Editor’s Note – Who Are the Trumpers, and Why Do They Still Support Him?
Stephan: 
As the economy tanks, unemployment soars, support to help poor families and to feed children disappears -- 40% of American families are food insecure -- evictions and foreclosures are going up, and 155,000 people have died due to the catastrophically bad Covid-19 management, while untold millions have contracted the coronavirus, how is it possible that Donald Trump, according to FiveThirtyEight still enjoys 42.1% support?
That question has been haunting my mind for several weeks now, and so I began to do research that would provide a fact-based answer. Today's SR is dedicated to what I discovered. One point to remember: The uber-rich who support Trump do so for quite different reasons than the Trumpers, whom they see as peasants, necessary only because even with what little democracy we have left, the number of voters still makes a difference. Trump and his cronies, as Trump's "It is what it is" comment about the pandemic makes clear, don't care about the peasants, but do recognize they have this one importance.
As the economy tanks, unemployment soars, support to help poor families and to feed children disappears -- 40% of American families are food insecure -- evictions and foreclosures are going up, and 155,000 people have died due to the catastrophically bad Covid-19 management, while untold millions have contracted the coronavirus, how is it possible that Donald Trump, according to FiveThirtyEight still enjoys 42.1% support?
That question has been haunting my mind for several weeks now, and so I began to do research that would provide a fact-based answer. Today's SR is dedicated to what I discovered. One point to remember: The uber-rich who support Trump do so for quite different reasons than the Trumpers, whom they see as peasants, necessary only because even with what little democracy we have left, the number of voters still makes a difference. Trump and his cronies, as Trump's "It is what it is" comment about the pandemic makes clear, don't care about the peasants, but do recognize they have this one importance.
Perhaps what we do not want to admit is that a great many Americans are authoritarian and bigoted in their world view, easily manipulated, very poorly educated and culturally isolated from the global society, and proud of it, unfortunately. A democracy requires an educated population, and one that is open to discourse and honest debate, instead of the reactive, hostile polarization Trump’s regime has created. In 2016 when I heard that man saying of Hilary Clinton “hang her up”, and bragging about “grabbing women by the pussy” I thought “Oh my God, here’s the monster at last, the shadow”. I remember that Putin was elected by the people, thus ending Russia’s brief democracy, as was Hitler. It seems to me amazing that we have not had an authoritarian would be dictator arise in our American history before Trump.