I will mention, but not focus solely, on the racism, anger, misogyny and anti-immigrant hatred of many of the MAGAs. Those are already well recognized MAGA traits for us here at KOS, and certainly a motivating force behind Trump’s appeal.
(Forgive the length, it’s hoped it holds your interest long enough to finish it.)
Me and Life in the 50s
Popular hair style in the 50s and 60s.
My story is one that millions of young men like myself were cast in at the time, culminating in 1968.
Thinking back to the 50s and 60s (ancient history to some of us) I’m reminded of a factor often overlooked by progressives, the left and liberal minded people. One still hiding in plain sight if you just look for it.
I grew up on a mainly white block in what is now called Park Slope, Brooklyn. Not the gentrified place we all know today if you’re from New York. But on a block, 17th between 8th and Ninth Avenue, that was one of the poorest and toughest of any in the neighborhood. One that Bruce Davidson, then a well know photojournalist/photographer, used as a subject for his 1959 photo book, Brooklyn Gangs, focusing on a gang my brother headed, the Jokers.
To me, Brooklyn was Where I lived, Not Park Slope
The realtors of the 1950s did not even include the area South of 9th Street where I lived as part of Park Slope. Growing up we never identified with the names the realtors used, like Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, or Sunset Park when we thought about where we lived. Today my neighborhood is called the South Slope, and invention of the Realtors.
An older youth from my block in the 50s. He fixed cars. Credit: Bruce Davidson
To us, we were just nobodies from Brooklyn living on a block that parents from neighboring middle class ones would not allow their kids to walk down.
If someone like Trump had appeared then and was pushed by the national media like Donald is today, me and my brother would have been potential recruitment material. All the ism’s Trump and his Republican puppeteers have exploited today were available back then to build upon as well, perhaps even more so.
A & A: Apolitical and Alienated
We didn’t identify with either political party back then. We looked at them as alien, white-collared bosses who controlled the cops. The latter would beat on the gang leaders from the more working class and poorer blocks in the area. You were taken “for a ride” to a street by the cemetery or waterfront and got a little dusting up. You had to be tough to survive, so it was gangsters, often psychotic violent killers, like Carmine Persico and latter Joey Gallo, that were our idols. Sound familiar?
My brother with his first wife. Credit Bruce Davidson
My brother, ten years older than me, was already a much feared gang leader known as “Cannonball” in the 1950s. We eventually took different life paths, me becoming an awakened leftist activist.
Alcohol, Drugs and Glue
We both strongly felt the little world we lived in was something looked down upon by those better off than us, with nicer jobs and homes and better relations with the police.
We had the beginnings of drug problems when heroin appeared for the first time in the 50s and a very high rate of alcohol abuse, both among the youth and their older parents. Exotic drugs had not yet arrived, but we had a glue sniffing problem, a real freak out of a habit which sometimes caused instant psychosis.
Shows About us Were not on T.V.
Cast of Leave it to Beaver.
We made fun of T.V. family shows like Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best and Dennis the Menace, in which they all lived in middle class America with manicured lawns, their own homes and loving parents. Many of our fathers were drunks and beat us and even a few of the mothers! Not so with my parents I must say, who were great to us and probably saved us from a much worse fate.
Ten times worse, I should add, were conditions in black neighborhoods back then. Our blocks and lives would have almost seemed like Disneyland in comparison. Unemployment in our area was high by no where near the astronomically high rates as in places like Crown Heights, Bushwick and Bedford–Stuyvesant along with compromised living conditions.
Much Worse Conditions
We became well aware of those harsh conditions, mostly from biased parents and relatives, which helped lay the foundations of our racism and fear of blacks. Again, I never hear such poison from my parents, a rare thing where I lived.
Most of us rejected any and all aspects of voting (when old enough, the age was 21 then) and electoral politics, with only the better off among us joining the few political clubs in the area.
Working Class Alienation, MAGA and Trumpism
A strong contributing factor to Trump’s success relates to the alienation from politics and anger with the political classes that administer it. This remains a factor for many working class and even more middle class white families today, even though they’re much better off financially then we were then.
The fancy words and democratic ideals contained in our Constitution were not something that meant much to us in school, growing up with an uncertain future not knowing if we’d ever be accepted by that different class of people that ruled over us and held us to laws they themselves often did not have to obey.
