The Rudderless Ethos of Trump Supporters in a Post-Trump Era

The identity, values, beliefs and characteristics of Trump supporters is simultaneously a difficult and very simple thing to nail down. On one side of the coin — it’s hard to generalize any group that’s made up of tens of millions of people. You’ve got a variety of races, socioeconomic classes, backgrounds, geographic locations and professional identities who have rallied behind him for a whole host of reasons. The Evangelicals are very different from the Texas-border-town Latinos who are also very different from elderly elite socialites in deep pocket Florida. They’re everywhere and, post-election, seemingly nowhere at the same time.

In the build-up to the 2020 election which, let me be very clear, Biden has won handily, everyone in the US, on both sides, was seemingly bracing for impact. Some anticipated another shocking Trump victory and the fall of democracy as we know it. Some expected a civil war. We got none of that. Instead, the election went relatively smoothly with no reports of aggressive voter intimidation or violence on either side and Biden won after a long, grueling vote count process. Even in the aftermath, as Trump is refusing to concede and Biden is moving forward naming cabinet members and planning his transition, on his own, Trump supporters are still, relatively, nowhere to be found. Why aren’t they marching in the streets? Where are the reports of AK-47’s being openly carried angrily through town squares, with nervous secret Biden supporters playing up their support hoping their betrayal isn’t obvious to the naked eye? Where’s Qanon?

The answer to all of this is a bit convoluted, and gets at the heart of where this community started in the first place, and where we’ll probably find them again in the future.

This is a community that used to thrive on the burnt edges of society, who believed theories no one else did and frequently got classified as the “crazy uncle” or “out-there cousin” of the family. They’ve never been taken too seriously, never had a large scale platform of legitimacy and have probably often felt outcast on some of the deepest of levels. I occasionally catch myself feeling badly for these people and the great American trick their lives have turned into. Then I see one screaming racial epithets on television and that empathy quickly disintegrates.

First off, I want to discuss the different archetypes of a Trump supporter, because there are a few distinct ones worth nothing. There’s the loud mouth bigot, America-first-no-matter-what Trump supporter who never graduated from college and/or high school who will believe anything he says. When he said he could murder someone in the street and some people would still follow him? These are the individuals to which he was referring. These individuals are perhaps waiting for the “voter fraud” trials to pan out and the held-out hope that their supreme ruler will squeak out another victory is what’s keeping them from hitting the streets.

Then there’s the Trump supporter who’s really just a republican who doesn’t want to consider all the nuance that being a democrat demands, and simply wants to feel better about themselves. Let’s be honest, democrats are liberal elites flying from coast to coast, looking down upon the poor unfortunate souls bottom-feeding across America’s heartland. The democratic party has historically not resonated with rural America because more of us went to college, have high-paying jobs, live in cities, interact with people from other countries and have traveled outside of the continental United States. This urban versus rural divide is where the seeds for Trump’s base were sowed at the beginning of the 21st century, and where they continue to thrive to this day. These people simply don’t have time to protest because they have jobs to work, families to feed and mortgages to pay. Their lives are difficult, which is why they’re so susceptible to misinformation — on the superhighway of content they don’t have time to seek out the truth. They need their takes fast and punchy, with a little bit of exasperated salt on the rim — and Trump delivers that time after time.

Then there’s the diehard conservative who’s demanding we pry the traditional Republican party out of their cold, dead hands. These people refuse to accept that the integrity of their party has been shattered by the leader they mistakenly put in office, and still hold onto the Reagan-era of classical conservatism that’s simply long gone. Don’t get me wrong — that era had its problems, but your average political quandaries that we could all stomach. Not blatant lies, bigotry, white supremacy and lunacy. It’s time to face it — the Republican party has become something entirely different and being a respectable conservative has become much more complicated. Stick a fork in it, bury it, it’s done.

All of these individuals have been left behind in one form or another, either by technological advancements in the energy production industries or by the reckoning of racial politics. No matter what, Trump has held onto their support through another election cycle after an egregious run as president, and yet their side has lost. Trump is not going to be the president come January 20th, 2021 and I’m looking at his base and thinking — now what?

