Trump Channels Hitler…Thousands Cheer, and the GOP Shrugs
…just WHO ARE these people?
Last weekend In Durham, NH the would-be Fuhrer gave one of his ranting, grievance-laden “speeches” at a rally of his “supporters.”
The speech again drew on some choice lines from Mein Kampf: "They're poisoning the blood of our country. That's what they've done. They're coming into our country, from Africa, from Asia, over the world. They're pouring into our country."
This followed similar rhetoric from a month ago, where he borrowed from the language and playbooks of Mussolini and Hitler, saying: “We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country…”1
Playing Goebbels to Trump’s Hitler, Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung defended the speech, saying that the former president "gave a great speech and knocked it out of the park in front of over 10,000 people."
Others saw it…differently. In a statement issued by its president, Domingo Garcia, The League of United Latin American Citizens accused Trump of pandering to:
“the lowest and most sinister human emotions…Donald Trump’s remarks in recent days accusing immigrants of ‘poisoning the blood of America’ are reminiscent of the language of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. Trump’s words very intentionally create hatred of the other and are nothing more than fear-mongering. They play to the lowest and most sinister human emotions to incite hatred and cause harm or worse to innocent men, women, and children.”
And Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt issued a statement saying:
“We have seen this kind of toxic rhetoric inspire real-world acts of violence in places like Pittsburgh and El Paso. It should have no place in our politics, period. America is stronger as a pluralistic society that welcomes immigrants.”
To many of us it is unfathomable that an American politician in 2023 can not only get away with such rhetoric, but actually garner millions of supporters.
Just who are these people?
I’ve thought about it, and suggest that there are several buckets that they fall into. There is certainly overlap where individual supporters fall into several of these buckets. A Venn diagram would be an interesting illustration. Let’s describe these buckets. For the sake of brevity, I’ll risk being accused of overgeneralizing and oversimplifying, but let’s give it a go.
“Conservatives” Who Want to Benefit from his Policies
If you run a corporation that makes more money by polluting the air, soil, or water than by mitigating such pollution, you very likely support Trump for his deregulatory zeal. And if you are rich, or a politician beholden to rich donors, you may have supported Trump because you wanted a Republican holding the bill-signing pen in the Oval Office to sign off on your tax cuts.
The Left-Behinds
This bucket describes folks in the towns and regions (e.g., “the Rust Belt”) who have been left behind as globalization, technology, and trade closed their factories and stole their livelihoods. Government and politicians from both parties failed to come to the aid of such places with investment in retraining, relocation, and education. Instead, both Democrats and republicans responded to the campaign donations of multinational corporations interested only in maximizing profit. Those left behind in these places had few job prospects. It’s no coincidence that meth and opioids ravaged these regions.
The Trump supporters among the left-behind either responded to his “America First,” anti-immigrant “policies” or just wanted to throw out the existing system that failed them. This is the one I am most sympathetic to, and a constituency the pre-Clinton Democrats worked hard to champion. President Biden has taken up their cause with his support for unions, infrastructure and reinvestment policies, but the Left Behinds don’t see it yet. 2
The Christian Nationalists
Many years ago I wrote a newspaper column that described Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as members of “The American Taliban.” They were certainly among the vanguard of what has come to be known as the Christian Nationalism. These are the folks who wish to impose their interpretation of Christianity on the governance of the country. There’s one sitting in the Speaker’s chair right now. They would impose their evangelical, often fundamentalist faith and values onto the public square. Christian Nationalist “voters…are determined to use the power of government to roll back the civil rights, women’s rights and sexual revolutions.”3 Many of those who participated in the Jan. 6 riot were Christian Nationalists (mostly, they don’t call themselves that).
Those in this bucket care more about imposing their will than democratic principles. That’s why many of them make a point to claim that the US is a “republic” not a “democracy.” Because in a republic you elect the people to make the decisions, you don’t vote on them referendum-style…then they vote-suppress, gerrymander and court-pack so that “the right people” rule the republic.
You can read here how Christians Against Christian Nationalism characterize it.
The Racists and Xenophobes
There’s them, too. And some are violent…recall the mass shootings in Buffalo, El Paso, Pittsburg, targeting Blacks, Latinos, and Jews. Think Charlottesville, the Proud Boys…
The Resentful
A not-insignificant bucket of Trump supporters are in that camp because Trump hates and mocks those whom they hate and dislike. Who do they dislike? “Coastal elites,” “city folks,” “experts.” The Rightly or wrongly, they feel disrespected by these classes that they believe look down on them.
Trump woos them with a Christlike pose – he tells them that he is standing in for them, taking the persecution that would otherwise be visited on them.
Does understanding who they are make us better at trying to reason with them and change minds?
I dunno, but I don’t think it can hurt, at least with those in some of the buckets. I have a friend in SC who says she tries to have one conversation each day with a conservative neighbor, listening and trying to draw out their thinking, and maybe give them something to think about.
Can’t hurt.
For context, see https://kevinmcdonald.substack.com/p/fascism-on-the-march
In her unfortunate “basket of deplorables” speech, Hilary Clinton described this group as:
"…that other basket of people…feel that government has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they are just desperate for change. It doesn't really even matter where it comes from. They don't buy everything he says but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroine, feel like they're in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well."
Thomas Edsall NY Times column of Nov. 1, 2023, The Embodiment of White Christian Nationalism in a Tailored Suit