Heather Cox Richardson recently explored the success of Trump’s “sales pitch,” which she attributed to his ability to leverage a belief in the victimization of White folks that Republicans have increasingly embraced since the 1980s. As she put it, the message boiled down to “the reason certain white Americans were being left behind in the modern world was not that Republican policies had transferred more than $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%, but that lazy and undeserving Black and Brown Americans and women were taking handouts from the government rather than working.”
I think this is exactly right.
After all, as a man and a candidate, Trump is repulsive. His “policies” are laughable when they aren’t appalling, raising the question why anyone would support him. Political scholarship has answered that question by linking his ability to generate votes to “racial resentment,” and that link becomes more obvious every time he talks about “shithole” countries, calls Black immigrants “garbage,” or attacks “woke-ism” or DEI. But it isn’t just race–Trump and MAGA have built their appeal on resentment of every American who isn’t a White Christian male: the “uppity” women who’ve forgotten their proper role, the LGBTQ+ folks who had the nerve to open the closet door, Jews and Muslims. Etc.
The base of the appeal, as the Richardson quote suggests, is the festering anger of victimhood. There are thousands of White “Christian” nationalists whose lives haven’t gone the way they wanted or intended. Perhaps it’s that they haven’t accumulated the wealth they once thought they’d enjoy, or generated the admiration or applause or familial love to which they felt entitled. Perhaps they’re among the self-described Incels.
We have all encountered people nursing these grievances. Sometimes, their complaints are very understandable; other times, disconnected from their public-facing financial or social positions. Whatever these White “Christian” men feel is missing, whatever the nature of the deeply-felt disappointment, their lives aren’t providing something to which they feel entitled. Not only do they resent the fact that their lives have failed to meet their expectations, they need to believe that–whatever it is–it simply cannot be their own fault.
They need to see themselves as victims.
In the history of American political speech, few phenomena have been as widespread (or as damaging) as Donald Trump’s systematic creation of victimhood stories. From his accusations of “witch hunts” to his depiction of America as a nation “raped” by foreign powers, Trump has turned the language of suffering into a powerful tool for political rallying and authoritarian control. Recent academic research shows that this is not just another example of political exaggeration, but a sophisticated tactic now known as “strategic victimhood”: a deliberate performance intended to justify retaliation, weaken democratic institutions, and strengthen his hold on power.
The bottom line: Trump’s victimhood rhetoric is more than just political theater. It is what researchers refer to as an “anti-democratic, coercive, and illiberal” strategy that both predicts and fosters authoritarian rule, with significant implications for American democracy and social cohesion.
An article in Salon traced the connection between “winning and whining.”
The article began by questioning how a “once-proud party of masculine self-reliance and personal responsibility” had become “such a bunch of whiny snowflakes?” and reviewed the findings of an academic paper by Miles Armaly and Adam Enders, titled “‘Why Me?’ The Role of Perceived Victimhood in American Politics.” The authors concluded that feelings of victimhood did explain various (otherwise unfounded) “views of government, society and the world. They found it was especially explanatory with regard to perceived corruption and conspiratorial thinking, and that it was linked to personality traits such as narcissism and a sense of entitlement.
As the article from Medium put it, Trump and MAGA weaponize the grievances by giving these “victims” people to blame– those “others” who are stealing the social status of White “Christian” men.
It explains a lot.
Excellent and timely discussion, Sheila. We have all experienced bully personalities throughout our lives. A chronic bully thrives on power, control, and the emotional reactions of their victims. They feed off fear, submission, and the sense of superiority they gain by repeatedly targeting others. When brought out of the dark shadows harboring and enabling, bully’s can be silenced and compromised. False adoration affixed in public venues can be removed and forgotten. May be a select few will remain to remind us of our folly in electing such an embarrassing fool.
I have said all along since Trump 1.0 and his then professed grievances, that many of the white men in this society just simply cannot accept the fact that they are no longer the largest subgroup in America anymore. Their precious egos are shattered, and they feel they must strike back and the Fuhrer has given them all the ammunition to do so.
