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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 7, 2024

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Would Trump do many harmful things in office? I am sure.

Why are you sure? He was already president for four years. Did he do many harmful things during his first four years?

Why does Trump have this effect?

It's been long enough that people are starting to forget the actual reasons behind the hatred of Trump.

During the 2016 campaign and his first two years as president, Trump was seen as the White Candidate. Rightly or wrongly, it was assumed by both his enemies and a non-trivial percentage of his supporters that he would prioritize the interests of white people over other groups. This is absolutely forbidden in American politics: white people cannot self-consciously advocate for their racial interests in the way that non-whites can. So Trump became a figure of demonic evil.

Q: Why does Trump have this effect?

A: Trump was seen as the White Candidate.

You're not wrong, but I would expand your frame because just being white isn't the whole picture. Trump is the figurehead antithesis of the ideals of the Democratic party and a large portion of their voter base. He's a white man concerned with his own image as the alpha male, he chiefly trusts his own intuition is skeptical of institutions, he believes there are innate differences between races and sexes, he's bombastic and boastful, he sleeps with models, and so on. These are just observations, I say none of them to be denigrating, though some may warrant it.

Contrast this with Obama, the eight-year darling embodiment of the democratic party, then amplify it by the proliferation of ubiquitous and profitable rage-bait media, and you get the vitriol and hostility of 2016 which will never cease until he retires or dies.