Click to expand...


Just like Germany needs to maintain its apologies for past transgressions, America must do the same. Not doing so might lend some credibility among the insecure hicks of America, but it will further damage international relationships with foreign nations worldwide.

You tell me which tradeoff is more significant. I simply cannot understand why you're so sensitive about Barack Obama admitting the transgressions of America. It really is rather bizarre.
 
Trump is a flip-flopping opportunistic bigot with mediocre financial sense, mediocre job-creating skills, but a charismatic personality that appeals to the very lowest rungs of American society both in terms of intellect and ethics.
 
dalamon said:
Now, Joe, imagine if a German politician emerged saying things like this:




Just like Germany needs to maintain its apologies for past transgressions, America must do the same. Not doing so might lend some credibility among the insecure hicks of America, but it will further damage international relationships with foreign nations worldwide.

You tell me which tradeoff is more significant. I simply cannot understand why you're so sensitive about Barack Obama admitting the transgressions of America. It really is rather bizarre.
Click to expand...

American exceptionalism. The real cause of everything that's wrong with our neighbour and the real cause of the rise of Donald Trump.
 
JimLes said:
American exceptionalism. The real cause of everything that's wrong with our neighbour and the real cause of the rise of Donald Trump.
Click to expand...

America is exceptional. I can happily say that despite our faults and mean it in a way that does not detract from other nations. For example, I think Japan, Russia, Cuba, Madagascar, Australia, Kuwait, Brazil...we are all exceptional.
 
dalamon said:
Just like Germany needs to maintain its apologies for past transgressions, America must do the same. Not doing so might lend some credibility among the insecure hicks of America, but it will further damage international relationships with foreign nations worldwide.

You tell me which tradeoff is more significant. I simply cannot understand why you're so sensitive about Barack Obama admitting the transgressions of America. It really is rather bizarre.
Click to expand...

Did you just equate Americans trying to create world peace to Hitler Germany? Fanatic.
 
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