Trump’s Appeal: What Psychology Tells Us

[Bootney Lee Farnsworth]

That's from the voices they choose to listen to. Everything has to be simple and binary. They're not going to tell these people to drop their egos, open their minds and put out some intellectual effort. There's no ratings or views in that. Success in their media means making them as paranoid and full of rage as possible, so that's what they give them, no matter what.

I've long thought that not nearly enough attention has been paid to the right wing media, from the day Limbaugh went national. This is now profoundly personal to them.

Speaking of unjustifiably arrogant and dismissive…

 

[Sixties Fan]

[Ted Cruz and other people in Congress knew that Trump might not be good for the country. What is the psychology behind their change of mind?
Was the Republican Party in power more important than what he believed at the time?]

In February, Cruz offered his take on why Trump hadn’t released his tax returns in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” suggesting that they might show “Donald’s business dealings with the mob, with the mafia.”

“The fact that Donald seems terrified to release his taxes suggests that there’s a bombshell there,” Cruz said. “It’s natural to wonder, ‘Well, what is it that he’s hiding in his taxes?’”

2. In March, Cruz called him a “sniveling coward”

Speaking to a group of reporters in Dane, Wisconsin, after Trump made a comment promising to “spill the beans” on the senator’s wife, Cruz pointed his finger and said, “Donald, you’re a sniveling coward. Leave Heidi the hell alone.”

“It’s not easy to tick me off. I don’t get angry often, but you mess with my wife, you mess with my kids, that’ll do it every time,” Cruz said.

3. He also called Trump a “big, loud New York bully”

“Let me be absolutely clear: Our spouses and our children are off bounds,” Cruz said. “It is not acceptable for a big, loud New York bully to attack my wife.”

4. Also, “a small and petty man who is intimidated by strong women”

Trump’s attacks, Cruz suggested, were actions of “a small and petty man who is intimidated by strong women.”


5. Cruz called one of Trump’s theories “nuts” and “just kooky”

In May, after Trump cited a National Enquirer report that alleged Cruz’s father may have had some involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Cruz addressed reporters in Evansville, Indiana: “This morning, Donald Trump went on national television and attacked my father. Donald Trump alleges that my dad was involved in assassinating JFK. Now, let’s be clear, this is nuts. This is not a reasonable position. This is just kooky.”

(full article online)

9 times Ted Cruz insulted Donald Trump before endorsing him

The Texas senator's endorsement comes after he openly disparaged Donald Trump repeatedly.

www.politico.com

 

[whitehall]

Trump isn't the president. If you want to go into amateur psychology you might consider TDS and why some people hate him so much. Another area for amateur psychology is why in the world democrats support a doddering old fool who can't put a sentence together.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Everything has to be simple and binary.

It doesn't get any more simple-minded than to call anybody who does not fall in line with the D,N.C. a "Trumpster".

 

[kyzr]

It is so funny and at the same time arrogant and dismissive of these motherfuckers to think that Trump is leading everyone around. Quite the opposite. He is merely a symbol. A representation of severe dissatisfaction with the bullshit coming out of DC.

Trump is the bulletproof target that frustrates the crap out of them.

Most other pols would be hiding in their closet.

Trump thrives on battling the swamp creatures and MSM

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Holy Shit!

For millions of people, it is really this simple:

1. Not Hillary Clinton

2. Not a career politician

Most people hate the fucking cocksucking establishment and want it destroyed.

Simple

I would add a third

3 -- Believes in National sovereignty instead of the great reset.

 

[Circe]

Speaking of unjustifiably arrogant and dismissive…

No, but Mac is right ---- it IS personal. We want vengeance now; we can see that this is purest, evilest political persecution of a rival to the Dems that they are trying to destroy.

Sometimes that kind of thing backfires and the other side wins, like Trump winning unexpectedly in 2016. We'll see. We want revenge now.

 

[Circe]

I would add a third

3 -- Believes in National sovereignty instead of the great reset.

Is "The Great Reset" a new meme? I'm seeing it a lot here, but haven't read about it yet.

