Michael Hamar points toward a piece at Politico that makes a lot of sense to me, and which identifies the Trump demographic as ‘authoritarians.’
Authoritarianism is not a new, untested concept in the American electorate. Since the rise of Nazi Germany, it has been one of the most widely studied ideas in social science. While its causes are still debated, the political behavior of authoritarians is not. Authoritarians obey. They rally to and follow strong leaders. And they respond aggressively to outsiders, especially when they feel threatened. From pledging to “make America great again” by building a wall on the border to promising to close mosques and ban Muslims from visiting the United States, Trump is playing directly to authoritarian inclinations.
They’re children, in other words, who want to be told what to do, who want to be relieved of the responsibility of being an adult.
This has a plausible sound. Remember: When a congregation learns that Pastor Bubba is raping its children, the all-but-invariable response is to rally around the pastor and re-victimize his victims, to double-down on loyalty and obedience to Big Daddy — to the strongman; that certainly fits the description of ‘authoritarians.’ Now recall this: The Japanese believed before World War II that the emperor was a god — and when Douglas MacArthur was appointed military governor of Japan following Japan’s defeat, they simply transferred their loyalty and obedience to the new Big Daddy, the new strongman; the Japanese lined the streets and cried unashamedly when MacArthur left.
Are the defeated culture warriors doing the same, simply transferring their allegiance to a new Big Daddy, a new strongman? It’s the right demographic, and it explains why brazen lies and crude behavior seem to have no cost for him. His demographic simply doesn’t care about those kinds of things; they care about safety in reward for being good little boys and girls.