Donald Trump, the Most Unmanly President
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 menthe most reliable component of Donald Trumps basesupport 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 presidents inability to measure up to Marcus Aurelius or Omar Bradley is not the issue. Rather, the question is why so many of Trumps working-class white male voters refuse to hold Trump to their own standards of masculinitywhy they support a man who behaves more like a little boy.
I am a son of the working class, and I know these cultural standards. The men I grew up with think of themselves as pretty tough guys, and most of them are. They are not the products of elite universities and cosmopolitan living. These are men whose fathers and grandfathers came from a culture that looks down upon lying, cheating, and bragging, especially about sex or courage. (My fathers best friend got the Silver Star for wiping out a German machine-gun nest in Europe, and I never heard a word about it until after the mans funeral.) They admire and value the understated swagger, the rock-solid confidence, and the quiet reserve of such cultural heroes as John Waynes Green Beret Colonel Mike Kirby and Sylvester Stallones John Rambo (also, as it turns out, a former Green Beret.)
They are, as an American Psychological Association feature describes them, men who adhere to norms such as toughness, dominance, self-reliance, heterosexual behaviors, restriction of emotional expression and the avoidance of traditionally feminine attitudes and behaviors. But I didnt need an expert study to tell me this; they are men like my late father and his friends, who understood that a mans word is his bond and that a handshake means something. They are men who still believe in a days work for a days wages. They feel that you should never thank another man when he hands you a paycheck that you earned. They shoulder most burdens in silenceperhaps to an unhealthy degreeand know that there is honor in making an honest living and raising a family.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/donald-trump-the-most-unmanly-president/612031/
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)Not my ancestors. When we kids, Dad took all over the Southern & Western states on vacation but a never "Yankee State". One time to Iowa, that's it.
rurallib
(62,379 posts)Ferrets are Cool
(21,102 posts)It's why they voted for him. He says out loud the things they have only been able to think. He is their hero.
Makes me want to
wnylib
(21,340 posts)Not to disparage Iowans, but it doesn't seem like a vacation spot.
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)We went to New Orleans, Bristol, Tennessee, etc. As I remember now, actually it was Indiana just over the border from Kentucky. I'm 64 and have discovered over the last 15 years that my memory isn't as good it once was. Not forgetting as much mixing things up. I've been to lots of rock concerts, so a few years ago I started looking at band web sites and found a lot of stuff I remembered wrong. Kind of depressing at first.
wnylib
(21,340 posts)memories are quite clear and accurate while others are less so. It's as if the brain can only store a limited amount and discards unused memory files after a while. The longer you live, the more files there are that get trimmed or deleted.
Kaiserguy
(740 posts)example of a man than Trump. I doubt that Trump even knows which end of nail you hit with a hammer. He is the whiniest man I have ever seen. I think its the hate and racisms that they like and to me that is not a sign of a man but rather a sign of ignorance.
KS Toronado
(17,147 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)when one noticed the other guy was throwing every other nail across the floor.
"Why are you doing that?" he asked.
"Because the heads are on the wrong end." he replied.
"Then why are you throwing them over there?"
"So I can use them on the other wall of course."
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)I said that to my son a few days ago. Two of my neighbors put up Trump/Pence signs in their yards, across the street from each other. One of them did not surprise me, the other was a disappointment, Then the other day two more further down the street put up signs "JB Pritzker Sucks" This must be because the governor of Illinois is carefully opening up the state. I told my son "Another two? Don't these people have the courage to do something alone, they need someone else to help them?" Typical, don't you think? Like their cowardly "leader". All bluff and bluster, then someone bursts his little bubble, and he throws a tantrum. He has to be surrounded by SS and aides, or he would not speak up. Coward to the core.
mwb970
(11,346 posts)Amusingly, the prevailing winds here blow in a direction that usually exposes only the back of the flag, which proudly reads "pmurT". Kind of a metaphor.
Lochloosa
(16,061 posts)I had to fire someone that refused to work for a person that I promoted. Because that person was black.
Some things never changed.
cstanleytech
(26,236 posts)mwb970
(11,346 posts)Who can explain it?
Woodwizard
(837 posts)I do chainsaw carving for a portion of my income at some events I do live demonstrations, it amazes me how many trump supporters assume I am one of them. The GOP has done a masterful job at branding themselves as the hardworking all American without ever getting a callus on one finger.
I carved some Jack O lantern pumkins with 45's ferret hair, pissed off a few supporters one woman marched away saying I am not buying anything here most likely would not have anyway and then one trumper bought one and got pissed at my wife when she said to me "Oh you sold a trumpkin"
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ramen
(788 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)I cut a large log, about 5 feet long, into a nice
chair with armrests. What kind and size saw do you use?
I have only used Stihl saws. I recently bought a small one, I'm getting older and it's light
plus the trees on my land are not big diameter. When I cut in the mountains I use
my larger saw.
For my smaller items carving in the shop I use makita plug in electrics they last and last I did modify the drive to take rim drive sprockets so I could use 1/4 pitch chain with a carving bar.
