I had an idea driving home a few days ago that was either brilliant or hopelessly banal–I can’t decide which.
The thread which holds Trump’s reactionary core together is fear: fear of Muslim terrorists; fear of African-Americans; fear of immigrants, and their alien culture; fear of violent crime; fear of lost status in the face of claims from women; fear of lost government benefits; fear of unemployment or underemployment; and fear that traditional rural and Christian culture is being swamped by urban values. This fear easily morphs into anger, which is why anger is such an important feature of right-wing talk radio.
These people find Trump’s swagger comforting. Trump’s stock in trade is fear and anger. In that respect, he differs from Reagan, who also swaggered, but had a genuine message of hope tied to tax cuts and limited government. Trump thinks the world revolves around power, and the shining city on the hill is a fairy tale; he wants to be Batman, not the second coming of Thomas Jefferson.
There is an important message here for the Democratic Party. If you want to win these voters back, it isn’t enough to talk about policy, or even about respect for traditional values–you have to come across in such a way as to make the fear disappear. That means, above all, looking strong and certain.