What they don’t recognize either is that he also is a small man, a spoiled rich boy, liar, cheat, many other vile things, and is a convicted felon 34 times over. Our forefathers never envisioned someone like him as the president, so they never thought to include anything in the Constitution to prevent it from happening. And this asshat only wanted the office to keep himself out of prison, which is truly where he belongs, for his first 34 felonies and who may know how many more would have followed. If this was the background of any other human being, there would be no other result but jail time, yet the white male populace and their suppliant women excuse everything their Fuhrer does.
Do you think he demeans Melania like he slams other women? It would certainly explain her coldness toward him.
I can’t understand why the lame media, outside of Fox News, allowed his speech to interrupt prime time scheduling. I thought the reason they gave him the time was that he declared war on Venezuela. Our media certainly thinks Trump deserves our valuable time. That much has been evident his whole life. The press wants us to be enamored with Hollywood and Billionaire personalities. And, we are mesmerized by them on TV.
The whole goal of having poor and middle-class whites looking down on blacks has been around for a very long time. Many poor whites died in the Civil War to keep blacks imprisoned as slaves to help the wealthy plantation oligarchs. And who lost their shit when Obama got elected?
This whole resentment and whiny crowd has been led by the decade or so of Ayn Rand readers, whose pages were filled with resentment toward egalitarian beliefs and the Russians. Our country has scapegoated others for all our evil deeds. That is the status quo. It permeates our society – we project our sins on the “other.”
Meanwhile, as Heather points out, the oligarchs are stealing trillions from the treasury and laughing all the way to the Caymans.
I believe that there is something much deeper going on that explains the appeal by Trump’s message of resentment to so many people. There is an underlying belief we are all taught that if you are a good person, if you work hard and obey the rules, you will have success… success meaning money because in America everything is measured by money. And we grow up believing that people who cheat and lie will someday “get their comeuppance.”. Along the way our society has come to believe that if someone has a lot of money then they must be a good person, that they earned their money, deserve great admiration, and so their opinions must be correct. Enter Donald Trump.
America has replaced its moral values with a bundle of lies we tell ourselves in order to achieve some Madison Avenue life of luxury and ease.
And lest we forget: “If you believe in the Lord and pray hard enough for forgiveness of your sins, the whole world will be at your fingertips.”
The subjugation of women has also been part of religion, both east and west, since its invention. It, like the invention of economics, became the extension of the hoarding and tribal survival cultures of evolving humans. Males did the dangerous work of killing food. Women tended the hearth and raised the children. End of discussion.
Except today there are over 8 billion humans and not a lot of killing for food (although humans keep killing each other for the sake of … religion.). So what are these poor, semi-employed white Christian men supposed to do? Jesus never taught them how to become self-serving assholes. Huh. Must have been some other teaching.
And to Todd’s point about the Cayman Islands. Won’t the hoax of global warming eventually cause the sea to once again cover them up? The whole world awaits.
Ah yes, just how much income has the US government lost to the Cayman Islands over the decades? I certainly remember it being discussed an awfully long time ago, and it has always seemed to me to border on immoral, even illegal, but certainly at least unpatriotic.
Trump’s “speech” last evening was as bad as I could have imagined, an attempt to read as many lies and screeds and blame and excuses and puffery from the teleprompter as he could in his 15 minutes of fame (I was looking for froth at the corners of the mouth). This after his horrible truth social words in the aftermath of the killing of Rob and Michelle Reiner. Who in their right mind would think either of these last two examples of this demented human being’s spewing and ranting to be in any way a good thing? Good for our country? Good for his base? Good for nothing, IMHO. The 25th Amendment awaits.
Very good posting, making a lot of sense about how we got here. So, all we now need to do is give even more Reagan handouts to the already filthy rich, right? That will certainly fix things up!
The GOP, when there even was such a thing sent money up the ladder to the rich, who then sent money down to the GOP, and the whole cycle kept repeating.
$50 trillion? Unimaginable. CEO’s making how many, many multiples of an ordinary working person’s pay?
I did not watch Trump’s BS screed, last night, as I expected it to be nothing but that.
Theresa – your last sentence says it all. The political culture is a bold reflection of the overall moral culture.
I am simply grateful that last night’s rant was short. I expected him to ramble on for a couple of hours, doing his, “weave.” Instead, he came out like the petulant child that he really is, angrily shouted the speech he had to give, then left. It almost seems as if Joe Biden has taken up residency in his head. I can’t wait until we can say, “Glory Hallelujah! It’s over!”