 

[Sixties Fan]

[ This was then]
Republicans should have expelled Donald Trump from the Republican Party, Lindsey Graham said Monday.

The former presidential candidate told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the New York billionaire’s rhetoric toward immigrants has exacerbated the problem the GOP had with Hispanics in 2012.

“He took our problems in 2012 with Hispanics and made them far worse by espousing forced deportation,” Graham said. “Looking back, we should have basically kicked him out of the party.”

Asked how that would be done, the South Carolina senator suggested Republicans could have united against him like many are doing now.

“The more you know about Donald Trump, the less likely you are to vote for him. The more you know about his business enterprises, the less successful he looks. The more you know about his political giving, the less Republican he looks,” Graham said. “We should have done this months ago.”
--------
Graham refused to say what he would do if Trump won the Republican nomination and faced Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the general election but advocated for anybody but Trump, a list that includes Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. “As much as I disagree with Ted Cruz, if it came down to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, I would be firmly in Ted’s camp because I think he really is a conservative,” he said.

Graham attributed Trump’s dominance to the crowded GOP field’s reluctance to attack him early but maintained voters are now starting to see the real-estate mogul differently after rival candidates have begun exposing his flaws.

“How many of these guys when there were 17 of us basically hid in a corner?” Graham asked. “They didn’t wanna, you know, poke the guy. They didn’t wanna get people mad. Ted Cruz was running as his best friend.”

“Any time you leave a bad idea or a dangerous idea alone,” he warned, “any time you ignore what could become an evil force, you wind up regretting it.”

Graham: We should have kicked Trump out of the party

"He took our problems in 2012 with Hispanics and made them far worse by espousing forced deportation."

www.politico.com

 

[bodecea]

I don't care about Trump

The country is burning.

The world is burning.

That is what I care about

How about you?

You are told the country/world is burning...for con-trol.

 

[Dogmaphobe]

Is "The Great Reset" a new meme? I'm seeing it a lot here, but haven't read about it yet.

Look up The World Economic Forum and/or Klaus Schwab.

 

[bodecea]

It's simple. I don't like queers and race hustlers teaching my children, telling me which car to drive, and taxing the hell out of me.

The Germans didn't like the Jews. Very similar mind-controlling set

 

[Whodatsaywhodat.]

[Ted Cruz and other people in Congress knew that Trump might not be good for the country. What is the psychology behind their change of mind?
Was the Republican Party in power more important than what he believed at the time?]

In February, Cruz offered his take on why Trump hadn’t released his tax returns in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” suggesting that they might show “Donald’s business dealings with the mob, with the mafia.”

“The fact that Donald seems terrified to release his taxes suggests that there’s a bombshell there,” Cruz said. “It’s natural to wonder, ‘Well, what is it that he’s hiding in his taxes?’”

2. In March, Cruz called him a “sniveling coward”

Speaking to a group of reporters in Dane, Wisconsin, after Trump made a comment promising to “spill the beans” on the senator’s wife, Cruz pointed his finger and said, “Donald, you’re a sniveling coward. Leave Heidi the hell alone.”

“It’s not easy to tick me off. I don’t get angry often, but you mess with my wife, you mess with my kids, that’ll do it every time,” Cruz said.

3. He also called Trump a “big, loud New York bully”

“Let me be absolutely clear: Our spouses and our children are off bounds,” Cruz said. “It is not acceptable for a big, loud New York bully to attack my wife.”

4. Also, “a small and petty man who is intimidated by strong women”

Trump’s attacks, Cruz suggested, were actions of “a small and petty man who is intimidated by strong women.”


5. Cruz called one of Trump’s theories “nuts” and “just kooky”

In May, after Trump cited a National Enquirer report that alleged Cruz’s father may have had some involvement in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Cruz addressed reporters in Evansville, Indiana: “This morning, Donald Trump went on national television and attacked my father. Donald Trump alleges that my dad was involved in assassinating JFK. Now, let’s be clear, this is nuts. This is not a reasonable position. This is just kooky.”

