At a campaign rally, President Trump mocked Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused his Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, of sexual assault. He mimicked her and tried to demean her testimony. His comments were met with applause.
The President has been accused by 15 women of sexual harassment and sexual assault throughout his campaign. For instance, in October of 2016, a tape was revealed where he bragged about his ability to sexually assault women free of consequence.
Trump has also enacted various policies that are completely inhumane and run afoul of everything America is supposed to stand for.
His administration has overseen the separation of families at the border, young innocent children were taken away from their parents and held at facilities where they were kept in cages.
He has given ICE free reign to act however they want, forcing local authorities to hand over information and allowing them to go into hospitals to search for undocumented immigrants.
Trump has also gotten rid of a lot of regulations geared toward protecting the environment. And it is well documented that when corporations pollute, they disproportionately affect people living in poverty.
Trump's rhetoric, such as when he said Europeans were "losing their culture to immigration," when he visited the U.K. has emboldened white supremacists around the globe.
There is only one word to describe all this, cruel. And even that word might be insufficient in accurately describing how sickening this is. The "land of the free" putting toddlers in cages and the "leader of the free world" making fun of a woman who came forward about her sexual assault experience.
So any sane person is asking why. Why has our once great nation fallen so low? Those asking these questions need to understand, for Trump and his allies, cruelty is the point of it all.
Dr. Ford detailed in her testimony that the most memorable detail was her assaulter, Brett Kavanaugh, and his friend Mark Judge, laughing loudly during the assault. The loud, throaty, laughing that came straight from the belly. And at his rally, Trump got his crowd to laugh loudly at Dr. Ford's expense.
President Trump, and the 42% of Americans that support him find a sense of bonding when they rejoice in the suffering of their opponents.
A large number of Trump supporters enjoy supporting policies simply to "own the libs." The alt-right comes together, participating in the targeted harassment of feminists, people of color, and even other white men that sympathized with the oppressed and didn't share their worldview.
Trump grew in popularity due to the large number of unhappy, white men. They saw a black president, a woman presidential nominee, the growing diversity of the American landscape, as threats to the existing hierarchy in American cultural life. Let's face it, this country was made to be enjoyed exclusively enjoyed by white, heterosexual, Christian men. Being rich helped too. When this country was founded, literally, only wealthy white men could participate in voting.
The growing number of immigrants, which is without a doubt the group Trump hates the most, caused the white men to experience hatred and fear. They were afraid so they wanted someone that would "stand up" to these groups and not allow them to displace those that are already in power. They became bound to Trump, a man who insulted his way to the presidency.
Now immigrants, LGBT people, minorities, and women have a good cause to be afraid. And Trump's supporters love it. They love the fact that the people they used to be afraid of are now the fearful ones. That's why they all went to Charlottesville with tiki torches, they felt united and proud, so like a species of bird that likes to show off its feather patterns, they came out.
I went to a Trump rally in September 2016. The media likes to display that most Trump voters were hopelessly poor mid-Westerners who were desperate to fight the establishment and elect someone who promised to bring their jobs back. Well, statistical facts show that that's not true, it is just media sensationalism. But I do have hands-on experience being at the rally.
I'm from Pennsylvania so the media would have you believe it was a lot of displaced former steelworkers with blue collars and sweat on their brows. None of those people were there. I did see a lot of men wearing suits. They had white hair and dressed nice, but above all of that, they looked smug.
These people came from the suburbs, and in all likelihood, they started the campaign season probably supporting Jeb Bush's presidential campaign. All of this was new to them, the giant rallies, the protestors. But they enjoyed it. It was like a novelty to them.
As Trump started campaigning they started listening to him he fed into the paranoia that they have been feeling since 2008. Seeing a man mock reporters and liberal pundits with such ferocity, as if he had no conscience was all they needed to see to let their worst impulses become apparent. Their hatred of the poor, and people that look different than them.
All people crave unity with whatever group will take them. The media class likes to accuse the Democrats from using identity politics. The GOP's platform with Trump in command is identity politics.
Not all white men will remain in Trump's cult. The poor and the union members are usually aware that the GOP doesn't want to help them, but that would require the Democrats nominating better candidates to motivate the economically disadvantaged to vote.
Another big cause of this is the fact that at the end of the day, politics is a game for the rich. Not just big money buying elections, more rich people spend time working on campaigns and doing research on causes because of they… don't have to work 40 hours a week to survive.
Granting the disadvantaged access to the political field would greatly increase the number of minority voting, and would break up the coalition of racist white men that no longer have a place in our political systems.
