Editor's Note: This is John's reponse to this article by
I am not entirely sure whether it is a vice or a virtue but I often enjoy reading Leftist writing. They are so blind that they regularly give me a laugh. I suppose it is the psychologist in me. I want to see how their strange minds work.
And the most amusing thing about their response to Donald Trump is their total inability even to consider that he might have got some things right. That's just not an available explanation for them. So what do they do? They find something psychologically wrong with either Trump or his supporters. Leftists have been making such claims about conservatives at least since 1950 and have succeeded in convincing only themselves -- so they are like a dog returning to its vomit in trying the same strategy with Trump.
The first label they tried to stick on Trump and his supporters was the old 1950's claim that he is "authoritarian". But, since it is in fact they who constantly try to confine Americans within a straitjacket of endless regulations, that label had no adhesive power at all and seems now to have been abandoned. See here and here
So it is interesting that the latest explanation for Trump's success below has finally made some attempts to address reality.
She starts out with a litany of Trump's failures and scandals as she sees them and wonders why none of those failures seem to dent his popularity. That most of the failures are simply Trump's impatience with detail she does not consider. She certainly does not consider that not being a policy wonk might actually be an element in his popularity. Do policy wonks make attractive political candidates? Few of his voters are likely to be policy wonks so are probably happy with getting it broadly right in their own lives.
In fact, the little lady asserts that Trump supporters like Trump's simple slogans.
And then of course we see the typically Leftist malicious misattributions. No matter what Trump does, it is a product of racism, not some practical reason. And anything Trump does is wrong anyhow, even if Obama also did it.
Then she gets on to her big discovery: Trump makes his voters happy! Could it be that they enjoy his puncturing of the great Obama/Clinton balloon of Leftist pomposity and self-righteousnesss?
Could it be relief at Trump's attacks on the Leftist straitjacket of regulations and are relieved to hear common sense coming from the White House instead of hectoring?
No way! It's because of "tribalism" and because they don't go to church any more. Pesky that Trump supporters come from all races and all walks of life! Pesky that Trump has very broad church support and is himself openly Christian. Herman Cain tells us that 29% of blacks now support Trump. I wonder what tribe they belong to?
What the lady is doing is a familiar sleight of hand that any analytical philosopher can tell you about. "Tribalism" sounds like an explanation but is in fact a definition: To like Trump MAKES you part of a tribe, the Trump tribe. It is at best an observation. It explains nothing.
And the idea that lots of people are alienated from moralistic churches is surely true. But it is true mainly of the old mainstream churches. More evangelical churches are forgiving and make a big effort at outreach. Americans who are religious at all can usually find a church to suit them. The claim that Trump supporters are worshiping at some sort of new Trumpian religion -- when the religion at his rallies is plainly evangelical Christian -- is just a desperate attempt to look at what his real appeal is -- relief from Leftist tyranny and joy at having a President who makes sense to ordinary people
I have been reading John Jay Ray for years. Incredible insights. My favorite atheist. :)
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