Donald Trump, the Most Unmanly President

[RKP5637]

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/donald-trump-the-most-unmanly-president/612031/

Why don’t the president’s supporters hold him to their own standard of masculinity?

So many mysteries surround Donald Trump: the contents of his tax returns, the apparent miracle of his graduation from college. Some of them are merely curiosities; others are of national importance, such as whether he understood the nuclear-weapons briefing given to every president. I prefer not to dwell on this question.

But since his first day as a presidential candidate, I have been baffled by one mystery in particular: Why do working-class white men—the most reliable component of Donald Trump’s base—support someone who is, by their own standards, the least masculine man ever to hold the modern presidency? The question is not whether Trump fails to meet some archaic or idealized version of masculinity. The president’s inability to measure up to Marcus Aurelius or Omar Bradley is not the issue. Rather, the question is why so many of Trump’s working-class white male voters refuse to hold Trump to their own standards of masculinity—why they support a man who behaves more like a little boy.

Not every working-class male voted for Trump, and not all of them have these traits, of course. And I do not present these beliefs and attitudes as uniformly virtuous in themselves. Some of these traditional masculine virtues have a dark side: Toughness and dominance become bullying and abuse; self-reliance becomes isolation; silence becomes internalized rage. Rather, I am noting that courage, honesty, respect, an economy of words, a bit of modesty, and a willingness to take responsibility are all virtues prized by the self-identified class of hard-working men, the stand-up guys, among whom I was raised.

Whenever he is in the company of Russian President Vladimir Putin, to take the most cringe-inducing example, he visibly cowers. His attempts to ingratiate himself with Putin are embarrassing, especially given how effortlessly Putin can bend Trump to his will. When the Russian leader got Trump alone at a summit in Helsinki, he scared him so badly that at the subsequent joint press conference, Putin smiled pleasantly while the president of the United States publicly took the word of a former KGB officer over his own intelligence agencies.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

1. The guy writing this article understands neither the American concept of masculinity nor

the difference between "Trump voters" and "[white] working class." Trump voters like Trump precisely because of who he is -- someone who speaks his mind, leads through steamrolling, is openly racist, insults people to their faces and treats women like shit if they are seen to deserve it. And that actually intersects quite a bit with what is valued as masculinity in this culture.

People didn't support Hitler because he was the ultimate Aryan manly-man, either.

[RKP5637]

2. That was one error I saw too, inferring Trump voters are pretty much a subset of

"[white] working class."

[smirkymonkey]

5. The American concept of masculinity is a joke.

It is a false masculinity. It is just insecurity posturing as a tough, macho-man caricature. It's actually pretty laughable. It's all false bravado and weakness being covered up by silly outfits and guns and vulgar language. It's punching down at those who are weaker and with less privelege.

When I see a man who acts like the "typical American masucline male", I see a pathetic little boy who never grew up and someone to avoid at all costs.

[Kali]

3. amazes me how so many of my western rural ranching neighbors support the moron -

a fucking lying New York real estate developer.

[RKP5637]

4. I'm completely stunned by it. The guy is an absolute moron and

a compulsive liar. There is absolutely nothing hidden about it. It's a total WTF to me.

[mcar]

6. I have never understood why working class voters support him so

Ditto women.

He has stiffed laborers over and over again.

This article explains a lot: the men who support this man-baby do so because they are immature just like him. The women who wore the "Donald Trump can grab my pussy" t-shirts in 2016 did so because that is how they are treated. To them, it's normal.

The whole thing is abhorrent.

[RKP5637]

7. Yeah, I agree, I think they identify with him ... cut from the same piece of cloth.

Really people I would NEVER want to be around.

[mcar]

8. Mean, nasty dumb people