Political communications expert and doctoral candidate at University of Massachusetts, Matthew MacWilliams, is writing his dissertation on a particular personality trait. In a series of recent polls, he collected information from over 1,800 registered voters from all geographical areas and all political leanings. Among his many discoveries is that, among Republican voters, there is no
particular correlation between ‘Supports Trump’ and any of:
- education,
- income,
- gender,
- age,
- ideology, or
- religiosity.
Instead, MacWilliams found, the one thing that makes an otherwise sane person support Donald Trump is the same trait that he is writing his dissertation about: Authoritarianism. It’s that simple: if you’re an authoritarian, you are extremely likely to support Trump over everyone else.
What is an Authoritarian?
Authoritarians are defined by a few traits. They are:
- Rigid and overly simplistic in their ideas about right and wrong,
- Outwardly submissive toward strong authority,
- Inwardly enraged by the fear they feel toward that same authority,
- Inclined to take their anger out on a ‘safe’ scapegoat (i.e. Mexicans, Muslims),
- Prone to cheating/breaking the law when they think they can get away with it
- In favor of strong laws and harsh enforcement, because they believe everyone is like them, and
- Only ever feel ‘secure’ when they believe they are part of the strongest, toughest group.
Sound familiar? Yeah, you probably know a lot of these people — while it is a sliding scale (with egalitarianism or “everyone is equal” on the opposite side), a solid 30-40% of Americans show at least half of these traits, depending on how exactly they’re measured and who is polling.
In other words, authoritarians have two things that people like Trump genuinely want in a populace: submission and aggression. And Trump has the things that authoritarians genuinely want in a leader: strength and a proven willingness to scapegoat. He’s the worst kind of authoritarian: a narcissistic sociopath. People love narcissistic leaders, and authoritarians love them significantly more than others.
This Should Scare You
While Trump is easily capturing the majority of Republican authoritarians, that alone isn’t really enough to get him anywhere. What MacWilliams believes should be far more frightening: some 39% of Independents are authoritarians — they’re likely to swing toward Trump. Even worse, 17% of Democrats are strong authoritarians, and there’s a significant chance that their desire for a strong leader and someone to blame for their woes will be able to lure them away from the Democratic party to vote for someone they believe can put them on the “winning team.”
Of course, in the end, the only person who wins when a narcissist is put in charge is the narcissist. The only question in front of us is how we get the submissive, simplistic, and angry among us to understand just how much their desire for strength is going to weaken everything that the United States of America stands for.
(Featured Image courtesty of DonkeyHotey via Flickr, shared with a Creative Commons 2.0 license.)
