Unfortunately, to understand Trump’s wretched core supporters requires more than a passing familiarity with the Fox/AM shit river. So much of what now characterizes, not only the policy sensibilities of his administration, but the inane stupidity of Trump’s daily relationship with the public, can only be accurately processed through the prism of this world view.
Most important to understanding Fox/Amers is to recognize they don’t care what anybody else thinks. Their entire outlook has been created and maintained by the “personalities” they, not only rely on as exclusive sources of information, but admire and trust the way a student revers a teacher. After all, before Fox/AM they were tabula rasa, devoid of any perspective on current events other than nagging grievances they dared not articulate. It was all a puzzle with way too many pieces, changing way to fast to follow. They weren’t proud of their apathy, in fact they were ashamed of it. How can you be a patriot if you don’t know who to be mad at? Sean or Glenn or Rush or Bill etc. changed all that, providing a simple storyline they could embrace; the primary characters stayed the same, as did the basic plot, and everything, every second, was either right or wrong. The river doesn’t do grey areas.
The relationship between Trump and his wretched core is identical to, say, Hannity and his fan base, or Rush to his zealots. Read the comments on Trump’s social media sites and their is no difference to the pages of river stalwarts. It is critical to appreciate how alienated the wretched core felt prior to Fox/AM, and now that they have a home and feel included, there is no desire to expand horizons, or allow in information that their mentors make clear will damage their standing in the group. If you’re saying to yourself right now “gee, this sounds like some kind of cult,” the simple response is …..duh!
Trump is both the product of and leader of shit river nihilism. Viewed from this lens his presidency is simply the leading show of the nightly line up. His only concern politically is to keep the base happy. The narrative dictates action; he won’t stray from its guardrails. Of course this is at odds with any concept of leadership, or responsible government. But since his entire campaign was one rally after another composed of nothing but Fox/AM’s laundry list, “keeping his promises” is the go to mantra. Of course it is fair to ask if any other GOP candidate wouldn’t be doing the same thing since there really wasn’t much daylight on the broad strokes between platforms.
The answer to that question is found within Trump’s deficiencies. While, say, Ted Cruz, is just as beholden to the narrative as Trump, his intellectual foundation and policy IQ is not fully dependent on it. In other words, Cruz is educated enough to absorb and relate to disparate information. Trump is not. Trump has been so hopelessly over his head from an intellectual and policy standpoint since taking office, the requisites of balancing arguments to make decisions has unmoored him, taking him miles from his comfort zone, which has for the last decade or more been what Sean and Bill have doled out. His “balance” came from Scarborough until the former congressman became a critic and was cast out for his apostasy. Now it seems to be just Sean, with Fox and Friends providing subjects to tweet about every morning.
So to understand Trump’s wretched core is to comprehend Trump. He is as much a product of the shit river as they are, each fully informed by its narrative and dedicated to its nihilism. Were Trump to suddenly undergo an epiphany and govern responsibly, Fox/AM would turn on him; there is no doubt of that. But that scenario is not possible because Trump is as exclusively informed by the Fox/AM line as his wretched core and has little ability to think outside its strictures. Moreover, he has become so insecure due to the unforgiving waves of differing views aides and handlers have thrown at him in pursuit of some sort of coherant decision making structure, that he requires the piece of mind provided by a trusty echo chamber. “Letting Trump be Trump” is simply shorthand for he doesn’t want to hear anything but Fox. Mr. President, Sean Hannity on line 1! BC