I’ve written several times before about my quest to understand what motivates modern-day Republican voters to vote Republican. Since 2009 I’ve been saying that self-congratulation and resentment are the main emotional drivers; since then, examining it further, I’ve come up with a couple of different theories that usually end up somewhere between a desire to be “left alone” (meaning, to be relieved of any and all legal and/or social obligations to one’s fellow citizens), and a desire to punish or “stick it to” some despised group or person, with the aforementioned emotions still at the core.
Every once in a while, an actual Republican voter/fan will say or write something that so perfectly expresses and encapsulates one or more of these theories that when I read it I take notice, and feel somewhat vindicated. It’s rare, but it does occasionally happen. The last time I remember it happening was right before the 2014 midterms, when a commenter at NRO wrote, apparently without a trace of irony, “I vote Republican because I feel like I have been victimized by American society.” Today I read something at Mediaite, which usually has a pretty good mix of political-animal species in its comment threads, in an article about (what else) Donald Trump and who is responsible for his “soaring numbers”:
[T]he more you hate and attack Trump, the more we like him-because we hate the cabal of queers at the NY Times, MSNBC, Huff Post, etc...Much like Goerring's propaganda machine the corporate medias propaganda is dispensed by a bunch of queers. We aren't stupid- Trump may well screw us...but we know he will screw you...
(emphasis added).
Set aside the homophobic derp for a second, think about how irrational it is to “like” someone just because others “hate and attack” him (or because you “hate” someone else), and focus on the highlighted words: Trump may well screw us, but we know he will screw you, which is why we’re supporting him. We don’t care how badly we get screwed, as long as you people get screwed, which is all we really want or care about.
Is there any other way to explain it? Is there a better encapsulation of what motivates people like this that anyone has read from a Trump fan (or GOP fan) anywhere, ever?
I remember reading years ago a quote, I can’t remember the source and I can’t remember the exact language, saying something to the effect that some men would gladly be forced to live under a bridge with nothing but a curtain rod to roast sparrows over a fire, as long as someone guaranteed that the [black, immigrant, gay, &c.] man next to him would have no fire, no sparrows, and no rod. That’s basically what this person quoted above is saying.
Is this nihilism? Is it solipsism? Is it sociopathy? Is it something else?
Trump’s entire campaign seems to be predicated on promising white people that he will Make America Great Again by kicking the shit out of everyone they hate -- literally or figuratively. So far I haven’t seen or heard much to dispel that notion; I don’t get a lot of pushback when I suggest it. Maybe “Make America Great Again” could be shortened to, “Screw You!”