Kev: My take is that many MAGA types enjoy the dopamine of resentment...and thus they identify with Trump's anger... It's gut-deep feel-good formerly buried rage... They want things different... But different from what? I would figure that most aren't in the stock market. That most don't have the advantages of a college degree. I get supermarket inflation. That's real. But it's more than that. I do think they want a kind of white people's return to the past and they fear it's impossible to achieve... Which amps up their resentment further... TV shows a diverse society and the commercials show them how upper middle classes live. And thus how bilious-sweet for so many to blame immigrants and to vote against an upper middle class person of color and a woman to boot... It's like the old promise of working hard to do well hasn't panned out enough...and they are hearing their own frustration in Trump's fury... I get their desperation in a way, but I am flabbergasted by their willingness -- their need? -- to believe in the outrageous lies...
Thanks for the note, Kev. I think your diagnosis is right on. Facts and statistics showing that our current economy is "The Envy of the World," according to a recent cover story in the Brit newsmag "The Economist," does not get to them...nor does the argument that inflation was a Covid-induced worldwide condition -- which we have come out of better than any others-- touch their consciousness...and given the state of our educational systems, social media disinfo, etc., it will only get worse.
Kev: My take is that many MAGA types enjoy the dopamine of resentment...and thus they identify with Trump's anger... It's gut-deep feel-good formerly buried rage... They want things different... But different from what? I would figure that most aren't in the stock market. That most don't have the advantages of a college degree. I get supermarket inflation. That's real. But it's more than that. I do think they want a kind of white people's return to the past and they fear it's impossible to achieve... Which amps up their resentment further... TV shows a diverse society and the commercials show them how upper middle classes live. And thus how bilious-sweet for so many to blame immigrants and to vote against an upper middle class person of color and a woman to boot... It's like the old promise of working hard to do well hasn't panned out enough...and they are hearing their own frustration in Trump's fury... I get their desperation in a way, but I am flabbergasted by their willingness -- their need? -- to believe in the outrageous lies...
Thanks for the note, Kev. I think your diagnosis is right on. Facts and statistics showing that our current economy is "The Envy of the World," according to a recent cover story in the Brit newsmag "The Economist," does not get to them...nor does the argument that inflation was a Covid-induced worldwide condition -- which we have come out of better than any others-- touch their consciousness...and given the state of our educational systems, social media disinfo, etc., it will only get worse.
Hope all is well.