Education Typically Did Not Prepare One for Life
Ruthless Gangster Carmine Persico
What education in America for most lacked then as well as in many of today’s schools, was preparing us for the various challenges we would face in life, both now and in our futures. The less one understands about what awaits our futures and what obstacles and challenges we will face, the more we are vulnerable to political and economic manipulation by unprincipled groups and politicians. And the more we feel like space aliens entering a strange world we must eventually survive and live in.
Our daily struggles seemed of little concern to school and city officials. Our alienation and rebelliousness sometimes led us to admire those that broke the law and got away with it. As brutal and selfish as they were, they beat the system and became rich and powerful, and they came from backgrounds similar to ours. Even if we didn’t become gangsters ourselves, they were figures we identified with.
Trump’s Failings are MAGA’s Reasons for Loving Him
Trump’s appeal is much like John Gotti’s.
We overlooked their dark, murderous sides, and identified with them. There’s a reason why we loved those gangster movies and hated most educated and liberal sounding politicians. And wouldn’t dare became policemen, at least in the 50s. In an weird way, we were both alienated from educated public authority figures and attracted to other certain types of authority figures at the same time.
Different Roads
The lesson, harsh as it is, is that there are factor’s in life out of our control operating to channel us all in differing life directions, depending on how we tackle them.
So why did I and my brother go down different paths? I like to say that I decided my path in life all on my own. But the ten years difference placed our formative years in different historical eras probably had a lot to do with it.
When my 10-year-older brother registered for the draft in 1956, he was already a gang leader and acted out so they would send him to the shrink, who found him unsuitable psychologically and gave him a 4-F. He put on a great performance as he would brag to me. This was both after the Korean War and before the Vietnam War and the time of gangs in New York sprouting up all over the city for my brother. That helped determine his life destination.
Destination Vietnam
This is what awaited 19 year-olds in 1968.
I registered at the draft board in 1967 and was drafted in March 1968, just after the Tet Offensive, and was facing a “vacation” in the rice paddies of Vietnam. I went AWOL from Ft. Jackson after I had minor surgery, inspired by a young woman that was allowed into the hospital ward to entertain us.
She sang Bob Dylan anti-war songs (at the time I had never heard of him!) on a folk guitar. Discharged I was sent to a temporary barracks to be sent that Monday to Basic Training.
Pugil sticks to simulate bayonet practice.
While recovering in the Ft. Jackson Hospital from minor surgery, I went outside and behind the ward below us, the D.I. was training men for basic with pugil sticks. He screamed at the men “What is the purpose of the bayonet?” They screamed back, “To Kill!” Over and over they repeated this until in a frenzy. I remember waiting until they stopped. And shouted back down to them, “Kill who?? and “Why?” The D.I. hollered back, “Pay him no mind, he’s probably an escapee from the psych ward.”
Vietnam Decided my Life Path
Teamsters Union Logo
There I met a young man named Carl who was playing Beatles songs on his tape player. He encouraged me to go AWOL and not wind up going to Vietnam. That I did, and that just about decided what path I would take in life, food for another article.
My brother finally landed a good job, as a teamster truck driver in Local 807, and went his own way, which was more to the right politically, with the mob and Hoffa controlling his place of work and much of the money in the pension fund.
He was never aware of why his union was able to pay $600 a week in the 60s, or the often deadly struggles that were required by previous workers. He, like many, adopted the culture of his class enemies, the ones that supported the corruption and goal of neutralizing union power while pretending to be pro-union.
The Racial Divide on Civil Rights
Typical snarling Republican, a qualification for office under Trump.
The Republicans have long been aware of how to attract former white Democrats since LBJ helped get the Civil Rights Bill passed. Trump, in the dark subconscious minds of his supporters, speaks to that alienation and appears to be one of them, alienated from the hypocritical and intellectual political establishment figures that sounded good but usually break promises.
Trump, largely a media and television creation, lived outside of the law and got rich that way. He appealed to some MAGA for the very crimes he committed and laws he broke, and of course, his racial views. And loved because he seems to hold the same biases, ignorances, and misogynistic failings as many of the men did.
This paradoxical reason for Trump’s popularity is part of the reason he seems bullet proof to attacks. His infamous statement, that he could “shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and they’d still love me”, is one of the few accurate statements he’s ever uttered — he is loved because he is seen as being one of them.
A Dependency on Authority Figures that Speak Their “Language”
Trump Rally in 2019.
