Why Trump’s Fanatical Followers Continue To Hold On To Mr. Bluster For Dear Life
You often see mainstream media talking heads wondering in circles as to why Trump can seem to do no wrong in the minds of his supporters, even though what he does is often brutally against the self-interest of his ardent backers. These media types are highly educated folks who see life in rational, practical terms. But Trump’s fervent followers, being much less sophisticated, are not necessarily motivated by rational thought.
I have taken the following quotes or paraphrasing of quotes from the True Believer by the late Eric Hoffer. No one understands the upside down thinking of the fanatic better than Hoffer.
Trump cleverly fashioned his political campaign on the basis of a mass movement directed at the new poor — America’s bitterly frustrated obsessives. “So tenacious should we cling to the world revealed by the Gospel [in this case Trump’s tweets], that were I to see all the Angels of Heaven coming down to tell me something different, not only would I not be tempted to doubt a single syllable, but I would shut my eyes and stop my ears, for they would not deserve to be either seen or heard.”
“It is starting to realize how much unbelief is necessary to make belief possible. What we know as blind faith is sustained by innumerable unbelief’s.” Thus we see the Donald casually toss out ridiculous promises one moment and then just as casually disregard them the next. In Trump world reality and truth are of little meaning to his devotees. It is all about emotion and hope no matter how disjointedly he presents his memes to the flock. Thus the true believer nature of evangelicals makes them tailor-made for the Trump rhetoric.
“It is the true believer’s ability to ‘shut his eyes and stop his ears’ to facts that do not deserve to be either seen or heard which is the source of his unequaled fortitude and constancy.”
“We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand.” Trump’s incredible ignorance about government, key issues and the world in general gives both him and his low information supporters their absolute certainty that Trump has all the answers, even in the face of being proved wrong time after time.
Indeed, it matters not what Trump does in the minds of his congregate as long as his words feed their negative tribal impulse and resentful xenophobia. Trump’s word, in short, strengthens his flowers tenuous feelings of self worth — their basic lifelines for existence. For Trump’s most hardcore champions to abandon him would be for them to abandon their own life.