What happens to the group of political supporters that have shattered conventions of what it means to support a candidate? Who have prioritized panache over truth? Violence over direction? Whose undying devotion to this man has created an entirely new racist, xenophobic, homophobic and sexist archetype? Their identities have tainted the image of the republican party forever, and yet have also revealed the importance of acknowledging the unacknowledge-able across America, and shown what evil can come when you don’t.

The latter two are simple — they’ll stay republicans and support whomever inherits the ticket next election cycle. I believe there’s a way for them to reclaim political legitimacy in the eyes of the other half of the country — and I hope the leaders in charge will enable them to do so.

As for his diehard base? The group of societal misfits for whom Sturgis is Burning Man and the New York Times a mass panderer of the liberal elite sex trafficking ring? I really don’t know.

The minions have lost their mad king and I’m wondering… what’s next? Do they continue to support him and his ideals post-White House? Do they move on to another Republican ideological leader whose bound to inherit the base during the next election cycle? Do they all take up anti-racist reading lists and educate themselves out of shame and embarrassment?

Most likely, they grow quiet for a few years and some grow out of it, while others become emboldened by other causes. I have to admit when I think of all of these enraged, confused, lost, ignorant individuals their futures make me sad. Trump gave them an outlet. A heartbreakingly misled one but an outlet all the same, and without that I don’t know where they go.

Let me be clear, I don’t have any empathy for people who thrive off of hating so much, but I also think it’s critical to understand where the ethos and pathos of a Trump supporter came from in order to understand ourselves as a society better as well as where we’ll go next.

My best guess is they continue to stew, continue to share, and continue to gather. Let’s hope these gatherings and actions don’t end in violence — but as we saw in countless counter-protest instances this past year — they might. They’ll continue to share misinformation and thrive off of outrage. They’ll continue to attempt to grow their numbers, and this is where the true significance of my message lies.

This is a very real group in America. If Trump did anything helpful for our country, it was revealing to us that there is a huge group of people out there for whom truth has been lost in the ether. They’re so far from the reality shared by the coasts and democratic party that it feels nearly impossible to get them back. Their deep-seeded anger at the society that abandoned them has fed cyclical outrage driven by distrust — which feeds off of misinformation. I mean, can you blame them? If I thought a group of Hollywood and political elites were selling their babies into a sex trafficking ring online I’d probably be pretty pissed at the American dream too.

That’s why it’s crucial we change the narrative when it comes to information and political identity in this country.

I’m so sick of hearing about media bias without any form of media literacy in tow. Why do we put so much emphasis on the evils of ideological bubbles formed by social media sites’ algorithms without discussing anything individuals can do to help themselves decipher whether what they’re reading is true? Where’s the agency, accountability and actionable steps? If Trump’s most ardent supporters had received an education in media literacy long ago he would’ve never won, no doubt about it.

Here’s one thing everyone can do — decide for yourself what your process is for truth-finding. What sources do you trust? Why? How can you tell?

Once you’ve done that, your political leanings shouldn’t take too long to form. Once you start listening to truth, there are a few acceptable viewpoints and the rest become illegitimate.

The centralized problem with the Trump supporter is an identity-based one. These are people who have no idea how to find the truth for themselves — which is why they rely on someone else to tell them. This is why they were chanting two opposite messages on election day at voting centers, and why their conspiracy message boards have been silent since the election was called. There’s no informational accountability, no ownership, and that’s the crack in their foundation that’s brought them to a crashing halt. If you don’t know what the truth is — there’s no way to motivate, no way to steer, and no way to work towards anything of substance.

These people now have a choice — they can listen to what the reality is, or get left behind. It’s a choice that all of us have to make, on both sides of the aisle, and continue to make every time we hop online. It is, in a sense, one of the only things that is equally true of everyone in this nation. My hope is that if enough of us practice media literacy in a real, deep way — not just in a way that confirms our own biases — perhaps, one day, slowly but surely, our moral compases will start to align again. Maybe one day we’ll all be working off of the same political key again. We’ll all have the same facts to form opinions from. We’ll all believe that Sandy Hook actually happened.