The MAGA crowd is composed of people both looking for a leader to follow and incapable of thinking what’s really in their own interests. And such, they often follow a leader that expresses their own fears, biases and ignorances, not caring much about what they support politically and how that effects them, or their lawlessness.
Trump Adoption??
To many, that leader sounds like something there own father would have said. Essentially, the MAGA crowd has made Trump a member of their family. With all the immunity from criticism that it holds.
Trump in action.
MAGA has always been a part of America under different names. It was held at bay for quite some time from openly holding significant Federal power by the many mass movements since the 1950s that tended to make extremism bad politics.
MAGA leaning elements in ruling circles finally saw their chance and learned the importance of media and state political control in order to reveal their violent and totalitarian tendencies. They eventually latched onto Trump, who represents America’s dark side but as we can see, is far from alone and quite popular in certain circles. A fitting head for American fascism, fortunately at this stage as dumb as a rock with Trump as its head.
Remembering Class and the Alienation Factor
I urge activists to understand the MAGA inability and alienation from thinking and latching on to their own political and class responsibilities for so many members of the working and lower middle classes. Leading them to easily follow miss-leaders.
Class Still Matters
Activists would be wise never to forget how much class conditions, culture and class differences and ignorances can drastically influence their political behavior. And understand the hows and whys the Republicans were able to convince so many people that democratic ideals and Democrats themselves are their enemies to be hated and despised.
The Trump Coaster to Nowhere.
The great numbers of Americans that jumped on the Trump roller coaster to nowhere will most certainly be betrayed and seek another misleader. This cannot be prevented in the current polarized environment. We must find a successful method of outreach and strategy that gets through to them or more fuhrers will return to plague us.
Write them off permanently and they will again become tools for those in our ruling elite who seek a fascist corporate dictatorship.
Ten Common traits of Trump supporters include:
- A dependence on blindly following loud, boisterous, and patriarchal authority figures.
- Alienation from class/political struggle and a reluctance to challenge authority figures.
- A belief in white skin privilege or superiority, along with denial of racial animosity or intent.
- Anti-intellectualism and mistrust of those better educated than they are.
- They regularly watch Fox News to the exclusion of other programming.
- Almost a complete lack of class consciousness and the need for class organization.
- Attaching god-like, super human abilities to leaders they idolize.
- A dependence on authority figures and allowing them to think for them.
- A tendency to embrace authority figures as opposed to democratic methods.
- A belief that non-white immigrants should “go back where they came from.”
(Most followers exhibit at least 2 or 3, if not more, of these traits.)
At least one of the first three traits listed will be prominently displayed by MAGA members and Trump voters. But they are far from the only or main motivating factors in any given individual. The racial divide varies widely in intensity and acts for many as the cement/glue, or unifying factor, that holds every other “ism” and fear together.
A Conversation with Trump Supporters
I’ve had this conversation multiple times with Trump supporters (TS), mostly folks I’ve known since before his entrance into politics. I often will casually raise the following point with them:
Me: “Do you really think someone who claims to be a billionaire gives a damn about you, your class interests or your social and economic well being?”
TS: Some will change the subject; some are slow to reply, taking a few seconds to answer with a weak “yes”; but the most frequent response I get are words similar to the following along with a snappy retort, “Do you really think your man Biden gives a damn about you?”
A Future Political Catch 22
Will America face a political Catch-22?
I’m curious if any of the readers have gotten that last answer? It’s problematic in one respect, the Democratic Party leadership also fully embraces capitalism and has close ties itself with Wall Street. Giving an honest answer is not so cut and dry.
Class Still Matters
Truth is, Trump is both bad for the capitalist system as well as bad for the Trumpers. But is capitalism itself as currently practiced also bad for the country? That’s not an answer that will be grasped at present by MAGAs, or a view held by most in Democratic leadership positions.
In actual execution of policy, and given the influence of mega money on government, does anyone really think it’s possible for any political party that embraces the current form of monopoly driven, minimally regulated capitalism to represent the working class, the poor, working poor, the middle class and the wealthy elites — all with neutrality and without biases?
Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris
Dumping Trump may not Eliminate the Fascist Movement
The very existence of a large pool of poorly informed former Trump supporters, assuming he loses in November, means that the fascist threat to America will not go away.
The international situation, as bad as it is, will present a tremendous challenge to Harris should she beat Trump next month and can get through the predictable election challenges to follow. That’s not to even mention the domestic issues before her.