My main go to gas saws are echo 310 detail saw, echo 490 moderate blocking saw and the beast Stihl 660 I mainly use that saw for milling lumber with an Alaskan mill attachment its 20 pounds 92cc 7 1/2 hp
PatSeg
(47,260 posts)niyad
(113,055 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,957 posts)noneof_theabove
(410 posts)he wanted to learn everything about everything so he could be the smartest man.
So he started off in the house construction business.
He took out a nail from nail belt and drove it in with 2 hits. "The Boss" was impressed.
Then "The Boss" saw him pull out several nails and throw them on the ground.
Hammer a few more then throw some more on the ground.
"The Boss" came over and asked him why he was throwing perfectly good nails on the ground.
Trump responded that "they had the heads on the wrong end."
"The Boss" looked at him and said "How stupid are you? Those are for the other side of the house!"
Trump pulled of his nail belt, threw it on the ground and yelled "I quit" and was heard mumbling something about suing the nail company.
vlyons
(10,252 posts)They envy his wealth, although it's based on a mountain of debt, cheating, lying, fraud, stealing. They envy his supposed conquest of women, although real men detest his disrespect. They support his racism, because they too are afraid brown and black people will rise above them.
jrthin
(4,833 posts)hands as to why his supporters like him. The answer is simply: his supporters, in everyway, are just as despicable as he is.
paleotn
(17,881 posts)Martin Luther King talked about it. It's been acknowledged over the centuries. Though certain attributes are traditionally gender specific, it applies to women as well as men. In my mind, it's the glue that holds a civilized society together.
It's tenants are doing the right thing, not because it's easy or expedient, but because it's the right and honorable thing to do. Respecting and being fair to those who do the hard work, regardless of their socio-economic standing. Kicking in when your family, town, county, state or country needs you. Stoically shouldering the burdens in life fairly and equitably. Treating others, all others, as you would want to be treated. Showing mercy. Recognizing that the needs of others are as important, and sometimes more important than your own.
In the southern society I grew up in, it's what separated good folks, whether rich or poor, black or white, from...pardon the term...white trash. My parents generation (Great Depression / WWII) identified with it and taught it to their children, though they didn't always follow it. I think it's something born and renewed by adversity. Something that generation knew well, but we do not. Not until Covid-19 anyway. This is the time when character shines and gets us through the rough patches.
Donald Trump has absolutely zero character and surrounds himself with similar creatures. But in my mind, he's a symptom. Many of those who follow him, have no character at all. It's rampant in the Republican party. It's like it's been lost on a whole generation of Americans. Either they were never taught the virtues or rejected them since they'd rather whine and be petulant children. Some, like Trump and his family, are completely immoral. For others, it's just atrophied I guess. I don't know. What I do know is, character gets you through situations like we find ourselves in. Without it, things only get worse.
The thing is, if my father were alive and heard me whine about having to wear a mask during a pandemic, he'd kick my ass sideways and rightly so.
nwduke
(348 posts)The con man conning the easily conned, using hate as the medium to con the hate filled bigots!
pansypoo53219
(20,955 posts)of course if he was poor....and his name was drumpf.
kacekwl
(7,013 posts)His supporters are the same as him. They talk a big game but can't follow thru. All hat no cattle. Real men don't yell and bluster their way thru life.
Ohioboy
(3,238 posts)Trump is too full of excuses to even be considered mature. There are children who have more maturity than this walking excuse.
Orrex
(63,172 posts)This is the entirety of it, and no deeper motivation need be found.
The idiot racist fuckhead in chief flatters their vanity, their racism, and their love of cruelty; as such, they will follow him to their graves and will never turn from him.
Yes, yes. A handful will reject him here and there, but the great majority of that tiny minority will still tend to embrace Republican candidates and will certainly vote for the next Trump-esque candidate they can find.
They could catch Trump in the act of sodomizing their own children, and they'd still find a way to be okay with it.
And, as always, this applies also to the lurking fuckheads reading here from their various Konservative circle jerk cesspit forum. Go fuck yourselves, assholes!
Gothmog
(144,919 posts)wnylib
(21,340 posts)just like him, whiny, irresponsible, cowardly racists.
But others from the working class as described in the article, are angry and see in Trump a symbol of the rebellion that they feel. They are angry about working hard and getting nowhere as prices go up but wages don't. They have been told by leaders that their problems are caused by "foreigners" and minorities getting "special treatment" and they resent that because it goes against the fair work ethic they were taught.
Equal rights regarding gender disrupts their view of masculinity, so they love a guy who "puts women in their place." Therefore, Dens represent to them a disruption of what they consider normal. Hillary terrified them because of her competence. They live to hate her and Pelosi.
Those who are not overt racists have absorbed society's messages of subliminal or unconscious bias. They didn't hate Obama but could not seriously see him as a competent leader to run the nation. So they oppose a party that would run an "inferior" candidate.
Along comes Trump who rebels against all the social behaviors that they think are oppressing them. He becomes their hero.
Trump's followers believe that they have been abandoned and forgotten by "the system." They have, but it's their own party that has done it to them. They can't see that because their own party leaders have given them scapegoats to blame.