We are in a country of victim constituencies vying with the other victim constituencies for control of our political destiny based solely on their perceived merit of their victimhood. This obsession with victimhood by the opposing political party is exactly how Trump supporters perceive reality.

Understanding this fact is crucial to understanding the Trump psychology, as Donald Trump’s entire presidency rests entirely upon the angry tears of nationalist Americans, who believe Trump when he says the rest of the world has taken advantage of them. He’s played directly to their victimhood.

When he feeds them a mythology of cabals conspiring against the United States, they eat it up, because it frees them from having to look at their own part in the decline of the west. He plays to their national chauvinism, their petty self image, and their shared political angst after 8 years under Obama.

The Trump psychology depends on this carefully balanced sense of vulnerability, angst, and outrage, because then Trump presents himself as the solution to the problem. It’s the classic sales pitch. Get the mark thinking about a problem that makes them upset, offer a solution to the problem, then close the deal.

In politics, since the voter rarely bears the direct cost of bad politicians, this sale model works every time it’s tried for the majority of voters, which, coincidentally, is how elections are decided. Unfortunately, it’s these two facts that make undoing the damage done by the Trump psychology so difficult.

If you wonder why Trump tweets constantly to his political base, it’s because he seeks to keep them perpetually upset at the things for which he is the solution for. This is why he focuses on attacking political rivals, on convenient political adversaries, and, of course, his favorite target, the mainstream media.

He doesn’t talk about things for which he is not the solution or that he has no meaningful way to influence. Otherwise, he’s constantly stoking the flames of outrage, because that is what keeps his base buying his line of bull, which is, of course, depressing, but also may be the key to his ultimate downfall.

If Trump is successfully dealing with what upsets his supporters, then why is he constantly talking about these things rather than resolving them? If others are stopping him, wasn’t “making great deals” literally something that he promised? Trump literally wrote the book about deal making, right?

In essence, if Americans can turn the Trump psychology on its head, we can maybe get Trump supporters to see the very simple fact that Trump has over promised and under delivered, and that should make them upset, and the obvious solution is to maybe to use Trump’s favorite catch phrase: “You’re fired!“

Liberty is For The Win!