Tribal Rage

Adam Serwer looks at a deeply embedded delusion in the media, in parts of the broader society, but especially at the core of the Republican base that supports neo- fascist nitwit Donald "Rump" Trump:

... What I found was that Trump embodied his supporters’ most profound beliefs—combining an insistence that discriminatory policies were necessary with vehement denials that his policies would discriminate and absolute outrage that the question would even be asked. 

It was not just Trump’s supporters who were in denial about what they were voting for, but Americans across the political spectrum, who, as had been the case with those who had backed Duke, searched desperately for any alternative explanation—outsourcing, anti-Washington anger, economic anxiety—to the one staring them in the face. The frequent postelection media expeditions to Trump country to see whether the fever has broken, or whether Trump’s most ardent supporters have changed their minds, are a direct outgrowth of this mistake. These supporters will not change their minds because this is what they always wanted: a president who embodies the rage they feel toward those they hate and fear, while reassuring them that that rage is nothing to be ashamed of.  (our emphasis)

You need look no further to understand what fuels the supporters for Republican pedophile peckerwood Roy Moore. Their rage is directed against everyone and anything standing up for a diverse, tolerant society that defends the separation of church and state. Get a load of this, from Moore supporter "pastor" Mike Allison:

"He has staunchly defended the Constitution of the United States, he has stood for the word of God ... he is against the murder of the unborn by abortion. He is for the defunding of Planned Parenthood. He is against a redefinition of marriage and believes firmly that it is only between a man and a woman. And he is against all threats against the traditional family," Allison said. "He is a fighter and a champion for right ...."

See if you can spot magic dog whistle words in this Moore supporter's rationalization:

"Every election cycle there's this tendency among the electorate to say 'Let's get rid of these rascals. They say one thing and govern another way,'" said [John] Giles, who runs a super PAC that supports Moore. "The one thing about this man is what he says he means, and at all cost." 

Did you catch that?  "... what he says he means..."  If we had a nickel for every Republican voter who rationalized their vote for Rump by saying some variation of "he says what he means," we could get a big Republican tax cut.  As Serwer and others have pointed out, that's Republican- speak for, "He hates/ fears the same people I do and he's not afraid to say it. So I'm validated!"

People who support Rump and Moore and all the rest of that rotted out party are, of course, not unique to our times.  Getting back to Serwer's article (please take time to read it in its entirety), he frames what we're seeing as, unfortunately, profoundly American:

Trumpism emerged from a haze of delusion, denial, pride and cruelty—not as a historical anomaly, but as a profoundly American phenomenon. This explains both how tens of millions of white Americans could pull the lever for a candidate running on a racist platform and justify doing so, and why a predominantly white political class would search so desperately for an alternative explanation for what it had just seen. To acknowledge the centrality of racial inequality to American democracy is to question its legitimacy—so it must be denied.

Think about that the next time you read or hear another "safari into Trump Country" story by our broken media.