Reasonable, well-mannered people who believe in liberal democracy despite its faults, or who want to believe in it no matter what, are horrified or shocked by Donald Trump’s constant uncouthness. The man is indeed vulgar and uninhibited. He poisons American political life with his delusions. More often than not, he truly disgusts people.
Commentators are asking themselves how Trump has come to dominate the Republican primaries the way he has. Are people crazy? How can they let themselves be manipulated by an intemperate demagogue? We have to reverse the explanation to understand why the billionaire’s style evokes this reaction among so many, a reaction that is the opposite of the media elite’s.
Within Western societies, there are large swaths of people who have dropped out of the political system. They feel they no longer have a place in politics and that they have been abandoned by the elite. They are exasperated by stiff, politically correct language, which has been terribly encrypted and crafted by communications professionals who specialize in the art of saying nothing.
These segments of the population still keep an eye on politics and hunger for someone who will give the finger to the political elite. They impatiently await the person who will cause pandemonium while transgressing codes of respectability, all the while giving voice to popular prejudices that for better or for worse are generally not allowed to see the light of day.
The political elite will treat this great disturber as an intruder who needs to be expelled from public life. But the more elites who conspire against him, the more people will sympathize with him, seeing him as the chosen one who will sow the necessary chaos among the powerful. The more Trump attracts the disgust of the elite, the more he will attract those who feel excluded from politics.
That is probably one of the reasons behind Trump’s political efficiency.
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