The tragic fault in the Trump base is that this reality they believe, this foundation they’re standing on, sooner or later is going to crack. The fragility that comes with conspiracy is because it’s all smoke and mirrors. Either society will phase them out and lead to their marginalization, or their belief systems will alienate them to the point of no return. Either way, it’s not a pretty ending.

It won’t happen soon — we’re still deeply divided. But I believe the solution lies in individual decisions, individual deciphering, and an acceptance that information is a two way street. You’re telling the source just as much as it’s telling you — you can hold “truths” to be self-evident, or heave a healthy dose of questioning into the mix and hope it comes out smooth. It’s up to you, you’re in the driver’s seat.

2020: The Year We All Learned How to Slowly, and Agonizingly, Inch Towards Progress

I’m sitting here writing this on night two of one of the weirdest elections of my lifetime, and that has ever taken place. Not only is it happening in the middle of the third spike of a global pandemic, but it’s been two days and the results could still go a number of ways. It’s anxiety-producing. It’s nerve-wracking. It’s frying. It’s a little bit exhilarating. But mostly, it’s a lesson in patience for a country that’s been burning their “patience is a virtue” candles at both ends for close to nine months. We know that things take time and we need to trust the process — of the pandemic and the state-sanctioned vote tallying — but for the love of god something needs to break through. I need something, and I know you need something too. 

As I was just washing my face, applying my serums and refreshing my NY Times app for the 506,000th time today in search of vote movement (of which there was none), a thought occurred to me. It’s almost as if the sequence of this election — the slow, methodical counting that’s taken days — during which our lives and seemingly the soul of this nation hang in the balance — is really a fantastic blueprint for how progress is achieved. We’re all watching numbers slowly go up and down, hearing CNN pundits on repeat discussing potential scenarios, deciphering between what’s real and fake, what’s hasty optimistic speculation and what’s authentically hopeful, and shifts are happening everywhere. Not only does it look like Biden is going to win, it looks like we’re all going to be denied our collective sigh of relief until he’s actively being sworn in. We’re not going to be able to relax until he plops down in the Oval Office on day 1 and starts to dig through the mess left behind for him. There’s not going to be a big celebration, there’s not going to be a blue wave that crests and rolls through to shore, Trump certainly won’t allow it to land smoothly. He’s going to make this as long and drawn out as possible, and to be honest I hope that he does — because in that we’re all taught a lesson in what true progress means. 

Yesterday I volunteered as a poll worker here in Minnesota, and I have to say it was different than what I expected. I was prepared for long lines of anxious voters excited to cast their ballots. I wanted celebratory cheers, plenty of snacks and waters being handed to those in line, music playing, democracy at its best. Perhaps later in the day someone would announce that Biden had won Florida and everyone would break out into song. It would be big, instant and glorious. None of that happened. 

Instead, a slow trickle of voters came and went all day. It was boring, slow, encouraging but mostly non-eventful. But the thing is — that’s what progress looks like 99.99% of the time. (MN went blue BTW). 

Victorious progress doesn’t happen instantly. It doesn’t pop up on your screen and declare an unchallenged victory. It doesn’t explode through a group of strangers rejoicing together. True progress, true change, is slow and painful. It takes forever — and most of the time it doesn’t look like it’s actually happening at all. It requires consistent mental fortitude in the face of conflict, it requires questioning everything until you get to the truth, it requires cultivating a sense of comfort while in limbo. 

Will the world look like what you want it to look like eventually? Will your rights ever matter? Will black people cease to be killed in the street? Will climate change ever get better? Will the COVID-19 pandemic end? Not all at once. Not quickly. Slowly, bit by bit, in some ways that are tangible and others that aren’t. That’s just how this stuff works. You’ve got to get comfortable in that limbo. 

We’re pretty sure who’s going to win, but we’re also not totally sure yet. It’s a very uncomfortable place to be in — and I’ve got to give the media credit. Rather than giving everyone the reassuring, albeit presumptive, headlines we all want they’re holding off. Nobody wants to call this before you can and risk devastation, there’s too much on the line. 

