Response to McCarthy

I want to express my appreciation to Elizabeth McCarthy for her cogent comment on my essay, “Trump as Symptom.”

We disagree about the ways in which Trump’s sexism, racism, xenophobia, and repudiation of political correctness resonate with Trump’s base. My piece argues that there is a dynamic relationship between Trump’s rhetoric and actions and the deeper anxieties and resentments of his base, especially among uneducated

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male white voters. His supporters respond to his economic message and his promises to restore America’s economic hegemony in a world that is increasingly global. If anything, I think I went too easily on Trump (and by extension those of his supporters) after his actions of slighting our NATO allies, his cozying up to authoritarian regimes (especially Russia), his repudiation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and his hostile and ignorant attacks on the free press. If anything, it has been The Washington Post, The New York Times, NBC, and CNN that have done a splendid job of muck-raking, exposing some of the lies and cover sups of Trump since he became president.

I would also add that Trump’s supporters are all too comfortable with his anti-scientific, anti-intellectual, strong-man bullying style. Despite all the revelations about meetings of his family and high-ranking members of his administration with Russians, despite strong evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors, and obstruction of justice, a recent poll showed that 84% of registered Republicans still support Trump. If the Trump health care program passes, many of his hardline supporters (probably between 30 to 40% of the population) may be deprived of their health care insurance and begin to wake up to their error or miscalculation in supporting this billionaire.

You make a good point about the digital revolution, about those who benefit and those who get hurt by it. Trump clearly knows how to use and abuse both social media and other vehicles of the mass media, including television. Ultimately, Trump’s support may turn more on geographical factors such as rural versus city voters; and white, Christian voters versus those more comfortable with a multi-cultural population, whose anxieties are not unleashed by fear of the foreign.

I now think that the best way of understanding Trump requires reference to the Godfather films. It may also account for why some people are pulling for him to get away with his lies, impulsiveness, and above all his cruelty and the horrific things that come out of his mouth or his tweets. Trump is our first Mafioso president. He is a sociopath who demands loyalty from his followers and whose ultimate concerns are his family, brand, and accumulating more wealth and privileges. Because they have been forgotten, overlooked, condescended to, and devalued, his supporters admire Trump because he gets away with everything, showing contempt for standard American norms and conventional ethics. It will

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be fascinating to see how long his Republican colleagues in Congress and across the country continue to support him in the face of a massive cover-up of the Russian collusion investigations and his regime’s close relationship with one of our major adversaries.

Sincerely,

David James Fisher, PhD

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