Remember, Trump's base doesn't hate rich people. It doesn't care about income inequality. It really doesn't even care that much about taxes or the cost of living. It cares about the perception of being looked down up. It cares about status. Understand this, and you get it. /1
The great mistake in all this has been to believe that this is about equality. I can't remember who said it, but America doesn't hate *rich* people, it hates *smart* people. The Trump base has given up on the American ideal of achievement and settled for the crab bucket. /2
This is partly because we have nationalized and then globalized the culture of the cities. People in the heartland used to be people who didn't give a f*** what people in NYC thought of them. Now they care. A lot. And it makes them crazy. /3
And if you think this is just my generalization about Trumpers, note that this is not some new thing limited to America. In the 1950s, a scholar named Banfield went to Italy to figure out why poor villagers suck so badly at cooperating and being decent citizens. /4
What he found was like a proto-Trumper tribe. “Many people positively want to prevent others from getting ahead,” a village teacher told Banfield. “Truly, I have found no one who interests himself in the general welfare." /5
Banfield found that civic life reflected a basic rule expressed in one form or another by all of the villagers: “Maximize the material, short-run advantage of the nuclear family; assume that all others will do likewise.”
That is the Trumper credo, of course. /6
That is the Trumper credo, of course. /6
So don't be surprised that you can't get Trump's base to be shocked that Jared is in charge or that Melania is eating lotus flowers in the garden. It's what *they* would do, and they assume that's what anyone would do. But teachers staying out of the classroom? Heresy. /7x
