Why, one wonders, would so many Americans be prepared to elect a president with such contempt for democracy, one of the country’s cardinal values. A partial answer is that many Americans simply don’t care for democracy. Not everyone does. A study by Matthew MacWilliams, a research associate at the University of Massachusetts, found that approximately 18 percent of Americans are highly disposed to authoritarianism. Another 23 percent prefer democracy but easily tilt to authoritarianism if feeling angry, anxious or aggrieved.

And that 23 percent have good reason to be feeling angry and aggrieved. They have, in their eyes, seen their society increasingly disrespect them. At the end of WWII, they were living the American dream. Things were the best they had ever been for American workers, perhaps the best they had ever been for any workers. There was a good union job available for all the deserving, and an even better future awaited their kids. But globalism and automation have largely trashed all that.

And as decline set in on the economic front, so it set in on the social front. Straight white Christian men reined supreme in the 1950s but then their unique privilege came under assault. Women demanded liberation from the bedrooms and kitchens and equal consideration in the workplace. Blacks, subjugated for centuries, broke free of segregation. Gays escaped the oppression of illegality, ultimately even demanding the right of marriage, horrifying the fundamentalists.  Young people rebelled against war and despoliation of the environment. American society loosened the bonds generally—drinking, gambling and the use of drugs were all facilitated while the influence of religion declined. 

The U.S., like Western society generally, has become culturally progressive, seemingly on a relentless march toward greater toleration and greater inclusion. To a large cohort of the American public, society is going to hell in a handbasket.

And who is at fault? Who is destroying the real America and robbing real Americans of their birthright? The elites for starters. Always the elites—the people responsible for all this change. The intellectuals, academics, arty types, Wall Street—the usual suspects. And of course immigrants (no e pluribus unum for these folks).

The aggrieved are indeed angry. They want their turn. And they now have a champion, some even believe a saviour sent by God Himself, who will get it for them.

Donald Trump understands. He is one of them because he, too, feels aggrieved and angry. He was born filthy rich and spoiled in New York and always desperately wanted to be accepted by the New York elites of whom he believed he was one. But he never was.

The New York aristocracy never took him seriously. They knew his reputation as a savvy businessman was spin. His was a career immersed in lawsuits and bankruptcies. Even his philanthropy, so vital to the status of rich New Yorkers, was a scam. Those in his chosen profession rejected him. According to Steve Kaufman, president of a company that manages 20 Manhattan office buildings, “People in real estate are afraid to do business with him because he and his family and his organization are not honest people.”

New Yorkers attitude toward Trump is manifested by their vote. Seventy-three percent voted against him in 2020, and he a home-town boy. The city that has long been a gateway to freedom and prosperity for millions of immigrants, including Trump’s grandfather, did not take kindly to a man who campaigns so radically against immigration.

But Trump is, as New Yorkers well know, a master at spin. He built a national image as a great dealmaker. Howard Rubenstein, a prominent New York PR man, claims, “In my whole life, I have never met anybody who’s as brilliant as Donald is at building a brand … He’s an absolute genius at it.”

And now he’s built a brand as America’s saviour based on his sincerely felt sense of grievance. This has been nothing but enhanced by his legal problems, seen by he and his adoring followers as persecution by the elites, by the mythical deep state. And now, with his nicked ear, he becomes a martyr, a martyr unleashed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The aggrieved, and those that fear them or seek their support for themselves, have surrendered to him. He will save them—spiritually, economically, culturally—from an increasingly secular, elitist society. They are a powerful force driven by intense emotions not of the kindly sort. They will not be easily defeated in November.