For those wondering how anyone could possibly vote for Trump, the answer is pretty simple. They are unhappy.
The last 20 years have brought dramatic social change and demographic instability. Trump gives his voters permission to blame everyone but themselves for their misery and promises to make all the people they blame suffer. If they seem utterly blind to his toxic personality, incompetence and criminality, it’s because they will do anything to avoid undermining the permission script. He is the opium of his masses.
In Trump they see themselves, avenged and relieved of responsibility. And so they don’t really see or hear him at all. They hear their inner thoughts manifest and celebrated with waving flags and music and balloons and mean jokes. Trump is the coming-out party for their worst impulses and thoughts. Free speech! They can finally let rip all their rage and fear and be given permission. Imagine how liberating that must feel to say, no, stop, I don’t like this world anymore. I’d rather burn it to the ground than let it go on. They are betting against the future because the future doesn’t look promising for them. They don’t understand it. They don’t like it. They don’t want outsiders. The enemy is within. The Mexicans are rapists from mental asylums.
I will round them up and put them in camps. I will destroy the media. I will imprison democrats. I will make them all pay for your unhappiness. I will kill democracy. I will torch the Constitution. I will kill the future. In the ashes of America, I will build a world that looks like YOU. Your anger and fear turned inside out and wrapped in a flag. Which I will sell you. Fight, fight, fight.
The only problem? They’re destroying their children and grandchildren’s future too. But that’s the narcissistic vortex that Trump uses to mesmerize the miserable and the unhappy. Even their own children and grandchildren are worth sacrificing for the delusional image he presents. That’s how attractive it is. They don’t really care about who he is or even what he does. They just want him to hurt the people they blame for their unhappiness.
Joe Hagan is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair. He has written for New York, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. He is the author of Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine.
