Good article on the mentality of tRump's supporters... [View all]

[BigmanPigman]

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-positivity/202009/john-deans-authoritarian-nightmare

Dean and Altemeyer estimate a faithful Trump base of 50 million people. In the book, they state most of them have one of two scientifically established authoritarian personality traits or are members of a unique group that combines both.

These people score highly as:
Social Dominators: People who believe in inequality between groups and think their own should control others, collectively and even individually on a person-to-person basis. Donald Trump, they assert, appears to be an The example of a social dominator.

Authoritarian Followers: People who are submissive, fearful, and longing for a mighty leader who will protect them from life's threats. Their ethnocentrism is often based on religious training and they have been found to exhibit self-righteousness.

Double Highs: People who score highly as both a Social Dominator and an Authoritarian Follower, which, as Dean and Altemeyer state, at first seems confusing because that would make them dominating submissives. They offer two examples of how this can happen: a dominating person can strongly believe in other people submitting to authorities if they themselves are the authorities, another example is submissive people who endorse their group's superiority over others as an extra level of protection.

The glue that holds all these people and his coalition together, the underlying feeling, is prejudice. That was the thing that jumped out also in the Monmouth poll is how deep and strong the prejudice is in these people. They are anti-'the other' on so many issues. They get reinforced feelings when they go to Trump rallies, for example, and they see people who are thinking and feeling like they do, they find a comfort level in all this".

A great deal of research over the decades reveals that Evangelicals usually score quite highly on the RWA scale. Thus, when the Republican Party actively recruited religious conservatives, it was simultaneously filling itself up with highly prejudiced authoritarian followers. Given that fact, one could predict from the outset that a dominating authoritarian leader like Donald Trump would appeal to Evangelicals."

***More at the link...