The Trump Phenomenon, Explained Once Again

Asked on Quora:

What is your honest opinion on Trump?

Answered on Quora (revised):

Donald J. Trump is a deeply unlearned man, incurious and undisciplined in thought. He seems appetitive and vulgar. And yet he is not an idiot — indeed, he might very well be a sort of publicity savant. And he is a fairly good persuader, certainly knowing how to demean his opponents while entertaining his audience — he is often very funny — thus increasing his fan base even while behaving in an asshole-ish way.

One could go on and on about the defects of his character. His moral deficiencies are many and numerous. And his policies, to the extent they are nationalistic and blustery American boosterism, are generally wrong-headed.

He may be serving as an avatar of Chaos.

But I think most of the answers Quorans gave in response to the question are marred by typical partisan self-congratulation and special pleading. They echo the nonsense from the media quite well.

Listen, leftists: We have Trump not because his American supporters are uniformly racist and sexist and xenophobic — a “basketful of deplorables,” as one famous privileged fool put it — but because the federal government and many of the states are approaching structural crisis, and the establishment of both parties has proved unable or unwilling to deal with the foundational problems. Increasing numbers of Americans despise both major parties — a majority of self-identifying Republicans even loathe their own party (they just trust the Democratic Party less). The number of voters who do not affiliate with either party appears to be growing.

Here is the crucial factor in the 2016 election: when Democrats selected the famous fool (indicated above) as their standard bearer to follow Barack Obama, they did so despite their knowledge that she is roundly hated by millions of Americans. This effrontery sealed their fate. While the Left and the Right both, together, bred their Nemesis, Donald J. Trump, the sheer hubris of establishment Democrats in choosing an incompetent, corrupt and murderous harridan to lead their cause almost guaranteed their comeuppance.

And then came the Progressive caving in, the falling for the feminist solidarity pitch. This made the whole campaign about “progressive values” — that is, Social Justice. Which the left did not realize has passed its peak influence.

And yet, despite the rising reaction to the leftist culture war, the standard-bearer for the Democracy doubled down on intersectionalist ideology and class warfare. This united her campaign around a two-headed beast: the corrupt Establishment on the right with the increasingly insurrectionist mob (I’m referring, of course, to BAMN, BLM, and Antifa, all soft-pedaled by the progressive media) on the left, suggesting to many Americans that progressives are, at base, violent and anarchic as well as tyrannical and even communist.

So, many, many voters held their noses and voted against one candidate, rather than for the ultimately successful one.

I know that leftists are indeed shocked by what happened. Many people are. It is obvious that few expected any effective pushback to the progressive agenda or its stock technique, its modus operandi. Leftists thought they could go on calling their political and policy opponents racist, sexist, stupid and evil and win every battle.

Hubris. Over-confidence. Blinkered folly.

Because at least a third of the country cannot stand the sanctimonious, screeching, imprudent, crazed, hectoring, contradictory, statist and, yes, racist and sexist Left, a rebuke was delivered.

Why Trump? No mystery at all:

N. B. This visual “meme” was created early in the year by James Littleton Gill and me, as part of our LocoFoco meme project.