Trump's Fallacy

 There's this widespread assumption in the GOP and even in the media that Trump's popularity with Republican voters is due to his charisma as if he has a cult leader-like hold over his people. Maybe some of his followers, sure. But he's really not that charismatic and his voters mostly know he's a boor. MAGA doesn't worship Trump so much as they weaponize him. He's a fascist and a clown, which is exactly what they value about him. They think those qualities will help their agenda. 

What is that agenda?

First, MAGA is a revanchist movement for conservative whites who believe they are entitled to a stranglehold on power. Growing racial diversity, urbanization and women's liberation have turned them into a minority. They worry, for real reasons, that the power they feel is their due cannot be achieved any longer through democratic means. What Trump offered them was a fascist's contempt for rule of law and democracy. He spent most of 2020 signaling blatantly that he would attempt a coup if he lost. The seeding of false claims of election fraud helped rile up his voters because they saw him as the candidate they needed to destroy a system that doesn't benefit them as much as it used to. 

The second most important part of the MAGA agenda is, pathetically, "owning" the liberals. Because Trump's ego only grows as his already meager intelligence degrades, he is especially annoying to people they hate. His grossness was his appeal because it was a form of revenge on the rest of the country. Trump gets this, which is why he calls himself "your retribution" when speaking to his fans. 

But the more legal trouble he gets into, the more Trump's narcissism and self-pity cloud his understanding of what his voters see in him. They like him when he's bullying people and bragging, but not so much when he's whining. Trump rallies are an interesting indicator of this. People will line up for hours ahead of time, and they clearly enjoy hanging out with each other, eating snacks, and vibing with their fellow MAGAheads. But when Trump himself starts speechifying, they get bored and leave. And who can blame them? All he does is whine about his problems. When he does get to the parts of the speech where he talks about how he will supposedly help them, he sounds checked out. You can tell he cannot wait to get back to his favorite theme: No one has suffered more than Donald J. Trump. 

-Amanda Marcotte in Salon.com