(full article online)

9 times Ted Cruz insulted Donald Trump before endorsing him

The Texas senator's endorsement comes after he openly disparaged Donald Trump repeatedly.

www.politico.com

Yea, because the irs never looked into Trump's taxes.

 

[Sixties Fan]

[ Four years of being pro Trump. Why?

Throughout his time in the White House, Donald Trump collected a number of exceedingly reliable footstools. There was Attorney General William Barr, who basically served as the former president’s personal lawyer. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who regularly shredded his dignity on the guy’s behalf. Mike Pence, other than that one time. And, of course, the vast majority of the Republican Party, which lived in constant fear of getting on the wrong side of the then president.

One member of the GOP who consistently stood out from the bunch in his fealty to 45 was Senator Lindsey Graham. After declaring in June 2016 that he wouldn’t support Trump’s bid for office, referring to the then Republican candidate as a “jackass,” a “kook,” “a race-baiting bigot,” and “the most flawed nominee in the history of the Republican Party,” Graham subsequently became one of Trump’s most ardent and obsequious fans.

When Democrats were getting ready to impeach the guy the first time around, over his attempt to extort another country for his personal gain, Graham told reporters the whole thing should be “disposed of very quickly” by the Senate. When people brought up the fact that Trump regularly slandered Graham’s friend John McCain even after McCain was dead, the senator from South Carolina said he was willing to overlook the attacks because “when we play golf, it’s fun.” Two months after a literal insurrection, Graham told Axios: “Donald Trump was my friend before the riot and I’m trying to keep a relationship with him after the riot. I still consider him a friend.” Pressed on the fact that he’d already been reelected for another six years, so politically, he didn’t have to keep this relationship going, Graham doubled down, telling reporter Jonathan Swan it would be “too easy” to simply dump the guy, before claiming, in a highly worrisome way, that while there was a “dark side” to the man who incited a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, there was also “some magic there.”


(full article online)

Lindsey Graham Spent Six Years With His Head Up Trump’s Ass for Nothing

The former president accused his most loyal footstool of being a “RINO,” though it’s pretty clear Graham can’t stay mad at the guy.

www.vanityfair.com

 

[surada]

As much as they loathe him the Democrats still don't understand THEY created him.

Nah, Trump has changed parties 5 times since he registered to vote in his 40s, but he's been a flamboyant liar and cheat since the early 1970s.

 

[Sixties Fan]

Yea, because the irs never looked into Trump's taxes.

They are doing it now and his accountant was sentenced yesterday.

 

[Whodatsaywhodat.]

They are doing it now and his accountant was sentenced yesterday.

All those years as a business man in New York and a democrat . The year he runs as a republican . Coincidence? No such thing.

 

[BULLDOG]

[ Knowing how to rally people and voters and supporters to one's side is not the same as eventually governing well and fairly. Governing depends on following the Constitution and the Rule of Law. How much did Trump follow the Constitution and the Rule of Law, how much of either did he attempt to change for his own interests and not those of the country? How much do his supporters know about the Constitution and Rule of Law he so often attempted to change? ]


Behind his unforeseen success in the 2016 election was a masterful use of group psychology principles

• Donald Trump's rallies enacted how Trump and his followers would like the country to be. They were, in essence, identity festivals.
• Trump succeeded by providing a categorical grid—a clear definition of groups and intergroup relations—that allowed many Americans to make sense of their lived experiences.
• Within this framework, he established himself as a prototypical American and a voice for people who otherwise felt voiceless.
• His rivals did not deploy the skills of identity leadership to present an inclusive narrative of “us.” In that context, Trump had a relatively free run.

