Ok, we all know that Trump-Voldemort is evil. But what scares the hippy pants off of a neo-radical is that there are people who support this lying, cheating, ego maniac. Who and why? After all of his misdeeds there is still a solid 30% - 40% approval rating. When we imagine who that might be, we instantly see suburban, white man. But we must look deeper into this population. Surprisingly there are some variations, white women, Afro-Americans, Mexicans, and first-generation immigrants. How can these people vote against their own interest? He hates them.

            We need to look at the strange and twisted world of people’s inner workings. There is a state of mind where the oppressed begin to take on the value systems of the oppressor. Similar to why abused women keep seeking out abusers or why captives begin to work for their captors. It is related to a love of power and a self-degrading mind state.

            It took women a hundred years to get the right to vote and it wasn’t because all the men were against it, it was because there were a lot of women who were just as vocal against it, as were for it.

In the 1960’s book Black Like Me, the author darkens his skin with a medical treatment and enters the deep south. He travels around feeling the abuse of white people and the comradery of the blacks. But one peculiar thing he discovered, was the strange situation of fellow blacks sabotaging the black movement. They were trying to gain superiority and climb out of their degraded social status, by one person degrading another just to get a little footing up.

This happens with Afro-Americans hating Mexicans and Italians hating Asians and Asians hating each other and uneducated, usually poor, white people thinking it’s all the same to hate everybody. This all adds up to a lot of hate. But one thing they do love and that is the oppressor’s dogma because that is where the perceived power in the society is.

It’s partly an education / poverty problem as well as a negative feedback loop of prejudice. When people are degraded while power and wealth is paraded in front of them, there is a natural tendency to go for the gold, however one can grab it, even if it is stepping on the people around them that are just like them. And Trump-Voldemort is a perfect icon of that behavior.

It is also a religious entering politics problem. From the start of this country there has been a separation of church and state because the founding fathers saw how powerful the Christian church was and how it had influenced the state enough to slaughter millions of people in witch hunts and the protestant movement. But since then, the Christian Right has been always in the background with moral issues. Religion is fine if it is supporting the spiritual awakening of a person but when it is about moral issues, some of the tactics and proverbs of the bible are not applicable to today’s multicultural modern societies. The tactic of convincing people to suspend all logic, to just believe and follow and not think critically- is a real problem.

And then there is the charisma factor. We are used to being entertained and someone with personality is much more fun to watch. A lot of people in the beginning of Trumps campaign were saying “Hey this guy is different. Let’s just see what he will do.” He is funny, says what he really feels and is beholden to no one. That bravado is appealing to the American spirit. Real men like that leadership and women who like real men are attracted to it too. If you look back at our elections most of the time it is not about qualifications, it is about charisma - even to the point of electing an old movie star with Alzheimer (Reagan).

So how can we turn the 30%-40% around? It is a difficult task. A realistic goal would be to reduce that number by 10%. That’s doable. There will always be narrow minded people but if we can marginalize ignorance, our society can progress.

Well, death and sickness seem to be changing the tides with all the idiots playing around like there is no Covid. Stupidity kills but not fast enough. And sickness isn’t picky. It kills plenty of cool people too. So, in our individual lives we need to be aware of the ignorance, and it is not by skin color or even if someone is wearing tie-dyed socks or a cool outfit. Racism, sexism, and narrow-mindedness is an invisible foe. We have to be diligent to uproot it in ourselves and to call other people out on it when you see it in action.  

How do we call people on their sh*t? Sometimes we have to scream and yell and protest. The best tools are logos with a positive vision, like Black Lives Matter or Me Too. But with individuals, do it gently. How would you like to be talked to when you are in the wrong? We can hear difficult criticism when it is done with gentle words and an insightful argument. It is hard work because it takes self-control, staunch conviction and wisdom to handle hot situations. If this is not you, then try to visualize the shrinking of ignorance by 10%. It is not T-Voldemort we are fighting - it is the mind-set that supports that kind of behavior. Without support he is nothing.