My Current Take on Donald Trump's Popularity

   I'll dare to join countless others in suggesting what underlies Trump's alarming political success.
   Donald Trump is only partly responsible for his undeniable popularity: among his followers and silent admirers, he represents the horrific, visceral conviction that “We White Americans are the greatest people (ever) on earth.” I am a White American, and over many years I have found it excruciatingly difficult to eradicate the deeply rooted instinct that we White Americans are the world’s elite people. Like it or not, for many of us Donald Trump exemplifies a certain image of an ideal human being – or at least of an American who stands for what’s right.

   Some caveats: I am definitely not a Trump supporter. He is potentially dangerous for the entire world, usually misleading in his “facts,” and self-serving. Also, by God’s grace I am a Christian with deep affinities with numerous traditions, as well as with deep appreciation for many friends of other religious traditions. Even so, over many generations there are roots that have dug their way into unseen crevices deep within White Americans such as I that resonate with Donald Trump’s bravado, foreigner-bashing, and call to “Make America great again,” i.e., go back to early-Cold War, black-and-white-TV, segregation days.

   Some are blaming President Obama for Trump’s rise in popularity. Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recently noted that U.S.-Americans want a clear and decisive leader following “seven years of the cool, weak and endlessly nuanced 'no drama Obama’.” Another analysis suggests that Trump fits an increased longing for authoritarianism among U.S.-Americans. Other thought-provoking analyses, including by David Brooks and his critics, look at the last 40-50 years that have created the present environment in which Mr. Trump seems to be thriving: "David Brooks Is Wrong Again -- Trump's Rise Is Not 'Anti-Politics' but the Cancer of Big Money."

   The other day a European friend wrote several of us in the United States, pleading for us to “stop this ridiculous man [who] worships himself and his billions.” Our friend also noted, “The US has many friends and admirers, but this campaign is a shame. Should Trump end up in the White House, it will be end of America.” I am in Korea much of the time these days (and thus spared from the incessant campaign rhetoric). Indeed many Koreans are also bewildered as to how someone like Donald Trump has become so popular during this presidential election.

   Analyses like those mentioned above will surely proliferate. Like others I will continue to sift through them and try to understand the incomprehensible. I will also be looking for continued evidence of that latent, visceral conviction deep within many White Americans that longs for a return to “greatness”: militarily and economically leading the world while living comfortably and undisturbed by people who are different. That is the alleged America that Donald Trump promises to resurrect, and clearly many voters want to let him try and pull it off.