Understanding Trump Fans

On Saturday, about 7 million people came out on the 1st "No Kings Day" (perhaps the first of many) to protest the policies of Donald Trump, who is acting like both a king and a dictator. The New York Police Department estimated that 100,000 people came into the City to demonstrate.

Trump and his surrogates -- in the Administration, in Congress, in the media, and elsewhere -- called them "radicals," "Marxists," and other words that they either don't understand or do and were lying about it, and said there would be violence.

There was no violence. The NYPD announced that the total number of arrests they made in connection with the demonstrations in the 5 Boroughs was zero. Exactly none.

How did Trump respond to 7 million people telling him they didn't want him acting like a king or a dictator like he's been doing? He posted an artificial-intelligence video of him, piloting a fighter jet, wearing a crown, and dropping poop bombs on the demonstrators.

Trump has the mind of a 14-year-old, until you tell him he can't have something, then his reaction is that of a 2-year-old.

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And how many counter-protestors were there? I wasn't able to attend any of the demonstrations, for reasons I won't get into here, although I wanted to. But I heard from someone who attended one in Central Jersey, where 200 showed up to protest. She said there were maybe a dozen counter-protestors, and they didn't last very long, and left quickly.

There are people on my side of the political divide who say they don't understand the appeal of Trump.

I understand it. He's the first politician in their memories -- unless they're Southern and really old -- who has come out and told them that it's okay to be bigots, okay to hate people for being women, or nonwhite, or not your religion, or gay, etc. He has validated their core principle.

No other politician has done that. Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Congressional leaders like Newt Gingrich and Mitch McConnell? They all danced around it, kind of hinted that it was okay to be a bigot. But they never basically said, "It's okay. Look at me. I'm one of you! I hate them, too! So vote for me, and I'll give you policies that will hurt them!" And they were too damned stupid to know that the same policies would hurt them.

My first thought was that it's like a drug to them. But a better analogy is that they're like compulsive gamblers. Even degenerate gamblers, We almost never hear the word "degenerate" these days, unless we're referring to pathetic, ever-losing gamblers who can't stop. Compulsive gamblers sometimes win, often enough to keep the idea going; degenerate gamblers hardly ever do, and cling incredibly tightly to the few that they actually get.

And, like degenerate gamblers, Trump fans -- a better word for them than "supporters" -- never get it through their thick skulls that the occasional wins that they treasure come with dozens of losses. And as long as they keep Trump as their "bookie," they're never going to break even.

And yet, they don't care: As long as they see the feminists, the blacks, the Hispanics, the Muslims, the LGBTs, etc. lose, they'll be like, "Well, I can't afford to pay my bills, I can't afford to keep my house, and I can't afford my family's medication, but at least those (whatever slur they want to use)s aren't getting ahead of me!"

As they used to say on Match Game, Dumb Donald is so dumb. But he will survive in politics as long as he has enough fans who are even dumber than he is. Because that's his one talent: Selling himself to the gullible, to people who are dumber than he is.