Friday, April 13, 2018

David Brooks: Anti-Trumpism Has Failed, Largely Because of the Inability of Its Members to Stop Sneering at Their Enemies


From David Brooks, via Ace of Spades:

Which is how you got Trump in the first place. 

You want more Trump? Well this is how you get more Trump.

Below, an excerpt from that column.
A lot of us never-Trumpers assumed momentum would be on our side as his scandals and incompetences mounted. It hasn’t turned out that way. 
I almost never meet a Trump supporter who has become disillusioned. I often meet Republicans who were once ambivalent but who have now joined the Trump train…. 
Part of the problem is that anti-Trumpism has a tendency to be insufferably condescending. For example, my colleague Thomas B. Edsall beautifully summarized the recent academic analyses of what personality traits supposedly determine Trump support. Trump opponents, the academics say, are open-minded and value independence and novelty. Trump supporters, they continue, are closed-minded, change-averse and desperate for security. 
This analysis strikes me as psychologically wrong (every human being requires both a secure base and an open field - -we can't be divided into opposing camps), journalistically wrong (Trump supporters voted for the man precisely because they wanted transformational change) and an epic attempt to offend 40 percent of our fellow citizens by reducing them to psychological inferiors.
THERE'S MORE.

2 comments:

Pete Rowe said...

Heck, it is too late. I did not vote for Trump the first time around, but I will the next. The guy is pro-America, pro-Second Amendment, put Gorsuch on the Court and ton of other conservative judicial appointments, tough and successful on foreign policy so far, so far strong on the economy.

Trump is strong. The previous leadership has been largely flaccid.

thelastenglishprince said...

It is not the sneer against Trump supporters that got my vote the first time. It was the belief that Trump was the man who could turn Washingtonians on their ear, drain the swamp, and give Americans governance with voice. We had been treated like deaf-mutes for so many years.

Not the sneer. It was the swagger that brought me on board early on in the game.