If you have been half awake this election season then you know what an oddity it has become. As I mentioned to someone the other day, this election is backwards in many respects. On the conservative side are people who belong to the lower part of the socio-economic scale that identify with billionaire Trump because they believe he understands their plight more than other candidates. Trump, a man who has never been close to being poor and considers the million dollar loan he received from his father to be “small.” As you move to the left of the political spectrum, we see a similar paradox. Bernie Sanders, the oldest candidate running for president, has managed to galvanized a political base of young voters. They too identify with Sanders and find him to be a breath of fresh air. To be sure, I am simplifying the matter in an almost crude way, but my point still stands. What is most remarkable is not that voters are flocking to voices outside of the mainstream. That is indicative of the frustrated electorate, and the normal evolution of politics. However, what is incredible to me is the rise of Donald Trump.
Again, his extreme positions and demagoguery are not necessarily surprising to me. Candidates make outrageous comments all the time in an attempt to garner attention. What is alarming, however, is that his base seems to have an insatiable appetite for his inflammatory speech. They love it and reward him for it with increased support. The more outrageous he speaks the greater he appears in their eyes. It does not matter if his words are entirely impractical, xenophobic and just down right hateful (e.g. deport all illegal Mexicans or disallow Muslims from coming into the country), his supporters cheer him on as if he has presented viable solutions. Even when pundits highlight his blatantly contradictory statements, his supporters remain unmoved.
But more than building a loyal following, Trump has created an atmosphere that allows his followers to freely express those unsavory ideas once only relegated to the privacy of their homes. He has inadvertently (or not) exposed to the rest of the nation the true state of racism and bigotry in this country. With each Trump rally and each new delegate he amasses, we see that hatred is not relegated to only a small portion of our population we like to quickly dismiss and demonize as “crazy.” Hatred is far more mainstream than America wants to admit.
There is a deeper lesson here than the exposure of hatred, however. What the rise of Trump does is expose the false sense of security we[1] place in logic. What do I mean by this? Well, we have been conditioned to believe that education is the key to success and the formation of a more perfect union. Through education we expose individuals to factual statements that compose logical premises, with the belief that the individual can piece together these logical premises to form a “rational” (i.e. fact-based) conclusion. Stated differently, we believe that if we teach you how to add then you’ll always conclude that 1+1=2. This is rational. It can be proven. And so we hold comfort in the stability of our logical conclusions.
But what happens when that is not true? What happens when despite teaching addition according to your logic, your pupil concludes that 1+1=9 and amazingly offers some logic behind their conclusion? What happens when you encounter someone who operates under a different logical framework than yourself? I’m not talking about someone who simply shares a different opinion, but who fundamentally sees the world differently. I think that is what we are seeing with a portion of Trump supporters. That is why even when they are presented with the unfavorable facts about Trump (i.e. logical premises), they are unpersuaded. For them 1+1=9. It is very tempting to believe that logic is failing with the supporter, but I would dare say that it is our logic that is failing. What the supporter is doing, albeit unintentionally, is peeling away the false sense of comfort we place in our “rational” beliefs and forcing us to contend with those beliefs. Stated differently, they are disrupting our worldview.
I am not suggesting that all Trump supporters are irrational, hateful, uneducated or are in any way diminished. Nor am I suggesting that we make drastic changes to our thought process. What I am trying to highlight is that logic is but one-way people can perceive and analyze the world, and a limited one. I do not believe we can use mere logic to fully comprehend the vastness of life and the universe. Furthermore, because it is limited what you deem logical may not comport with what I perceive as logical. More importantly, we possess other avenues for perceiving and processing our world (e.g. logic, emotions, spiritual, etc.). I think this election, to a certain degree, demonstrates the complexity of humanity’s quest to understand the world. We all desire to function in a “rational” manner, but what is rational, at times, is relative.
Therefore, we cannot dismiss opinions we disagree with by simply labeling them as “crazy” or “irrational.” Rather, we must meet them head on and try to understand the logical framework driving them. No, I do not understand Trump supporters, but I don’t think they are as irrational as some would think. It would be too easy to demonize them. But if we want to build a better society, we must work to understand each other.
–Until Next Time–
Palooke
[1] When I say “we” I’m referring to the non-Trump supporter confused by the rise of Donald Trump. Yes this category covers both liberal and conservative; Democrat and Republican. I would note, though, that I belong to neither the Democratic nor Republican party; I am neither liberal nor conservative. I’m what you would call radically moderate.