The thing is, we should all approach every race we run with the same cautionary resilience and unwavering laser focus we have towards these goddamn votes. Sure, in this instance we have no control over what these results are going to deliver in the coming days. But we do have a chance to cultivate a sense of determination in all the noise, some sense of security in our own understanding rather than anxiety about the uncertain. Because this is how it’s done — true progress is largely invisible. 

It takes years and years to happen, and during those years a lot is seemingly hanging in the balance. Fights for racial justice, gender equality, LGBTQ rights and so much else happen in quiet little moments — celebratory and heartbreaking — around the world every day. You have occasional breakthroughs, the needle swinging towards your side, laws being passed, minds being changed. But mostly? We wait, until all of a sudden you look back and everything is different. 

Have patience, listen to the experts, breathe and do all the things. But mostly? Think about what this moment is teaching us, both in gravity and circumstance, about what it means to earn progress. You have to be an agent of change, leave it all on the court, do the necessary housekeeping on your mindset and then wait for the rest of the world to catch up. It’s not pretty, it’s not glamorous, it’s not tearful crowds of people hugging and cheering (not always, at least), but it’s happening. Slowly but surely, envelope by envelope, it’s happening. 

Earn Your Right to Balance

As a brand new, baby, naïve entrepreneur, I am constantly receiving a deluge of information about balancing intense dedication, and super hard work, with self-care.

Countless “don’t do what I did” stories about entrepreneurs literally working themselves into the ground for 2–3 straight YEARS before finding themselves in a puddle on the floor unable to get up. And having to put their life back together.

“I was working 7 days a week until I realized all of a sudden I had no friends!”

“I gained 40 pounds and didn’t even realize it until my doctor laughed in my face!”

“My kids forgot what I looked like after a while! Seriously!! Don’t do this!!!”

At this point it almost seems like a rite of passage. Burn yourself out in order to earn your right to balance.

I keep thinking in my head — seriously?! Do I need to go through that in order to learn or can I just… skip that terrible “point of no return?”

I feel like some days I want to work my butt off, and other days I want to rest. It’s not a one or the other thing for me. Am I missing something?

I get it. Self-care is super necessary to the longevity of your business/professional career because all you have is you. If you’re not taken care of, you can’t take care of anyone else. Sure thing! Of course… blah blah blah.

I appreciate this movement towards investing in ourselves, and I think it is a net gain for the over-worked and under-recovered American workforce.

As much as this message is positive — it’s SUPER difficult to implement sometimes.

Sometimes your productivity feels like it defines your self-worth. ESPECIALLY as an entrepreneur. And a young adult in general. You’ve got to keep your life moving — laundry in the machine, dishes done, relationships progressing, body in good shape — the list is never ending.

Sometimes the most satisfying thing is a long ass work day where you feel like you’ve completely run yourself ragged and feel totally drained at the end.

The drain is beautiful. Personally, it fills me with purpose and satisfaction beyond anything I’ve ever felt before.

I get to rest now — and feel like I’ve earned this rest. It might seem like a flawed mindset, but is it?

Sometimes I wonder if all of this emphasis on self-care and balance is really our avoidance of an urgent underlying problem.

Perhaps, the problem isn’t a lack of sleep or time spent doing activities that we enjoy.

Is it possible that we’re on autopilot — and don’t know how to snap out of it?

It’s a flawed cliché that if you love what you do you won’t work a day in your life. You’ll work for sure — no matter what you do — but the work will feel nourishing rather than completely draining.

If your work feels purpose-driven and comes from a DEEP, real sense of self and complete understanding of your “why” — it takes a lot less energy to motivate yourself on an everyday basis.

And you also don’t need to replace this endless void of an unknown self, and therefore a lack of direction, with a ton of work.

You don’t need to busy yourself because you’re hiding from having no idea what the fuck you’re doing or who you’re doing it for.

You can have both. You can work super hard and know when you need to rest and should rest.

If you love what you do — you’re learning about something you love as you complete the tasks. You’re gaining knowledge on multiple levels — through the content and the experience as well.

Getting up every day to go to an unfulfilling job for an undefined purpose is more draining than any position with a clear mission ever would be — no matter how much you’re busting your butt.

It’s just the truth.

When your work encapsulates your passion/interests it takes so much out of you because you’re putting so much into it. You don’t need to force the effort, the process that really drains us, it just happens.