Sorry, my opinion is that the laziness of getting most of our information from
media, that has grown SO one sided. And for Republicans FOX news being the
leader. Somehow NEVER brought to task, for blatant LIES & DISTORTED information.
Here’s an idea for a cartoon: Have Reagan’s “Welfare Queen” pictured in a corporate board room, replete with all sorts of glitter, sitting behind a CEO plaque with her name on it; or in a fancy corporate jet, dripping in Versace fashion, and a $1,000 hand bag bulging with gold coins. The corporate logo will be something like “Queen of the Grift, LLC.”
Is Richardson’s intent to beat a dead horse?
The spin in JD Vance’s book was another version of the same, tired, explanatory narrative.
Shouldn’t the Democratic Party pivot to redirecting resentments and changing the minds of the lukewarm GOP voters?
Influencers like Richardson could hammer repeatedly at the wealthy (by name) who fund the victim messaging. They could redirect resentment where it belongs. They could look to FDR and the social gospel people who were his base (included Italian Catholics) for the example of how to win against exploiters who were like Bill Ackman and Leonard Leo at the time.
Take a look at Archbishop Timothy Dolan who could have used his pulpit to tell the public that Kirk was a conflict entrepreneur. Instead, Dolan compared him to St. Paul.
Two years ago, three Ohio dioceses spent $9 mil. on an anti-democracy state ballot issue that the state’s bishops publicly stated had no moral content.
Liberal Catholics (and, others) in mainstream media, in the political sphere, etc.
could let the public know about the origin of the right wing political wins and consequences to the 90%. What the public gets, instead, is a steady diet of puff piece about Popes.
What’s needed is more exposure for stories like Joel Abrams’ “The church is a rich, male collective” and, Craig A Johnson’s, “When Christ and Trump are Kings.’
as close as i get to social media maybe you tube. being a id fix anything any time has been my life,and basic survival, and helping some one with less or more with mechanical needs. as i scroll thru certain tube posts for a direct hit to a fix, shown by mainly home made means,but,they are doing what i need to do,and find short cuts,needs tools before i start,and the right part per model year,s.
theres a right hand column on the same page, scroll down for more. ive been at this for decades. whats changed? there is alot more fake whos getting screwed in the automotive world. take the motor trend channel. hey,im a nerd for this stuff, sans the stupid politics of shop WTFs. anyway, seems people put up vids of these people who have these some high end shops doing extreme work,and in big letters how they, just lost everything,shot their partners,screwed someone etc,etc. all lies. but open one up,they get a hit. you get siloed for the stupid column at google,but,follow the story,back check, etc. its fake. you tube sucks for honesty. and the people who i deal with buy this crap,and never follow thru to see if its real. they start conversations and tell all. id be damn embarrased to come on like that. we nerds of mechanix watch you tube for mostly good advice(again siloed and targeted). theres a buncha good tech stuff for DIY people. but to blaintantly allow garbage in where someone will and do, fall for the in your face lies. yea, there are some who buy it and tell it to others. in this blog is the tallent and past knowlege that keeps me aware of the other subjects,here today and tommarow. i follwing most every aspect in this daily blog.reading context and keeping the same subject alive for others and add to it is vital. unfortunatly, the working class is over worked and underpaid. family and source needs to survive keep many unaware. trumps goons tell them white is black. and now many are retaliating. some have become numb, and wont talk about it anymore. the tech bros are taking over. they want a billionaire run governement. sow doubt among the less knowleged,and you get chaos. im feeling the next vote 11/26 wont be easy, wont happen,wont matter. the republicms are just too sure about themselves. and money and lawyers have just about decided who will win,and make sure we never vote again..never ever,allow cash money to leave the street. thats when they can control everything,and anyone..
i wish you all a good holiday.
Mitch:
put melainas face on that queen..its more fitting
L.L., HCR is an historian, recording verifiable sources, not a propagandist.
Theresa’s post is spot on. Seeing who is at the top of corporate, financial and political structure shows sociopaths, mostly white men, many of whom came to power on inherited wealth, most of whom are ruthless in their pursuit of power and wealth as an entitlement excusing any tactics necessary to achieve dominance. Bullying is too inadequate a word to describe what they do. It is mob boss intimidation with criminal intent.
RESIST.