Over and over again, when asked to explain what they like about him, Trump supporters exclaim, “He knows what I’m thinking!” And what these people are thinking is that he’s making it safe for them to be “politically incorrect” again, giving sanction to publicly express their resentment toward people who don’t look and act like them. There are certainly reasons why these voters feel that way, but they are not due to populist anger toward the 1 percent. After all, the man they are cheering on with such enthusiasm is a man who spends half his time on the stump bragging about his vast wealth and explaining that it’s perfectly normal for businessmen like himself to bribe and cajole politicians to do his bidding. He’s never promised to change that system, not once. And his fans have never once asked him to.
This is excerpted from Heather Parton's longer piece on Trump, which you can find here, but this is the crux insight that explains the Trump Phenomenon: He validates the darker impulses in the American psyche, impulses that mainstream American culture (outside the Fox News bubble) has come to see as primitive and regressive. For good reason: These impulses are primitive and regressive.
It's one thing to feel these impulses--nobody can help what they feel; it's another thing to act on them. A Trump presidency would give Americans who feel these impulses permission to act on them. Theirs is the mentality of the lynch mob--they feel authorized to do things in a group that they would feel immoral to do alone. The only thing that holds them back is fear of social sanction, but there is no negative social sanction if the president of the U.S. says it's ok.
That's what makes the Trump Phenomenon pretty scary. He dismisses whatever tentative taboos we might have on violently hateful attitudes as political correctness. Hatred of Muslims and Hispanics is ok. Torture is ok. Mass deportation is ok. But hatred of Muslims and Hispanics isn't the end of it. For these Americans whose darker impulses Trump channels, hatred of any "Other" is ok, and the Other is everyone Sarah Palin says is not a 'real American'.
I don't think Trump is going to be elected president, but stranger things have happened. And a perfect storm could be a brewin' that could possibly blow him into office. For instance, if there was another significant terrorist attack, I could see him demagoguing it well enough to get elected.
Never underestimate the timidity of the American people. When they are scared they look for the strong leader to compensate for their feelings of impotency. And neither Clinton nor Sanders will be seen to measure up to counter the sense of threat that they feel. And besides, while Trump will be vicious toward America's enemies, he's at heart a nice guy, and a good Christian. He says so himself, and he doesn't lie. No worries.