We are all thinking it — so I’m saying it
The rise of trump is really not all that much different than the rise of any symbolic so-called “strongman” in history. While psychologists have weighed in on what exactly attracts the trump supporters to him, including cult mentality and their propensity for feeling out of control of their lives, these kinds of people have always been around and it isn’t a leader that is of importance. In a recent episode of “Why is this happening,” Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes covered a lot of information in her latest book: Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism. Her deep dive into the history and analysis of fascism both abroad and in the U.S. Opened a topic that lots may not be aware of — that the leaders of most of the fascist and authoritarian regimes have been less than powerful and that it was the followers, the supporters that were really the focus.
In the television episode, Maddow made the observation that the fascist leaders of the past were really quite mundane. Hitler was a dork, Mussolini was a journalist, and trump is just dumb. They do/did share in one thing in that they are all narcissist sociopaths, but the main thing is that they had an audience that was hungry for any kind of leader that talked tough. As we are witnessing with trump, most of what he says is a…