It is easy and common to dismiss those whose political positions we disagree with as fools or knaves—or, more precisely, as fools led by knaves. Indeed, the inability of even the most experienced pundits to grasp the reality of Donald Trump's political ascendency in the 2016 presidential race parallels an unprecedented assault on the candidate and his supporters, which went so far as to question their very grip on reality. So it was that when a Suffolk University/USA Today poll asked 1,000 people in September 2015 to describe Trump in their own terms, the most popular response was “idiot/jerk/stupid/dumb,” followed by “arrogant” and “crazy/nuts,” and then “buffoon/clown/comical/joke.” Similarly, Trump's followers were dismissed in some media accounts as idiots and bigots. Consider this March 2016 headline from a commentary in Salon: “Hideous, Disgusting Racists: Let's Call Donald Trump and His Supporters Exactly What They Are.”

Such charges remind us of Theodore Abel's fascinating 1938 text Why Hitler Came into Power, but first let us be absolutely explicit: We are not comparing Trump, his supporters or their arguments to the Nazis. Instead our goal is to expose some problems in the ways that commentators analyze and explain behaviors of which we disapprove. In 1934 Abel traveled to Germany and ran an essay competition, offering a prize for autobiographies of Nazi Party members. He received around 600 responses, from which he was able to glean why so many Germans supported Adolf Hitler. Certainly many essays expressed a fair degree of anti-Semitism and some a virulent hatred of Jews. In this sense, party members were indeed racists or, at the very least, did not object to the party's well-known anti-Semitic position. But this is very different from saying that they joined and remained in the party primarily or even partially because they were racists. Abel discovered that many other motives were involved, among them a sense of the decline of Germany, a desire to rediscover past greatness, a fear of social disorder and the longing for a strong leader.

We would argue that the same is true of those who supported Trump. Some, undoubtedly, were white supremacists. All were prepared to live with his racist statements about Muslims, Mexicans and others. But are racism, bigotry and bias the main reasons people supported Trump? Certainly not. We argue instead that we need to analyze and understand the way he appealed to people and why he elicited their support.

Moreover, we need to respect those we study if we want to understand their worldview, their preferences and their decisions.

To understand how Trump appealed to voters, we start by looking at what went on inside a Trump event. For this, we are indebted to a particularly insightful analysis by journalist Gwynn Guilford, who, acting as an ethnographer, participated in Trump rallies across the state of Ohio in March 2016. We then analyze why Trump appealed to his audience, drawing on what we have referred to as the new psychology of leadership. Here we suggest that Trump's skills as a collective sense maker—someone who shaped and responded to the perspective of his audience—were very much the secret of his success.


Adapted from Why Irrational Politics Appeals: Understanding the Allure of Trump, edited by Mari Fitzduff, with permission from ABC-CLIO/Praeger, Copyright © 2017.

Editor’s note: All but the last section of this article was written before Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election, making its insights all the more remarkable. It was updated for Scientific American Mind.

Trump's Appeal: What Psychology Tells Us

Behind his unforeseen success in the 2016 election was a masterful use of group psychology principles

www.scientificamerican.com

True, as far as you went. You didn't mention the deal trump made with religious leaders. He agreed to oppose R v W and generally give them lip service, and in return, they gave him their entire constituency. It's quite common to hear religious people say things like "I'll vote what the Bible says, and the Bible says God wants trump" Trump was possibly the most hedonistic president we ever had, but the religious leaders delivered the religious vote as agreed.

 

[Sixties Fan]

No, but Mac is right ---- it IS personal. We want vengeance now; we can see that this is purest, evilest political persecution of a rival to the Dems that they are trying to destroy.

Sometimes that kind of thing backfires and the other side wins, like Trump winning unexpectedly in 2016. We'll see. We want revenge now.

Why use the word vengeance? That word leads to violence and threats against all officials, regardless of party affiliation, have had their lives threatened and some attacked due to what Trump says during his rallies.

Since when has the American politics been about revenge and violence in this past century?

 

[Sixties Fan]

All those years as a business man in New York and a democrat . The year he runs as a republican . Coincidence? No such thing.

What is happening with his business has nothing to do with politics. The cheating on taxes was happening while he was a Democrat. The investigation was happening before he ran as a Republican.

In other words, "Psychologically" since he became a Republican, he could never have done any wrong doings with his business as he is now a Republican?