Trump’s personal motivations are fascinating, but it is how much his pettiness, hurt ego, and his desire for revenge on those who aren’t giving him his due is what compels his supporters to rallyround him, people who see themselves in him and who believe they — white conservative Christians — deserve to be at the center of American life and culture... people who believe they are due deference from the rest of us but are getting mockery instead. The “liberal elite” is a term of cultural resentment - a thwarted sense of conservative entitlement, backed by a narrative that there was a time when America was “great” because the culture was controlled by white Christians, until the undesirables — hippies, people of color, secularists, feminists, gay people — took over. This sense that something has been stolen and must be taken back is the organizing narrative of conservative populism.
At www.salon.com
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