Now I want to pause, take a moment and acknowledge the fact that not everyone has the luxury to quit their job tomorrow and go after something intangible that would nonetheless make them happier.

There are individuals out there with life circumstances that may inhibit this type of radical transformation in the near future, i.e. responsibilities like a family, student loans, mortgages, etc. I get that — I really do.

I’ve had the privilege to have these responsibilities lifted off of my shoulders — and to these people I would say your longing for a fulfilling life is no less valid. You do not have less agency over how you live your life because of these things.

For you, let’s make the intangible tangible through identifying agency you do have over your day to day. Because there are these identifiable things no matter who you are.

How do you want to serve the world? If it can’t be professional at the moment, how can you answer the call in other ways?

How can you find this calling? How do you answer it?

I don’t think there’s one answer to these questions. I know that’s annoying — but I really don’t.

There are many forms this process can take — and let that be full of possibility rather than irritatingly vague.

For some — this is going to look like doing a deep dive into your repressed emotions, traumas, fears, limiting beliefs and destructive habits. Getting out of your own damn way as fast as possible.

For others, it’s going to be taking all of the self-work and self-discovery you’ve already done and channeling it into a quest for work that aligns with what you want to bring to the world. Translating that work into a plan of action, per se.

For others, it’s going to look like a super defined vision, direction and actual position you’re looking at — but the summoning of the guts and balls to actually take the leap and fucking get yourself there.

This last one might be the hardest path of all. It takes A LOT of guts to pivot into what you actually love.

It takes just going for it without having any idea whether you can actually pull it off or not.

It takes relying on something intangible within yourself that you’ve felt glimpses of before, but never demanded anything from in this capacity.

In this way, you show up for yourself in one of the most beautiful ways possible.

It takes looking at yourself and being completely honest and transparent. It takes getting over the fear of failure as you take on this mission.

You might fail at something you’re actually deeply invested in, versus something that you’re doing because you have to, but don’t really care about. See the difference?

It’s deep trust and the stakes are way higher.

It’s not about setting something up to be perfect and a guarantee. It’s about letting the situation ebb and flow and challenge you in the ways it’s supposed to because that’s what life does when you’re playing all out.

It’s not about finding a job you love, necessarily. It’s about finding a job that brings about a version of yourself that you love.

Getting THERE takes intense work.

We can work jobs we adore but still feel that something is missing. Sound familiar? It’s because you’re missing all of that other crap.

It’s okay — no one talks about it! So let’s start figuring it out now.

It’s about finding a part of yourself that most people never find within themselves.

The part that’s always overcoming fears, because it feeds off of that.

The part that’s never done going through the shit, because it irrevocably knows that it can and will survive.

The part that creates new challenges because that’s where all of the real magic exists. That’s only consistently fulfilled when it’s overcoming new challenges.

It takes staring right into the stuff you’ve built up over years of life, the hurdles, emotional baggage, deepest insecurities, expectations and shame — and actually honoring it.

Our deepest triggers are really just parts of ourselves that are begging to be seen. And when we REALLY see them and learn from them, there’s so much to be gained.

Don’t get me wrong, there are days when I wake up and have to quite literally force myself to work. It’s not pretty, and there’s a lot of watching of guilt-ridden Instagram stories in the process. When these days roll around I know it’s time for a check-in.

So let’s go do it. Whether it’s through journaling, counseling, long walks by yourself, solo travel — whatever it is — go looking for these parts of yourself. It won’t take as long as you think it will.

If we’re tuned in, the call is very easy to hear.

It’s not about coming home from a job you hate and zoning out to Netflix because it’s “self-care.” That’s bullshit. And it won’t get you anywhere you want to be.

Really invest in yourself.

Really take a look at what you NEED, not what you want — and you’ll find everything you want within.

This doesn’t mean that recovery isn’t there — it is. It’s just as important as the struggle — but you’ve got to do the work to get there, and have it actually mean something.

You’ve got to struggle to have the time spent recovering be time spent investing in something REAL. Not something you need a break from — but something you need a break FOR.

You can find this meaningful balance. You just have to earn it first.

Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash