I've just had a flash of insight that makes me want to stand up and bang my head against the wall.
Scrolling through my Facebook feed, I came across a meme that goes this way: "If Trump voters don't care if he's a racist, a misogynist, a vulgarian, a liar, and an asshole, why would they care if he's a tax cheat?"
My liberal friends are happily exchanging clever messages like this (the ones who aren't busy "feeling the Bern" and throwing vitriolic sludge at Hillary, that is). And this one is clever – the trouble is that it's entirely beside the point.
I want to grab these liberals and shake them, yelling, "Don't you get it? The point is that, to a very large percentage of U.S. voters, racism, misogyny, bold-faced lying, and cheating on taxes are virtues. To these people, vulgarians are bold and funny and to be admired, like the kid in middle-school who used to make loud fart noises without moving his lips and drive the (liberal) teacher crazy. To them, Donald Trump is not an asshole – it's you who's the asshole!"
Sigh. No, they don't get it. It isn't that Trump supporters don't care – it's that they do care. They are finally and gratefully thrilled to see a guy like Donald Trump stand up and say the kind of things they like to hear, the things they themselves say to each other and don't dare say in public nowadays, the things that would get them disciplined or fired or sued for harassment. Trump makes them feel good about themselves.
Why, you ask, don't these liberals get it? Why, when Trump began his triumphant march to the Republican nomination, did the frail but resolute left-wing publications ignore him as below their contempt while the popular mainstream media chuckled merrily at his antics and, because he drew viewers, waited breathlessly for more? Why are those journalists now gasping in shock, giggling nervously, and earnestly protesting their innocence in the whole matter of the Big Trump Surprise?
Here's why. It's because most of us liberals, not to mention most Republicans, middle-of-the-road and otherwise, were until a few months ago blissfully unaware of these people's existence.
It's because, in our "classless" society, we think about wealth and income and their obviously concomitant factors as the only indicators of class. Thus we're blind to the differences in perspective that affect behavior long after people experience changes in economic status, educational status, and geographical location – perhaps generations after. If someone has an income of such-and-such a year, has so-and-so many years of education, is "of color" or not "of color," etc., we think we've got her or him pegged. Ah, but we don't.
We don't know these people. We may or may not have gone to public school with them, but if we did they weren't in our circles. We've never worked with them, nine to five, eaten lunch or shared the break room with them. They're not members of our clubs. On the other hand, they never attracted our attention as living in poverty or belonging to discriminated-against minorities. They're white, they're middle-class, and they've kept their mouths shut in public for several decades now. They're the pert receptionist, the patient bank teller, the friendly delivery truck guy. Our kid's third-grade teacher. The guy who drives a newer car and lives in a pricier house than we do. They look… well, like normal people, don't they? We don't know them, but we're not scared of them. If we're conservative politicians, we've courted and won their votes, but we've never noticed they were holding their noses while voting for us. They've been completely under our radar.
They're not under the radar any more. They've stepped out proudly into the sunlight, and they've found their leader. He doesn't offend them, he doesn't embarrass them. He's really not one of them, of course, despite the fact that he's smart enough to make them think he is. He may be a narcissist, but he's only pretending to be a clown and he's anything but stupid. He's the wolf who knows really, really well how to wear sheep's clothing, but he's really, really a wolf.
And unless they find that out between now and November, everyone's in trouble.