Trump Believers: The Psychology of Delusion,

 

Thomas Edsall:

"About 35 percent of Americans believed in April that Biden’s victory was illegitimate, with another 6 percent saying they are not sure. What can we say about the Americans who do not think Biden’s victory was legitimate? Compared to the overall voting-age population, they are disproportionately white, Republican, older, less educated, more conservative, and more religious (particularly more Protestant and more likely to describe themselves as born again)."

They also believe this:

“Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background” — ...60 percent of Republicans agreed, as do 55 percent of conservatives."

This is astonishing:

"...among white Republicans, those without college degrees were far more likely to agree “that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump,” at 69 percent, than white Republicans with college degrees, at a still astonishing 51 percent."

And this:

"The populist Right hates the intellectual Left because they hate being condescended to, they hate what they perceive as their hypersensitivity, and they hate what they view as an anti-American level of femininity (which is for whatever reason associated with intellectualism). 

 At the same time...the intellectual Left really does see the G.O.P. as a bunch of deplorable rubes. They absolutely feel superior to them, and they reveal it constantly on Twitter and elsewhere — further riling up the “deplorables.” 

[SKIP]

"The populist/anti-intellectual Right absolutely believe that the intellectuals are not only out of touch but are also ungodly and sneaky, and therefore think they must be stopped before they ruin America. 

Meanwhile, the intellectual Left really do believe the Trumpers are racist, sexist, homophobic (and so on) authoritarians who can’t spell and are going to destroy the country if they are not stopped."

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My take from the Edsall article:

"Meanwhile, the intellectual Left really do believe the Trumpers are racist, sexist, homophobic (and so on) authoritarians who can’t spell and are going to destroy the country if they are not stopped." 

We believe it for a reason. Because it is true. Leaving aside the spelling part for a minute what part of this is not factually correct? None of it. 

Overwhelming social science research, some of it quoted or referred to in this column, shows a strong correlation between racism, sexism, homophobia and trumpism. It is true in the same sense that the blueness of the sky is true. 

Ditto on violence. 

90% of all politically motivated violence is now coming from the right, according to the Edsall column. When Trumpers engage in violence--as they did on January 6th at Trump's direction -- it is insurrection. It is sedition. When anti-trumpers think of political violence they are thinking of self defense. IMO, these two are in no sense equivalents, moral or otherwise."

It’s true that all factions at all times are guilty, to greater or lesser extent, of bias, sometimes deep bias. But it's also true that there is only one faction at present that has accepted, in fact cheered for, history’s only presidential introduction of violence into politics. That same faction is methodically working to change election laws in about a third of the states so that its own partisans can assume the powers of ballot-counting. Its leaders work tirelessly to subvert faith in elections. 

Faction members seek to intimidate election staff, and are credibly linked to what the FBI declares is the biggest terror threat. The contrast to that Trump faction is not just Democrats. The contrast is with decent Americans who want the basic framework of decency norms and practices to be restored and sustained.

Some are actual Republicans, like my governor.