I guess I’m a bit of an optimist. I have a hard time believing that there are so many truly cruel and ignorant Trump supporters in this country. I look in amazement at 2024 polls. Could there really be Trump supporters he is not paying? There has to be an explanation.
But there is actually some basis in research, and some of it is even suitable for summer reading. To that end, I’d recommend two good—and highly readable—books for the beach. It’s not the time for deep analysis of abnormal psychology, but these might help. (Warning: Despite the titles they are not religious books!)
The first is “Deer Hunting with Jesus” by Joe Bageant. A guy returns to his rural Virginia home town after retirement from California, and tries to re-acquaint himself with the culture of the people he grew up with. It is really haunting. The folks are dead broke, sick, poorly informed, and still have their hopes in the GOP. I think of it as a sort of totem-poll view of the world. “It doesn’t matter if I am low; someone else is lower. And the used car salesman and slum lord down the street are higher. I might get there if I vote like them.”
And the second: “Finding Darwin’s God” by Ken Miller. Ken is a noted biologist. He is also quite a religious guy, but that’s not the point of the book at all. It is more about how people know things.
There is one passage that I will remember all my life. Miller meets a noted Creationist over motel donuts, and asks him: “You don’t really believe that stuff, do you?” The answer: “I have to.”
What did he mean? Without the strictly-imposed structure of ultra right-wing ideology, their entire world falls apart. If you believe in any science (i.e. vaccines), you have to accept all the rest. And you need a tightly-knit right-wing culture around you or It all falls apart.
For our right-wing friends right now, everything is falling apart. The average kindergartener isn’t white anymore. The person of color in the next cube is out-working you.
When the weather gets bad, I’d recommend another book—much longer and deeper, but must reading. It is “Caste” by Isabel WIlkerson. With great detail, she compares the social structure of India, Nazi Germany and the U.S. And she demonstrates that we are the most racist of all.
I am sure there are others that members can recommend. When you’ve read, this crazy social climate won’t seem nearly as odd.