What’s the One Reason So Many People Can’t Quit Trump?

by | Sep 24, 2024 | Opinions & Commentary

Photo by Jon Tyson, Unsplash

What’s the One Reason So Many People Can’t Quit Trump?

by | Sep 24, 2024 | Opinions & Commentary

Photo by Jon Tyson, Unsplash

Trump's followers know everything we know about him. They have come to understand how predatory and destructive he is—and yet, they cannot bring themselves to take ownership of their errors in judgment.

Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz

How can anyone still support this guy? If I had a dime for every time I thought, said, or heard this question, I’d be delivering this message from my expansive villa in Tuscany.

Thousands of think pieces have been generated, books authored, documentaries assembled, and op-eds published, on understanding the reason otherwise decent, intelligent, goodhearted people continue to stand behind someone who, objectively speaking, is one of the worst human beings on the planet—let alone to ever sit in the highest seat of power in our nation.

The rest of us hear the steady stream of bile continually erupting from his mouth, we survey the endless litany of legal and moral offenses he’s committed, we watch him fail to string together a coherent thought, we take note of every racist, misogynistic, bigoted thing he’s said and done, we witness him openly assailing the Constitution and the rule of Law.

We look at him, and then we look around.

We see people we love and once respected. We turn toward our parents, our spouses, our favorite aunt, our lifelong friends, our longtime neighbors. We see them steadfastly, even passionately standing with him, despite a billion transgressions, any one of which would have been a dealbreaker for them in any other context and with any other human being. For the third election cycle in a row, we watch them plant their yard signs affixed with his name, a name mired in scandal and criminality and cruelty.

And we find ourselves asking, “How in the hell is this still possible? What is wrong with them?”

And as many have rightly noted, there are a myriad of reasons his cultic hold on tens of millions of Americans has been difficult to break: political tribalism partisan media, inherited racism, toxic masculinity, abortion fixation, terrible theology, active or internalized misogyny, a lack of critical thinking, the need to feel part of something, false beliefs about his abilities.

And yet, those still all seem incomplete, because the people whose allegiance to him most frustrate us, seem to be better than all of these possible explanations. We don’t believe they have disregard for women or hatred of immigrants or homophobia. We know them to be compassionate, loving, generous human beings. We see the many moral and spiritual commonalities between them and us, and so we’re still hard pressed to explain it.

What I’ve come to believe is that the single reason so many people can’t quit Donald Trump is because they simply cannot bring themselves to admit that they made a mistake. They are not still aligned with him out of shared values but self-preservation.

To part with him now, would be to contradict years of strident social media posts, it would mean retracting thousands of public declarations when they embraced conspiracies and stories that have since been proven wrong: about election interference or vaccines or immigrant crimes waves or Leftist legal witch hunts.

They know everything we know about him. They aren’t in denial. Somewhere between initially supporting him in 2016, they have had their eyes opened and come to understand how predatory and destructive he is—and yet, they cannot bring themselves to take ownership of their previous errors in judgment.

And so, as simple and yet profoundly sad as it is, tens of millions of decent human beings are remaining tethered to this vile, malevolent man to save face.

Perhaps the one small shred of hope this time, is that in the quiet of their hearts they have reached the bridge too far. His refusal to accept the 2020 election results, his manufacturing of a stolen election lie, his inciting of an insurrection at our Capitol, his overturning of Roe V Wade, his weaponizing of the Supreme Court, his theocratic blueprint in project 2025.

They recognize that his opponent Kamala Harris is the antithesis of him: a measured, mature, empathetic human being whose love for this nation is real, whose joy is not manufactured, whose leadership will bring a stability and reason that we have lacked ever since the man they once celebrated showed up.

And maybe they will never be able to bring themselves to publicly admit that aligning themselves with him was a terrible, grievous mistake—but perhaps enough of them, in the quiet solitude of the voting booth, will.

That would be a beautiful declaration.

John Pavlovitz

John Pavlovitz

John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.

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