The Trouble With Martyrs

Donald J. Trump, former President of the United States of America, leads the Republican party in July of 2023, in its quest to gain control of the Executive branch of the American Government. He is again running for President in the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

He has been impeached twice, a precedent in itself, and is currently under two criminal indictments, one by the Federal government and one by the State of New York. Two more possible indictments linger while Trump is under investigation both in the State of Georgia and again by the Federal government, both for different aspects of his role in the attempt to overthrow the government of the United States on January 6th, 2021. He recently lost a major, multi-million dollar lawsuit for sexual harassment and slander, and faces at least eight more major lawsuits, among them the NAACP, the Legal Defense Fund, his niece, Mary Trump, Michael Cohen, California State Representative Eric Salwell, three separate suits from Federal guards injured during the insurrection, and as a correspondent along with his Trump Tower security chief, Keith Schiller, yet he controls the mindset of over one third of the voting American public. They would vote for him anyway.

The current opinion polls show Trump has a commanding lead over his nearest Republican rival and will probably win the Republican nomination. The Marquette Law Poll, CNN, Fox News, and the Quinnipiac University – a small, private university in Hamden, Connecticut, famous for its public opinion polling center that is unaffiliated with any academic department at the school – all have Trump well ahead of his political rivals in his own party, and one poll, the Harvard Caps Harris, predicts Trump will beat incumbent Joe Biden.

The Democratic factions wonder how Donald Trump managed to develop such a huge, enthusiastic following. They can not fathom how supposedly pious, religious voters condone Trump's misogynistic, sexist actions with women, nor can they accept Trump's adoring relationship with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. Donald Trump, who, as President, saluted a North Korean general but walked in front of the Queen of England as if she weren't there, continues to astound the liberals and Democrats with his blatant disregard for protocol and tradition.

 

But Trump did not create his supporters, he simply renamed them. They were there first. He simply lined up the myriad, splintered, incubated, anti-civilization groups when he rode symbolically down an escalator into history to oppose Hilary Clinton and Beyoncé.

Trump’s powerful, central group coagulated from the often opposing factions he inherited. Loosely included in these widely varying groups are the same people who oppose smoking bans and refuse to wear helmets when riding motorcycles, to the devout evangelical Christians who believe the Bible should rule over the Constitution. From climate change deniers, and those who pay to spread that belief, to those who hold their guns more dearly than their grandchildren, the rank and file core of the right-wing opposition to anything progressive were spotlighted rather accidentally when the John McCain Presidential campaign qualified Sarah Palin as a national candidate by branding her a “maverick,” thereby excusing any of her shortcomings that would have prevented her from being seriously considered competent. In 2016, Trump was simply the new “maverick” even though Trump carefully avoided association with the name.

The Koch Brother’s powerful Tea Party and the competing FreedomWorks of Dick Armey reinforced their flagging collective agendas around Trump while the names of their respective organizations faded into the limelight. Trump’s political shortcomings became an asset. They still are. The less he looks and acts like the established norms of political correctness the more attractive he is to those who felt kinship with the maverick label. With the possible, even probable criminal conviction of Trump looming in the immediate future, his supporters love their underdog, their beloved, undisciplined pack leader more than ever.

Trump supporters have no other choice. Martyrs never have a choice. They’ll drink the Kool-Aid. Martyrs always do. Simply an observation.