The Never-Trumper Rage

 At coffee one day sitting at a table of mixed-age men, one piped up and in a most vituperous manner said, “I wish he was dead!”

Our conversation had turned to politics. My friend sat next me and knew my choice of a presidential candidate over the recent years, confounded that I'd joined the cross-over club from being a two-time Obama voter. The guy continued. “He is dangerous and a racist!” 

I acknowledged that the former president had flaws, but what you see is what you get with him. And that we’d had four years of him as Chief executive and the country saw none of the catastrophes many had predicted. 

“You think I’m extreme,” the guy said. “Well,” naming a local lawyer, “he wishes all Republicans' throats would be slashed!” 

We all were turning red-faced and to save the morning, agreed to disagree about the state of affairs of the country.

I wanted to say that day, “Please explain this can’t-let-go-of Trump rage that wishes death upon him.” 

Being a mental health counselor the past twenty years, I had my own theory about why a sect of democrats loathe Trump. But, I’d also read too many google references chastising the deplorable Trumpites; celebrities like the peacock strutting Howard Stern calling them, ‘“Just stupid.” 

Psych.Post.com offered a synopsis of 20 studies on the character of the Trump supporter. The upshot for most: Trump voters are fearful, anxious, cater to authoritarianism and, like the candidate they worship, they are narcissists. 

In any study, it is important to ask: What population makes up the study? Who conducts the study; their political affiliation? And who funds the study? Many studies are conducted by academics with a sample population of college-aged students. 

So, what are the characteristics of this population that elected Joe Biden as president and anointed his vice president, Harris, as the choice for the 2024 chief executive?  

Malcolm Gladwell, the prolific author of cultural writings, says in his new book Revenge of the Tipping Point that persons develop beliefs related to who and what environment they are around.  

Gladwell’s assessment points to the red dot, blue dot map which shows 

of the 3243 US counties, Trump won 2588 counties in the 2020 election, despite losing the electoral and popular votes. Some reports claim Trump’s county wins were over 3000. 

 Does the Queens builder's popularity with rural America trigger rage within the Hater? Hate directed toward one person often runs deeper than what meets the eye. 

Is it his bellicose, braggadocious manner that drives this rage? Or, is it, because, “He lies!” as many scream. 

Is it because he has had three marriages, is now married to a model nearly half his age, or that he came from auspicious beginnings and is a billionaire? Or, was it Jan.6? Yes, to all the Never-Trumper might say.

In the political call-in show ‘Two Way’, Mark Halperin, the host, asked a Jill Stein supporter from Boston, “If not Stein who?” She responded, “Harris. I can’t deal with Trump’s drama.”

Is it then,Trump’s propensity for the dramatic which is just too unsettling for many Americans? In fact, the world renown doctor and author Deepak Chopra writing back in 2017 said that the drama Trump projects from the podium relates to what psychiatrist Carl Jung called the dark side or the shadow self. It is that part of everyone’s personality which is denied. 

The Society for Analytical Psychology reports the Shadow can have  reprehensible characteristics, but also useful characteristics, such as assertiveness, realistic insights and creative impulses that persons, even cultures repress. 

Failure to recognize and contend with shadow elements within a person and groups can fuel prejudice and even war, Jung believed.

“Trump possessed a kind of genius” to win the 2016 nomination, sweeping the floor of 16 other well known and established politicians who spent a lifetime running for office, Chopra says. Possibly, a genius not understood by many.

“Beginning as the improbable candidate” coming down his escalator at the Trump Tower he defied all conventional rules for a political candidate which should have been fatal. 

The legacy media, professional politicians and an American electorate who looked on couldn’t grasp hold of this unconventionality, regardless of whether he had a reputation of clearing the desk. And Trump attacked these sacred institutions and persons whose livelihood came from them. 

Trump says,You have to speak up for yourself, because no one else will. In a recent podcast interview, he said, you can’t care about what other people think, if you have something to say. Such uninhibited, natural talk isn’t common to the rhetoric of elected leaders.

Chopra claims Trump’s presentation isn’t so abnormal. He captures what is universal in all persons, attacking his adversaries in a manner all persons have thought of, but are too embarrassed or timid to do so.

 Trump will talk to anyone, dictator or not. Many common people and many politicians can't do this, or won’t do this. Thus comes resentment, envy: “He will destroy democracy!”

It’s unlikely that anti-Trumpers will explore the root of their abhorrence. In the study of ego defenses, the Society of Analytical Psychological says the ego defense of projection can be found in denial of the shadow self. With projection, internal features within a person not dealt with are projected onto another, often critically, such as, “You are a racist!”  

‘Keeping up with the Jones’ narrative of Hating Trump is needed to be in the enlightened, elitist, virtue-signaling groups, or so it seems from the yard of this Trump supporter. 

A toned-down presentation no doubt could add numbers to Trump’s constituency. But in a world of narcissistic leaders, who operate from their shadow side, the country needs a president who can play the dark, hard game.